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Authenticity is Everything
Pele Book Signing Debacle in NYC
The ambassador of soccer had a new book released today.
He did a book signing a midtown Barnes & Noble. It was supposed to start at 5PM. He finally showed up about 6:30...then decided to leave at 7:30 with scores of people still waiting.
The store offered book refunds, but had to close because there were so many angry people. Not out of control, but angry.
As an ambassador, Pele should be recalled.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Rick Meyer on
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I was wondering how that signing would turn out. I Used to do a lot of them when I was in NYC the last 2 years. Pele such a big name figured it would be a nightmare.
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Permalink Reply by Bogger Kouveras on
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This whole event was a debacle. I took my two kids out of school to go into the city for the opportunity to meet Pele.
We waited for 4.5 hours in the increasing cold remaining good natured to all of the employees who kept coming out and assuring us that things were all running smoothly. No one had the courtesy to even tell us he was late. So there we all stood, people that had come from all over waiting. The line was cut off at some point well behind me. The line started to move ever so slowly only to finally get close to the doors to hear from another person who was waiting ahead of me that he was done.
This whole thing was poorly run as if they have never had a big name there before! We were only told that his people were saying he was done and we could all return the books that we had been required to purchase. Why weren't wristbands handed out if he was only going to sign for an hour? Why didn't the Barnes & Noble 5th Avenue store people better communicate? I have a membership with them that I am going to cancel and I would never give Pele The pleasure of my kids reading his book. Both of these organizations owe me and my family an apology.
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Sorry to hear your kids had to go through that.
In fairness to Barnes and Noble, it appears this was almost all Pele's fault. Perhaps the store could have done better to make sure people know how late he was. Although one employee did say, "the signing has started" at about 6:45.
But Pele was so late and apparently didn' tell them he was going to leave after an hour. Had he been close to on time, he probably would have been able to take care of everyone.
Pele is not known as a fan friendly person...despite his smiling iconic image as Mr. Soccer. He didn't participate in a really good 2006 documentary about the NY/NJ Cosmos called "Once in a Lifetime." My understanding is that he wanted to be paid for an interview.
And that particular Barnes & Noble hosted a Mike Tyson book signing a few months ago. Similar situation in that the books sold out. But Apparently Tyson stayed until every book was signed. Who would think Mike Tyson is a better guy than Pele in that regard?
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Permalink Reply by N.Daniel on
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Tyson is more like a kid at heart, the shy guy who loved pidgeons and loves when fans have a good word for him, sure he seems competitive feirce willing to bite somebodys ear off and in some cases be a bit of a crazed celeb but he honestly seems to care about fans, one time at a show he got done and kept taking pictures with people and having fun and even gave a few kids personalized auto's on scraps of paper, but Pele on the other hand is self absorbed and couldn't care less and seems to cancel about every signing
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Heather, I think I was standing in front of you and your family for those 4.5 hours. As you stated what a poor, poor event by Pele and hosted by Barnes and Noble. The organization was terrible, the process was terrible to say the least. Pele can take a lot of the blame if he was late and left early but Barnes and Noble must take responsibility for the chaos of the event. No one was clearly in charge and no one clearly wanted to be in charge or be identified as the person in charge. During my 4.5 hours on line with a friend I decided to walk to the front to observe the process and what a shame and disappointment. Barnes and Noble employees were clueless as to how to organize this event. SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! Pele and "his people" as we were told, should be ashamed of themselves for the fraud they pulled off. I wonder if he even cared or made an effort to look at the people on the line that went around the entire block. As others have said people were justifiably angry.
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Permalink Reply by Rock G III on
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Meh the prior and next engagement could have been more important than a book signing. I have been there waiting like these people before. This happens all the time and people seem to think these event are guarantees. They are not. Most of the time the celeb has made their money on the book already and these events do nothing but drag them around and sign for hours a day for days at a time. And they see nothing but hand cramps at night.
I remember once Joe Torre left a book signing early and people got all emotional crying about a stupid book being signed. Well Mr Torre was leaving this book signing event to go to a children cancer ward and the kids had to eat on a set schedule and couldnt be late. Do you think those fans when they found out came back and apologized? Nope they still blamed him cause their dumb book didnt get signed.
While this may or may not be the case here its something to chew on before getting bent.
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Doubt that was the case here.
It was disorganized...earlier in the day the store didn't even know who was handling Pele's end of it.
If he was going to be late (90 minutes late!) for some purported good reason...people should have been notified.
Likewise, if he was going to leave after an hour and leave people standing there...the line should have been cut off.
That neither of these things happened strongly suggests that the fault was Pele's. There's absolutely no reason the store would arouse unnecessary anger in customers by keeping them waiting for no reason.
Pele, on the other hand, likely could care less. That was his reputation going back at least to his days with the Cosmos.
If he didn't want to sign, he shouldn't have made the commitment.
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Couldn't agree more Sidney. Pele's previous engagement to the signing was a photo shoot at TIME by the sound of it so no reason to be late, at least not 90 minutes!
In any event, Barnes and Noble told me that a set number of books were made available to the host store by the publisher specifically for the event so both the BN events team and Pele's advisors knew well in advance the numbers to get through the door on the night.
It was wholly disrespectful to all those that left the event disappointed. As you can tell, 24 hours on and I still feel let down.
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I can only echo the reply posted by Heather Kouveras. I stood in line for over 4 hours to meet a childhood idol of mine, Pele, and get my book signed, intended to be a present for my nephew. This was a poorly managed event with lots of people young and old all let down by Pele, his advisors/publisher and Barnes and Noble's events team. Not only had kids been taken out of school but other people I met in the line had taken the afternoon off of work to attend the signing. Given that we only get 10 day's vacation this represents a significant period of time! We had been sold the books by the host store so we should have got them signed, period. Disappointed all round with the complete lack of care and customer service.
On the plus side I'm sure Pele has had a nice morning waking up knowing he's better off having banked what will probably have been a handsome appearance fee.
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I was there, took train in, waited 4 hrs. Barnes and Noble should be ashamed. They continued to sell books and reassure people even though they knew he was not signing long. 4 letters, should be quickest autograph in history. They knew exactly how many books were sold and how long the line was. They should know how to get the most books signed orderly, but continued to reassure people and thank them for their patience. They could have cut off the line or handed out wristbands. Instead, guy walks out and announces pele is leaving. People took off from work, many brought children. I contacted B&N and asked them to cancell my preferred club status. Never again will I buy anything from them or attend a book signing. Complete debacle. I hope they enjoyed all the books that were returned.
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Thomas, I totally understand your disappointment and anger.
Absolute debacle.
But...because of many of the points you cite, I don't think the bookstore had any idea Pele would be so late and cut it off after an hour. Barnes and Noble may have been somewhat disorganized. But no way it wanted to create this kind of backlash.
No, I think this all points to Pele along with some lack of communication between his people and the bookstore.
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Barnes and Nobel has done many booksignings and should have had better communication with the person comming to sign and his people. They know how to move a signing along. They did an almost continuous count of how many people were in line. I purchased book, had a receipt, and was there in a timely manner. I fullfilled my part of the "contract". Signed bookplates and an ounce of forethought would have made all the difference. No, never again.
People can say what they want about howard stern, but he had thousands in line all over the country and he never bailed. He said if someone is going to buy my book and stand in line for hours, I will continue to sign until I get to everyone. Pele might be a legend, but in my book, one has to act with repect to get respect. I believe Barnes and Noble higher ups just wanted to get their stuff signed and then the heck with everyone else.
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