CigarFest
 

Well, I hope CI runs a better HERF than they run a website. It seems they never tested their website.
From 5 to 5:20 the button to purchase tickets did not add anything to the shopping cart. They apparantly discovered this and pulled it down for a quick fix. They put a new page back up, but that was buggy and they pulled it down completely. They didn't even put a "dummy" page up there.
You would think they would have debugged this thing last week, before they had to put it up live.

Oh well....

Re: CigarFest
 

the auction page for the cigar nut tickets will not even load :bh

Been up for an hour just to do this.

Way to go CI

Chas

Just tried to call the toll free number to find out WTF and it will not go through - Unreal

Re: CigarFest
 

Well after a half hour it finally loaded and I was #6 to place a bid.

Last year they only sold 750 of the cigar nut tickets, this year its 1000 :td

Come on guys, why not just raise the ticket prices and stop playing the games. The whole reason to pay the extra money is to get in early and beat the big crowd. Now 1/3 of the tickets are the cigar nut tickets. So much for beating the big crowd!

Chas

Re: CigarFest
 

Don't forget that you get a Continental Breakfast with that Nut Ticket!;)

I was lucky enough to phone in my order for 2 VIH Tickets. Seems like there are a 1000 of each Ticket this yr.

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Their whole operation is p*ss poor. The website still wasn't working at 6:00 AM, and now they're sold out. Now they figure they'll jack everybody with the bids. Guess what! I'll go to my source and get my hard to find premium cigars, have a few botls over the house and crack open the Irish Whiskey. I'll throw some prime-aged (21 days) porterhouses on the grill and let everyone else fight the crowd for... Oh Wow! 20 premium cigars and forty dog rockets.

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It was very frustrating. :mad::mad: I was able to get through after 75 minutes and that was with the wife using her cell phone and the land line and me with my cell phone and trying online (what a disaster that was). Plus 500 more people at the event this year. :td

Re: CigarFest
 

I'm dreading the additional 500 tickets. Last year we were packed in pretty tight, this year it is going to be even worse. With any luck we will get decent weather and something will be held outside to draw some of the crowd away from the building.

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Wow. Cigar Nut Tickets already @ $120.00.

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There's another bunch of reasons CI is dead to me. :tu

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They certainly didn't win any new fans today with the whole ticket process. :mad:

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I think they did a pretty good job considering that the website fell apart. The Auction is a pretty good idea but I wish they would make it maybe 500 cigar nut tickets instead of a 1000.

I know one thing. They better have more than one Buffet line going at lunch time this yr especially with the extra 500 tickets.

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...Considering the website fell apart??? Are you kidding me? I've done a number of websites and it didn't fall apart... it just plain wasn't programmed right. Anytime you click "ADD TO CART" and your shopping cart comes up empty, that's a green horn coding mistake, and that's what was happening this morning.
The WEBSITE seemed to be the only way to get tickets before 8 AM. When you run a business and put up a website to sell product, especially when there is a limited quantity available, you had better be D**N shure your website doesn't fall apart. I'll bet they lost a HUGE customer base with this morning's glowing display of ineptitude.

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I don't know...I think they did better than the Colorado Rockies did when they sold World Series tix a few years ago.

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I had both my brothers getting tix....when I spoke with them this a.m., both said no tix in cart, etc.etc.....I figured they were full of bull and didn't get up early enough or otherwise f'd up....now I owe apologies....shame b/c 8 of us went last year and had a blast...no tix this year! :mad:

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....and it looks like all those that got up early for the 5 a.m. sale start....and got fed up after an hour.....got stiffed :mad:

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Same thing happened here. A fellow CA inmate was trying to get tickets for us this morning and he was getting the "empty cart" syndrome as well. We're on the auction list, but that buy in price seems to be shooting up pretty fast...last I checked it was at $140.

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Hey, You sure as heck know more than I do about Putting together a website but do you really think that they intended screw up on such a massive scale? I'm sure the IT guys put that mess together are in DEEP SH** .

You say that the WEBSITE was the only way to get tickets before 8 am. I got my Tickets by calling them around 6. It was tough but after an hr of hitting redial I got through. By the time the site was fixed only a handful of General Admission's were left and that was around 615 AM I believe.

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I'm gonna guess that the low winning bid is gonna be around $170 so if your serious about going I'd start there.

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Yeah, I noticed there was a huge spike in the $170 range...good to know. Thanks. :ss

Re: CigarFest
 

I didn't call because their hours are listed as starting at 8:00. And anyhow, for me, an hour of hitting redial just isn't worth it. This is a herf with 20 decent cigars, they aren't selling limited edition rare coins, for crying out loud. I didn't say they did it on purpose, but they sure f....d up by not debugging the website well ahead of time. At least with me, its not like they lost a regular customer or anything because I never cared for their catalog to begin with, but I'll bet they really ticked off a bunch of their regulars.

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2 hours- 5-7AM my wife on the phone and I'm on the computer- lots of times I was on the site- but nothing in the cart- CI really muffed this one up- now that I see the amount of tickets they're selling, I really don't think I want to go- too many people pushing and shoving!

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Yeah... when I saw that one botl's post about only one buffet line last year it I was taken aback. C'mon. All those people and one line?!? I'll be really interested in finding out what the "premium" cigars are and also what they're unloading from they're unsellable inventory.

Re: CigarFest
 

For people who went to previous cigarFest.

What was your experience?
Are the giveaway items worth it or bunch of crabs?
Can you find good deal on cigars, or all advertisements?

Thanks,

Re: CigarFest
 

The cigars you get (40-50) are mixed. People like Rocky Patel and Don Pepin Garcia give out some great cigars. Others, not so much. The spirits and micro-brews samples are really good. There are some pretty good prices on samplers/boxes at the fest.

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I bought the Cigar Nut tickets two years ago (the last year it wasn't an auction for those tickets). The buffet was ok. The only good thing about the Cigar Nut tickets is that you are in first.

Re: CigarFest
 

And a so-so breakfast buffet.

They had the same problem last year with the tickets and the site acting up. I had tickets in my cart and went to pay for them, and poof the server went down and I lost my cart. By the time I got back to ordering tickets, they were gone. Was able to get tickets on the auction.

As soon as I saw they were doing the same thing this year with the sales and adding 500 more people I decided not to even mess with it.

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The fact that this happened last year really leads me to think that they don't know what they're doing, and don't really care about customer satisfaction. If they did, they would certainly have made sure that the customer did not have a carp experience two years in a row.

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Wow $140-170 a ticket and that much trouble to go through? I'd rather spend that on a nice bottle of booze to split amongst friends with my own smokes

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I was having exactly the same thought as I read your post. Geat minds think alike. :D

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I have to say, I've been going to Cigarfest for the past 3 years and I've always had a great time. Is it perfect? NO but, Getting away for a weekend every year with a few of my buddies, a couple bottles of Good Rum and Great Cigars is priceless.

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CigarFest blows.. save your money

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Don't listen to him. He's from New Jersey.

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I've gone to the Famous Smoke version a couple times and had a blast. It's outdoors under a tent, 3-400 (not thousand) people, some decent BBQ, great raffles, and the owners are very nice.

This is the first time I'll be going to Cigar Fest. My buddy was trying to buy 4 VIH tickets and 4 of the shirts and managed to get the tickets, but only 2 shirts. My other buddy got completely shut out. I am a little disturbed about the number of people and the fact that it is indoors. I get a headache hanging in at a card game with a couple cigars going and little ventilation. I really can't imaging what 3000 cigars going at once will do to that place.

Here's to hoping its a good time, or I'll be back in Easton next year at the Famous Smoke event.

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NY Sucks, and CigarFest STILL sucks :)

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:r

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I completely agree. That's what I was getting at in a previous post.

Good bottle of Irish Whiskey $30
8 Prime Ribeyes (I can get em for $14/lb. Not aged, but I can do that myself). $150

8 Anjeos $88 (Actually I have more that 8 on hand, plus a couple boxes of Padron 1926.)

Total is $268 --- Less than the price of 2 tickets for a great afternoon with your best buds.


$100 for a ticket might be worth a shot, but $170??? Not on your life.

Re: CigarFest
 

Hey, I never said NJ Sucks but, I agree with you about NY.:D (Except for the Yankees)

And when I mentioned the great Cigars in my above post, I wasn't talking about the Cigars they give you. Those are Good to OK.

If your going to Cigarfest just for the Swag you'll be disapointed.

BigRon, When did you go to Cigarfest?

Re: CigarFest
 

The Famous BBQ is a great time - just a different vibe. It just more relaxing.

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I had some of the same problems as others have posted.....website would not work, phone lines busy...finally broke through by phone at about 5:45 am. and landed my VIH ticket. Good thing cause I was about to say to hell with this sh**. Since this is not a new event I can't understand why the process is not smoother.

Anyway....this will be my first so I am going to relax and enjoy just hanging out smoking, drinking, and fellowshiping....not gonna let the crowds ruin my weekend. Next up....The Big Smoke in Vegas in November (well hopefully). :dr

Re: CigarFest
 

I've only been to one cigarfest, that was 2007 I think.

I had a great time with friends, but by then I was mostly smoking CCs so i just wasn't that interested in the cigars. Even if I was a lot of the hand outs were pretty low quality bundle affairs. And they had 3000 people smoking in a room that wasn't meant to handle 3000 people smoking which was tough to breathe in let alone smoke. They also like 8 chairs for 3000 people. One of the worst experiences I've ever seen tho again I had fun because of the company.

I also hate this money grubbing bullshit ass auction off tickets approach. I'd never attend another one based on that.

Re: CigarFest
 

Wow! Now I am REALLY glad that I ended up with no tickets. I get lots of brotherhood and comeraderie at my BM; I don't need to pay $100 for it. Don't get me wrong, it would have been nice to meet some fellow inmates, but that can be done through other venues.

Re: CigarFest
 

Last year I had a good time but the event has its faults.

Friday:
Went to the Man-O-War event with AJ Fernandez and his 3 models. Cigars were available for purchase and they had a couple barrels of Yuengling free to attendees.

From here we had to drive from the expo area to the bar where the Rocky Patel party was being held. The bar is part of the resort but not really within walking distance for a May evening in the Poconos. At the party there is probably 10x more people that the bar would handle on any given night. Parking is a mess as there are more cars than there are proper parking spots (some people had to get creative).

We wound up bailing on the party after an hour and headed back to our hotel rooms to hang out. While there we had some good laughs and several cigars (having a smoking room was excellent).

Saturday:
Made our way to the event more than an hour early to get into a massive line. Wound up having a few laughs and short conversations with the people in line in-front and behind us as we waited. Eventually got let in and got moving around. We talked to a few manufacturers and grabbed a bit of breakfast from the buffet tables.

When the next wave of people were let in it was noticeably more crowded and moving around freely became more difficult. The industrial sized fans that had been stacked to the rafters did a good job of removing the smoke from the building.

When the last wave of people was let in it was no fun at all. The mass of people turned into a single line that snaked through the booths (think cattle-drive). After being pinned in the Oliva booth for a half hour, I made my way out to the smoking lounge they had setup on the opposite side of the building. Here I listened to what sounded like ring-tone renditions of popular music while hanging out with a couple of friends and catching up online.

All in all
I had fun because of the people, not necessarily because of the event itself. I'm looking forward to going again this year but I've got a different game-plan for when the last wave of people come into the building. This time I'm going to bail out and find a nice comfortable place to hang out and smoke cigars.

Re: CigarFest
 

Walt...thanks for the insight. This being my first time gives me an idea what to expect. Love your reviews @ stogiereview! :tu

Re: CigarFest
 

have to agree with Addiction, what a sh*tty way to capitalize on the "limited" space they set it as. Purse BS IMO. I am surprised that given the interest and how fast tickets sell, they don't find a better/larger venue.

Anyway, the BBQ/informal herf sounds more and more akin to the spirit of cigars than cigarfest does. Not pissing on anyone's parade that got tickets but :td

Re: CigarFest
 

Actually given how its growing and how demand has taken off they'd do better to simply have it at the same place in the summer so it can be outside. But the distributers under one tent, food under a separate tent and then entertainment et all on a large stage outside. And just sell the tickets rather than that dumb ass auction.

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As Crappy as it all sounds, Its amazing how the same people come back year after year....

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If they did this, it would be the Famous Smoke event. That's almost exactly how they handle it.

Re: CigarFest
 

Anybody try booking a Room at Split Rock today? My god what a Pain in the ass! I kept getting a busy signal and after getting put on hold and dropped a few times gave up. I tried again around 11 AM and was on hold for 30 minutes before I finally reserved a room.

Re: CigarFest
 

hmm...:rolleyes:

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This might be the yr this thing falls apart. I hope I'm wrong but, So far what a mess...