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Customer Service at its Finest, Not

Posted in Lifes Observations, tagged , , , , , , on December 20, 2022| 2 Comments »

There are lots of children in campgrounds. Many of which are noisy and have no respect for boundaries or/and have parents who don’t teach them not to run through other peoples campsites and the rest of us come to accept it as part of rv life . There are campgrounds that are dedicated to family life with mini golf, playgrounds, jump pads all designed with children in mind. All perfectly acceptable and you know what you are getting into when you book your site.

Many a time, when looking through our schedule Denyce and I would joke, what if it is an ‘Adult’ only, as in swingers? One never knows.

There are other options. In Blountville Tennessee, Rocky Top campground claim themselves to be a quiet, peaceful campground for adults. Nobody under the age of 18 is allowed on the premises at anytime. That is how they advertise, it’s on their literature, on the web site, in the rules even on the sign when you enter. We booked a site for a few days, then later decided to book some extra time so we could further enjoy the quiet.

First thing we noticed is that it was alongside a very well used road, lots of traffic noise so the peacefulness was not quite as advertised, but still it was nice, no screaming children. When I was setting up outside Denyce pointed out some deer in the site across from us. So yes, it was nice.

On our third day an rv pulled in right beside us with two young boys. Say what? There was nothing to keep them occupied. No play area, no jump pads, no basketball hoops, nothing nada. So they played amoung themselves. First with a bouncing ball which we had to endure. Nothing like repetitive noise. Once they got bored with the ball they did what most brothers will do. Fight. I watched as the older brother kicked the chair out from under the younger brother. So much for the peaceful adult only campground.

We decided to be one of those people and called the campground office. What I expected from the owner was, ‘I know and we are so sorry, there was nothing available in the area and we didn’t have the heart to say no. I will talk with the parents and make sure they keep the kids quiet. I remembered you booked an extra two days stay because it’s an adult only campground we will be happy to refund two days”.

I’m writing a blog about this so I’m sure you already understand that is not how the conversation went at all.

The minute my wife mentioned the children the owner went on the defensive. “It is not my fault they booked online and didn’t know it was adult only, what do you want me to do kick them out?”

“No, I don’t want you to kick them out, however we did book extra time as you adver…”

“OH MY GOD”, (talking to my wife on speaker phone), “Lady I can’t believe you are complaining about children in a campsite. It wasn’t my fault he booked online so that is out of my control, Oh My God, they booked online I didn’t let them in with children are you seriously wanting me to kick them out?”

“No we don’t want you to kick them out but you don’t have to be rude t…”

“I’m not being rude”

“Well you are yelling at us and keep repeating..”

“I’m not being rude Lady! Oh My God, they booked online I can’t believe you are having an issue with this. Do you want me to kick them out. Is that what you want?”

“Once again, I don’t want you to kick the…”

“Then what do you want me to do, it’s not my fault they booked online, OH MY GOD I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS!”

“You can stop yelling at us and repeating yourself, we are not the ones who”

“I’M NOT YELLING! AND IM NOT UPSET WITH YOU! OH MY GOD! WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO KICK THEM OUT? AND IM NOT YELLING, NOW YOU ARE TWISTING MY WORDS!”

At this point we realized there is no point in continuing. No doubt this guy is a bully and an asshole and has no idea how to treat customers.

“You know what?” I said, ‘forget about it, it’s all wonderfu…”

“Oh My God, it’s not my fault he didn’t know it was adult only and he booked online. What do you expect me to do about it?”

“Well since we booked more time because of you policies we would like a redu…”

“I can’t believe I have to deal with this! It’s not my fault! He booked online!”

“You can stop repeating yourself, I already said it’s all good, please have a nice day, you can stop yelling no..”

“I am not yelling! You keep twisting my words..”

Finally we got him off the phone. My lovely wife found another campground between where we were and where we were going. Only we had to wait a day for a spot to open up, which we did. Our neighbors with the children seemed nice enough but we certainly were not comfortable staying there with the asshole of an owner.

A few interesting facts. On the day we were leaving the people with the boys were leaving as well. Denyce went to talk to him because we know the owner probably told them that we complained. Denyce explained that we were not upset with him we just wanted to know what was going on.

We learned that he was local, he absolutely knew the campground was adult only. They are fostering the two boys and decided to see if they could take them camping. So they called this campground because it was close and asked if they could bring the boys and were told they could. They were leaving not because of us but because the boys were miserable as there was nothing for them to do.

Denyce always reads the reviews of the campgrounds and this one had all good reviews. After the fact she decided to use google and see maybe somewhere there were other reviews. There were. All pretty much the same. “Lovely campground but will never go back the owner is a jerk.” One reviewer said he stopped at the campground to get some propane tanks filled, (as the owner advertises as a service for a fee of course). But when this reviewer asked about it the owner was too lazy to get up and fill the tanks, the owner, “didn’t feel like it”

I typically don’t do reviews of any sort on this blog, but there is always a first. So if you ever find yourself in Blountville Tn stay away from Rocky Top Rv campground.

The entire trip we did enjoy singing that old classic;

…Rocky Top, you’ll always be my home sweet home to me Good ol’ Rocky Top, Rocky Top Tennessee

Once two strangers climbed ol’ Rocky Top Lookin’ for a moonshine still Strangers ain’t come down from Rocky Top Reckon they never will….

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Customer Service, Not!

Posted in Lifes Observations, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on January 7, 2012| 3 Comments »

Awhile ago we sent my father-in-law some blue ray movies only to find out he couldn’t watch them because his blue ray player needed a software update and because he doesn’t have ‘the internet’ he couldn’t update it.  So this Christmas we sent him a new blue ray player.  We found one that would meet all his needs meaning it would simply play blue ray movies.  It was not expensive and was basically plug and play.  We purchased the player from our local Best Buy and they shipped it to him in California. My father-in-law was very appreciative but he could not hook it up because he has a fancy universal remote.  When he bought his new TV he got the remote with it.  The catch was that the Geek-Squad came to his house hooked everything up to this remote.  Basically his whole house is connected to this stupid remote.  He told us that if he hooked up the new blue ray player he would void the warranty on the remote. 

So we called the Geek Squad.  They looked up his account and sure enough my father-in-law was correct and to have somebody come out and install the blue ray player would cost fifty dollars.  To hook it up to his existing remote would cost an additional one hundred dollars.  On the upside that would reset his warranty.  Yup, we had to spend one hundred and fifty dollars so he could use a blue ray player that cost less than one hundred dollars.  So we went over it again with geek squad guy and confirmed with him a third time.  That if we paid one hundred and fifty dollars somebody would go to my father-in-law’s house hook up the player and program it to his existing remote.  He assured us that would be the case and seeing as they had us over a barrel we grabbed our ankles paid the money and set up a time.

A week later we called my father-in-law to find out if he enjoyed the movies we sent. We found out the geek squad guy showed up, un-hooked his old blue ray player and hooked up the new one but told my father-in-law that we didn’t pay for him to add the new player to the remote, even if my father-in-law wanted to pay the extra this guy couldn’t do it because it wasn’t on the work order so he didn’t bring the computer he needed to program the remote to the player.  So my father-in-law had him unhook the new player, plug in the old one and he (my father-in-law) would hook up the new player to his old TV and watch it that way.  BACK THE TRUCK UP! He said we didn’t pay to hook up the player to the remote, so he did nothing? 

My wife called up the Geek squad and the lady explained to us that the technician was correct we had not paid for home networking and that is what we were asking them to do.   My wife then asked exactly what we paid $150.00 for.  The lady never answered the question.  Instead she informed us that if we wanted to pay sixty dollars on top of the 150.00 we had already paid they could then hook up the new equipment to the remote.   

My wife explained, (in four part harmony) that we were told that the $150.00 was for the programming the remote and the hook up.   First she started to tell us we were incorrect because that would not cover the programming of the remote.  My wife explained again that we were told that by us paying 150.00 dollars a technician would go to the house hook up the new equipment and program the new equipment to the remote.  Instead what we got was nothing! We paid 150.00 dollars and nothing was done.  NOTHING!  We wanted to know exactly what we got for 150.00 dollars!  The lady apologized and acknowledged that we got the wrong information and if we wanted we could pay an additional 60.00 and the technician would go back and do the job.  This was not acceptable how could we possibly trust them now?  How do we know the tech would go out there again and again do nothing,  and then we could sit on the phone for another hour (yes this took over an hour) only to find out we didn’t pay enough. Personally I’d rather have my father-in-law throw the thing out the window. 

In the end, after a lot of frustration my wife got the hundred and fifty back, and my father hooked up the new player to the old TV.  I’d still like to know what the $150.00 bought us.  When the tech got the order did he really think that somebody would pay that much to plug a blue-ray player into a wall?  I work for Comcast Cable.  I assure you our techs would look at an order like that and go see a supervisor first, knowing that something was wrong.

We learned a lesson.  Don’t buy one of those fancy remotes your house because if you want to buy a new piece of equipment you may as well bend over a grab your ankles if you want it to work with your existing system. 

Two, don’t trust the geek squad further than you can throw them. I do have geek squad protection on this computer and they have helped me out.  When my drive crashed they had a new one installed within a day, didn’t cost a penny.  When I had a problem loading a program I gave them a call and they talked me through it and we had great success.  However they are right here at my local Best Buy store and I can definitely throw them that far, at the very least they have to deal with me live and in person and in those situations I can usually get people to do what is right.  In this instance however I can’t throw them all the way to California from Pennsylvania.

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Experience in Dining

Posted in Lifes Observations, Small town life, State College, tagged , , , , , on May 15, 2010| 2 Comments »

The Waffle Shop is a very trendy breakfast/lunch restaurant here in State College. The food is always good and there is always a line to get inside. My wife and I decided to take Friday off work and thought what the heck, let’s go to the Waffle Shop after all the french fries are to die for. Due to the lines to get in and the noisy atmosphere the last time we dinned there was about a year ago.

As predicted, there was a line but it wasn’t too long. The first change we noticed was that they had installed a large flat screen TV over the cash so those waiting in line would have something to watch. Naturally the only thing that was showing on the TV was one long commercial for the Waffle Shop. I thought this odd seeing as we have never seen the commercial on TV and we were already in the restaurant, so what exactly was the point?

So we waited, and watched the annoying loop of the smiling chef flippin’ eggs, but really it was okay, we had fun watching the people. Finally the hostess who was standing about halfway into the restaurant pointed at us and then pointed to a table, ah yes, nothing in the world beats that personalized level of service. The table was set for one and I figured they are busy I’m sure they will get me flatware and some napkins, not a problem. We ordered our food and waited. I started to get a little annoyed as they seated us next to a wall that was about waist-high, it was more like a solid partition. There was not enough room for a person to pass by the back of my chair and the wall yet both wait staff and patrons alike managed to do just that and the wall was unforgiving. I can’t tell you how many time the back of my chair was bumped. Of course the way the tables were scattered there was no alternative route to the back of the restaurant, the kitchen and the front of the restaurant I must say it was an absolutely brilliant design.

When our food came the first thing that was apparent was the change in french fries. No longer did they serve steak fries now they serve wimpy little fries, to the credit of our waitress she did go to the kitchen to check if anything could be done and of course nothing could be done. She asked us if there was anything else she could get for us. Seeing as I don’t enjoy eating coleslaw with my fingers I asked for some flatware. I do enjoy a good fork now and again.

The Philly Cheese steak I ordered was a far cry from a PHILLY cheese steak but non the less it was very good. The hoagie that my wife ordered was also very good, except for the fries I really have no complaints against the food.

Too add to our dining experience a large party needed to be seated in an already crowded restaurant, but where do you seat a large group of people in an already crowded restaurant? No problem, not for the able staff at the Waffle Shop. One manager and a waitress lifted the empty table that was on our left and proceeded to lift it OVER OUR HEADS to the point where I had to duck so I didn’t get hit in the head by one of the steel legs, Lucky for me I was forced to duck as now I was able to cover my food with my head and shoulders to protect my food from anything that might fall from the underside of the table that was being transported OVER my head while we ate!

Trying to keep on a positive note I figured, “hey, at least I have the next topic for my blog” So you know what Waffle Shop? You can keep your fancy flat screen TV set, your lines, your pay by cash or check only, you can even keep your trendy preppy patrons and your crappy wimpy assed french fries. As for me? I’m going back to Denny’s where they don’t lift tables over your head while you eat.

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