HOT TOPIC RESPONDS TO TWILIGHT TOUR CHAOS
We’ve been hearing angry responses left and right from fans who spent hours driving, flying, or preparing for the recent Hot Topic Twilight Tour signings and arrived only to find out that wristbands were gone hours before they were scheduled to even go on sale. Now we get to hear Hot Topic’s side of the story. The following statement was issued to Perez Hilton by the CEO of Hot Topic in response to an article he posted about all the chaos:
To all of the supporters of Hot Topic and fans of TWILIGHT:Although no explanation will correct the situation that occurred in Chicago today at the Orland Square Mall, I wanted to attempt to explain what happened from our point of view.
We do many signings all over the country with large crowds so we have processes and systems in place to ensure a smooth experience for our customers. The mall developer was a partner in the planning; however, as of two days ago, they told us they would not allow any fans to line up prior to 6AM. They required them to be off the premises.
On Monday at 6AM at the San Francisco event, the fans became disorderly and stormed the mall entrance. Mall security, numerous police, fire officials and our team from HT stepped in to calm the crowd and create a safe environment for the fans. The event was revised and went forward with the exception of the planned Q&A.
Monday’s event caused all of us to re-group and review the process. Allowing a “mob” to develop was dangerous and frankly, not an option. The mall developer (GGP) consented to allowing an orderly line to form prior to 6AM outside of the remainder of the malls on the tour. When our crew arrived yesterday at midnight, approximately 500 people were already lined up to purchase tickets. By 1AM, there were 700 people in line. It was about 30 degrees and raining. We had to make a call. We knew the first 500 would get wristbands and felt it was the right call to allow those waiting beyond 500 to go home and avoid the cold, wet weather for the remainder of the morning. Given the demand, anyone arriving after midnight would have been too late to obtain a wristband.
We understand your frustration and anger, but from our standpoint, we had no choice but to change the rules after Monday’s event. We knew some would feel it unfair as they were told one thing and when arriving on the scene, something else was reality. But given the choice of risking a disorderly crowd, a dangerous situation and canceling of the event, we made a decision that we felt was the right thing to do. I support our team and the mall for making safety and, given the weather, health the priorities.
There are two remaining locations for “Edward” appearances, King of Prussia in Philadelphia and Square One in Saugus MA. Both malls have consented to allowing an orderly line form early, first come, first serve. Exact line-up locations are posted on the hottopic.com website.
We sincerely apologize and hope that the facts help you to better understand the situation.
Betsy McLaughlin
CEO, Hot Topic
(Thanks Hugz)
I understand that Hot Topic had to change things around because of the situation that they had on their hands, but I still don’t think it was handled as well as it should be. They should have found a better way to sell the wristbands - like possibly selling them online - instead of having people line up for them.
What did you think of Hot Topic’s response? Do you understand where they’re coming from or do you think they should have handled it differently?
THANK YOU! They should’ve sold them online or sold them in advance a few days before, SOMETHING! But not the day of! They already took the initiative for the new stop in hollywood, where Nikki, Kellan, Taylor, and Jackson, and Paramore will be performing, they’re selling the in advance already (11/11/2008), and the event isn’t until next tuesday, 11/18. This is what ALL of the Hot Topics should’ve done from the get-go! BUT, IF they ever do something similar to this again, hopefully they’ll re-think of a mall location! Hello?! A mall?? They’re not prepared for that! IF they do something similar to this they should do it at a convention type place. Not a MALL!
Being that I am probably old enough to be a mother to most of you on this site. I do understand where HT is coming from. But really, if any of us had a chance to go see RP, even me at my age of 37, I would have probably shown up a day early and slept in my car just to be one of the first ones in line. :~) I just don’t think a lot of people, (those being the ones who are supposed to be in charge of all these events,) get how fanatic we all are about these books and the characters. I mean come on, do they not check out the internet, blogs, videos, and everything else out there. Okay, were not Harry Potter, but come on, has any of them ever looked at the book sales or even googled Twilight????
I personally think, it should have been better organized, they should have thought things through better, and should have stuck to the original plans. Okay it was cold and rainy, HELLO, who gives a crap about cold and wet. People drove from different states, hours away, some even flew.
Okay, I think I am done with my ranting. Hopefully, they now have their heads out of their @sses and things will go smoothly from here on out.
when is the twilight cast coming to santa ana,california. i really want to actually have a chance to meet the hottie robert pattinson and kristen stuart.
EXACTLY!! it really does not matter when they started giving the wristbands. They only had 500 and it make sense that if they already had more than 500 outside waiting to start giving them away.
They were going to get them at 7:30 anyway… I know is disapointing to be there and not be able to meet Rob…but is just like when you get in line to get tickets for a show or movie…there are in line and first come basis…it sucks but that is how it happen.
Don’t be angry you guy…it was obvious that there were going to be a huge line… do you really believe that the line was going to start building at 5 in the morning?? every single city before Chicago had fans camping all night…
well I hope that even though they did not got a wristbad that they got to go inside the mall for the Q&A session
I do not agree with the decision that was made - my daughter and friends travelled from Minnesota to the Chicago destination and basically got screwed - that is not good PR!
Look i know i already responded but i want the entire cast of twilight to be at the westminster mall in Santa Ana,California.But i disagree the first 700 should get a wristband.I know i sound like a complete idiot but that`s how i feel and i don’t care what other people think.I just want to meet the WHOLE ENTIRE TWILIGHT CAST.
“On Monday at 6AM at the San Francisco event, the fans became disorderly and stormed the mall entrance. Mall security, numerous police, fire officials and our team from HT stepped in to calm the crowd and create a safe environment for the fans. The event was revised and went forward with the exception of the planned Q&A.”
BULL. None of them knew what the hell they were doing. There were only like 10 SECURITY guards (not even police men) at the mall when I showed up around 5am. If the mall and Hot Topic had been more prepared, no one would have gotten hurt and there never would have been a “mob.” The fact that HOT TOPIC lied and cheated to Twilight’s most devoted fans shows how selfish and greedy that entire company is. People who showed up at like 10am or later got the wristbands…but fans who had stayed overnight in the cold and rain and who had been squished in a crowded group of people for more than an hour didn’t get one. and now look what happened in Chicago! Hot Topic screwed up in SF and screwed up again in Chicago. My guess is that they are all an unorganized bunch of dumb asses. Anyone agree?
I didn’t trust HT to pull this off from the very beginning. You can’t just throw something like this tour together without thinking things through from all angles, and I don’t think that was done. It sounds like HT is making things up as they go along.
If people that called were told that they wouldn’t be able to line up until the morning, then those that showed up earlier should have been made to leave. If I had decided to attend the Denver event, I would have called to see when I could line up. If I had been told one time, shown up at that time and then found out that others were allowed to line up earlier I would have been livid!
I am not a person that is litigation-happy, but the S.F. and Chicago event could be prime for some type of class-action suit by fans.
i don’t accept their responce. freakin hot topic needs to get it together or lose thousands of customers
I was there on Monday. I was number 167 in the list that the fans had put together and kept organized and fair because they realized the chaos that would eventually happen because there was no one in charge and there was no game plan in place. The Hot Topic people didn’t even get there till 6 am! I know, I tried calling the story multiple times!! My friend finally got through to someone at Hot Topic at about 6:20 and she explained the list and he said “I just got in, I don’t know what’s going on, but all I can tell you is it’s first come, first serve.” It’s like duuuuuuuude, the list IS first come, first serve! But they wouldn’t listen! And when the cops came and tried to do the crowd control it was too late. They got the crowd calmed down, but then the (I’m guessing here) same guy that refused the list (the opportunity for order and control of the situation) he got on the loud speaker and said the rules were each person was allowed two shirts and two wristbands per shirt…. *closes eyes and shakes head and sighs* chaos ensued once again and the people in the front got smashed again…
I’m not a complainer, but that guy made things worse! Okay I get that the mall changed the rules at the last moment, but that’s when your store has to step up and take responsibility for the safety of your customers that you have enticed to be there at that moment in time. THEY should have created a line/number system off the premises. They came out and said “we didn’t anticipate this many people”…. for reals??? That’s seriously the excuse you’re going to go with??? I love that it’s the fans fault… that we became disorderly and stormed the mall. It was apparently obvious that there was no one in charge and no plan in place so that induced a panic, a panic that could have easily been avoided if they had communicated within their own company or even within the few fans that took the initiative to try to prevent the events that occurred.
I loved hot topic. In the past few months I have dropped a LOT of money there, a LOT. However, I’m not about to give money to a company that blames me for their incompetence. I’m officially boycotting them.
This sort of thing just makes me so sad. I watched some of the interviews they did with people, and have read some of the accounts of what happened and it just breaks my heart that so many people were treated so poorly.
Hot Topic REALLY should have known better. I was amazed when I went into a store here in Mesa that the people there seemed to have almost no clue as to how big Twilight is- they didn’t even know the actors names!!!
It appears that this ignorance starts at the top. How could they have not known how huge the crowds would be? That’s just plain stupidity and short-sightedness. Also…a mall?!?! No. Something like this has to take place at a convention center or in one of those hotel banquet rooms. It’s just too big for a mall.
I’d also like to add that telling people to line up at such-and-such a time for 500 wristbands was REALLY, REALLY idiotic. Of course people were going to line up as early as possible..of course the line would far exceed 500!!! I could have told them that. Heck, my dog could have told them that!!!
In the future, events like this need to be handled by professional organizers who have experience in this area. The wristbands or whatever should be sold online and the events can’t be held at malls, because people will crowd the malls hoping for just a glimpse of the actors or actresses in question.
This was just so poorly handled from the get-go that it astonishes me that anyone could then go and blame the fans like that. I’ve already decided to boycott HT. They always treat me badly whenever I go in there, and now to see this?!?! Uh-uh. I’ll be spending my money at stores and online retailers who value me and who have a clue about Twilight and Twilighters for that matter. And I’ll be encouraging my LEAGUES of Twilight friends to do the same.
BIG mistake, Hot Topic. BIG
My take on this whole thing is that a mall is not the appropriate place to hold an event like this, where so many fans are expected to show up. A convention centre makes much more sense. Secondly, people staging these events need to have staff on hand right at the time when fans are starting to line up. Whatever time that may be. Wristbands need to be sold to people as they arrive. That is the only way to keep things fair and make sure that they go to the people who really did get there first. When you have a potential for people getting hurt (possible lawsuit) the event organizers need to go above and beyond the call of duty to eliminate as much risk as possible.
“Both malls have consented to allowing an orderly line form early, first come, first serve.”
haha yeah right, and if so why did they do that in Dallas as well as other places. Ridiculous. The whole way they have handled this entire thing is utterly absurd. They already have heard from me a few times there at their corporate office. They know how i feel. They should have known that there were going to be tons of people showing up to each event (especially the Rob ones) and prepared accordingly *shakes head in disbelief*.
I was in the King of Prussia line last night (my friend, my sister, and I being 498, 499, and 500) and then they told us that the last 250 people had to go home because the first 250 all recieved two wristbands. Apparently they only had 500 (not the 1000 they make you think) wristbands and since everyone got two the rest of us were SOL. All the advertising kept saying the first 500 were garanteed a wristband, not the first 250. Nowhere does it say only the first 250.
And the mall is at fault too. They were not supposed to let people line up prior to midnight, however they allowed people to line up at 9PM, they kept changing the rules at the last minute. And then they made the stupid wristband announcement. I sat for two and half hours in the cold before they made this announcement and told us to go home at 2AM.
This whole situation was badly handled and they better hope no one sues them for false advertsing.
okay so … here’s the deal … Hot Topic was totally and completely 100% unprepared. They clearly stated the terms and standards on their website and everyone who called prior to the San Fran event were told the SAME thing … NO ONE was allowed to line up BEFORE 6am due to safety reasons. Bottom line end of the day factor is that they SHOULD have known that it was going to get like this and they did nothing to prepare or to be ready for it. Did they honestly think that 12 - 16 year old girls would listen? or more importantly care? What they should have done was to have people there all night to ENFORCE the rules they stated to make sure that the event was fair for those of us who are pre teens and LISTENED. For example they stated about the Chicago event:
“It was about 30 degrees and raining. We had to make a call. We knew the first 500 would get wristbands and felt it was the right call to allow those waiting beyond 500 to go home and avoid the cold, wet weather for the remainder of the morning. Given the demand, anyone arriving after midnight would have been too late to obtain a wristband.”
What they should have done is to send EVERYONE home and said that no matter what whoever is standing there at 5:59am WILL NOT be getting a wristband and they will be forming a NEW line at 6:00am for the wristbands and NO LINE standing in line or outside the mall will not be allowed in the new line even if that meant for them to go home and come back or just camp out in their cars if they were concerned about the cold. BOTTOM LINE NO EXCEPTIONS
that was the only way to keep the event fair for everyone WHO LISTENED TO THE RULES
**AND IT IS PARTIALLY THE FANS FAULT BY THE WAY FOR THE FIRST MISTAKE THAT HOT TOPIC MADE**
If everyone would have LISTENED AND READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS and gotten there at the right time and not tried to organize their own lines and crap would have made it fair and the actual first 500 would have gotten the wristbands
My second big issue is that they stated that the event would be cancelled BEFORE consulting Robert Pattinson and his PR agents. NO MATTER WHAT HOT TOPIC SAYS they cannot stop someone from coming to a mall to meet his fans who were expecting him (fyi he’s not one to disappoint) and until they did in fact talk to him and issued a statement from him and his rep, they had no right to officially cancel the event which further issued MORE COMPLAINTS and issues from fans who did endure hell from the night before
anyway .. i’m done
Those who weren’t there wouldn’t really understand the issue. Yes, I sort of see where hottopic is
coming from,however, since they told people,including myself they would sell
them in the morning, those of us who followed what they said got turned away by being told we were “trespassing
on private property.” My only question is, if they had no problem telling us that why didn’t they tell that to those who began lining up at midnight? They had no problem whatsoever turning us away who actually
followed the rules but not them. To me, that is the part that is unfair
and this issue is the one being ignored.
This is what happened at king of prussia for me.
So, they said people could only start to line up at 12:00am, but evidently they decided to let people line up at 4:00pm the day before. So, they GOT 500 people (the limit) by 12:00am, but people were only supposed to start coming then. So, no Rpattz for me! I absolutely HATE that mall now, they seriously need to learn to coordinate things better, and make sure people have access to all the info. I mean, we CALLED the mall, and they told us very specifically that it would be 12:00am, and we called right around 4:00pm, so she was obviously telling us crap (and she told lots of other people the same thing) What the heck! The mall is so annoying; I will probably never get a chance to meet him again.
I think this HT cast tour was a great idea but I had a feeling problems were going to happen. Twilight has a huge fan base so whoever thought of this idea should have known that many fans would come to this event. As others have said, they shouldn’t have had this type of event in a mall. Malls are too small to hold this type of event. If 6,000+ fans went to ComicCon and that was in July, how many people did they expect to come to these events especially now that Twilight is more popular than it was in the summer. They should’ve thought about this. This event was probably a last minute thing. This wasn’t well planned at all.
Okay…
so i have a question:
I am planning on going to the signing in Boston.
What time should I get there to be one of the people to get a wristband?
What time is the line going to form?
When are they going to allow people to start buying t-shits?
Do you even think it is worth going?
Is everyone allowed to see the Q&A?
I think that with the mod scene, and what they plan on doing from here on is…okay. I personally agree with most of you that they should have planned it better. Twilight is huge, and it’s getting even bigger now that the movie is only a few days away (and my b-day only 5 too!!!)
I have to say that I’m really sad because the square one mall is so close to my house its insane, like a 20 minute drive! So, probably not being able to go really stinks….
But, I guess I’m just glad that it’s now coming out two days after my birthday, so I guess I can’t really complain all that much about not being able to meet him…
The whole timing thing with the malls and hot topic was not coordinated well AT ALL. We called the mall to find out when and where we could line up, and she told us very specifically 12:00am and no earlier. But, above as you see, they say “First come first serve.” So they are not communicating AT ALL.
i totally agree with gabby! SF wouldn’t have gotten out of hand if they had been prepared! it was their own fault there was even a mob in the first place! plus the police men and extra security didn’t even do anything. they had ONE security guard at 4:30am. just one. it wasn’t fair at all that the most dedicated fans got cheated.
and im boycotting hot topic too!
I was one of the many people who followed the rules at the Orland Park signing and got punished for it. It wasn’t handled well AT ALL, and Hot Topic admits it. I have heard a lot of people say they regret what they did. I can understand wanting to avoid another San Fran-episode, but this wasn’t the way to do it. No one was lawfully allowed on the property until five in the morning, so all of the people that were waiting past closing were trespassing..yet they got wristbands. This bothers me because all of the people who showed up around the allowed time were threatened by the police who were saying they were going to start arresting people for being there. Not okay. I would have much rather shown up later, discovered the 500+ people in line waiting, then have experienced what happened. Also, they made the change very late. I know people who were at the mall around six-thirty and were still being told seven thirty am for wristband time.
I could go on…but I won’t.
Let’s just say Ms. McLaughlin will hopefully be reading something from me.
Hot Topic has never been–and never will be–the type of store (or chain) that is set up for this type of press tour. They cater to goth/industrial things, and lightly at that. Occasionally they’ll have the most recent pop culture goodies in there. The fact that Twilight deals with vampires and is high on the pop culture list must have appealed to them greatly…but I don’t think anyone actually sat the corporate folks down and explained the depth and breadth of the fanbase (which is, for the most part, not their typical customer). And of course they didn’t bother to research it too much beyond market share, either, which was incredibly stupid and in the end, what really killed them here.
Hence, chaos.
As soon as I saw Hot Topic was sponsoring this tour, my eyebrows went up and I thought, “This ought to be interesting.” Sure enough, it turned into a huge cluster.
I am so sorry for those of you that got turned away, especially the ones that traveled distances to see the actors. This whole thing needed to be handled by a company with a much better sense of what they were dealing with and a much clearer cut game plan.
Does anyoneknow how to contact Hot Topic’s corprorate offices? I was at the SF event and I extremely shocked at how poorly Hot Topic handle it. I drove into SF specifically for the event and after all the crap they put the fans through they lied to us and told us to the event was off. When I learned that it had in fact happened that night not only was I upset about the irresponsible lack of organization during the event-but angry that Hot Topic clearly cares more about making money than it does its customers. I’m done shopping there and I’m writing them a strongly worded email informing them of my experience and disappointment in their company. If any of you were at these event and feel annoyed with how they were ran I suggest you write in as well because Hot Topic isn’t going to change unless they see future sales walking away from them!
hey i got a question. im thinking about going to the signing in Miami. i live here,duh.Anyways.
my friends are going early and she read that its 2 wristbands per person. i asked her (if this is true) for when she buys a shirt to save me wristband.
i wanted to know if this was possible or not please answer!!
Okay for everyone complaining stop. Yes the first few were handled poorly and changes were made. It cleary said that you could line up before midnight for Square One. Hot Topic came around with updates around every half an hour. They brought us all pizza, water, hand warmers and coco/coffee as well. Wristbands were given out at 7 in the morning like they had originally said. At midnight they walked around with numbered papers that would get us wristbands. They did this so that anyone after the 500 mark would get to go sleep in a warm place. Every with a ticket thing wasn’t allowed to leave the ropped off area til’ they got their wristband except to use the bathroom. All of those people in that 500 myself included stayed in the cold and rain and waited for the morning to come. Hot Topic did everything in their power to make things easier for us. If you honestly wanted to see him you would have come earlier anyways.
Natalie.
You are allowed 2 Shirts per person. 1 shirt = 1 Wristband.