I'm sorry to hear you didn't pick up your shirts. We do have some left over from last year, so please send me a message with the names you two were registered under, and we'll get this worked out.
For everyone interested in this topic, here's some more info on how we have been handling pre-ordered shirts, and why:
When NDK started selling its own branded merch items, the annual souvenir shirt was moved from Registration to the Merch table. This was because Merch was selling other t-shirts, and it made sense from an inventory and ordering perspective, and secondly, that gave Registration more time and people to handle, well, all the Registration that happens on the weekend. Admittedly, this does mean a second stop over the course of the convention, but in terms of line congestion, it is more efficient that way.
When you pre-reg by paper, all of those registrations are input by hand into a spreadsheet that tracks a lot of things, but also tracks pre-ordered shirts. Considering the volume of paper pre-reg's received, data entry errors (though very few) do occasionally occur. This is why a pre-ordered shirt may not be on the pick-up list. Don't panic should this happen to you! It may take a few moments, but Registration does have all the paper registration forms available, and after a little research, we can verify the purchase of a t-shirt.
All pre-ordered shirts are pulled out of the ordered stock and set aside. We do our best to guarantee you the size you ordered. Unfortunately, if a pre-ordered shirt is not on the pick-up list, the Merch staff will have no idea that an order is missing, and the size ordered won't be set aside. To help make sure you get the size you need, try to pick up your shirts as soon as you can. Size availability dwindles by Sunday, and we usually sell out of the remaining available shirts.
The new on line registration should really help with data input accuracy and provide more of a receipt to help remind people that they ordered a shirt. So, we are working to solve these problems.
As for being reminded when you pick up your badge that you ordered a shirt, while a very good suggestion, actually proves to be more difficult than it sounds. It means another step in processing the bazillion pre-reg badges, and means another chance for error. The person in charge of 'flagging' a pre-reg badge in some way may miss a few names (we're only human and usually highly caffeinated), and then the reminder system fails, and NDK gets yelled at for not telling people they bought a shirt.
The fact of the matter is, no system is perfect, and the best advice is not to rely on us to tell you if you bought a shirt, but rather leave your self a reminder, and hold on to your receipt.
We will continue to work on improving this process. Never forget- we want you to be happy. So, if in the future you do forget to pick up a shirt, or have some other problem, talk to us! We'll do what we can to work it out.
