Tip O' The Hat today to livejournalist greycoupon, who has been carefully following the JumpCon events for months now, and has unearthed much evidence during that time that the Cons were showing signs of mismanagement and extremely poor customer service/fandom relations. Many BSG castmembers have been planning to attend one or more of these cons over this summer.
Now comes news that apparently Chicago and Pittsburgh have been "postponed"...and more importantly, Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell have cancelled all their planned appearances together at JumpCons. Grey posted a statement from the mod of Mr. Olmos' official web site:
I just got off the phone with Erin Gray [Olmos & McDonnell's con booker-PG.], and EJO and Mary will NOT be attending any of the JumpCon conventions. Erin is sending me a statement by email that I am supposed to put on Eddie's site.
Please share this information with all interested parties.
EJO is very concerned about fans who will be disappointed and who lost money. He hopes they realize that not appearing at the conventions wasn't his plan or fault. He would have been there had the folks at JumpCon done what they were supposed to do.
I will try to get the statement up on Eddie's site this afternoon. Please ask people to check there in case there is additional information.
Sitrep has been hesitant to comment up till now about JumpCon. But based on the above information, we are convinced that no fan should put any money up in advance to attend a JumpCon.
ETA: The folks at Bamber_News have shared this statement with Sitrep, from con booker Erin Gray:
Following is a statement I've prepared on behalf of my clients:
Edward James Olmos, Mary Mc Donnell, Nichelle Nichols, Mira Furlan, Marjean Holden, Stephen Furst, Tony Amendola and Tracy Scoggins.
It is with great disappointment, and deep regret that they find themselves in this unthinkable position of announcing that they just don't see how Jump Con is going to happen.
For weeks all of my clients done everything in their power to accommodate Shane Senter at Jump Con, from renegotiating contracts to extending deadlines, all in the hopes of salvaging the Jump Con events. They were looking forward to attending and meeting the fans. However, at this late date, no moneys have transpired and no tickets have been sent. Unless this changes they will not be attending.
Although we were in constant communication with Jump Con, and many promises and assures were made, unfortunately, none were kept. Certainly by now, three days before the event, we'd hoped and prayed things would be rectified.
We just don't feel it's fair to the fans to keep silent and not let them know what has transpired, or rather not transpired.
It's unfortunate but Jump Con events were the only events in the US that Mary and Edward were scheduled to do this year.
Edward and Mary trust the future will provide the perfect event where they can meet with fans and friends and thank them for their support. We are currently looking at other alternatives.
We send our blessings, and apologies,
Erin Gray
It is such a disappointment that these Olmos/McDonnell events are cancelled. It is not easy to organize such a huge project as what JumpCon has been attempting. Let us hope that they make an effort to do better in the future. Fans can smell the difference, you know.
7 comments:
And all the JumpCons are being canceled so no need to worry about them doing better in the future.
message from Shane Senter http://www.jumpcon.com/?q=node/604#comments
Fernando Martinez
http://www.jumpcon.com/?q=node/605
I was waiting for all of this to drop. I was reading greycoupon intermittently, and it was evident early on that this entire endeavor stunk to high heaven, at the very least in the sense of "people in way way way way over their heads because they think the con business is 'hey guys, let's put on a show' when, you know, it really isn't" kind of way.
Well it's a doggone shame. They had an ambitious and admirable set of events planned. Too bad.
Shame on EVERYONE involved with Jumpcon. Many of us fans saw this day of cancellation coming from the first day the events were announced. It was a ridiculous idea and venture from the beginning. If it was so clearly obvious to many of us fans from the start that this concept could not work, why would celebrity booking agents (such as Erin Gray, Julie Caitlin Brown, Lolita Fatjo and others), convention organizing "experts" (such as Fernando Martinez) and celebrities who get in and stay involved with such a "company" especially after all the writing on the wall for the past couple of months?! They may try to wash their hands of this, but they are just as responsible as "The Emperor" Shane Senter. They are the ones who empowered him and allowed him to continue as we watched this inevitable train wreck happen. Greed is what drove them and they need to take responsibility for getting and staying involved with Jumpcon. So shame on the so called Jumpcon organizers and staff, booking agents, celebrities and others who were so quick to Jump on the Con!
I'm afraid that I was one of those fans who didn't see the writting on the wall. I don't know if I was blinded by the thought of such a great con coming to my area and the idea of having lunch with Adrian Paul or if I just don't travel in the right circles to have heard the rumors.
Either way, I am an angry fan who just found out today that my $850 ticket for my summer vacation is no good! I have not been contacted by Jumpcon at all. If I hadn't gone on their website this morning I would have been packing my bags to leave today! I have tried contacting Jumpcon via email and phone and they are not responding to either.
I have little faith in receiving a refund at this point and my hope in writting here is to warn anyone who might be as ignorant as I was and stay as far away from Jumpcon and don't purchase tickets for any of their upcoming events (which at this point I'm sure will be cancelled as well.)
United Fan Con is coming to the rescue of fans in Boston.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Randolph, MA. – July 17, 2008 – United Fan Con Inc., a small not-for-profit fan-run group located in Randolph MA, has stepped up to give the fans in Boston the fun-filled weekend that they were anticipating.
On Tuesday afternoon, July 15th, the Milford, NH based event promotions company, JumpCon LLC, cancelled a large Science Fiction / Pop Culture event scheduled for this weekend July 18th-20th at the Sheraton Boston Hotel. This is a second time in the last two months events like this have collapsed at the last minute, in June Fed Con USA in Dallas , TX canceled the rest of their show during the actual event itself.
United Fan Con has been producing fan-run events in Massachusetts for the past 17 years and knows when events are canceled like this it leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouths; it hurts everyone involved: actors, agents, hotels, other promoters and especially the fans. This time it is different, a lot of fans that were planning to attend the now canceled Jumpcon Boston have rallied together to put on there own mini convention. It started with online forum posts discussing the situation and then moved to the realization that many people were still coming to Boston regardless of the JC cancellation. These fans decided to organize and started planning a mini fan event. United Fan Con stepped in to help the fans make it happen, giving the fans the funds to rent space at a new venue and use of any and all equipment and supplies needed to host an event. In addition UFC is contacting actors, agents and vendors with the hope of making this an exciting weekend.
This Fan Con will be free to all attendees and include; games, videos, fan panels, auctions, vendors and more. The event will take place at the Hilton Back Bay, located at 40 Dalton Street, Boston MA (directly across the street from the Boston Sheraton). The event will run from 3pm – 10pm on Friday, 10am – 6pm on Saturday and 12pm – 6pm on Sunday.
Here is what is being said about the fans efforts:
“It's really cool that you are trying to help these poor fans”. - Bob Catalano, Westland Productions
“I hope you can make something happen with the fans, thanks for doing this.” Julie Catlin Brown – Illumina Productions,
“How nice of you to reach out and see what can be done. We greatly appreciate your thoughts and willingness to try and make something positive out this fiasco Thank you”. Erin Gray - Heroes for Hire.
What we need is you, the fan, to get the word out! Tell all of your friends and tell us how you can help. This is a true FAN CON!
If you wish to help plan this event please join us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jconcons/
For the latest information, go to http://www.nefe.us
We are suiting JumpCon and Shane Senter. We were manipulated and lied to by Shane Senter himself. We were the photographers that were going to photograph all of the events and print the photographs for fans to have the celebs sign. We researched equipment for months and hired and trained a staff of at least 30. We turned down events for 2008 and 2009 so that we would be available. When we finally pushed hard for retainers from JumpCon, Senter has us set up a Paypal account and he started depositing money in there daily. We explained that it was hard doing business with him and he said that it "if we could figure out what he needed and put up with him like nobody else could, that we would profit." Things started to go bad when he turned over communication to his "convention coordinator" and she told us to inflate our numbers to cover expenses. We did not do that. It was a scheme to get rid of us and take all of our information and hire someone cheaper. He wouldn't negotiate numbers, he would blame us for things that did not make any sense. We are now looking for anyone who is willing to join us in our law suit against him. Shane Senter didn't just try to run an honest convention and fail, he lied, manipulated and cheated. We have all the proof that goes back almost a year. We will get justice!! We have given him the opportunity to make good on his own.
Post a Comment