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THERE ARE CONCERNS that ticketholders who were unable to access the GamerCon event in Dublin city last weekend will not receive a full refund.
Scores of people have told how they have only received partial refunds over the event which saw thousands of people unable to gain access to the Convention Centre on Saturday morning.
Large crowds stood in the wind and rain for a number of hours only to be told by security that the venue was at capacity and they would be better off going home. There have been claims that the event was oversold leading to large queues forming from early on Saturday morning. The event was billed as “Ireland’s largest and most exciting convention for the computer gaming community”.
A Facebook page with just under 1,000 members details a number of examples of people who have not received the full refund amount.
One of those is Susan Forsythe. She had brought her nine-year-old son Zach and his friend Daniel from Belfast to the event. She described how “devastated” the boys were when it emerged that they were not going to get into the venue to see their favourite YouTube personalities. Forsythe had paid extra for VIP passes when it emerged a meet-and-greet with the online vloggers could only be secured with the more expensive tickets.
“To see the devastation in their wee faces was horrible. We had a family ticket which we had saved up for as a Christmas present for him. He was so excited, it was like another Christmas. He was counting down the days and then he was devastated when we got to the front door and were told we’d be better off going home,” the mother said.
In total, she paid €82.75 for a family ticket, an extra €32.06 for two VIP passes, €26 for car parking, €45 for diesel in getting to and from Dublin from Belfast and €7 in toll fares.
Forsythe had been saving for weeks to afford the Christmas present and also incurred expenses from travelling down to the event from Belfast. All in, she paid over €200 for the day out. She said the refund of a little over €65 doesn’t do much for her.
We were there waiting for 90 minutes or thereabouts in the wind and the rain and then security came and said we’d be better off going home. We were sent away. The kids were there in their fancy dress and everything. It broke my heart.
“It’s not the money aspect really. How can you pay the price on the kids disappointment? It was sad to watch your child look forward to something for so long and then have it taken away from him.”
The founder of GamerCon released a new statement this morning personally apologising for what happened over the weekend.
Ferdi Roberts said he is responsible for what happens and takes “full responsibility” for the chaos that ensued. He said he wanted to apologise to “the kids and families” who were let down.
“To everyone who attended GamerCon Dublin this past weekend, I would like to personally apologise to those of you who had a bad experience queuing for, or at the event. I am the event organiser, and I accept full responsibility and am deeply, deeply sorry to the kids and families whose day was ruined by long queues both outside and inside the venue.”
I accept completely that I got it wrong, and that the social response is largely justified in light of the experience that many people had. While I witnessed people enjoying the event on both days, that was completely overshadowed by the fact that many of you queued for hours and ultimately could not gain entry, or decided, understandably, to leave the queue. I accept that I and the decisions I made created that situation for you, your family or loved ones. This was never my intent, and for this I am incredibly sorry.
Roberts said he is working to ensure that refund requests are processed as quickly as possible and will continue to do so until everyone affected has had their questions responded to, or their ticket fee refunded as appropriate.
A term and condition on the GamerCon website, which is printed in a different font to the other terms and conditions, says that “access (to the event) is not guaranteed” as the organisers “are required to maintain a safe environment for our attendees at all times and as such are subject to the capacities of the venue and the rooms/halls therein”.
Roberts, in earlier statement had said that queuing issues inside the centre were not his fault and that responsibility for these lines lay with Convention Centre Dublin (CCD) staff – a claim he has since retracted.
A statement from the Convention Centre said:
Ticket sales for every event held at The CCD are managed by the event organisers, not by The CCD, who are contracted to provide the venue. The organisers of this event hired an event management company and a security company to run the event.
The number of tickets sold was based on an underestimate by the organiser of the amount of time people would remain at the event. This meant that for much of Saturday the number of people wanting to enter the venue at the same time was too high.
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Why is it on us? We can’t control the amount of packaging these days. Guess who can? Oh yeah!-the conpanies who package their goods. Deal with them.
@a: Totally agree that we should hold these companies accountable. I’ve even written to some companies in relation to this.
However, we can also have a huge impact by not buying products with wasteful packaging. If we don’t buy the products, they won’t keeping making them.
We should also buy more local and second hand products. Charity shops are great for Christmas shopping.
@a: Exactly, you will see ‘My M&S’ ‘My this’ & ‘My That’ but when it comes down to it you will also see ‘YOUR WASTE’ – yourwaste.ie
They don’t want the waste yet they allow it to be produced.
@a: I wrote to my local TD (a green party TD) and never received any response but this was the gist of it. More expensive everyday items you buy in the likes of Dunnes generally (but not always) comes in packaging that is recyclable- stuff such as apples etc. But your same lower priced items in Lidl/Aldi etc do not and it’s this that is making a difference. There is also confusion amongst many between the difference of ‘made from recycled material’ and ‘recyclable material’ it confuses most and the packaging can be difficult to discern based on that. The onus should be on suppliers/packaging companiez/sellers and government to make it impossible to sell in non recyclable material.
No convenient recycling facilities available for polystyrene so this still goes into the general waste. Only lip service from companies to reduce reuse recycle but the consuner gets the blame
@Dangling Damo: Even though most of the bin collectors don’t allow it they will actually separate it in the recycling center. It’s purely a cost thing so it’s not a heinous crime like including wet waste or something which can mean an entire trucks worth of recycling is ruined.
I try to avoid such packaging when I can but I don’t feel one bit bad about sending it off in the bin when I do happen to need to get rid of some and I don’t have enough other stuff to justify a run to a bring site.
Limit your contacts,
Limit your travel ,
Limit your waste ,
Sure why don’t I limit oxygen aswell while I’m at it this Christmas
@JillyBean: You could
Selection boxes drive me mad. Complete waste of cardboard and plastic.
@Caroline Otoole: Absolutely right. Yet people still buy them and blame the companies who make them for the waste.
Kids don’t care about the box. Just buy a few chocolate bars instead.
@Caroline Otoole: Not just that they are packaged using cardboard and plastic, they make the packaging oversized to make it appear you are getting more than you actually are, an even bigger waste.
I am less concerned about the cardboard, but the plastic needs to be removed.
If the Govt implemented a returns process for that kind of plastic (like 10c per pack) going back to the point of purchase, those shops would then put pressure on suppliers to produce without the plastic.
Got a package from Amazon this week that would usually be wrapped in a box or plastic bag, but this came in a paper bag. It can be done.
@Conrad Shields: actually saw a post on twitter during the week about this. It was a photo of the packaging alongside the bit of chocolate thats in one. It was quite jarring.
@Caroline Otoole: totally agree! Over sized packaging!! I don’t buy selection boxes for this reason
I am calling on all journal readers to boycott these polls until a serious controversial topic is put up for discussion. The odd seasonal topic is OK, but not a relentless diet of them.
I made a perfectly valid point and was censored by the moderator.
@SteveBuzzard: I believe the moderator is fond of a box of After Eights. Do you see where I am going with this? :-)
Celebrating with my parents this year, thankfully, and they live in a zero waste household so I have no choice.
Make up gift sets and perfume packaging are the worst offenders next to children’s toys. I’m trying as best I can to avoid buying them. It’s not easy though.
@Teresa O’Donnell-Joyce: Keep it up. All we can do is our best. We just need to be conscious consumers.
Consider making your own gift sets with individually selected products instead of prepackaged sets. It’s a much more thoughtful gift. It’s not easy and takes extra time of course. I understand that sometimes it’s just not an option.
Good luck with the Christmas shopping.
@Jim Smith: My family will be given home baking gifts. Shame about my dodgy baking skills. It’ll be fun.
Yes I won’t be buying as much food this year like tins of sweets crisps biscuits etc. Wasted do much ladt year
Will buy some nice crackers cheese and maybe some nice meats to go with.
Stove ,free heat ,end of story.
I’m bought three rolls of wrapping paper last year, and I am still using it. But then again, the gifts weren’t huge to wrap.
@Lisa Saputo: gift bags are handy as you can reuse them next year once you don’t write on the tag
Moderator doesn’t like musical notes either. We’ll it’s their loss. It was a a wonderful comment;-)
and if people cannot limit their waste by eating and drinking moderately, they can recycle personal waste by using a compost lavatory.
No
I can’t be ars@d to wrap gifts, so this poll is perfect for me. I just used gift bags, that my Mammy saves and reuses the next Christmas!! We have been doing are bit for ages and didn’t even know it. Lol
I can’t be ars@d to wrap gifts, so this poll is perfect for me. I just used gift bags, that my Mammy saves and reuses the next Christmas!! Lol
have your say