BotCon 2015 Pre-Registration Saga: The Opening, Part N

Wednesday, May 27th, 2015 1:37pm CDT

Categories: Event News, Collector's Club News
Posted by: Va'al Views: 19,268

Topic Options: View Discussion · Sign in or Join to reply

It appears that after a number of several further misplacements, pre-registration for the 2015 BotCon event may finally have stabilised enough to at least process Attendee packages. In the past couple of hours, the following string of messages have been sent by FunPub, and received by potential convention goers.

Good morning,

We have now turned the registration system back on. We have been assured once again that it will work this time under load. It may take a few minutes for successive servers to spool up so I have made the time out 20 minutes. This will keep items in your cart until you finish or the registration times out.

I am sorry for any issues this has caused.

Brian

The application has crashed after no registrations have been processed. We will go back to the programming serving company. We are very upset as well and will be taking action.

We will have registration. I know you are worried and we understand.

I am sorry for any issues this has caused.

Brian

I apologize for the errors our vendor continues to cause us. Since they are our vendor, we take complete responsibility. We are going to try one more time with this system. They are doubling the servers we will be starting with from the last round.

To lighten the load slightly, we will only start with Attending packages. We have Non-attending sets and loose sets set aside for you guys and will allow Non-attending registrations after the load is past for the attending items. The Non-attending packages are turned off so there is no way you can pick one. Please wait until we give you the go-ahead.

If for whatever reason this system fails again, we will do registration a completely different way which is a semi manual system.

Registration retry email coming in a bit.

I am sorry for any issues this has caused,

Brian

And finally, about an hour ago:

They have spooled it up as fast as they can go. Hopefully this works or we will look at a totally different alternative. Last shot on this system.

Again I am sorry for any issues this has caused and this in no way should reflect on the brand,

Brian

What say you, Seibertronians - have you been able to pre-register your spot at BotCon 2015? Any further comments on the situation?

Credit(s): BotCon

Got Transformers News? Let us know here!

Most Recent Transformers News

Click here to post your comment about this news story!

Re: BotCon 2015 Pre-Registration Saga: The Opening, Part N (1691210)
Posted by MartianSpyGirl1996 on May 27th, 2015 @ 2:17pm CDT

Sabrblade wrote:
Sustain wrote:I don't think it's up to Funpub. They're using Eventman, and you'd have to be in with Eventman.
Eventman.com is owned by Brian Savage, and is the same domain through which all of the online registrations of prior years have been done.

So... yeah.

Bingo! And as stated, many programmers have offered to help for years... insanity by definition is doing the same thing expecting a different outcome. Only FunPub can be blamed. You go with cheap, you get dodgy results... I mean that's business 101

Re: BotCon 2015 Pre-Registration Saga: The Opening, Part N (1691218)
Posted by Va'al on May 27th, 2015 @ 2:29pm CDT

SilentScream wrote:Clicking Non-Attending for registration appears to not be working altogether. It just sends me back to the start over and over again. I've been at it on and off since I got the most recent e-mail from Brian @ FunPub saying registration is up.

I can go through the whole process as an attending package but no dice with non-attending.

I sent them an e-mail about it.

Has anyone else tried? Attending Botcon since 2002 (minus 2010 and this year), I know it has its problems over the last decade for sure, no rose tinted glasses for me...but unfortunately Botcon is starting to lose a bit of its charm.

Non-attending is not open yet.

Re: BotCon 2015 Pre-Registration Saga: The Opening, Part N (1691337)
Posted by MartianSpyGirl1996 on May 27th, 2015 @ 8:37pm CDT

Registration is down again as they're having issues with the credit cards... so anybody who waited for tonight after work will need to wait until tomorrow... again. You also can't get the first day pin anymore, either

Re: BotCon 2015 Pre-Registration Saga: The Opening, Part N (1691359)
Posted by Delicon on May 27th, 2015 @ 9:25pm CDT

My friend eventually did get in tonight after a lot of trying so you should try again

Re: BotCon 2015 Pre-Registration Saga: The Opening, Part N (1691362)
Posted by MartianSpyGirl1996 on May 27th, 2015 @ 9:33pm CDT

Delicon wrote:My friend eventually did get in tonight after a lot of trying so you should try again

It was down for a couple hours but is back up now. They originally said the morning.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=981859518521174&id=247519665288500

Re: BotCon 2015 Pre-Registration Saga: The Opening, Part N (1691368)
Posted by It Is Him on May 27th, 2015 @ 9:39pm CDT

Looks like I'm going AND I'm getting the customization class fully-assembled toy, too. I get why people are upset at Funpub, but like CounterPunch says, this happens every year. In some ways, it's part of the experience.

Re: BotCon 2015 Pre-Registration Saga: The Opening, Part N (1691593)
Posted by Va'al on May 28th, 2015 @ 11:46am CDT

This just in from BotCon headquarters: registration for non-attendees is now open! Head over to the official website to register for your bits and bots to be sent to you at home, if you cannot make it to the event in person. More information provided below and on the site - read on.

Hello Everyone!

Non-Attending registration is now open. There is a limited number of non-attending sets available. When we run out, at a later date we will load the leftover attending sets (if available) into non-attending as we must keep those in stock for fans that want to travel to the event.

So, if you don't get a non-attending set now, we will let you know in the future when (if any) additional sets become available.

These sets will ship 3-4 weeks after the staff returns from BotCon. Also, note that the Priority Mail number of days listed in the shipping section is the service the Post Office offers and not a guarantee that the items will come in that number of days. All Priority Mail is a 2-5 day service and can actually take longer than that.

Please go to BotCon.com and click the registration button.

Thanks for your support!

Brian

Re: BotCon 2015 Pre-Registration Saga: The Opening, Part N (1691639)
Posted by Wolfman Jake on May 28th, 2015 @ 1:51pm CDT

Just tried to register as non-attending. The site is currently "down for maintenance." Seriously, what's going on this year?

Re: BotCon 2015 Pre-Registration Saga: The Opening, Part N (1691641)
Posted by Sabrblade on May 28th, 2015 @ 1:55pm CDT

Registered. Attending Primus package and assembled class figure.

Re: BotCon 2015 Pre-Registration Saga: The Opening, Part N (1691643)
Posted by Wolfman Jake on May 28th, 2015 @ 2:11pm CDT

Sabrblade wrote:Registered. Attending Primus package and assembled class figure.

Sabre, when did you register? I just checked again and I got the same maintenance error message.

Re: BotCon 2015 Pre-Registration Saga: The Opening, Part N (1691651)
Posted by Sabrblade on May 28th, 2015 @ 2:33pm CDT

Wolfman Jake wrote:
Sabrblade wrote:Registered. Attending Primus package and assembled class figure.

Sabre, when did you register? I just checked again and I got the same maintenance error message.

Earlier this afternoon. Maybe two hours ago or so. Only recently had a chance to post about my registering.

Re: BotCon 2015 Pre-Registration Saga: The Opening, Part N (1691655)
Posted by Wolfman Jake on May 28th, 2015 @ 2:38pm CDT

Sabrblade wrote:
Wolfman Jake wrote:
Sabrblade wrote:Registered. Attending Primus package and assembled class figure.

Sabre, when did you register? I just checked again and I got the same maintenance error message.
Earlier this afternoon. Maybe two hours ago or so. Only recently had a chance to post about my registering.

That makes sense. Registration is still down as I write this reply.

Re: BotCon 2015 Pre-Registration Saga: The Opening, Part N (1691705)
Posted by Tranzilla on May 28th, 2015 @ 4:04pm CDT

Re: BotCon 2015 Pre-Registration Saga: The Opening, Part N (1691760)
Posted by Tranzilla on May 28th, 2015 @ 5:53pm CDT

IT'S BACK UP!!!!! WOO HOO!!!!!

Re: BotCon 2015 Pre-Registration Saga: The Opening, Part N (1691819)
Posted by Bed Bugs on May 28th, 2015 @ 8:41pm CDT

Re: BotCon 2015 Pre-Registration Saga: The Opening, Part N (1691820)
Posted by Wolfman Jake on May 28th, 2015 @ 8:43pm CDT

Yay! I was finally able to register for an Iacon package. It's a shame I won't be able to accommodate actually coming to BotCon this time. I was very tempted, what with Chicago being within reasonable driving distance of Minnesota, but having to change jobs unexpectedly put a real pinch on my time off.

Re: BotCon 2015 Pre-Registration Saga: The Opening, Part N (1692674)
Posted by Tsutsukakushi on May 31st, 2015 @ 1:01am CDT

Just don't get why every year, things get done later.

Would think revealing the Box set toys and registration as early as possibly. Would help increase more sales.

Think things get done later. To give buyers less time deciding if they like the toys or not. Probably to have less complaints online, As their is less time to complain.

Still don't understand what the big fuss is all about. with spending those insanely high TFCC prices on repaints with maybe a new head.

Re: BotCon 2015 Pre-Registration Saga: The Opening, Part N (1692689)
Posted by MartianSpyGirl1996 on May 31st, 2015 @ 1:59am CDT

Tsutsukakushi wrote:Just don't get why every year, things get done later.

Would think revealing the Box set toys and registration as early as possibly. Would help increase more sales.

Think things get done later. To give buyers less time deciding if they like the toys or not. Probably to have less complaints online, As their is less time to complain.

Still don't understand what the big fuss is all about. with spending those insanely high TFCC prices on repaints with maybe a new head.

Because they're limited to under 2,000 units and sometimes they're figures that should have seen a retail release.

Re: BotCon 2015 Pre-Registration Saga: The Opening, Part N (1693085)
Posted by Va'al on June 1st, 2015 @ 11:46am CDT

Seibertronian podcaster xRotorstormx has pointed towards the official BotCon 2015 Twitter account, which reports on the schedule for the event as finally being live! You can find the whole document, detailing the programme from Wednesday 17th June to Sunday 21st (including pick-ups), over here, or mirrored as images below for your convenience. Will you be attending? Any highlights for you? Let us know in the Energon Pub!

Re: BotCon 2015 Pre-Registration Saga: The Opening, Part N (1693087)
Posted by Sabrblade on June 1st, 2015 @ 11:54am CDT

I'll definitely be going to every panel except the cosplay one and maybe the art one.

I'm a little saddened to see no MSTF this year, though.

I have a hunch that "The Return of Blurr" might be an Animated-based script reading showing Blurr getting brought back after Shockwave tried to crush him to death (the 2011 comic revealed that Cliffjumper had somehow gotten his cube back from the incinerator).

Click here to view additional comments about this topic at the Energon Pub Forums ...