Simon Plumbe, head of the Auto Assembly Committee, has posted a personal apology over the confusion caused by a recent press release. You can find a copy below
Dear friends,
Over the weekend, I posted a press release offering a 20% discount to any person who opted to buy an entrance ticket to Auto Assembly 2013 between now and the convention. It has since come to my attention that quite a few of our loyal attendees are understandably less than pleased with this, feeling they have missed out through no fault of their own.
Please accept this post as my full and unreserved apology.
The discount was purely intended to be a bonus incentive for those people who were on the fence about coming to the convention or not for the first time; but with hindsight, I now realise that this sadly may have left some of our attendees feeling alienated. This was absolutely not my intention and, having now spoken to the AA committee and numerous attendees, I realise that I jumped the gun a little this time.
As we have said all along, late bookings hurt the convention. They really do, because so many of our costs need to be paid in advance – more than ever this year. But I now realise that my attempts to try and avoid this situation by encouraging bookings now, rather than in the last week, were counterproductive. Sadly, I unintentionally added to the very problem I tried to address! I hold my hands up completely for that. In the words of Optimus; “Sorry, my bad” :(
So, how do we move forwards? Having now spoken to the AA committee (who I wish to thank for their help and honesty at this time), I have decided that the following action is the most appropriate;
I am hereby formally retracting the discounted ticket offer. It was, I now realise, unhelpful and has caused some upset. So I firmly believe that removing the offer is the right thing to do.
For anyone who has booked a ticket whilst that offer was live, I will honour the price you paid. It is not your fault that this has happened.
I will make everyone a personal assurance right now that there will not be any repeat of this situation in 2014. All year, my committee work hard to encourage people to book early for the good of the convention – I do not want to undermine their exceptional work and I do not want to appear ungrateful to those who support us so fantastically well with their early bookings.
In lieu of rising costs, we were reluctantly in the position of having to raise ticket prices by £10 for 2014. However,by way of an apology to each and every one of our attendees, I have decided to FREEZE ticket prices at their current levels until 31st December 2013 and beyond that point, a continued reduced level of £55. Once you have all seen the reveals we will be making at this year’s Saturday night show you will truly understand why Auto Assembly 2014 is going to be our most expensive event ever. I guarantee that these reduced prices will not have any adverse impact on the convention although this will mean that the team and I will have to shoulder some extra work, and indeed, work harder than ever, but I think it is the right thing to do to show everybody just how sincere I am with this post.
At the end of the day, Auto Assembly is YOUR convention. Its continued growth and success is down to YOU and YOUR feedback. Bar discount… Swerve’s diner… the fantastic new hotel… my team and I have worked hard to make all of these things a reality because of YOUR excellent feedback over the years. Sometimes, very rarely, we do get things wrong. Because we are human and because we try as many different things as possible to improve the show for you. But we will never try to hide behind a mistake. The special offer, whilst made with the very best of intentions, was misguided and I hope you will accept my full apology and then, join me to help make Auto Assembly 2013 the best darn Transformers convention on that planet. The convention which each and every one of your DESERVE for your tremendous support over the years.
Thanks for your understanding. I really appreciate it and truly value your continued support of the show.
Til all are one
Simon Plumbe
Auto Assembly Committee Head
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