JumpCon out of business

[OmahaStar]

JumpCon, which supposedly was to have had a convention every weekend from the beginning of July through the end of 2009, has gone belly-up. They are supposedly issuing paypal refunds to those who have paid that way. Those who paid via check/money order, we've not heard about yet.

If you had plans to attend, congrats, you now have your weekends open.

*note - dripping with sarcasm

[Jan]

FWIW, I'd picked up a couple of memberships via Ebay auction and those were refunded by PayPal this afternoon.

As the old saying goes, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is and the Jumpcon idea was far to ambitious from the start.

Jan

[glindros]

Omaha, can you give me more info?

Their website shows the Boston show cancelled. Are they all scrubbed?

I was just looking at flights a few minutes ago to squeeze in the DC con. Crap.

D*C isn't going to give me enough of a B5 fix, and I can't afford Comic Con

[OmahaStar]

Omaha, can you give me more info?

Their website shows the Boston show cancelled. Are they all scrubbed?

I was just looking at flights a few minutes ago to squeeze in the DC con. Crap.

D*C isn't going to give me enough of a B5 fix, and I can't afford Comic Con

According to their mythology, Shane ("The Emperor") and a friend ("The Comptessa") spent a year organizing conventions. One of his lies said that he was a frequent convention-goer, but got disenchanted. He said that if he ever inherited a load of money, he would do conventions his way. Then his parents died and he inherited tens of millions of dollars. Again, this is all what he said. Is there any truth to any of it? Valen only knows.

Anyway, they hired staff including ... Gosh, I'm blanking on her name ... The one who runs pipetap.com and is the agent for Jason Carter and others ... to book guests. She did. She had a signed and dated letter from Shane giving her full authority to do this. Then they started running into money problems.

Their first convention was to have been in Kalamazoo MI over the July 4th weekend. It was canceled less than two weeks before the con. He had stated (read: lied) multiple times, both on his website and in emails that have been re-posted over the net that Kalamazoo was absolutely critical to the convention's success. With the events of FedCon just a few weeks ago on everybody's minds, they'd be looking at him under a microscope.

Naturally when it was canceled, he didn't notify any of the guests.

Should I even bring up the fact that I spent an hour on the phone - long distance - with him and his staff, basically interviewing them? Yes, I think I will.

I had posted a message on my livejournal some time ago about Richard Kiel being added, along with other guests. I got a reply to it saying Richard wouldn't be there by someone saying she was his personal assistant. I posted a message on jumpcon.com's forums asking about it and within minutes, it was deleted. I posted a second message asking why it was deleted and was invited to call them. So I did.

I was lied to repeatedly during that conversation. I was told how many tickets were sold (turned out to be a lie), I was told the two Doctor Who actors had been confirmed that very day (again, a lie), that Jacki Pearce had been in contact with them (another lie) and on and on and on.

When the lies started coming out, I posted questions asking about the conflicting information. I was very quietly banned from the forum. Anyone who dared question them was also banned.

Then they shut down the forums altogether. The only ones who can post now are the ones on staff. And even there, it's iffy.

There is a livejournal community set up, and a yahoo groups mailing list which has been VERY active. I've seen emails come through from Erin Grey and Julie Caitlin Brown (former actresses who now represent actors at cons as their agents) laying it all on the line.

Any time an actor questions why they haven't received payment or plane tickets, they are removed from the guest list, but tickets for autographs and photos are still being sold in their e-store.

Shane did an interview with trekmovie.com in which he said that the conventions were done because "who would buy from me after this?" ... Now he's backpeddling and trying to say they're reorganizing (again) and may do things in the future.

I don't think that's going to happen.

[Jan]

The lady at pipetap.com is Donna, I'm pretty sure.

I noticed that a member of Jason's fan club posted to the Zocalo Today that he wasn't going to be appearing at the JumpCons.

I'd really hoped to go to the DC con myself since I've got a sister who lives there and the *original* guest list was a B5 fan's dream. I noticed later on that they changed the wording for most of the guests to say that they were *invited*, not necessarily contracted.

Jan

[glindros]

Thanks for the metric butload of information Omaha.
So much for the B5 con of the year.

Great timing by the way, I was just getting ready to book reservations.

Thanks for saving me alot of money. The sodas are on me at Dragon Con!

[OmahaStar]

Thanks for the metric butload of information Omaha.
So much for the B5 con of the year.

Great timing by the way, I was just getting ready to book reservations.

Thanks for saving me alot of money. The sodas are on me at Dragon Con!

Lucky you ... I'd already taken the time off (and once it's in, it can't be changed @ work) for the Kalamazoo convention. Which ended up sort of ok for me, as due to the storm in the area, we were without power for a week and had to stay in a motel ... staycation, I think they're calling it.

And yes ... drinks on you. :P I'm still hoping Jan will make a cameo.

[glindros]

And yes ... drinks on you. :P I'm still hoping Jan will make a cameo.

We can only hope for better news from JMS than we got from jms.