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Premier respond to Borderlands 2 ‘Jump for Joy’ event complaints

Words by: | Posted: 8 months ago | Filed under: News.

Premier respond to Borderlands 2 ‘Jump for Joy’ event complaints

Yesterday Premier hosted an event in which members of the public could ‘Jump for Joy’ on a bungee and win themselves a copy of Borderlands 2, however in the true nature of British weather problems were inevitable.  We’ve had several people launch complaints against Premier in our comments on the original Jump for Joy news post.

One of the complaints read:

Very angry, soaked through people, humiliated by the poor treatment and lack or organisation by this PR team were left to go home wet, angry and empty handed.

We contacted Premier to get this official response:

I am genuinely sorry to read that people were disappointed by the event we ran yesterday. The safety of those jumping was of paramount importance to us – which is why the event ran slightly shorter than we had planned. We also did try and communicate with those waiting in line, but clearly that message did not reach some of those in attendance – and for that, I unreservedly apologise.

As you can see safety was paramount over everything else but we have been told that Premier are focused on getting copies of the game out to everyone who was promised one.

Was you at this event? We’d like to hear from you, you can contact myself on dave[at]xboxer360.com and also if you have a complaint about the event feel free to contact me.

About Dave Burns

Dave created Xboxer360.com back in 2008 and now runs it alongside Rich. Dave also runs a Web Design business and writes for Xbox.com

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  • http://twitter.com/CockneyCharmer @CockneyCharmer

    I was the original complainer on your original article about this event, and I can assure you….the weather was not the ultimate reason why this event was an utter "wash out" (Pardon the Pun)

    This event was a mess from the very beginning and way before the weather decided to add to the problems. IT was immediately clear at the point of arrival (845am for me) that way more people had arrived then they expected, which is surprising considering how many online gaming sited advertised this event in the first place.

    I am more then happy to email you or be contacted to discuss what actually happened if you like?

    • Achea Shadow

      Please feel free to email me, I have been given permission to put you into direct contact with the PR team.

      • http://twitter.com/CockneyCharmer @CockneyCharmer

        Hi, email sent….many thanks

  • http://twitter.com/CockneyCharmer @CockneyCharmer

    To list the failings:

    1) Bungee Crane did not even go up into use until 1130am. so thats 1hr 30 into the event's time gone.
    2) There was a limit to how many could jump per hour…yet people were allowed to queue up beyond the sensible cut off point should have been made
    3) They could not confirm the number of Games they had to give out at any time during the event, Stewards supplied by Old Truman's Brewery told us that there only 150 games to give out…with over 200 people waiting
    4) The same stewards also said they were told a maximum of 60 jumps could be made, and again over 200 people were allowed to queue up
    5) The PR people hid in the Event tent the moment the weather got worse, and remained there despite calls from us lining up to come speak to us
    6) Stewards sectioned off the line telling us that we had a good chance to jump and get a game a few hours in. Seperated by a bars carpark, the other side were told to go home…they stayed, and at 14:00 were allowed to join the back of our queue
    7) When the bungee team took a break around 15:00pm because of the weather, we managed to grab Dan, the head PR guy there and asked him what was going on. He did have a clue. I asked him how many games they had left and that after 5 hours of being allowed to wait in the rain, what they planned to do with so many angry and soaked fans who had been led to believe they would get to jump and get a copy of the game…he went and hid in the blue tent
    8) When the Bungee team finally cancelled anymore jumps, they were left to take questions and angry reactions from fans whilst the PR team hid in the tent. Despite numerous requests from us to them and the stewards to have the PR people come talk to us…no one did
    9) The Stewards told us that they were now taking each persons name and email address and were going to promise to send everyone in the queue a copy of the game. Still waiting on this email

  • http://twitter.com/CockneyCharmer @CockneyCharmer

    So basically, as early as 9am, an hour before the event started…there were warning signs. Even me, who is not a PR person at all, could do the maths on this one

    Number of games to give out by number of possible jumps per hour against the number of people who had actually showed up and still arriving

    No cut off point was made. No one made the call, even when the weather got torrential. If they had cut the line at the 60 person mark told everyone else to go home, it would have been more polite and professional then allowing 150 people to believe they could get a jump and the game. Thats what Premier allowed to happen, thats how poorly they ran the event

    The weather didnt help, but the weather didnt kill the event….Premier PR did….Can I have their email please lol

  • Simon Byron

    Hello,

    Thank you for your comments.

    Please do feel free to email me directly: simon.byron[at]premiercomms.com and I will be happy to respond directly.

    Simon

  • Peekayboo

    Its sad things went like that but they should have know before the event that dealing with a mob of people with no control is a bad idea

  • Ivan Dias

    I was in the same situation as @CockneyCharmer and wasat he bungee jumping site at 11:30 as @CockneyCharmer listen in the above comments its exactly like how it happened i was all soaked up wet cold waiting in the Que al day from 11:30 till the event was finally pulled off. At the end the Bungee jumping team had decided to take our name and email addresses and when i asked the guy who was writing down the details how will he know what platform i wanted and how will he get my house address or if its just the games activation key that they will email us he told me they they will email me and i will have to tell them on the email what platform i needed… I also asked him when will they send the email he told me today 24th September sure shot they will send the email… I was very exited all day to see if the email had come but still no email :( :( . I hope i get the email still waiting for it as promised.

  • http://twitter.com/DogEyedBoy @DogEyedBoy

    I was standing next to @CockneyCharmer in the queue (hi!), he kindly let me hold his umbrella for most it (the only reason I managed the seven hours of hell that was this event.

    I too have yet to receive the promised email about getting me my game and have also had no feedback from Premier, their employee Dan Seto (@AnusMcphanus) who was in charge of the event, or 2K Games UK PR Manager Ben Lawrence (@TheMoop).

    Here is my account, which I also posted on the original bungee jump event story:

    Turn up at the bungee jump event at 8:45 (it was scheduled to start at 10:00), there are already almost a hundred people queuing. The PR guys (http://www.premcom.co.uk) are surprised that so many people have turned up… fucking morons. You're offering a free bungee jump and free newly released game, how many fucking people did you expect! 10:00 comes and goes, there's probably something like five hundred people queuing now, Still no solid information from the event runners on how many games they have and how many people are likely to be able to jump.

    People finally start jumping around 11:30, apparently the crane was new and "stiff"… what the absolute fuck! It should have been set up and ready to go in advance. Two of the first three guys, who had apparently been queuing since 2:00 PM the previous afternoon, bottle it. The crowd is not amused; even less so when they discover they still got the game anyway! The initials jumps take some time, especially with people getting all the way up there only to piss about for five minutes before backing out. These people are booed, big time.

    The pace picks up for a while, with a bunch of people doing quick and clean jumps. My friend that was with me has already pissed off, but the guys I'm queuing with are a decent bunch and at the current pace we're optimistic we'll be able to jump, even with them sticking to the 4:00 PM cut off point despite starting an hour and thirty minutes late.

    Sarah Wellock, the community manager from Rocksteady Studios (who I briefly met at last years Eurogamer Expo), is in the queue ahead, the guy next to me knows her from Twitter and we have a little conversation. She's only really there for the bungee jump (she already has Borderlands 2) and to see how the event goes. She leaves a while later, unwilling to wait 2-3 hours to Bungee jump in the rain (yes, it is now pissing down). She is not impressed: https://twitter.com/rikkusarah/status/24983709831….

    So yeah, it's raining, and windy, and damn cold. Were it not for the guys near me with umbrellas I would have packed it in at that point. I soldier on though. The PR guys are still a joke, even before it started raining they were barely engaging with the crowd, but now they are just hiding in their tent. One of the security guys does more PR with a single conversation than the Take-Two team does across the whole event. They are still umming and ahhing about numbers and giving no definite answers. They at least tell the people furthest back in the queue that there's no chance, but there are still far more people there than, even under the best of circumstances, they could possibly hope to get through.

    The weather worsens and things slow right down, the bungee team keep having hushed conversations with each other. Myself and the people around me are pretty apprehensive because we seem to be just on the cusp of "almost definite" and "maybe not". The bungee guys carry on, but it's clear they aren't happy with the conditions, and it's slowing jumps down an awful lot. The crowd is pretty dejected at this point, still the PR guys do no actual PR. The only time you can get the vaguest of answers from them is by shouting over to them when they dare to venture out of their tent. The bungee crew and security team provide more information than the PR team ever do, a lot of it overheard from conversations between the PR team in the first place! Information they never bother to share with the huddled and soaked masses.

    Continued…

    • http://twitter.com/DogEyedBoy @DogEyedBoy

      Continued…

      We overhear the bungee guys, apparently it's extremely windy at the top of the crane. They take a short break; the head bungee guys heads up to get a feel and when he coms back down he calls it. It's too windy, and only set to get worse, they aren't doing anymore jumps. This is relayed through the bungee team, Take-Two stil don't come out of their tent to explain anything. We continue to queue, apparently for nothing. After some more conversations with the bungee team and event security we gather that they are taking peoples details and will send them out the game as they no longer have any left (yes, they started late and ended early and still managed to run out). It's nice to hear (would have been nicer to hear from the actual PR team, not a "far as I know" from some women who works for the bungee company), but we are still standing outside in the pissing rain.

      We finally get inside the tent, at one point the PR team runs out of paper… this is how un-fucking-organised and unprepared they are. It's 3:30 by the time I relay my details and am told that I'll receive an email first thing in the morning to confirm. At no point do the PR team ever approach the remaining queue (I believe they had the sense to create a cutoff point and tell the rest to go home) to explain just what they are doing. People further back are still not entirely sure what they are still queuing for, if anything.

      All in all it was a pretty fucking miserable day. I didn't get to jump (which I really wanted to and would have probably managed had they started on time), I spent seven hours queuing in the wind and rain for a game which at this point I would just as much shit on as bother to play.

      The worst PR I have ever seen.

  • Josh

    Simply wasn't worth it in the slightest….even if when i get the game i believe i will feel the same(i was one of the people at the front of the 'good chance to jump' que… just behind the 'guaranteed' people, arriving somewhere between 8.30 and 9.00)…… PR was terrible, no infomation, event started late, pooring rain… and at the moment nothing to show for it…….

  • Rich

    I was there just after nine. Was at the front of the second queue and got told we might have the chance to jump. Reckon another couple of hours would have seen me jumping. Asked guy who took my email if it was legible. Paranoid about my handwriting at best of times and that is without frozen hands as well. Did send a tweet to Ben but no response.

  • http://twitter.com/CockneyCharmer @CockneyCharmer

    I would like to thank the guys @Xboxer360 for allowing me the opportunity to speak with Simon from Premiercomms PR.

    A resolution has been found which is satisfactory to all sides, and I am more then happy to draw a line and move forward and look forward to finally playing Borderlands 2 when it drops on my Doormat

    Thank you again Simon, you were both considerate and professional in dealing with my complaint and I look forward to meeting you on Thursday so I can shake your hand and put this to rest

  • http://twitter.com/CockneyCharmer @CockneyCharmer

    Also just received the email as promised from 2K, they are sending a copy of the Game to our chosen platform, and a set of LE Top Trump Borderland cards as a good will gesture

    Glad its all been resolved now Wub Wub

  • Rich

    Has anyone else received an email? I haven't yet.

  • http://twitter.com/CockneyCharmer @CockneyCharmer

    Received my email early this morning, give them till tomorrow then make contact with Simon with his details above to follow up