Poor Guest Service

[bfast54]

I know this is going to be long, but it is to give the full picture .............and see if you agree that this was not right. I will pre-face this by saying that I have worked in Retail before, and have been in the Fire/E.M.S. Service for 28 years, so I am no stranger when it comes to dealing with "Difficult People".


As many of you know, I hosted a Rally this Past weekend at PINE RIDGE RV Campground , in Birch Run/ Frankenmuth , Mi. There are only 2 campgrounds near Frankenmuth, Jellystone RV park, in town, and Pine Ridge, about 3.9 miles out. They have 201 sites.

The Rally started officialy on Friday, but some came in at the begining of the wek, and some stayed a day after. I had 9 sites reserved, in 2 rows , and we were the only ones scheduled in the 2 rows.

I came to the park about 10:00 A.M. Thur, , and stopped by , to check on things, and see if things were all set. I could clearly see the entire campground, from the entrance road , and being it is still early spring in Michigan...........I could see about 5 rigs in the campground (not counting the staff rigs, by the office). The park clearly was virtually empty, and this was mid-week, no rush of rigs had just left.


I walked into the office, with my Rally paperwork, and a woman ( VICKI) was behind the counter ..................She had a look of disgust on her face , and said to me

"DO YOU HAVE A RESERVATION????????????????? No good morning,...................... no how are you, ................no nothing but a look of disgust.

I replied, " My name is Mark, and I am the Wagon master for the Cardinal group coming in this weekend"..............she said "SO.........////////................,,,DO YOU HAVE A RESERVATION??????"

I again replied , I am Mark, I am the wagon master for the Cardinal Group coming in this weekend.

She again replied SO???????????

IDO YOU HAVE A RESERVATION????????????????????

I could see she was going somewhere with this, so I decieded to "Play her litle game"

I said YES,...........................No sooner had I said Yes, and she scowled at me and said , in a voice filled with contempt...................Check In Is Not Until One P.M.

I said I had gotten in town a bit early, and stopped by to see if things were set, and all that stuff. She said , "WE havent walked the sites yet, YOU got a letter , that said check in was at 1:00 P.M.................................If the sites were ready, it would be $5.00 PER HOUR FOR EARLY CHECK IN


I said , fine------ is there a place I could drop my 5th wheel, I want to do some shopping , till 1:00 P.M. , she said NO(even though there was a good size EMPTY lot, next to the ofice.


She asked me where I was going shopping, I said , Birch Run, Frankenmuth.......... She scowled at me again, and said..................."THEY Have Parking Lots There, at the Shopping Centers"



I turned around, and walked out the door, with out saying another word. At no time did I raise my voice, get angry, or let her see ...............that she had Ticked me off, by being so Rude.

I got in my rig, and drove away.

I went to the Factory outlet, and tried to calm down , I WAS HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I did not call the campground, and no one else in the group called the campground. I did call a couple of people from my group, and told them what had happened, but that was all.

I did some shopping, and drove back to the campground about 12:20 P.M., and parked in the entrance side, of the in drive, near the office, but not blocking anyone, or anything.


I got out a book, and started to read, as it was not 1:00 P.M. Yet.


A couple of other rigs showed up, and parked behind me, in the next 10 minutes or so. I did not go in .

A couple minutes later, a man, (Greg) whom I had never seen before, or spoken to before came out of the office, and said "You can come in now, and register "

I replied to him ...................." I was told in no uncertain terms, CHECK-IN was NOT until 1:00 P.M. ..................I am going to wait out here, till 1:00 P.M.


HE became VERY NICE and said there had been a "Mis-understanding", and we should forget the earlier thing had ever happened, and 'Start Again"

(I have no idea how he knew Vicki had been so RUDE to me, or how he knew there had been an issue.) I had never seen him before, or spoken to him before.


I said that was going to be very difficult, as I had Never been treated so poorly by a person who relied on the public doing bussiness with them -for their Lively hood , and that her behavier , in my view, was totally un-accepetable.

He said he was sorry, and could we Forget that it had happend, and start again.

I told him "If I had a choice of Moving the Rally ,to another spot, I WOULD PULL THE NINE RIGS, THIS MINUTE", the attitude of the person (Vicki) was not something I was going to have my people .................... have to deal with " ( The other campground, in town did not have the space we needed , at that time )


He said, he knew I should not have had to put-up with that, and I could come in EARLY, and we would be "Just Fine"


I did then register, and the rest of the weekend went fine, no problems . I did not have to deal with Vicki again, and had no other issues again from her.



SO...................What do you all think ??????? Would you have felt as I did ??? I can understand some one having a bad day, but it was dead as any thing there , this early.

During the weekend , maybe 20-25 other rigs showed up, and camped, the camp ground never got 1/4 full this weekend.

[Chief409]

Mark, it that situation I feel you handled things extremely well. The only thing left, is a letter to the manager, with confirmation of delivery.

Jeff

[Double D's]

Mark, I would have been as HOT as you were, and got that way myself, even just READING about it!!! Just hope that she never is in a position to have to deal with the public anymore....... So sorry to hear that, and they will be sorry that word of mouth might stop folks in the future from staying there...... just NOT acceptable! Donna

[Travelers]

5 of us stayed until today (Monday). There were 2 others rigs in the park for a total of 7. Once the rain quit, we decided to have a fire. There was an open lot between Tom and Roger. We used the fire ring on that open lot to have our fire. Roger decided to move his truck away from the fire ring to the empty lot on the other side of his rig. This is 5pm or so. At 7pm or so, a person from the cg office pulled up behind Roger's truck, turned on his E-flashers then proceeded to knock on Roger's door. Roger was told he had to move his truck back to the front of his rig. Roger moved it back without comment and the cg person left.

Clearly Roger was in violation of the rules. But in an empty park??

[Double D's]

Strike 2 in MY Book!!!!!!!! and......Note to self: WE WILL NOT EVER STAY AT THAT PARK!!!!!!!! I will make a note of that in our campground book. AND pass the word......

[Don Wilson]

You can go to rv park review and add a review.

http://www.rvparkreviews.com/

Don

[gatekper]

I think the hint was that the other camground could not handle your 9 rigs and this one could. I think the word is already partly out, Mark, my only comment on your handling of the situation is "better you did it then me" I would of asked for the manager right then and if no manager or she WAS the manager then a number to someone over top of her. My military background would of kicked in and I would of had answers right then. I have to give Mike, Mark, Don and all the other wagon masters and council members a very well done job on rallys ( I have now made all of one rally) I know that those positions are not all that easy and have a lot of responsibilities but what I have seen Mike chose wisely and you all handle it to make it look like it is easy.
Dale

[R & D]

Well Mark....I give you SOOOO much credit for remaining a complete gentleman. It makes me shudder to think how I would have reacted That "lady" would NOT forget me anytime soon and no doubt Mike would hit the delete button on my membership I have never heard of such rude behavior. AND we show up early all the time. I feel bad that you had to start your rally with negative feelings. Do as Don said...post your COMMENTS! Actually I would go farther and contact them again also.

[bfast54]

Thank you Jeff, and Donna, and Dale. and Dayna..............................Also John (Unbelievable), but I know it happened (believe me , I Know)

I am going to pursue this in a calm, cool manner.

The situation in Michigan, is such,( unemployment, low wages) that the Owners of this campground , need to know , that this situation is going on (surely I could not be the ONLY person , to be treated this way)

[Double D's]

I totally agree with Dayna - I would be eliminated also from this great group... or at least BLEEPED BIG TIME!!
Please get ahold of their 'superiors' whoever they might be - owners, managers, etc.... there is NO excuse for that kind of treatment - I too was in public service for many years, and you just do NOT expect to be treated like that. And Don has great advice, too... word of mouth SPREADS LIKE WILDFIRE!

[Double D's]

I forgot to say that we have occasionally arrived at a campground early and have been treated VERY well- If our site was empty, we were graciously escorted to it - even early.. if it was still inhabited, we were asked if we wanted to wait or if another site would work for us..... of course, these instances were not for a rally, but it almost sounds like this gal didn't even CARE whether it was a rally or not, she was just not schooled with dealing with the public..... Never encountered any one like you have dealt with........

[bfast54]

I had to pick my jaw off the counter, when she started in with her, "early, $5.00 per hour " rant .......not to mention , her attitude, as I walked in the door.

I am still flabber- gasted by the attitude she had.

And, as I said, the campground was virtually empty, and we had the whole row reserved, don't quite understand how she gets away with it.?????????

I know she must have done it before, because the guy (Greg) was all peaches and cream to me .

HOW DID HE KNOW, it had happened ?????????????

[Double D's]

me, too.......

[Traveler II]

You can go to rv park review and add a review.

http://www.rvparkreviews.com/

Don

I think Don has a great idea. I, for one use this review to see what others think about a park before we decided if we want to stay.

We get back to Michigan a few times a year and I sure will cross this park off my list of places to stay. It's to bad that this happen, it looks like you had a great rally.

[bop11]

Mark did handle the situation perfectly and I know he was really upset when he called me after being turned away a couple of hours early. I think before posting a nasty on the park reviews we should make the Campground management/ownership aware of these issues and let them respond. If their response is unecceptable then I think a post in park reviews would be appropriate.

I do have to add that while we were finishing up getting ready to leave Monday at about 11:40 a park worker was out circleing the area around our campsite very slowly, (like he was looking for a contact lense) it was only around our area not the entire campground. (check out time is 12:00) I ask Penny if she felt like we were being watched and she agreed with me. Now I don't know if it seemed like that because of the previous happenings but I drug my feet and we didn't pull out until 11:57. Didn't want to get hit up by the park police for an extra $5.00. Also there was only 1 or 2 campers in the park and I didn't see any one lined up waiting to get in.

It's to bad that we had to put up with these problems. The park its self is a nice campground with fairly large sites, lots of trees, and the pavillian worked great for our pot luck. Thanks again go to Mark for setting up a successful Rally

Bill & Penny