quote:

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Originally posted by nderdog:
Well, today's prerelease was the most epic failure that I have been a part of.

A week ago, the local employee noted that they had ordered a couple boxes of Dark Ascension for the prerelease, and when I asked about the Innistrad they said that none was ordered because it should be all Dark Ascension. I explained that it was not a valid format, and that we had a few people planning on going to GP Seattle, we really should be playing the proper format so that we can get some experience. I had a box and a half or so of Innistrad, so offered to provide it to do things right. Yesterday at FNM, I confirmed that they ordered 3 boxes and got the extra box from WotC. I discussed things and we reached an agreement to charge players $25, and I would get $10 for my 3 packs of Innistrad and they would get $15 for their 3 packs of Dark Ascension, and set up a prize payout that would have used only the free box, because 36 packs for an estimated 8 players seemed pretty good. This morning, before the event, the employee and I talked, and he said that I should take in all of the money, then once we started, I would give him the $15 per player. A couple paid with credit cards, so I ran $10 each from my Square account and then they ran $15 at the store for the rest.

Fast forward to late in round 2.

The store employee picks up all of the prerelease promos (I always give them out at the end with the rest of the prizes) and all Dark Ascension packs that were not given out in card pools. I was then informed that the free box would be sent back along with the promos to WotC, the sister store would sell the remaining Dark Ascension after release day, and there would be no further Magic events there ever.

Depending on who I talked to, either the guy at the sister store told the local employee that it couldn't be done the way that we did it before I ever arrived this morning or nothing was communicated to him at all. Either way, I most certainly was never once told that it wouldn't be okay or I absolutely would have worked something out to make sure that the owners were happy. Instead, we're left with a lot of people who ended up paying $25 for 3 packs of Innistrad and 3 packs of Dark Ascension and a promo card that was smuggled to each of us from the local employee. Needless to say we have a lot of very unhappy players, and it was even suggested at one point from the store people that prizes should come out of my own pocket since it was my fault that it all came to this.

Apart from the report to WotC that I will be filing, any suggestions on how to handle this issue? I have no access to any promos or anything to try and soften the blow for the locals who overpaid, but don't know what else I can do other than digging pretty deep into my own stash for compensation.

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Sounds like they got everyone to pay for a event then canceled, fairly sure that warrants a suspension from them being able to do an business with WoTC for at least a year or two.

Cause that basically equates to them selling DKA before release.

As for you, depends on how much you value the local play group, me I'd dip into my own stuff to keep them all together and just run stuff myself, store be damned.

quote:

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Originally posted by Volcanon:
How about just not working with them again? Why give them third/fourth/fifth chances at this point? If they refuse to even communicate a refusal based on their own failure, then they don't deserve to make money off magic events you organize.

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Because it's either this, or have no FNM, prereleases, releases, promos, etc. There isn't another card shop within an hour of here. I'm going to work on an alternate location to get people together to play, but without the support from WotC, it's not going to be easy at all. It's been really nice having free FNM events every week and all of that good stuff.

quote:

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Originally posted by Lord Crovax:
Sounds like they got everyone to pay for a event then canceled, fairly sure that warrants a suspension from them being able to do an business with WoTC for at least a year or two.

Cause that basically equates to them selling DKA before release.

As for you, depends on how much you value the local play group, me I'd dip into my own stuff to keep them all together and just run stuff myself, store be damned.

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Well, their standpoint is that everyone got their packs, and a tournament was held, so that's all they needed to do. I'll continue to run things and keep the group together, but giving out a free box of cards isn't really something that I can manage.

Anyway, update to the situation, I was informed late last night that I need to either hold a make-up tournament today and buy everyone pizza or I will not be allowed to set foot in the shop again, ever. I had already explained why I was happy to do this for everyone, but at the release event next weekend instead, since of the 10 that showed up yesterday, at best 4 of us could possibly make it, including Nderwife and I who would rather be at a good prerelease in Portland instead. I have one more call to make today to try and talk directly to someone who is higher on the ladder than a store clerk, but at this point, it's pretty clear that someone, be it management or local drone, wants at least me gone, and possibly Magic altogether, so somewhere there are some flat-out lies going on about what actually happened yesterday, and it seems that I apparently planned this whole thing all along to make big bags of cash out of this deal, despite the reality being that I made almost no money at all. I tried my best to work with the store and make sure that they were getting the best end of the deal by far, getting half again as much as I was per pack even though I had to pay more for my stock than they did, just so that I could have the proper card mix for the event so that our players could get experience for GP Seattle.

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Report rules violations.

quote:

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Originally posted by nderdog:
Well, their standpoint is that everyone got their packs, and a tournament was held, so that's all they needed to do. I'll continue to run things and keep the group together, but giving out a free box of cards isn't really something that I can manage.

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To bad for them, this is NOT acceptable by WoTC standards, what they did basically sums up to a way of cheating the DKA release by selling product earl, what the store thinks at that point is 100% irrelevant.

Downside, is the store goes away, and you need a new venue.

quote:

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Originally posted by Lord Crovax:
To bad for them, this is NOT acceptable by WoTC standards, what they did basically sums up to a way of cheating the DKA release by selling product earl, what the store thinks at that point is 100% irrelevant.

Downside, is the store goes away, and you need a new venue.

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He already needs a new venue. Zero downside imo.

__________________
"He fights you not because you have wronged him, but because you are there."

[16:17] <@BrassMan> what do you need new tech for?
[16:18] <@BrassMan> gush is unrestricted

only "bombs" were bloodgift demon and 2 tragic slips. had a pretty fast/flying b/w deck although a very poor late game, so if my opponent was above 10 life past.. turn 8, I had very few shot of winning.

the prerelease prize support was insane.

it went

1st: 2 boxes DA
2nd: 1 box DA
3rd: half DA box/half INN box
4th: 27 packs
5-8: 9 packs

Plus

5th: FTV Legends
6th: Fire and lighting
7th: Sorin playmat
8th: Sorin sleeves/deckbox.

Only complaints were.. store was supposed to open at 2, Owner didn't get there till 2:30. Was told the tournament started AT 2, we didn't start (i.e. opened packs) until 3:45.

T8 wasn't draft, you just played with your sealed again.

Lost to a U/R insane deck and a bloodline keeper / olivia / tutor deck.. (and took the BK/Olivia deck to 3 games in both matchs, once in the swiss and again in the t8)..

I really wish it was draft for T8.. taking away 3 packs for each prize support to draft.. seems more "fair" that way.. but *shrug* can't complain too much (when other people have it much worse).

quote:

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Originally posted by nderdog:
Sordid Tale

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This is why WOTC did wrong by not letting judges host tournies outside of the B&M store setting. My university club lost sanctioning this way.

Try and contact somebody high up on the ladder or just give up. Probably, just give up. Take your customers and start a "magic club" or something, buy boxes off one of the cheaper online wholesalers, book free rooms at a high school or a university or something.

quote:

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Originally posted by Speed Demon:
4-2 prerelease, made top 8, tanked in t8, only got 9 packs (but got sleeves/deckbox too so thats good)

only "bombs" were bloodgift demon and 2 tragic slips. had a pretty fast/flying b/w deck although a very poor late game, so if my opponent was above 10 life past.. turn 8, I had very few shot of winning.

the prerelease prize support was insane.

it went

1st: 2 boxes DA
2nd: 1 box DA
3rd: half DA box/half INN box
4th: 27 packs
5-8: 9 packs

Plus

5th: FTV Legends
6th: Fire and lighting
7th: Sorin playmat
8th: Sorin sleeves/deckbox.

Only complaints were.. store was supposed to open at 2, Owner didn't get there till 2:30. Was told the tournament started AT 2, we didn't start (i.e. opened packs) until 3:45.

T8 wasn't draft, you just played with your sealed again.

Lost to a U/R insane deck and a bloodline keeper / olivia / tutor deck.. (and took the BK/Olivia deck to 3 games in both matchs, once in the swiss and again in the t8)..

I really wish it was draft for T8.. taking away 3 packs for each prize support to draft.. seems more "fair" that way.. but *shrug* can't complain too much (when other people have it much worse).

The event ended around 1am.. I guess that is another complaint. I love magic and all, I just hate what it does to my sleep schedule.. If the tournament started at 12pm, then it'd end at a reasonable hour (like 9/10pm..)

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quote:

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Originally posted by Volcanon:
This is why WOTC did wrong by not letting judges host tournies outside of the B&M store setting. My university club lost sanctioning this way.

Try and contact somebody high up on the ladder or just give up. Probably, just give up. Take your customers and start a "magic club" or something, buy boxes off one of the cheaper online wholesalers, book free rooms at a high school or a university or something.

Why would they try and force you to buy pizza? It's their fault the event was messed up in the first place. I hate it when companies try and get you fired without just firing you. Being direct about things burns fewer bridges. It's like those girls who, instead of saying "no, not interested," string somebody along for weeks and weeks.

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Oh, it's getting better. I called the higher-up that I was supposed to, and they asked me to call back tomorrow. Apparently, she didn't even know that I was selling product at the store ever, even though I was specifically told that it was fine as long as the store wasn't also selling stuff, and that has been going on since M12. I'm pretty sure that I'm never going to set foot in the store again, whether allowed to or not, but with other people calling and complaining to the right people, it sounds like some sense was talked into someone and that prizes may be being released.

I have no idea about the pizza thing, as it's come to me second or third hand. I'm assuming it's their way of distributing the money that I wasn't supposed to get (even though I only took in enough to cover costs) to the people that paid good money to play.

There is hope on the horizon, though, and that's good news. I just have to wait things out and see if something that was discussed today will come to fruition.

__________________
There's no need to fear, UNDERDOG is here!

All your Gruul Nodorogs are belong to me. Trade them to me, please!

Report rules violations.

Just do like Morro, open your own store in front of theirs and sell cheaper and charge less per events.

He openend his store in front of a store in Montreal because they accused him of similar things + charged way too much the MTG community.

End results: he's getting a really good reputation in the community, the other store not so much and they're losing customers over him.

__________________
There's no need to fear, UNDERDOG is here!

All your Gruul Nodorogs are belong to me. Trade them to me, please!

Report rules violations.

quote:

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Originally posted by nderdog:
I've looked into starting a shop before, but due to the size of the town, it's just not economically viable, particularly when both Nderwife and I really can't afford to quit our day jobs to try and run a store.

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Prelease here is 45 dollars.

Prize support is roughly 1 pack per player.

quote:

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Originally posted by MagixDK:
Man, i hate you all.

Prelease here is 45 dollars.

Prize support is roughly 1 pack per player.

qqqq.

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Uh.. Don't play obviously..

Magic players sure are fish when it comes to things like this..

$45 prerelease with terrible prize support.. sure, I'll play.

600 person online ptq with 1 slot and awful prize support? Sure why not.

quote:

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Originally posted by Speed Demon:

Uh.. Don't play obviously..

Magic players sure are fish when it comes to things like this..

600 person online ptq with 1 slot and awful prize support? Sure why not.

=/

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quote:

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Originally posted by nderdog:
Oh, it's getting better. I called the higher-up that I was supposed to, and they asked me to call back tomorrow. Apparently, she didn't even know that I was selling product at the store ever, even though I was specifically told that it was fine as long as the store wasn't also selling stuff, and that has been going on since M12. I'm pretty sure that I'm never going to set foot in the store again, whether allowed to or not, but with other people calling and complaining to the right people, it sounds like some sense was talked into someone and that prizes may be being released.

I have no idea about the pizza thing, as it's come to me second or third hand. I'm assuming it's their way of distributing the money that I wasn't supposed to get (even though I only took in enough to cover costs) to the people that paid good money to play.

There is hope on the horizon, though, and that's good news. I just have to wait things out and see if something that was discussed today will come to fruition.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Volcanon:
Well, card shops aren't always the best run. Like those shops that ban selling cards between players. If I'm not being a backpack dealer you shouldn't care if I sell a $2 card to a friend. Worse is the shops that ban trading, which is hilarious.

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quote:

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Originally posted by MagixDK:
Man, i hate you all.

Prelease here is 45 dollars.

Prize support is roughly 1 pack per player.

qqqq.

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except pre-releases WoTC requires 2 packs per player, MIN, so them doing this is a BIG BIG no no.....

Thanks,
Jazaray

__________________
A Plastered Dragon Original Limerick:
There was a nice lassie named Jaz
Many wished to have what she has,
A delicate face,
A soft warm embrace,
And a whole lot of bedroom pizzazz.

WeedIan: Jazaray is like MOTL's Mom.

quote:

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Originally posted by Jazaray:
Everyone! Please pass along for people NOT to send to MOTL member, reinhart! It's the return of John Strickland. He must have hacked the account. The real reinhart was from Maryland.

Thanks,
Jazaray

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quote:

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Originally posted by Lord Crovax:
except pre-releases WoTC requires 2 packs per player, MIN, so them doing this is a BIG BIG no no.....

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quote:

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Originally posted by TimeBeing:
Really never heard that before? 1 pack min is what i always see.

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Same here...can someone point to the official documentation on this?

--Evil

quote:

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Originally posted by Volcanon:
Well, card shops aren't always the best run. Like those shops that ban selling cards between players. If I'm not being a backpack dealer you shouldn't care if I sell a $2 card to a friend. Worse is the shops that ban trading, which is hilarious.

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