The New VIP Merch Thread

[danielmclark]

Had the poster been signed, the numbering might matter. As it is, anyone with a Kinkos in town can reproduce this thing and print a number on it. Hand writing a number on a piece of paper doesn't automatically make it worth something.

 

If I printed 3500 copies of an album cover and numbered them, would you pay for one?

 

 

I don't think it's Rush's fault, either. I'll send their management team an email simply so they know what's being sold in their name and that some people are unhappy about it. It's not like I'm suing

Edited July 28, 2010 by danielmclark

[yyz98]

I'm with Mara on this. All of it looks cool. I can understand why dude earlier in the thread was pissed. I imagined the same things: A LIMITED tour related poster and LIMITED tour shirt...after all, it was a package deal tied in with the tour. Wish they would have anticipated on the run on XLs though. Seems that is the size shirt that is consistantly 'OUT' at the backstage club, go figure. I don't mind that it is the OG logo after all, I don't have one and it conjures up the early days. Hey...the Fly By Night poster kind of tis in the whole time maching thingy......hmmm. Damn, a Moving Pictures poster would have been the tits, ya? That would have made a ton of sense. ANYTHING Moving Pictures related would have been sweet. WE'll see what happens tomorrow. I ordered both XL, and according to the goofs at Fanfire I WILL HAVE MY PACKAGE TOMORROW. They are tired of hearing from me

 

On a side note, if there was a shortage of shirts, why not give a voucher to get a shirt of your choosing at the backstage club or at the venue. AFTER ALL, A REAL VIP WOULD BE TREATED THAT WAY. So, next time I will take my chances with seat selection and save myself some dough. NO WAY would I ever do the VIP thing again

[Scars]

Jesus, they really should have had more to choose from if that's the crap they're giving us. All the delays were because they hadn't settled on a t-shirt design or something along those lines, correct? And they finally come up with the most bland, least creative design they could come up with...the f'n logo...see, my entire shirt is a smiley (and at least this one flashes). What's wrong with saying, oh I don't know...Rush Time Machine Tour 2010? How about giving us a voucher to choose from a selection of t-shirts? For a "specially designed" t-shirt, I feel bad for those fans who probably already have a shirt exactly like this one, who like the rest of us, expected an ounce of creativity.

 

On to the poster...why on earth is it a small version of the Fly By Night cover? Seriously, why? Again, what's wrong with a poster that reads...Rush Time Machine Tour 2010? The Fly By Night album has absolutely nothing to do with the tour at all (they didn't even play a song from it on the damn tour). If they're going to be album specific, why not let us choose the album? Fly By Night is in the bottom 5 of my list of favorite Rush albums and now I have to display it proudly because I will feel even more jipped than I already was if I don't. Don't even get me started on the whole "limited edition" crap either (out of 3500?). What is the point in numbering it?

 

Augh, well this will teach me to ever buy a VIP package again. Maybe next time they can actually let the fans know what everything will look like before we buy it. I wish there was someway I could boycott this crap and make some exchanges because as of right now, I feel like I spent 350 (x2) for merchandise, like someone said, I "could make myself."

 

P.S. (Thanks for giving us the spare copies of Working Men from the warehouse that no one ever bought, 2 tracks that everyone else on the face of the earth has already bought over a month ago, 10 pieces of plastic that will be lost in a week, a DVD, without a choice of Blu-Ray, that everyone has either seen in theaters or bought...the tourbook is cool, I guess.)

[FootballYouBet]

The only thing that I'm really pissed about is the shirt. The impression that was given was that it was a special tour shirt. There is nothing about that shirt I see that is tour related or special at all, which means that I now have to buy a tour shirt, which is another $35. Bleep that!

 

And you know what's funny about the Fly By Night poster? The fact that they're not playing a single song off that album on this tour!!!

 

VIP my ass. It's like the package was assembled by someone who doesn't know Rush at all. This package is a RIP and is an insult to a very loyal fan base.

[LedZep]

Received package 1 of 2 yesterday. As a previous poster said, it comes USPS in a large flat (somewhat bulging) stiff envelope. Tee shirt is nice looking, guitar picks are the set found on the Backstage Club web merch site (round mag holder with several picks in it).

[yyz98]

So, who exactly can we turn to about this? There was an obvious 'fumble' in this whole deal. I have to agree that the package was assembled by someone unfamiliar with the band or its fanbase. The whole 'VIP' label affixed to this mess has now turned into an insult of sorts when you think about it. The shirt is what mostly ticks me off, (Although I noted in an earlier post that I didn't have one of the old logo shirts yet) I thought I was getting something revolving around the current tour, and something that would set it apart from any shirt being hawked at the shows. If so many of us were in that mode of thinking, there was something that lead us to believe we should be expecting something waaaay different than what we actually got. Alot of folks passed on buying shirts at the venue in the fears that they would have 'doubles' of a particular shirt. Ticketmasters way to getting scalper-like prices for tix is to create a faux 'VIP' kit with a handful of crap, carefully described to appear well worth the money.

 

To be honest, I would have no problem sending it back and giving up my 5th row seats to get my $735 back. Oh, I'll go to the same venue and buy different seats, but I'll keep $600 in the process

Edited July 28, 2010 by yyz98

[FootballYouBet]

I don't think that you turn to anybody. It's not like you're going to get your money back. Chalk this up to a learning experience. It was for me and I've attended thousands of shows over the past 30 years. Never chose a VIP package because I always get great seats no matter what. Since I looked at this tour as probably the last time I'll see RUSH (unless they do Permanent Waves next year) I figured I'd go VIP just to make sure that I have awesome seats. In the future I'll do what I always do. Camp out on Craigslist/Ticketmaster the day before and day of the show, and get killer seats for face value. Edited July 28, 2010 by FootballYouBet

[danielmclark]

I don't want my money back, far from it. I only want to write an email to the parties that were involved in this VIP package BS and make them aware of my dissatisfaction (and the fact that I'll never buy a VIP package again).

 

I'm angry, but as you said, learning experience. They didn't specifically state that we'd be getting a tour shirt or tour poster, so... well, now we know better. Caveat emptor and all that.

[yyz98]

Same here, I just want to let em know that I was decieved and am not satisfied at all with how this played out. Also, the various word of mouth can't be good over various forums... for those of us that won't ever do the 'VIP' thing again, there will be just as many to try it out for the first time in the future so fanfire couldn't give a hoot either way. Customer service isn't their goal. Repeat customers isn't their goal. Polishing up a turd and presenting it as gold IS their goal. Gotta go, the mailman just arrived and I need to try on my new turd.

[FootballYouBet]

Btw, I checked the fanfire site to see how they were advertising the T-shirt in the VIP package.

 

"Specially Designed Rush Concert Shirt"

 

First, there's nothing "special" about the design. It's the Rush logo from their first album. Second, it's not a concert T-shirt. It's just a shirt with the Rush logo on it.

 

Misleading.

[yyz98]

I'd be happy to send mine back for a real concert shirt If enough folks point out the obvious flaw in the description vs what was recieved....maybe they will allow an exchange. The squeaky wheel gets the grease

[Mara]

Maybe I'm just still too stoked about my seat? I'm not that bothered over the merch. I like the shirt. Gonna take it this weekend to get it altered to a more "feminine" cut.

 

See, I'm not really much of a gambler. I don't have the fortitude or patience to sit and wait patiently to see if I can score really incredible seats on the DAY of the show. My luck, I'd end up with A - fake tickets, B - way overpaying out of panic, or C - the dreaded lawn seats.

[A Farewell to Things]

Remind me not to do vip packages!

[wrekinboy]

I think this is yet more evidence that in the last few years the Rush management took a decision to be much more aggressive on the marketing and merchandise front, but in doing so at the expense of quality and value for money. E.g. did the world need the 'Working Men' dvd? I don't think so.

 

Has the band got anything to do with it? There are several possibilities:

 

1) yes and they are comfortable with it

2) yes and although not entirely comfortable they are going along with it because on balance the money rolling in outweighs the apprehension over what may be a quality drop-off

3) no but they are generally aware of a bigger marketing push

4) no and they have no idea and do not want to get involved with that side of things

 

I'm guessing either 2) or 3) is the truth.

 

As for the special concert shirt thing - I guess their argument will be that as it is a shirt that nobody else other than VIP customers have, and as it is part of the promotion for this tour and is sent to VIP ticket owners of this tour, then by definition it is specially designed for these concerts.

 

I'm in the UK and still haven't received the swag yet but as you guys only just got yours I presume mine is in the process of being lost somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean!

 

p.s. it is not just Rush. I've done VIP package for Roger Waters in the UK and it was a similar experience. You have to be realistic and go into it with the aim of getting good seats as the key outcome. The rest is a lottery, depending on the quality of the merchandising team.

 

[Rod in Toronto]

As a keen runner, I'd like to suggest more running shirts with motifs. The 2112 one looks nice, but it sucks when you're wearing a black shirt, the sun is up and you have to do 2 or 3 hour runs. Also, I run with a YELLOW Mizuno, and with the addition of the black shirt, there's too many different colours involved...

 

Please make a dry-fit running shirt with the GuP cover!!!

[JimmyG1967]

hmmm. i still have not received my vip package. i'm kinda bummed to hear it's just a generic rush shirt. if i had known that i would have bought one at the show. would i purchase a vip package again? probably not after this whole mess.

[Test4VitalSigns]

I got 3 of the 4 pacakges today.......talk about being underwhelmed

 

And totally disappointed.

[laxnation]

QUOTE (Prince of Tyrus @ Jul 27 2010, 06:59 PM)

My wife got hers today. Mine is still MIA (of course) Here is what you get: I did a close up of the pick set http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/af286/aquila2112/photo-2.jpg http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/af286/aquila2112/photo-1.jpg

I am selling all the mechandise in the picture, so if anyone is interested. please don't hesiste to contact me.

 

 

[Scars]

Received both of my packages today, one of them being the XL shirt which I've heard people having trouble with. I already posted my thoughts (in this thread) on most of the package prior to receiving it, so I won't repeat myself on those points. A couple things I would like to add is the shirt, while I still am irked about the design, is quite comfortable and fits nicely. The poster is even smaller than I expected (I'm not sure of the exact size, if someone could inform me that would be great) and the numbering is handwritten (unless it's written by the band themselves, I don't see why someone had to go through writing that 3500 times). By the way, who was lucky enough to have 2112/3500? The picks I discussed in the "haven't received package" thread. The DVD came in a nice sturdy cardboard packaging, I was expecting a typical cheap plastic one, so that was a nice surprise. Though it seems I was blown off 2 months ago when I requested that I possibly swap the DVD for Blu-Ray. The tour book quality-wise is nice to hold and and the pages are of nice glossy material, however I'm not too impressed with the content (maybe tourbooks published AFTER album releases are a little better), the pictures have their moments and at times quite informative, but overall, are typical shots. Neil can't quite elaborate fully on the experience since they only have 2 songs done at this point. I feel like the boys aren't as into this tour as they would be after Clockwork Angels is released.

 

Just my (additional) 2 cents on the package.

[lerxt1990]

QUOTE (Test4VitalSigns @ Jul 28 2010, 04:01 PM)

I got 3 of the 4 pacakges today.......talk about being underwhelmed And totally disappointed.

didnt you expect a time machine themed shirt?

[theoriginalfuzz]

As the original thread poster, I just wanted to chime in and say that I did receive my VIP merch package today.

 

I have to admit, I actually think the t-shirt is quite a bit cooler than I expected. While the design is simplistic, the gray color of the t-shirt works well, and I actually like its simplicity. Though, like others have mentioned, I too was expecting a tour-themed shirt. However, this is a cool shirt, imho.

 

Overall I'm just happy to have the DVD and the shirt... the other stuff is not that big of a deal to me... and yeah, the poster blows. Seems a bit arbitrary.

 

Would I buy the VIP package again? Nope. I mainly did it this time for the seats (figured I would splurge this tour), but next time I think I'll just take my chances with the regular-priced seats. I'm not sure I feel the VIP package is worth it.

[Echoes]

I received mine. Finally.

[Test4VitalSigns]

QUOTE (lerxt1990 @ Jul 28 2010, 10:35 PM)

QUOTE (Test4VitalSigns @ Jul 28 2010, 04:01 PM) I got 3 of the 4 pacakges today.......talk about being underwhelmed  And totally disappointed. didnt you expect a time machine themed shirt? Yeah like everyone else I was assuming that the shirt and poster were going to be related to the Time Machine Tour for sure. Also thought the poster would be bigger as well.

[Distant Signals]

No VIP stuff for me yet

I got an email about a month ago saying it was going to ship.

 

 

[Zate]

 

Mine finally arrived yesterday, and everything was included. Better late than never!