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[DangerHeart]

Under the General Membership Registration it seems to have a footnote:

"*Event access may be limited due to space or other circumstances. "

But this sentence isn't under the Group Registration info? Are there differences in the badges? Or they exactly the same?

[SOawesomeness]

Under the General Membership Registration it seems to have a footnote:

"*Event access may be limited due to space or other circumstances. "

But this sentence isn't under the Group Registration info? Are there differences in the badges? Or they exactly the same?

They are exactly the same badges- there is no difference in any of the memberships other than 1 day vs. weekend memberships.

Event access simply may be limited because there are too many people attending it (or... who knows what else). Of course, this does not mean FanimeCon as a whole, but specific events like MusicFest, or Masquerade.

[mlarad]

My group and I are only attending from Friday to Sunday so none of us have plan to get a 4 day badge and we are not per-registering.
This of having to have a badge to reserve a hotel is completely unfair.
I understand you are trying to get people to book less hotel rooms or an order but this is not the correct way.
There is people who do not have the money to cover for this right now and as mention before by someone else even before Sunday.
last year you completely screw up with registration pick up and many of us are not happy and know you want to act like you
are doing things right but this is not right. Also, with your policy of no refunds/exchanges or transfers what about the people that can't
attend last minute? are they just going to lose $55? that's unfair. Other smaller and bigger conventions have refund or transfer policies.
Everything is very inconvenient and such a hassle that not everyone is willing to go thru.

[kookiekween99]

My group and I are only attending from Friday to Sunday so none of us have plan to get a 4 day badge and we are not per-registering.
This of having to have a badge to reserve a hotel is completely unfair.
I understand you are trying to get people to book less hotel rooms or an order but this is not the correct way.
There is people who do not have the money to cover for this right now and as mention before by someone else even before Sunday.
last year you completely screw up with registration pick up and many of us are not happy and know you want to act like you
are doing things right but this is not right. Also, with your policy of no refunds/exchanges or transfers what about the people that can't
attend last minute? are they just going to lose $55? that's unfair. Other smaller and bigger conventions have refund or transfer policies.
Everything is very inconvenient and such a hassle that not everyone is willing to go thru.

Getting a 4-day badge is much cheaper than getting three separate single-day badges. In fact, if you are attending for more than one day, it is more cost effective to get a full weekend badge.

I do agree that it is unfair that there was only one week's notice given for these huge changes. I hope that a solution is announced at least 24 hours prior to hotel reservations opening.

I actually have not personally run across any conventions that allow refunds/transfers. Could you give a more specific example?

[Sunara Ishi]

There doesn't seem to be a paypal option. Only a credit card option. Will a paypal option be added soon?

Also on the confirmation screen, my info says "User7" instead of my chosen username. Is this a mistake? I'd hate to get stuck with that.

I'm going to hold off on registering for now, but any info would be helpful.

Thanks in advance.

[ewu]

My group and I are only attending from Friday to Sunday so none of us have plan to get a 4 day badge and we are not per-registering.
This of having to have a badge to reserve a hotel is completely unfair.
I understand you are trying to get people to book less hotel rooms or an order but this is not the correct way.
There is people who do not have the money to cover for this right now and as mention before by someone else even before Sunday.
last year you completely screw up with registration pick up and many of us are not happy and know you want to act like you
are doing things right but this is not right. Also, with your policy of no refunds/exchanges or transfers what about the people that can't
attend last minute? are they just going to lose $55? that's unfair. Other smaller and bigger conventions have refund or transfer policies.
Everything is very inconvenient and such a hassle that not everyone is willing to go thru.

Thanks for the feedback, I will be sure to pass it on. The change in hotel booking policy is in direct response to feedback like this. It is our hope that with this change, hotels will not fill as quickly as previous years and more members will be able to benefit from the added certainty that was not afforded in previous years.

As our head of registration has requested, please direct further questions toward solely to the clarification of the FAQ. Thank you.

[kookiekween99]

Thanks for the feedback, I will be sure to pass it on. The change in hotel booking policy is in direct response to feedback like this. It is our hope that with this change, hotels will not fill as quickly as previous years and more members will be able to benefit from the added certainty that was not afforded in previous years.

As our head of registration has requested, please direct further questions toward solely to the clarification of the FAQ. Thank you.

Should there be a separate thread for discussion/feedback about the changes?

[SOawesomeness]

There doesn't seem to be a paypal option. Only a credit card option. Will a paypal option be added soon?

Also on the confirmation screen, my info says "User7" instead of my chosen username. Is this a mistake? I'd hate to get stuck with that.

I'm going to hold off on registering for now, but any info would be helpful.

Thanks in advance.

Hi,

Sorry about the Paypal confusion on the FAQ. We are no longer using Paypal for this process of Registration at the time.

I am unsure about User7- there is another person with the same problem as yours. I would personally email fanireg@cmrus.com for more information (and if possible, report back with your findings)!

[vralls13]

I have user7 as well. First, it was Faname, then it changed to user7. I thought it was just an artifact of the debugging process. I'm still waiting for the confirmation email to see what shows up on that. But honestly I don't really care what shows up on the badge as long as it get me into the con. (I do know that a lot of people do care, I'm just not one of them.)

Personally I think that requiring registration before hotel booking is a good thing. It helps limit the reselling of hotel spaces. Limiting to two rooms won't be as useful without that. That said, there should have been more than a week between the announcement that registration would be required  and opening hotel booking.

[vralls13]

My group and I are only attending from Friday to Sunday so none of us have plan to get a 4 day badge and we are not per-registering.
This of having to have a badge to reserve a hotel is completely unfair.
I understand you are trying to get people to book less hotel rooms or an order but this is not the correct way.
There is people who do not have the money to cover for this right now and as mention before by someone else even before Sunday.
last year you completely screw up with registration pick up and many of us are not happy and know you want to act like you
are doing things right but this is not right. Also, with your policy of no refunds/exchanges or transfers what about the people that can't
attend last minute? are they just going to lose $55? that's unfair. Other smaller and bigger conventions have refund or transfer policies.
Everything is very inconvenient and such a hassle that not everyone is willing to go thru.

Getting a 4-day badge is much cheaper than getting three separate single-day badges. In fact, if you are attending for more than one day, it is more cost effective to get a full weekend badge.

I do agree that it is unfair that there was only one week's notice given for these huge changes. I hope that a solution is announced at least 24 hours prior to hotel reservations opening.

I actually have not personally run across any conventions that allow refunds/transfers. Could you give a more specific example?

I know that WorldCon offers a transfer option. They have a board for members to transfer memberships. So you can sell your membership if you find out you can't use it.

[SOawesomeness]

I know that WorldCon offers a transfer option. They have a board for members to transfer memberships. So you can sell your membership if you find out you can't use it.

Please note that that is not FanimeCon. Our standing policy is that we do not allow membership transfers or refunds. As a definition of a membership, it is extended solely to the membership holder and cannot be sold/traded/bought/used by anyone else. This is stated within our terms of agreement.

[vralls13]

I was just providing information, not making suggestions. Sorry.   
I have no problem with the no refund policy myself.
I also think that $55 is very reasonable. It's really a lot for the money. That other con I mentioned was over $200.

[davidcrandall99]

Last year had some ridiculously long lines; I realize you're warning people to expect a long wait, but are there any plans to decrease the wait time and speed up the badge pickup process?

[SOawesomeness]

Last year had some ridiculously long lines; I realize you're warning people to expect a long wait, but are there any plans to decrease the wait time and speed up the badge pickup process?

Of course... We understand that the wait time is both extremely unfair to the fans and to the staff.

Therefore, we do have major changes within our system- this includes increased numbers of stations and better and more extensive planning. We plan that these changes will alleviate many of the stress points of last year's system and altogether bring up the throughput for the attendees picking up and registering at-con.

I cannot bring up any details yet, but we will detail the processes come May.

[SOawesomeness]

For all of those still unsure:

We are no longer requiring a membership in order to reserve a hotel for FanimeCon 2014. The process will be the same as previous years:

1) Go to https://www.cmrhousing.com/FANI_6A/Welcome.aspx (this link also includes information on the hotels.)
2) Click on "Book an Individual Registration."
3) Choose your hotel, enter in your information, set up payment.
4) You're done!

Note that the Hotel reservations will still be launching on the same date as before.

[linefaced]

Question: I know you're outsourcing your registration to another company and their+your policy is "no refunds", but I'm curious as to whether or not I might be able to get a refund for my pre-reg anyway?  I was not at all financially prepared to drop the $55 on pre-registration just yet since I have other expenses coming up shortly this month, but the now-retracted policy of requiring registration before a hotel reservation forced my hand since I will definitely need a hotel room.  I was also hoping to set up a group reg, but since the members of my group were also not prepared to pre-register just yet, I had to register individually.  I'm pretty unhappy that his policy was changed so abruptly and so soon before hotel registration opens, so is there any way we can make some kind of exception to this "no refunds" rule?  I would obviously be re-registering later, but I was budgeting for having until Feb 31st (whoops) the end of Feb to do it, not Feb 10th.

[Kyra_Maverick]

Question: I know you're outsourcing your registration to another company and their+your policy is "no refunds", but I'm curious as to whether or not I might be able to get a refund for my pre-reg anyway?  I was not at all financially prepared to drop the $55 on pre-registration just yet since I have other expenses coming up shortly this month, but the now-retracted policy of requiring registration before a hotel reservation forced my hand since I will definitely need a hotel room.  I was also hoping to set up a group reg, but since the members of my group were also not prepared to pre-register just yet, I had to register individually.  I'm pretty unhappy that his policy was changed so abruptly and so soon before hotel registration opens, so is there any way we can make some kind of exception to this "no refunds" rule?  I would obviously be re-registering later, but I was budgeting for having until Feb 31st to do it, not Feb 10th.

If you were wanting to wait until February 31st, you'd be waiting for all eternity.

As for refunds I am not staff so I cannot comment, but I find it unlikely. However you probably can change your single reg into a group reg if you email CMR when the rest of your group has the money.

[belligerent]

I have to say that it doesn't give me much confidence in Fanime's organization or planning that a decision that seemed wise to me, and ostensibly would have been made after a lengthy discussion of the pros and cons, would be reversed after less than a week.  It actually gives me negative confidence that any of the other stuff you guys are claiming to have fixed has been discussed much and even less confidence that any of it will be resolved.

So, now I have other questions:

Are we still limited to two hotel rooms?

Is the time the housing site opens 10 Pacific time or 10 Eastern time?

[Kyra_Maverick]

Is the time the housing site opens 10 Pacific time or 10 Eastern time?

Pacific Time according to the reservation website

[OGIGA]

I actually have not personally run across any conventions that allow refunds/transfers. Could you give a more specific example?

Sure. Off the top of my head...

Refund Policy: If your cancellation request is received within 30 days of your registration date, you will receive a full refund within 2 weeks. After 30 days, no refunds will be given, and you may only request a transfer or a name change.
Transfer Policy: You will be given one request for a deferral/transfer, good only for the following year.
Name Changes: If you do not want a transfer, you have the option of requesting one name change only.

First, you can transfer the membership to someone else. Write us a letter giving us your name — include your postcard if you have one — and the name and address of the person you’re transferring it to. Mail it to our usual P.O. Box address. Or if you’re pressed for time, hand the letter to the person who’s going to use your membership and have them bring it to the Pre-Reg Desk.

And second, you can roll your membership over to next year once. Just let us know before the convention that you won’t be attending and you’d like your membership rolled over to the next year, and we’ll move you out of this year’s database and put you on next year’s list.