Wow u & every1 behind u got royally fucked. that was fucking illmatic i was the 1st person let n2 the HOuse of Blues that nite. & yes, i was free, but u know what? i missed the 1-hour encore that prince did @ the Kodak that nite just 2 make sure i made it there. & yeah, when i did get there, the line was about 2 wrap around the block. but i happened 2 get n 1st by "special coincidence". Girlfriend, i wish u wouldda been w/ me cuz u could strolled rite n w/ me. that is so fucked!!!!

Well i must say that i was seething when @ 3pm i found that the tix had been on sale @ 10am & sold out n a New York minute. i thought we were all gonna b banned. then they started saying that we could get n 4 $57. now i was willing 2 pay the Xtra cash, just 2 make the nite feel complete, u know. i was ready 2 tell prince something @ the soundcheck that day until someone told me that they would let the 1st 300 2 show up n 4 free. I figured @ the time, well hey, that's about the 1st 15 rows, that's all of us, right?
so i decided 2 keep my mouth shut n front of prince. i was happy about that 2 cuz i didn't want 2 mess up the vibe n there. it almost makes u want 2 fly 2 another show, just so u can let prince know how u got fucked.

But u know once the NPGMC get's ur mighty $, it's over. & i have a purple suspicion that there will b some bullsh*t about the 4 albums we were promissed. how much u wanna bet some will get theirs while others will not. it's gone b a big mix-up, but anyway. bet all 4 will show up all @ the same time... January 2003. who wants 2 bet $ now?

That was fucked up, eye didn't go 2 the aftershow in LA on the 20th and it's agood thing eye didn't or else eye probably would have had 2 pay also 2 get in. That's Wrong!

THIS IS THE TYPE OF SHIT THAT GETS ME MAD.

Aannastesia--u were perfectly justified, and I understand u completely.

In fact, I would be willing 2 put my famname on a petition..if u have one for NPGMC! (hint!)

What they fail to understand is.....although afterparties ARE different, there is only one afterparty in question here, NOT 2, there4 members r members...and should be treated as such.

NOW maybe everyone can understand why people get so mad at Prince and his so-called "organization." U aint an organization if u aint organized.

Aannastesia this is not a new problem, the same thing happened at the buffalo show on march 7th at that time i sent the music club and e-mail addressing that. To my surprise they only let 40 or so people into the soundcheck and half of those people were guests and they all received wrist bands and laminates they all got into the afterparty for free. i know this because i was one of the 40 people and i had a guest who had all the priviledges that i had. i don't know if any club members got left out, but i thought this was wrong and i sent an e-mail to mpgmc the next day and their response was they relized their were some problems in the first part of the tour and they should have them resolved for the next part. apparently they do not have anything resolved. you were definitly treated unfair and they can't say they did not know and they are not living up to their membership. i think it is more then time for them to relize that they apparently do not have enough staff to handle all the things that they have promised the members and for their sake they should address these problems soon, before they don't have any members to address them to.

You were given the big butt f**K with no vasoline! I feel for ya. I am pretty voal so I hope i never run across this when i go to an afterparty. I woyuld scontinue to to pursue this. You can prevail! No doubt.

SWEETNESS said:

I agree. There are alot of duties involved with running this club, and I don't think there are enough Paisley staffers to handle it.

Why would it be so difficult for Prince to hire 2 people looking for exciting, entry level position that would not be permanent. Pay them each $18,000 a year, and put them in charge of getting the club to run smoothly, tend to the needs of club members, contact the clubs with the afterparties and let them know about the admission of members, and other duties.

I'm sure there are plenty of young and eager Prince fans out there who would love such a position and would do a good job of it.

RavedIn2 said:

I would die for a job working for Prince... I would do it for free, even...

One of my friends used to do that sort of thing for Lionel Richie (she even met Prince once way back when, in the late 80s) and I'm so envious! Sounds like my dream job

I can't believe they're treating members so badly, they should at least apologise for their mistake.

I guess the problem was that HOB's didn't care who were members and who were not, they just wanted to get people into the club as quickly as possible. I imagine it would of taken ages to work out who were members and who were guests, and they couldn't be bothered !!

that's outrageous, annastesia. what a way to treat fans. what a shabby business.

i'm not a member of the NPGMC, but my sense of it is not good. from what fans like you are saying, and from its history of "special bonuses" for members which don't actually turn out to be that special at all.(i mean, wasn't "crystal ball" advertised exclusively for members, then released to stores? and does getting an inferior version of TRC a month early really justify the price of membership?)

the whole deal sounds shoddy and scandalous. not to mention that the website is self-righteous, humourless and superficial. seems to be run by yes men on cocaine/ fashion victims and hairdressers.

prince needs to get some professionalism into his affairs. he can't go on treating fans this way, i feel sorry for NPGMC members having to put up with 101 types of heartbreak and hassle and hope. and having to pay for the privilege.

time will out. the NPGMC and its wider operating procedures will be seen as a grubby chapter in prince's relationship with the people who support him.

Aannastesia,

I think that the NPGMC does owe you an apology, but I do not believe that you are entitled to any refund. You didn't have to pay - you could've chosen to just leave. I'm not saying that is right, but you did have a choice as far as the money was concerned.

Like they said, every afterparty is different. Hell, here in Detroit we didn't even have one at all - they said he was too tired and he had a long trip ahead of him for the next night. So we didn't get anything, but I don't think anyone wrote in complaining because it does state that afterparties and soundchecks are NOT guaranteed.

If a guest of a member gets a seat that is 5 rows ahead of you, are you going to complain about that too?

You should just feel lucky that you got to see him at the HOB at all . . .

While I understand the NPGMC's reference to the "once the first 15 rows of a concert sells out" rule, they should have made sure that guests actually paid the cover charge.
You should have been let in free.

Sounds like the laminates issued for the concert for the 4/19 show were being used by non-members to get into the aftershow for 4/20. Add to that the laminates given out at the show for 4/20 and you got more people getting into the aftershow for free than should have.

Of course if the laminates were changed for each LA show, it sounds like someone was just being too lazy to make sure the members got in free while guests paid.

Hi all,

Its all bout management, and sad to say, most places you go, people cant manage shit.

They decided to let Members AND their guests in free. COOL ! So make sure that if every member turns up with a guest, you can accomodate them. If there is a limit to the volume of people who can be let in free, then make sure you limit the freebies to the people who are entitled to them.

If someone on the door ballses up the deal (which I BETCHA is what happened here) then the fucking club should bite the bullet and let legitimate members in free REGARDLESS.

NPGMC owes you an apology, right now. And they owe you some fucking money too.

This kind of crap makes me boil.

Arghhhhh.

If he comes to the UK and this shit happens to me, I'm taking a gun.

Tony

james said:

It was a combination of being the fault of House of Blues, NPGMC, and club members.

I think there was cluster and confusion at the door. Instead of trying to straighten out the mess, HOB took the easy way out and just started letting the first 300 people in line in for free without checking to see if they were entitled to get in free.

The NPGMC is at fault for being disorganized.

The club members are at fault for taking advantage of the confusion at the door to slide their guests in for free when they know that the club rules are that guests are supposed to pay.

Plus, there is the question of whether people who had tickets to the April 19 show showed up at the April 20 aftershow and got in free when they were not entitled to free admission.

I understand being upset about this but if you read the following email resposne, it makes sense...

At a concert, we have a 2 ticket limit 4 members. They can buy one 4 themselves and one 4 a guest. We hold on2 the first 15 rows and sell those in a 2 day presale. The first 15 rows r not a majority of the house, but this is what we have set aside 4 the members. Now if the first 15 rows sell out, that's it. No more. Members plus their guest (if they have one, a lot of people go solo) have bought all the tix. No more tix will b sold, member or not. Now, this particular concert at the HOB was just like that. Exact same model. We understand u r dissappointed that u didn't get there in time 2 get in with the members, but that everyone had a chance u get in and we did what we were able 2 do.

Due to HOB rules, NPGMC treated this aftershow like a concert. It does not appear that it was intentional or out of line with their policies. Some times things can't be exactly the way we want.

Aannastesia, as a member of the communications industry and surrounded by lawyers, I know for a fact a company/organization/individual will always stick to the disclaimer to avoid any lawsuit. No matter what, we are required to stick to the disclaimer.

From following the responses, I see one person said it was announced at the soundcheck that the first 300 people from that soundcheck at the HOB get in for free. This statement (verbal contract) can and will be used in a court of law as an addendum to the disclaimer. If you were not at the soundcheck, did not hear this addendum or receive the information from a listening member, then it would be your fault, and you as the plaintiff would loose.

It was a communication breakdown between HOB, the Prince camp, and members. This experience could have been great if the following would have happened:

1. The NPGMC should have explained to the HOB staff that laminate members and one guest get in (members free, guest pay). This would account for 600 people- the people that bought their tickets through the NPGMC concert page which would have been an exact number. The L.A. HOB has a capacity around 1500, therefore, they should have only sold 850 tickets and keep 50 for VIP celebrities.

2. No one should have been let in HOB until the NPGMC reps arrived. However, if Prince wanted these paying people that weren't at the Kodak to see him upclose and personal, then they could have and should have been let in early, and a private section could have been set aside for members, celebrities and Prince employees.

We've all experienced the Prince and money dispute. When he was in Chicago, members didn't know their guests had to pay until they arrived at the non-performing afterparties. No aftershows, but Prince did listen to our seating complaints and fixed that by reserving the first 15 rows for members - better than the balcony- and left the member tickets at will call to get rid of the scalpers. He also made it accessible for us to buy tickets to see him in any city, unlike the membership of the 2001 year.

It's a Prince experience that you can tell people about for years to come. Don't delete the emails, they're keepsakes.

Prince

NPGMC
[This message was edited Wed May 15 21:27:11 PDT 2002 by Swinger]

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[This message was edited Tue Apr 29 22:52:26 PDT 2003 by daysofwild]

there are two sides to every story. sounds like the club tried to explain it to you and you refused to listen, so they got fed up. now you take your conversation here in hopes of that a bunch of "poor baby" posts get put up to make you feel better or something. and sure enough, the people line up to give you a shoulder to cry on. well i say tough luck. they did what they could and you didn't get in, cry me a river.

yeah, empathize with the ones making money and ripping off the fans, xenophobia. way to go.

npgmc is a mess and people are getting stiffed all the time. prince employs careless, callous people to take care of his business, and fans get hurt.

i wouldn't join the npgmc even if it was free- i'd end up paying in terms of heartbreak soon enough.

Heartbreak? No offense Tiger2 but you have to be emotionally involved in order to get heartbroken...

NPGMC only gets my money, not my emotional being

this isnt a club for your dreams to come true... its a club thats "supposed" to give you access to music and news --- and its Prince owned and operated, so you take your chances from the get go...

It sucks that Aannestesia and others got the short end of the stick, but between the NPGMC, the venues and the staff... well, there is no shortage of human error

tiger2 said:

I also can sense the hurt behind the anger in the posts of people who feel they were wronged or stiffed. There was a post a few days back from a longtime fam who went to a Prince show and cried all the way home with disappointment. I'd have to go back and read her post again to get the details of why she was so upset. But the fact is that there are people who are not happy with the club for one reason or another.

c
[This message was edited Wed May 15 21:18:01 PDT 2002 by ChickenLittle]

Man, this is so stupid. Clearly they ower you a refund of $50 that you shouldn't have been charged. If they are claiming the charge was appropriate, well, what exactly is the value of membership again?

What's so hard about refunding $50? Is it really much better to treat your customers with contempt and spoil the company's reputation? A bad rep means potential lost $100s...

i was able to attend some of last years' celebration. because of the club's existence, i have been able to attend 6 concerts in the past two years. my experience w/ the npgmc staff is that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. And, since THEY ALL aren't on the same page, any information they passed to venue facility staff is inaccurate, incorrect and misleading. it's my observation that the facility staff are on top of their jobs and try very hard to appease the artists' wishes/desires, etc. but, they can't do that if they aren't told what to do. i have stood in lines for hours for each of those concerts. i have stood in lines at paisley park a couple of time. all the while sitting back observing how npgmc / Paisley Park staff handle the various crowd issues. i place the total blame of all fiascos on the npgmc and pp staff.
(one positive note here that would be totally not fair to not mention; in my experience, there has been one person on the npgmc / pp staff who you see everywhere there is a Prince function who tries her darndest to resolve issues to the benefit of Prince fams. I don't know her name, but she is a white woman w/ short blonde hair. I have witnessed on many occassion her being beat down by us fam w/ our issues and not one time did she just pacify a fam. like i have seen billy sparks do on many occassions. to me, i get the impression that billy sparks thinks like this, "we got your money already...why bother myself w/ your concert issues?" so, to that lady, Prince would be well off if more of his staff had the fam concern that she puts forth)
as much as i try to be positive knowing that rome was not built over night, i'm really pissed that the npgmc won't offer up an apology to annastesia. good, every aftershow is different. THAT does NOT change the fact that members get in free and their guest pay. or, if things have to be different, then either all members get in free...or, no members get in free...but, most definately guest should pay under ANY "different" circumstance. again, i know rome was not built in a day and there have been lots of positive changes since the inception of the npgmc.
i just think it is absolutely wrong to hide behind the clause that every afterparty will be different when in fact, they messed up clear and simple and at the very least could have given annastesia an apology the first time she inquired about this issue.
I don't feel annastesia is up in arms primarily over the additional MONEY spent. all of us are "guilty" of spending what we gotta spend to support our fixations w/ Prince. i believe her feeling is IF Prince is genuinely about "accurate understanding of God and his law" then business or not, he should be able to humble himself when he and/or his staff is wrong.
being up close and personal has truely been great, I'll attend this years celebration. after that, when this years membership is up, i feeling that i will not re-up. ultimately, it's just been too taxing hoping that Prince is for real; yet seeing the business side of him being just as deviant as he says warner bros was to him.
i know there are plenty people reading this who will say that i should be thankful that i have been able to see Prince in concert so much in so little time. meaning at least i don't live overseas and the best i can do it read about his concerts on p.org. well, what i am thankful for is being at a station in life where everything is in place where i'm able to attend a Prince function should he at the last moment decide to come to my city or a city close by. THAT is what i give all thanks to. as much as i want to belive in all things Prince, ultimately, as tight a musician i feel him to be, its' ALL becoming more of a major let down then anything else. as, "you are either "this" or "that" which is not "this"." i'm really starting to believe i would be better off cutting my Princely ways down to just checking the record stores every so often to see if the most original musician around has anything new out. His beliefs and such are not my issue. my issue is how his orgainization treats his fams. changing the ticket purchase situation from assigned seats to general admission; was that truely for the fams...or, was that a good intermediate/long term BUSINESS decision??? cause whatever it takes he's got to prove to the world that he CAN "succeed" w/o the major record companies. things that makes me go, hmmmmm....

xenophobia said:

Yes there are two sides to every story and in this case one side was wrong and one side was right. I took my conversation here for a couple of reasons
1) was to get a consensus of how those who were unaffected as to whether or not I was "just not getting" it. It seemed clear as rain that I was wronged.
2) to inform others of how the NPGMC treats their members.
I wasn't looking for a bunch of poor baby posts you stupid, fuckwad. I didn't even preempt the correspondence with a look what they did to me whhaa waaa waaaa type shit. I presented the correspondence fairly, unbiased, in it's entirety and merely asked for feedback. and I got it ...
and the consensus is y'all are a bunch of fucked up monkeys who may just be liabel.
Now run and tell ya moma bout that. bitch

and if you were capable of reading and comprehending then you would see that the NPGMC never attempted to address my point blank questions. they just did a funky little tapdnce around the actual issues with never once attempting to address them. chickenshit bitch

Life Sexy u all

Aannastesia,

Out of 800-odd views, only 35-40 people have replied to your message, and not all of that 35-40 thought you were in the wrong. Apologies for not replying before but I have been reading your thread with interest and thought you had a valid point.

I really do think that the NPGMC should have responded in a more human manner to this problem. Even if they cannot offer a refund and cannot control how some clubs handle entry into the aftershows/parties, surely an apology and an assurance that they would try to ensure this would not happen to other NPGMC memmbers would not be too much to ask. At least then some good could perhaps come out of your situation.

Please don't tar everyone with the same brush

Peace

Aannastesia said:

classy. and i just wonder why they didn't respond more warmly to you.

xenophobia said:

classy. and i just wonder why they didn't respond more warmly to you.

---

you should wonder why, as does the vast majority here being that I was nothing but respectful,sincere, and honest in my emails with special attention given to my choice of words. I used no foul language and kept my emails classy and professional.
Unfortunately, you can't make the same claims now, can you?

Responses from the NPGMC were neither respectful, sincere nor honest. Just a bunch of hot air from an apparent idiot who hasn't even the ability to read,or to comprehend,or to address the issues in question. Avoiding the problem by ignoring it and not even skillfully, at that. Just another incompetent moron who seems to prove my point with each and every post submitted.

So, I chose to vent my frustration here in a forum of my peers, in a way consistant with the informal, relaxed, honest, adult, non restrictive nature of this site. I know what, when, where, why, and how to act and I am mindful of that, and dependenat upon the situation I will always come correct.

What would be a short walk to obvious
to any educated person is the journey
of several lifetimes to xenophobics!

Just like the JWs...they'll twist the wording to make it seem like they're right. And when they're obviously not, they'll ignore you.

Aannastesia said:

To me, this pretty much sums it all up right here...poor communication and/or understanding between the HOB staff and the npgmc staff...and from only this statement, I'd say that the HOB staff was a bit more to blame than the npgmc since the guy at the front gate said he was "confused about how the laminate thing worked"...I mean, before you even go on the job and accept your first laminate that confusion should be nonexistent, and if there IS confusion in your mind then it's your responsibility to clear it up BEFORE you start...the HOB staff member obviously didn't put much importance into understanding the club rules, at least not by what Aanna wrote right here...

The other thing that sticks out is this: "At the HOB, it was considered a seperate concert and not an afterparty."...

If this is the case, then nothing within the rules about aftershows applies here...if it's treated like another seperate concert, then yeah, they can legally do it exactly like they do the presales--in which a certain number of seats to the HOB concert(not 'aftershow') are reserved for members and one guest...once they're taken up, then you gotta fight with the rest of the people for a seat, no matter if you're a member or not...that's how the npgmc had conducted all concerts on this tour so far...and actually, they could have made it so that club members still had to pay YET again to see the HOB concert, since it wasn't an aftershow...

An apology from the npgmc for the confusion would have been great...a refund would have been next to impossible, however...and not because it's "Prince"(that's a weak excuse for some of you guys to use), but simply because providing a refund to a club member for something they may not have a legal responsibility for could open them up to all sorts of claims...



.
[This message was edited Sun May 5 1:03:01 PDT 2002 by wellbeyond]