Saturday, May 25, 2013

Bitter taste of JIB (Jus in bello 2013)

I have two JIBs under my belt and I still don't understand why some ppl practically have an orgasm at the mere mention of Jus in bello.

I mean, I get it why the guests love it. They are being pampered by the staff and paid to have a vacation in Rome and see some of their friends. If I was them, I would probably love it too.

But I am not a paid guest. I am a paying attendee. And that, my dear lurkers, is a whole 'nother ballgame.

Let's talk about their organizing abilities. Oh, they do cram everything so, so nicely into those three days. But then the cattle has everything at the same time. Panels, photo ops, autographs and meet&greets. I am still just one person and can't be in four places at the same time. I did try, but alas.

Jared had to leave. I found out about that when I saw a woman crossing out his name on that schedule for photo ops. Why? Cause I wasn't in the theater when they announced it. Why? Cause I was standing in line to get my photo op done as soon as possible so I wouldn't miss the first panel. Ah, the joys of JIB. BTW, nobody bothered to change the schedule in front of the theater. They just had to cross his name out and add Ty to one panel. Nobody did that. So for the rest of the day it was like, Oh, I wonder what's next.

Then out of the blue, they announced Jensen & Misha photo op on Saturday. I admit it, I panicked. That photo op was supposed to be on Sunday and I was completely makeupless and in all the wrong clothes. I hurried to the reception desk to find out if they'd still have J&M photo op on Sunday. The woman there didn't really know anything about it. But in the end it turned out it was the ex-trio photo op and not J&M photo op. But I missed like 10 minutes of the panel, so all was good. Since, I assume, that IS their main goal. To make us miss the panels.

And now let's talk about refunds. According to their website: "we will contact by email in the next few weeks those of you who've brought their photo op/extra autograph/meet&greet postcards back at the reception desk during JIBCON 4 asking for refund."
So, we were supposed to bring those postcards to reception desk during JIB if we wanted refund?  That's good to know. Would've probably helped more if I had known about it during JIB, but WTH, right? Let's just complicate things.
To be fair, they did say that they would deal with refunds after the con, but then they plastered the whole area with announcements saying that they will take care of refunds a few weeks after the con and that there will be more info about it on their website. Nobody ever mentioned that we had to return the postcards. But I'm sure it's all my fault. Should've read their minds.


Now, in the interest of fairness, I should mention all the good things about JIB too. Y'know, give credit where credit is due. So, here goes. Photo ops weren't green and blurry this year.