Queue It Waiting Rooms
1. What is Sideshow's Waiting Room?
Certain items generate a lot of demand at Sideshow.com, like highly limited releases, special event sales, and more. In order to give our customers the best experience possible, we have created a Waiting Room when the website experiences significant traffic. When high-demand items debut, our Waiting Room creates a fair and impartial process for exciting new products.
2. How does the Waiting Room work?
In most cases, the Waiting Room operates on a first-come, first-served concept. Your arrival places you in a line with other customers until it is your turn. Once you are let through the Waiting Room, you will have a few minutes to browse the website and finalize your order. As long as you remain active on the website, you should have plenty of time to complete a purchase (while the items are still in stock) or adjust items in your account.
In other instances, such as events, the Waiting Room will utilize a pre-queue system that allows customers to arrive before the queue goes live with no impact on their place in the queue. When the event launches, everyone will be randomly assigned a place in line to ensure fairness and impartiality in access. You can find more information about that below.
3. Are Waiting Rooms different for specific events?
Yes, a Waiting Room for an announced event will start up to 20 minutes before the scheduled event. During this time, you can arrive at the Waiting Room at any time with no impact on your place in the queue. Regardless of when you joined the Waiting Room, once the event launches, everyone will be randomly assigned their place in line. This randomization allows for an equitable distribution of access. Those individuals joining after the event starts are placed at the end of the Waiting Room line.
4. How are you ensuring fairness?
We have partnered with an industry leader in queuing technology to ensure a fair and efficient Waiting Room experience.
5. My Waiting Room says, "The Waiting Room is paused." What does that mean?
When a Waiting Room is paused, it means that no one will be sent to the product or event page, so everyone will be kept in the Waiting Room until access resumes. We pause the room for a variety of reasons such as checking inventory or ensuring the website is functioning correctly. Please remain patient; your position in line will be retained until the Waiting Room resumes.
6. My Waiting Room says, "The Waiting Room has ended." What does that mean?
When the page says the Waiting Room has ended, it means Sideshow will no longer be queuing individuals in the Waiting Room and access to the product or event page will resume as normal shortly. In most cases, the Waiting Room will end when a product has sold out. Those individuals still in the Waiting Room when it ends will eventually be advanced to the page they were trying to reach when initially entering the site.
7. What happens if I miss my turn?
If you miss your turn, your session has expired and you need to start over in the Waiting Room. When it is your turn, you have a limited amount of time to access the site you want to visit. Pro tip: Don't miss your turn! (Note: You can also enter your email in the waiting room to be alerted when it will be your turn.)
8. Why are so many people ahead of me if I arrived on time?
If you arrived during the pre-queue Waiting Room period, your arrival time did not impact your place in line. Once the event starts, you are then randomized with all other customers in the queue to ensure fairness.
We understand this can be frustrating, but this method helps maintain equity and order during high-demand periods. Otherwise, if you are arriving at the site and a Waiting Room is active, you will simply be added to the end of the line due to the high interest in visiting Sideshow.com at that time.
9. Will I lose my place in line if my phone goes to sleep, I refresh the webpage, or if I close my browser?
You will not lose your place in line if you close your browser, refresh the webpage, or if your phone is in sleep mode. If you return before your turn, you will regain your position. However, please note that you have a limited amount of time to access the website once it is your turn.
10. I got through the Waiting Room and I saw a blank screen, then I got put back into the Waiting Room. What is going on?
It is essential to ensure your browser is set to accept cookies from Sideshow.com. When you have moved past the Waiting Room, you will arrive at Sideshow.com. A cookie will be stored in your browser to verify that you have been redirected via the Waiting Room. This is a security measure to prevent fraud and Waiting Room bypassing.
11. Why was I placed in a second Waiting Room after the first Waiting Room?
In rare cases, demand for an item is so extreme that a secondary Waiting Room is needed to maintain site function. While inconvenient, such occurrences are rare. Please be patient, as the second Waiting Room should be quicker than the first.
12. Why did my expected time of arrival to the website change?
Adjustments to the number of people in the Waiting Room can increase or decrease the wait time. This affects the estimated time of arrival. If a large number of customers are granted access or choose to leave the queue, user times will decrease. If the number of customers granted access must decrease to ensure proper site function, then wait times will increase.
Certain items generate a lot of demand at Sideshow.com, like highly limited releases, special event sales, and more. In order to give our customers the best experience possible, we have created a Waiting Room when the website experiences significant traffic. When high-demand items debut, our Waiting Room creates a fair and impartial process for exciting new products.
2. How does the Waiting Room work?
In most cases, the Waiting Room operates on a first-come, first-served concept. Your arrival places you in a line with other customers until it is your turn. Once you are let through the Waiting Room, you will have a few minutes to browse the website and finalize your order. As long as you remain active on the website, you should have plenty of time to complete a purchase (while the items are still in stock) or adjust items in your account.
In other instances, such as events, the Waiting Room will utilize a pre-queue system that allows customers to arrive before the queue goes live with no impact on their place in the queue. When the event launches, everyone will be randomly assigned a place in line to ensure fairness and impartiality in access. You can find more information about that below.
3. Are Waiting Rooms different for specific events?
Yes, a Waiting Room for an announced event will start up to 20 minutes before the scheduled event. During this time, you can arrive at the Waiting Room at any time with no impact on your place in the queue. Regardless of when you joined the Waiting Room, once the event launches, everyone will be randomly assigned their place in line. This randomization allows for an equitable distribution of access. Those individuals joining after the event starts are placed at the end of the Waiting Room line.
4. How are you ensuring fairness?
We have partnered with an industry leader in queuing technology to ensure a fair and efficient Waiting Room experience.
5. My Waiting Room says, "The Waiting Room is paused." What does that mean?
When a Waiting Room is paused, it means that no one will be sent to the product or event page, so everyone will be kept in the Waiting Room until access resumes. We pause the room for a variety of reasons such as checking inventory or ensuring the website is functioning correctly. Please remain patient; your position in line will be retained until the Waiting Room resumes.
6. My Waiting Room says, "The Waiting Room has ended." What does that mean?
When the page says the Waiting Room has ended, it means Sideshow will no longer be queuing individuals in the Waiting Room and access to the product or event page will resume as normal shortly. In most cases, the Waiting Room will end when a product has sold out. Those individuals still in the Waiting Room when it ends will eventually be advanced to the page they were trying to reach when initially entering the site.
7. What happens if I miss my turn?
If you miss your turn, your session has expired and you need to start over in the Waiting Room. When it is your turn, you have a limited amount of time to access the site you want to visit. Pro tip: Don't miss your turn! (Note: You can also enter your email in the waiting room to be alerted when it will be your turn.)
8. Why are so many people ahead of me if I arrived on time?
If you arrived during the pre-queue Waiting Room period, your arrival time did not impact your place in line. Once the event starts, you are then randomized with all other customers in the queue to ensure fairness.
We understand this can be frustrating, but this method helps maintain equity and order during high-demand periods. Otherwise, if you are arriving at the site and a Waiting Room is active, you will simply be added to the end of the line due to the high interest in visiting Sideshow.com at that time.
9. Will I lose my place in line if my phone goes to sleep, I refresh the webpage, or if I close my browser?
You will not lose your place in line if you close your browser, refresh the webpage, or if your phone is in sleep mode. If you return before your turn, you will regain your position. However, please note that you have a limited amount of time to access the website once it is your turn.
10. I got through the Waiting Room and I saw a blank screen, then I got put back into the Waiting Room. What is going on?
It is essential to ensure your browser is set to accept cookies from Sideshow.com. When you have moved past the Waiting Room, you will arrive at Sideshow.com. A cookie will be stored in your browser to verify that you have been redirected via the Waiting Room. This is a security measure to prevent fraud and Waiting Room bypassing.
11. Why was I placed in a second Waiting Room after the first Waiting Room?
In rare cases, demand for an item is so extreme that a secondary Waiting Room is needed to maintain site function. While inconvenient, such occurrences are rare. Please be patient, as the second Waiting Room should be quicker than the first.
12. Why did my expected time of arrival to the website change?
Adjustments to the number of people in the Waiting Room can increase or decrease the wait time. This affects the estimated time of arrival. If a large number of customers are granted access or choose to leave the queue, user times will decrease. If the number of customers granted access must decrease to ensure proper site function, then wait times will increase.
13. Does having a place in the Waiting Room guarantee me a pre-order for a limited-edition release?
With high-demand releases made available in limited quantities, not everyone will have an opportunity to pre-order before Sideshow sells out of its allotment for the collectible. Your space in the Waiting Room does not guarantee a pre-order — factors such as available edition size, number of users waiting in the queue ahead of you, and more can impact how quickly a release sells out. We will do our best to provide accurate updates and estimates throughout the queuing process.
14. If I'm only in the Waiting Room for a very limited-edition item, will I be notified when it's sold out?
Yes! There is dynamic messaging shared within the Waiting Room screen. To the best of our abilities, we will update this messaging to keep you informed of what is happening with the Waiting Room and the product you may be interested in purchasing. Joining the Waitlist is recommended even for sold-out items, as it operates on a first-come, first-served basis.
14. If I'm only in the Waiting Room for a very limited-edition item, will I be notified when it's sold out?
Yes! There is dynamic messaging shared within the Waiting Room screen. To the best of our abilities, we will update this messaging to keep you informed of what is happening with the Waiting Room and the product you may be interested in purchasing. Joining the Waitlist is recommended even for sold-out items, as it operates on a first-come, first-served basis.
15. What if I came to Sideshow.com to buy something else during a limited-item release? Do I still have to use the Waiting Room?
In most cases, the whole of Sideshow.com will still be available to users during a special event Waiting Room timeframe. The Waiting Room is intended only for the high-demand product or page. However, there are rare cases in which overall site traffic will trigger a sitewide Waiting Room.