(I’m getting ready to go to a comic convention, but I’m having trouble affording the hotel room as the people that usually travel with me can’t make it. But one of them refers me to two friends wanting to go.)

Friend-Of-Friend: “Oh, my God, I’m so excited for the con!”

Me: “Glad to have you on board. Among the three of us, we each need to kick in $150 for the room. I’ll need it by [Date] so it will hit my bank account at go-time. I’m also bringing [list of grocery items], so we can make quick meals in the room. Do you need a ride?”

Friend-Of-Friend: “Okay, no problem! We’ll get there on our own. Looking forward to it.” 

Me: “Okay, see you there.”

(Fast forward to the day before I need their part of the room rental.)

Me: “Hey, I still need you to pay for your shares of the room. Where are you on that?”

Friend-Of-Friend: “Oh, yeah. How much are badges? 

Me: “It’s too late to pre-order, but you can buy them at the door for $50.”

Friend-Of-Friend: “WHAT?! I CAN’T AFFORD THAT! I just won’t go, then!”

(I managed to pay for the hotel on my own and still enjoy the convention. But how could this chick afford a hotel, but not a badge that was a third of the cost?)

My boyfriend and I were going with a friend to a very big convention in a large city. This convention happens to coincide with the city’s Pride Parade, so you have to book in pretty far in advance or there is no possible way you will find accommodation anywhere near the Con.

We made our booking on a popular home-rental site about three months out. We found a nice spot in convenient walking distance for a decent price, paid in full up front, and were all set for Con time. Awesome.

Then, two months later, our booking was cancelled and our deposit returned. We got a message from the owners stating that the price we booked at was incorrect, because their booking calendar “hadn’t updated to consider the increased demand.” However, we were welcome to rebook the same location for four times the original price.

My boyfriend called the helpline and, while the rep was extremely helpful and did place a penalty against the owner — though what form that penalty took we don’t know — he informed us that he wasn’t authorized to give us more than a $50 credit towards another booking, and the only things still open by then were much more than $50 over the price of our previous booking. He stated that he would pass our issue on to upper management and we should get a call soon.

That call never came, and now we were stuck without a place to stay, only a few weeks out from the Con, and everything in the area was either out of our price range or booked up. This was probably exactly what the owners of our original booking were counting on, hoping to trap us into rebooking at their inflated price.

Thankfully, our friend knew someone in the area who happened to have been given a free room at one of the host hotels due to being an invited guest at the Con, and offered for us to stay at his house while he was in the hotel. So, by a stroke of luck it all worked out, but no thanks at all to the house-rental site.

(I’m a producer for a video game publishing company, attending a well-known gaming convention on behalf of my company. We have a few upcoming games on display, and we like to chat with and answer questions for players. A lot of the time, you get questions that might seem sort of silly or naive because people don’t understand the nuts and bolts of what’s actually involved in making a game, but I never mind answering. I’m talking to a guy who is a fan of one of our older games.)

Guy: “I just don’t get why you guys haven’t made a sequel.”

Me: “Well, it would be nice to consider one day if we had a good plan for it! Right now all our resources are tied up in these games, plus a few other projects we haven’t announced yet, but maybe one day!”

Guy: *scoffs* “So, just make it free.”

Me: “The… game you’re talking about?”

Guy: “No, make a free sequel. Free to play.”

Me: “Well, I mean… like I said, we’re committed to other projects right now, so it’ll be some time before we could even consider additional work.”

Guy: *staring at me as if I’m an idiot* “But it would be free.”

Bystander: “Games that are free-to-play still cost money and take time and people and other resources to make, dude.”

Guy: *still looking at me* “But it would be a free game.”

(We went back and forth like this a bit, and being that I was there representing our brand and trying to be professional I couldn’t say what I wanted to which was, “Is this a f****** joke? Are you deliberately messing with me?” To this day, I’m still not sure if he legitimately thought a game being free to play would somehow negate all the human and financial cost required to create it, as if it would be farted out of the ether, but he eventually just walked off looking annoyed. I still love conventions and interacting with fans, but some of them definitely really make you earn that round of drinks at the end of the day.)

(I’m at an anime convention out of state. While I’ve done conventions before, I’ve recently become disabled and need to use a wheelchair. I have friends with me, but because I don’t want to feel like a burden, I tell them they don’t have to stay with me, and they wander off. After a bit, I realize I don’t have the energy I thought I did, and find myself stuck in the lobby, unable to get back to my hotel. A couple passing by stops.)

Guy: “Hey, you all right?”

Me: “I’m fine–”

Girl: “You look like you’ve just been told bad news. You sure you’re okay?”

Me: “I’m just waiting for my friends to finish at [Event] so I can go back to my hotel.”

Guy: “What hotel are you at?”

Me: “It’s [Hotel], but I’m fine waiting.”

Guy: “Nah, we’re kind of headed that way, anyway. Want a push?”

(I accept. The guy hands the girl his bag and we start towards my hotel. We make small talk and they get me safely to my room, even going up the elevator with me and making sure I can get in. The next day, I run into them again.)

Me: “Hey, you’re the couple from last night! Thank you for your help!”

Girl: “It’s no problem, really! We just wanted to make sure you got back safe!”

(I’ve since been careful about having someone with me who can help, but I still appreciate their kindness for a total stranger!)

My brother is a huge Doctor Who fan and attended a local science fiction convention where one of the former Doctors was holding a symposium. To my brother’s dismay, the symposium filled up just as he arrived.

He was sitting on a bench in the convention hall, dejected, when he heard a woman say, “Oh, you don’t want to go to that! It’s boring! Hang around with me, instead!” He looked up to see the actress who played a popular female companion standing over him. She spent part of her day with him as they went around the convention together.

Whenever I become too cynical, I think about how Catherine Tate made sure a disappointed Doctor Who fan had the best day ever. Donna Noble truly is a hero!