An Open Letter to Wristband Pin Events, Event Planner

[DLRPinTrader]

I went to my first wristband release event for the Star Tour opening day pin that was released Thursday June 2, 2011. The fact that it was for only one pin was unusual but I signed up and got a cool email saying that I had been selected, neat right. About half of the information that was sent in the email was incorrect which I found out later. It stated that you can pick up your wristband exactly on hour before and after the park opens which was not true. It was available an hour before opening until 1 pm. We got a wristband and purchased our pins, which was pleasant. The pleasant feeling ended at 1 pm when those without wristbands started to line up in two different locations. At about 12:50 pm a Lead came over to the fake line and told the people there that they where not in line and the castmember that had started the line was not correct in doing so. There was a mass migration of stressed, upset and generally red-faced people to the correct line. Fights where breaking out over positions in the fake line and respecting them. The fastest runners got the best placement the people that where first in line got the worst line placement. At this point in time I am sure some reassurance that there was more then enough pins for everyone would have relieved some tension, but alas it never came. To the powers that be could everyone be on the same page for these events to make them more fun then disasters. I love pins almost as much as I love air but if they are all these stressful I will gladly pay more for the pins on Ebay then buying them directly from Disneyland (yeah I said it). I find that wristband events are my least favorite part of pin trading/collecting.

 

[figment919]

Sorry you had such a bad experience.

For the life of me I really don't understand howcome Disney still can't get this "right" after over 10 years of pin trading and staging such events!! All the confusion leads to bad feelings, people arguing, and CM's caught in the middle of the situations.

We went through this for YEARS at the old Disneyana Conventions until Event Services finally got it down to a science. Personally, no more waiting in lines, getting up a pre-dawn hours, arguing or stuff over pieces of metal. I try to get what I need via Trading and have found that if you are patient (maybe for YEARS) you will eventually get what you need.

Mike S.

 

[iamdisneydan]

Hey Geoff.

If you think the wristband events are bad, just imagine how bad it was pre-wristband.
I agree that while the wristband is supposed to take all the stress out of the process because you are essentially guaranteed your pins that they still need to get on the same page as far as planning the events.

People fighting for pins is too far. This is why I never persoanlly stood in lines at the wee hours of the morning for the original POH's. I am in this for fun and relaxation, not to fight about who took cuts or 10 friends show up and get into line.

The worst part is, typically the people who start the problem are not the true collectors, rather people who stand to profit and will be selling the pins. Over the years, you will notice that 75% or more of the people are the same people. You know them or have seen them before. They are nice people for the most part and have done things fairly.

Bottom Line is Disney needs to establist a standard program for all pin releases. Always get the wristbands at one place, always line up at the same place.
It does suck that once they announce that they screwed up and where you need to be that some people have little with them and can RUN to that location. They should have handed out numbers to the people in that line so it was fair.

Dont let it get you down. Even Disney is not perfect.

 

[Sherry4pins]

Unfortunately, we didn't know about the wrist bands until after it had closed, or we would have signed up. My husband, being great to go down for me, was in what you are calling the fake line. He got there early and was waiting for a couple of hours where they told him to stand. Then all the commotion broke lose at 1 when the line he was in was told it wasn't the line after all. He was stressed out because he didn't want to disappoint me. He even called me from the line when this happened because he was upset. I told him not to stress and we'd get them one way or another.

Yes, you are correct that it is very poor event management and lack of communication with the other cast members working. Ronn was running this event.

Thankfully, my husband brought me home my pins.

 

[jfgibson73]

I assume this must have been at Disneyland, since you mentioned the June 2 opening date. Sherry, you mentioned someone's name as being the person in charge. Has anyone ever been able to call or write to this person's superior? I don't mean to imply that I would try to get him/her in trouble, but I think that with any company, there should be a channel for the consumer to offer feedback or get some satisfaction when they are supporting a product.

It just seems hard to comprehend that a company with the resources that this one has can't make their product more readily available. For example, I contacted the online Disney Store this week about one of their upcoming releases. Their response was that they couldn't tell me when the pin would be available. Do you want my money or not? How does a merchandising giant not know when their stuff is going to be available???

 

[erudolf]

I assume this must have been at Disneyland, since you mentioned the June 2 opening date. Sherry, you mentioned someone's name as being the person in charge. Has anyone ever been able to call or write to this person's superior? I don't mean to imply that I would try to get him/her in trouble, but I think that with any company, there should be a channel for the consumer to offer feedback or get some satisfaction when they are supporting a product.

It just seems hard to comprehend that a company with the resources that this one has can't make their product more readily available. For example, I contacted the online Disney Store this week about one of their upcoming releases. Their response was that they couldn't tell me when the pin would be available. Do you want my money or not? How does a merchandising giant not know when their stuff is going to be available???

When you are talking about limited edition merchandise, making it "readily available" isn't necessarily an option. Yes, they need to get their act together and get more organized. But you are always going to have people that are upset. For example, not all people want to stand in a line for hours so they move to wrists bands. Then, the people that weren't aware of the wrist band process will be upset because they get shut out. Years ago they never published any release info. All pin releases were a surprise. Most merchandise is. They don't have websites dedicated to T-shirt, plush, or trinket releases. Pins and Vinylmations are already a cut above other merchandise, even with all the problems.

And Disneystore.com...they've never released that information and I doubt their Customer Care knows it. And honestly, I think they don't release it on purpose. As it was, back when they were releasing LE 100 sets their servers would crash and they would sell out in minutes. And that was with no advertising of the release dates at all. By advertising them you'd just be asking for trouble and more angry customers who didn't get what they wanted. Granted, times have changed and instant sellouts haven't happened in a long time, but I don't see them changing their process anytime soon, especially if the LE 100 sets ever do make a return.

In the end, there is no perfect system. No matter what you do, when you only have X number of pins and 2X number of people wanting them, some people are going to be upset. Again, there are room for improvements, but someone is always going to complain no matter how hard they try.

 

[DLRPinTrader]

I really like the numbered cards idea. For the handicap line they where handing out numbered cards and letting them purchase pins when it was there turn. So as Dan said earlier if a family of 10 shows up to cut in line they get numbers at the back of the line. Can someone tell Mr. Ronn to print some up I will give him the 10 cents.

 

[Tr8dWitMe]

Welcom to Dinsey. Please hurry up and wait. That will be $12.95 + tax. Do you have an Annual Pass. Can I have your autograph. See you next event.

wash, rinse and repeat.

 

[btowndude]

I vote for the wristband system.
With the wristband system, I knew that I could get the four pins(2-opening day and 2-AP) before driving three hours to Disneyland. Arriving at 8:50 am, I walked up and pickup my wristband, the proceeded to Tomorrowland. There was no line at the check in point and took the tunnel to the Little Green Men store, where I walked out with my four pins by 9:15 am. Compare that to Disney's Hollywood Studios and the first day of Star Wars Weekend / the opening of Star Tours - the Adventure continues, there was no system. I lined up 8:50 am, as I was told by CMs, that people had camped out since 5 am, so they opened the doors at 7 am! The first line was outside in the hot Florida sun (90 degree). There were large fans but they didn't help with all that humidity. They needed those fans that they have along the sidelines at football games. After 30 minutes, I made it inside the big tent (Jabba's Hut). The CM told us that we had two hour wait in the second line that snaked around three sides of the tent. There were air coolers inside, but there too many people to have any significant effect on the temperature. There were CMs who came through the line selling cold drinks and the R2D2 popcorn buckets. After a long wait, I got my four pins(2-opening days and 2-AP) and then joined the third line for the cashiers. It was around 12:30 pm, when I finally left tent. I really felt bad for all the children stuck in that long line.

 

[Geoff]

I just hated the fact that there were TWO separate lines for the same thing. Jess and I stood in the "fake" line because we asked two different cast members, including a lead, and they BOTH told us the line we were in was the real line. It was even visually convincing. Others that were there can attest to the fact that there was a retractable line divider with poles up to form a line against the side of Little Green Men Store Command. The cast members told us that area was currently for handicapped access for the 9-1 wristband event, but that at 1250PM they were going to use it as the line for non-wristband purchases. Then, at 1255, we all get told to move around the back, where you had to enter the tunnel for the wristband sale. There were people that had been in line in the "fake" line for hours, way, waaaaaay before anyone had formed a line in front of the door whee we were supposed to be. Those of us that had waited for all that time suddenly got bumped to the back of a very long line.

And remember, this was after we had been there the previous week for that pin because they made a typo on the website saying that it was going to be released a week prior to that, along with 40-50 other very upset people. All they told us then was, "the website says at the bottom subject to change". I asked them who I could talk to about getting a refund for the night we spent in a hotel, just so we could be there that morning to buy the pin. I never did get a response.

So, the point is not that the wristband system is bad; I actually really like it. It ensures that a more diverse crowd of people can get pins instead of just letting them go to hoarders looking to make a quick buck. The problem lies in the fact that there is so much disorganization on Disney's part surrounding the wristband process that it causes serious problems and offends a lot of people. At least get one story, get it straight, and give it to everyone involved castmember-wise so that people aren't yelling over places in lines which may or may not be the right one in the first place.

 

[Guy the Ghoul]

This is sooo history repeating itself! I would hope Disney would get it right by now, but I guess not. Ronn was also in "charge" of the chaotic multiple lines at the now infamous HM POH on Nov. 15th, 2009. You can probably still read the report on the old Dizpins archives. Fortunately, I didn't even try to get a wristband for that release. I was 2nd in the standby line and was one of about 5 people who got our pins. I do prefer the wristband method though.

 

[Trade Winds Pins]

I have a question: In my years of pin trading, I've never participated in a wristband/line up pin release event (partly because of all the problems, partly because I've never needed any of the pins offered at those events). So my question is, if you get the wristband, aren't you guaranteed the pin(s)? There are supposed to be enough pins for anyone who has a wristband, right? So were the people in the wrong line (due to Disney management error) wearing wristbands not get their pins? Did they not get their pins because they were put in line behind the people who never had wristbands but were in the right line? I wasn't there, so can someone clear this up?

I do agree, after all these *bleepin* years of offering *bleepin* wristband events, you'd think Disney would have their *bleepin* act together to organize and run wristbands events efficiently. Wondering if they put more than one manager in charge so wires get crossed, in which case they need to assign ONE manager to run these things.

 

[Guy the Ghoul]

You should get a pin if you have a wristband guaranteed, unless you wait until after 1:00pm when they let the standby line take over. But I think the problem with the HM POH pin lines was they tried (rather unsuccessfully) to merge the lines which hadn't received wristbands yet until they reach the espalande booth near the security tents. According to the Dizpins postings about the event, they lined up at the Harbor Bl entrance, the ESPN Zone area and the hotel guest area, then tried to "peacefully" ha ha merge all three lines together which of course didn't work. After all that chaos, I was so stunned they had 10 or 12 pins left to sell for which I was very grateful!

 

[swim2sea]

I just hope the Florida Project goes as smoothly as previous events. I haven't done a wristband event and don't want to do one. I like the RSP and knowing if I got the pin or not, then showing up and getting them. I wish they were all like the big Florida event. It's actual almost pleasant - notice I said almost.

 

[Guy the Ghoul]

Oh Margaret, I definitely prefer the RSP idea because then your guaranteed a wristband (if chosen) and hopefully the pins you choose on the RSP. I don't like having to wait all night long in a line, then hoping you can get a wristband by being in the right line at the right time. Makes it much less stressful!