SerenityMovie.net

[jeremy]

If you have a question or specific concern you'd like an answer to publicly, please post it in this thread. We will be monitoring this thread closely. We of course can be contacted privately via email or PM.
_________________
Keep Flyin!
Check out our Firefly fan documentary Done the Impossible
Join us for Browncoat Cruise 2007

[sadimac]

These are concerns, not questions. For me to feel they've been addressed, there will have to be actions, not just answers.

My main specific concern for now is that we (my partner and I) have gotten no emails of any kind since Feb 9th.

Secondly, I feel the back-up payment database (on some kind of spreadsheet, right?) should have been fully in place and fully up-to-date, including all communications stemming from information from such a database. This should be someone's top priority. It has been months.

I probably have more, but they're less business-y and more emotional, so I'm gonna sit on them for now.

[jeremy]

Hi Sadimac,

We are only sending out mass emails to everybody when there is a specific task for you to do. Tasks like "it's time to make a payment, here is how" or "you have a partial refund, what would you like to do with it" We aren't emailing news or event updates directly. All communication along those lines is via our site or this message board. If you have specific questions, I am available anytime.

I'm so anti-spam I never quite know where to draw the mass email line, but if you think that news updates are something you'd like to be emailed about, I'm open to the idea.

There is and always has been an extensive database, and it includes a notes section where I keep track of the orders, customers, options, and all communications and transactions on a per person basis. The only updating I'm doing is calculating balance dues based on the price changes, refunds due, payments due, upgrades/downgrades, new orders, and all of that. For those technically inclined, it's Filemaker Pro database with about 8 related tables. And like I said, this has always been around, and is in fact the foundation of the online tracking system that is still in progress. (In fact I just had a 3 hour meeting with my vendor today (yes on Sunday) and I'm happy to say their progress has been significant.)

The only thing I'm using a spreadsheet for is my pricing grid which is surprisingly complex because it has to take into account our cost and the price of each room type, occupancy and activity package. This was created back when we first set our pricing.

Hope that clarifies things for you.
_________________
Keep Flyin!
Check out our Firefly fan documentary Done the Impossible
Join us for Browncoat Cruise 2007

[sadimac]

As I said, I won't really be happy until these actions are taken. That would be 1) communication about how my account stands with payment plan and price change, and 2) the database actually being fully updated, cause a database with old data is just a toy, right?

An email regarding each pushback in payment dates would have been appropriate, whether mass or personal.

Regular emails about new information (booked guests, say) would have been nice.

You really think emailing all your customers about having confirmed guests, or that the cruise got cheaper would be regarded as spam?

So, you're saying the database is fully up-to-date? So there should be no delay in calculating each customers remaining balance and sending them an accurate invoice? Because in the payment plan questions thread, calculating manually is the reason given repeatedly for delays.

I'm starting to feel a little talked-down to here, not a great feeling to get about a merchant. For Pete's sake, I managed a Filemaker database for years. I'm glad you're not simply relying on a spreadsheet to track all this.

[jeremy]

I totally apologize if you are feeling talked-down to here. That is not my intent in any way! I just wanted to give technical details to those that were interested.

Thank you for the feedback on mass emails, you make good points.

Regarding the database; the database is fully updated, in that all of the data I need is in there and current. I just need to create a bunch of calculation fields that finesse the available information into something usable and mailmerge-able. Once that's done I have to modify our shopping cart to include price options for all of the possible payment amounts. Many or most will be the full $300 payment, but due to the price drop, not everybody owes a full $300. Next, our Yahoo store shopping cart doesn't allow me to create a variable price, I have to create an inventory item or at least an option for each price point possible, so that will take a few hours to setup. Lastly I need to set up a form letter in Filemaker (easy) and send out everybody's payment info.

For the record, I intend to have all of that completed by the end of the day today.
_________________
Keep Flyin!
Check out our Firefly fan documentary Done the Impossible
Join us for Browncoat Cruise 2007

[sadimac]

Thank for continuing to work through my concerns with me. I am trying to get to a place where my partner and I will both once again be overjoyed with our purchase and the attending service.

Perhaps this is a language thingy, but it seems relevant to me: If a database still has fields to be created and data to be crunched, it's not fully updated.

I thought you were going to the calculations manually and that was the holdup.

So, we can all expect emails with current amounts owed or refundable by tomorrow morning?

Will the installment payment be due one week from reciept of that email? Or will there be reciprocity about the delays?

[jeremy]

I appreciate your goal!

The manual part was going through dozens of emails and updating the data appropriately, this is now complete. (This is more related to those that paid in full and were due refunds, but it's the same database.) Since I owed people money, I made that a priority over getting more money from people in the form of their second payment.

Point taken that it's not fully updated, but it does now have all the data I need. And yes it has had the data I needed all along for the payment plan payments, but like I said I wanted to get the refunds processed first, because I hate owing people money.

Yes you can expect an email by tomorrow morning. Our payment extension from Carnival gives us until the 15th of June, but I'd like a bit of a safety margin, so I'm going to make the deadline June 10th. Does that sound fair?
_________________
Keep Flyin!
Check out our Firefly fan documentary Done the Impossible
Join us for Browncoat Cruise 2007

[kurya]

Hey there Jeremy.

I know a few folk will not like this, and think it too pollyanna.. or whatever, but I have ful lfaith in you Jeremy, and its not really a concern or question but a suggestion. As Sadimac said, I really think that you should look into sending out updates on a regular basis. Like every 2-3 weeks, send out an email to people(post it on the forum, or post it to the yahoio group), letting people know what has been done i nthe past 2-3 weeks. It is a good amount of work, but I think in the long term it will go to alleviate people's concerns. I check the forum quite often so its not a necessary thing for me, but others do not check the forum obsessively. And even if you didnt make a lot of progress state it so.

Just get into the habit of constantly updating people. If you are really that busy, you should look into asking one of the folk in your crew to do it. If people feel there is rguar contact, it does help alot.
Prakash
_________________
For info on future Montreal Shindigs:
http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/montrealbrowncoats

Canadian, canuck wannabe? Join:
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/canadianbrowncoats

[jeremy]

Thanks for the advice. Will do.
_________________
Keep Flyin!
Check out our Firefly fan documentary Done the Impossible
Join us for Browncoat Cruise 2007

[marajade29sm]

I believe you can also adjust your profile settings on here and on the Yahoo group to email you when there are updates, if you don't feel like checking regularly. The Yahoo group has been pretty quiet, so maybe major updates could be posted there with more regularity. Of course, that depends on the definition of 'major', because what's important to some could be annoying spam to others, but there is that option, at least, to have update emails sent to you, if that helps!

[kurya]

well in my case, I was emailed right away when Jeremy responded to my comment, so its not hard to do, and I do have updates fro mthe yahoo gorup going into my email, but there hasnt been much acitivty there...and yes too many emails can be considered spammy, but I think once every 2 or 3 weeks is fine and its better to have people feel they are informed, then to have people wondering if the event is still being organized.
Prakash
_________________
For info on future Montreal Shindigs:
http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/montrealbrowncoats

Canadian, canuck wannabe? Join:
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/canadianbrowncoats

[sadimac]

Yeah, June 10th seems fair to me (although it is still just over a week past the May 28th or 29th we can expect the emails on).

But it's taken you months to go through "dozens of emails"? That doesn't really scream top priority. I know that sounds snarky, but looking at the lists of things you had to get done first (trade shows, moving office, finishing the DVD, etc.), doesn't feel good at all to me.

Here is a more complicated question: What are the current cancellation charges? And what is the current cancellation schedule?

Can you assure us (or me, anyway) that as new difficulties present themselves, someone will be making it their top priority to both inform us and solve them in a timely manner?

Thank you again for your continued responses.

[jeremy]

Our cancellation policy is posted on our site under the "Reservations" tab.

If you need more time past the 10th, we will be as accommodating as possible.

I know dozens doesn't sound like a lot of work. But it's actually very labor intensive and has chewed up many many hours to track and process.

Let me give an example:
- Customer X ordered a Quad occupancy Inside Cabin Full Pass with the Early Bird Discount in February. They intended to talk 3 of their friends into joining them. Customer X pays with a credit card.
- We pass the order info to our travel agency (which is a two step process every time), they process the card, it's declined.
- I email the customer back, they give me a new card, I resubmit the order to the travel agency and it goes through.
- In March, the customer figured out only two friends would be joining, triggering a price increase for the upgrade to triple occupancy. We (manually) calculate the difference and submit the charge request to our travel agency. (This is the kind of manual calculation that our cruise tracking system will calculate for us when it goes online).
- Time goes by, we drop the price of the cruise and they are now owed a partial refund, we give them 3 options of what to do with their credit. Some more time goes by and they decide to apply part of their refund to a photo op/autograph package.
- We issue the remaining credit back to their credit card through the travel agency.
- Liking the new prices so much they then decide to upgrade their room type to a penthouse suite. We again to the math and charge them the upgrade rate. (And for the record, our margins are the same no matter which room type is selected, so upgrades don't equate to more money to cover costs like talent, just in case you were wondering.)
- Etc..

This is an actual example, though admittedly one of the more complicated ones. Now multiply this by well over 100 orders and dozens of variations on this story, and you can see it's actually a pretty labor intensive process. Of course some orders haven't required any extra steps beyond the basics. But it's orders like these that are compelling us to create a cruise tracking system.

Do we wish our non-Browncoat Cruise life allowed us to do this officially full time, yes. But it hasn't, which has resulted in many a late late night working on this, but that's why we do this, we love the community and doing things with and for this community. Are we perfect, no, but we are doing our best and we are honest, and we want to have a fun cruise as much as anyone (actually probably more).

In the interest of honesty, I think the biggest mistake I've made in this process was, there was a point a couple months ago, where I thought we'd have the cruise tracking system online sooner than I thought, so I postponed the manual process for a couple of weeks, and that really put us behind when it came time to catch up manually.

Now that we have a more solid infrastructure and process down, I will not allow us to get behind. I emphasize again that all of that manual stuff is now current and we are moving ahead in real-time, no more catching up, we intend to stay on top of any processes as they happen rather than getting behind then catching up.

Also keep in mind, the order processing/upgrades/downgrades/refunds/charges and online PR is my job. There are 4 others on our team that are doing everything else, like activity planning, sponsorships, marketing, talent acquisition, etc... And those things have been going forward full steam ahead, with few hiccups. My job is just the most visible at the moment.

I assure you Browncoat Cruise is and will always be a high priority to me. We've all made some significant sacrifices in our personal and business life to make this happen, and we will continue to do so.
_________________
Keep Flyin!
Check out our Firefly fan documentary Done the Impossible
Join us for Browncoat Cruise 2007

[sadimac]

I believe making the cruise wonderful is a high priority for you. I don't think communication with customers has been your top priority lately (as other tasks have been done first), but I'm hopeful that it will be from now on.

I appreciate the sense of community fun the cruise was born of and also that in a complex event many people you have no control over have to do their parts. Be assured I'm not thinking of you personally as responsible for every little detail, and I know well the conflicts of tasks taken out of love vs. tasks that pay the bills. But you personally have made repeated promises of emails (and other updates) within various time limits. I'd like to echo other statements that suggest requesting help with the plug-and-chug-no-exectutive-decisions-needed type of tasks.

So, this statement is accurate?

[crazygolfa]

I have one question about upgrades like autographs and photo-ops. Can I pay for them a later date after I pay for the room.
_________________
Faster! Faster would be better.

[Jetflair]

My primary concern is a fuzzier and more complicated one. When tickets first became available, I booked in a great flurry of excitement. There were a numbor of factors to that excitement:

- It was, as many have pointed out, a cruise and one filled with browncoats
-There were most likely going to be 2 BDH and two supporting cast members on the boat with us......and not knowing who they were made me excited over the possibility that some of my favorite cast members might be among them
-It was a venture of Done the Impossible joined with the Cali Browncoats....what could be better, post-B3?
-A bunch of my best online friends were going, also all excited to come.

I looked at the cancellation policy and had a number of additional thoughts:

- There will be time, before I'm out a significant amount of money, to see how this shapes up and cancel if it looks like it's not going to be worth it
- I'll be able to see what guests are announced, and if I'm not wild about the lineup, I can cancel
- There's plenty of time to see what is actually planned for the cruise and make sure it sounds as cool as the potential here.

Now..........I'm lost. It's very late in the game payment-wise. I'm going to have to commit to this or not....but with none of the info I was expecting.

All of my room-mates have cancelled, some for personal reasons, some due to convention/cruise issues. Staying with strangers doesn't look to be as fun.

There are only two guests announced, and no guarantee of more. Of those two guests, one I'm afraid of and only managed to approach at B3 because I was drunk and grateful, and the other I will be seeing at a con soon anyway. Completely absent are any of the cast members I have a strong enough desire to meet that I'd spend over a thousand dollars to do so.....Nathan, Alan, Jewel........

My guest hopes and desires have not been met. Not your fault Jeremy, just a fact. And it factors into the whole "I can cancel if the guests don't shape up" thing. Now I'm stuck, instead of making a decision based on who will be there, making a decision based on a situation I'm not wild about and the faint hope that things might improve.

I've really seen no involvement of the Cali Browncoats, nor of anything except one person managing this. I'm glad you mentioned others working in the background. The problem is, since you're the only one who talks to us, it looks like you're the only one working on it.

In order to have the faith to spend what for me is a ton of money on this, I need to know what I'm spending the money *on*. Tell us what these nonstop activities you're planning are. If they sound like cool things I want to be there for, things I don't want to miss, then I and others might get excited about this again. "You'll have fun" isn't enough. Those planners need to come out of the shadows and tell us what they're working on, and quick. Why should I still be excited about this?

I do think the cruise sounds like fun. A lot of things sound like fun, and I don't get to do them because I can't afford them. For me to spend money like this, they have to be exceptional. I was expecting exceptional from what you guys described and from the inherent potential of the event and the people involved. This is starting to look less exceptional. Still fun, but I'm having doubts about sinking more of my money into it.

I desperately want the cruise together. I want to go on it and have an unforgettable time. I want it to prosper and happen again. So to be thinking frustrated, worried, unhappy thoughts about this and thinking about cancelling stings.
_________________
My Firefly/Serenity Jewelry: http://www.serenityverse.com/shop

My high-end jewelry site: http://www.distinctionjewelry.com

My fanfics: http://www.serenityverse.com/fffanfic

[jeremy]

[jeremy]

[jeremy]

Jetflair - We still hope to have more BDHs, like I've said before, there is interest, we just need more sign ups or sponsors, and we are organizing additional efforts in both. In the end, I think the odds are good we'll have more.

The Cali Browncoats are still involved, they will be playing a much bigger role as we get closer to the event, especially in the activities department.

I'm the only one who talks much online, because that was my assigned job. (Along with the aforementioned booking/order processing/upgrades/downgrades/refunds/charges etc... )

Our stated VIP goal all along was to get at least one BDH and some LDHs. We've accomplished that and we've dropped the price significantly. There's no denying that the competing events are taking our thunder away when it comes to VIPs, but that wasn't ever the emphasis anyway.

I guess it comes down to what you want to get out of it. I think the other events will have more "down-time" but if you are most interested meeting VIPs (albeit very briefly in my experience) then go to one of the land based events, if you are looking for a five day fun filled event with non-stop activities, great food, shore activities like beaches, shopping and shore excursions and of course a ship filled with browncoats and some VIPs, then the cruise should be your choice.
_________________
Keep Flyin!
Check out our Firefly fan documentary Done the Impossible
Join us for Browncoat Cruise 2007

[jeremy]

For fun, here is a preview to our Browncoat Cruise video teaser, voiced over by Ron (6.8MB, QuickTime 7 or better required):

http://www.browncoatcruise.com/i/video/Browncoat_Cruise_Promo.mov
_________________
Keep Flyin!
Check out our Firefly fan documentary Done the Impossible
Join us for Browncoat Cruise 2007

[doyn]

Love the promo, can't wait to see the polished end product.

Thanks for all the updates and your work to continuously work at making things better in the face of adversity. If you continue to do that, things will continue to become smoother. Don't buy into other people's agendas and stick to yours. With the two other cons I hate to think that con-shipping is creeping into this outside of good ol' fashion advertising and honest words. Stick to your guns you will do well.

My only question in all of this is with regards to the possibility of more guests. While I am ready to sail with those in place, you mentioned that your team is working on talent aquisition and that some talent has expressed in interest in coming on the cruise as well. I understand that you cannot reveal who they may be due to a plethora of issues, but I was wonder if you might be able to reveal what might be possible in general terms from those who might be interested. Something like 1 Big Damn Hero, 3 recurring characters, 2 film characters, 4 behind the scenes, etc.? While this does not reveal who it is, or even promises that they will be there, it may allow people to see a bit more solidly what they could be investing in. Its playing the market on a bit of speculation on purchasers' part, but as long as your team remains open and continues to say, "this is only interested parties, their attendance is in no way guaranteed, though through sales and sponsorships, their attendance comes much closer to possible. If and when proper paperwork has been completed, new guests will be announced."

But like I said, looking forward to the cruise, see you on board, we will be waiting for you....
_________________
In Alamo we trust!

[~melmel~]

Love the promo!!! Watching that made me very happy, and eager for December again. Can't wait for the cruise! Thanks to all of you for your hard work!
_________________
"Your robot reminds me of you. You tell it to turn, it stops. You tell it to stop, it turns. You ask it to take out the garbage, it watches reruns of Firefly." -Bones

[Tammy]

[sadimac]

[RachVG]

I didn't get an email yet - should I be worried? I know that my Cabin-mate got hers when she checked her emails earlier today.

[jeremy]

[Kyrax]

[jeremy]

[RachVG]

Thanks Jeremy, it came through nicely this time

[VaderDawsn]