Doug W Swanson
11-27-2010, 10:08 AM
Hey all,
Just thought I would pass along my story of poor customer service.
Last summer we decided to take the kids to the Wisconsin Dells for some fun over Thanksgiving Break. We had 2 nights booked at the Wilderness Resort last weekend and were anticipating a lot of fun in their 3 indoor water parks. Our plan was to leave Sunday morning and return on Tuesday. On the Saturday before we were going to leave, I checked out the Wilderness website and found out that one of their water parks (the Wild West, it's also their largest park!) is open limited hours during the off season.
Since it's about a 4 hour drive to the Dells from St Paul, MN we had hoped to get on the road by 9am so we could spend some time in that particular park. Well were delayed a bit because I had Fire Dept call and the freezing rain overnight made the roads super icy.
We did the best we could and made it to the Wilderness at 2:20pm. After checking in, we had less than 30 minutes to spend at the Wild West. The Wilderness website had boasted about bumper boats and a few water slides in the Wild West. We walked in to find that the bumper boats weren't free. They were $4/ride. There was nothing about this on the website.
The kids were a little disappointed but we moved on to the other rides. We went on one family slide together and then decided we had time for one more ride.
My daughter and I grabbed a double tube and climbed the stairs to go on the 'Black Hole'. We waited in line for about 5 minutes when 3 girls got in line behind us. They noticed we had a double tube and told us that we needed single tubes (now we had gone on a similar ride in SoDak over the summer and you could use single or double tubes).
Knowing it was close to closing time, we hurried down to change tubes. At the bottom of the stairs there was a chain across the entrance. Just then a supervisor walked by. I explained that I grabbed the wrong tube and needed to grab 2 single tubes. I also explained we had been in line for 5 minutes and that this was our only chance to go on this ride.
He didn't seem to care. His response: "It doesn't matter. I'm going to blow the closing whistle now."
I was dumbfounded.....
After climbing over the chain (we were still on the ride side of the chain), my daughter and I met up with my wife and son and walked back to our room.
I was pretty steamed. This was our only chance to go on 'The Black Hole' because that park didn't open again until after our departure.
We talked it over as a family. My wife called the hotel manager and explained the situation. All they would say was 'We'll check into it."
Not once did they say "What can we do to make it better".
We then looked into the Kalahari Resort (about a mile down the road) and found that they had rooms available. It was a little more expensive but we decided it was worth it.
So we moved from the Wilderness Resort to the Kalahari Resort and had a great time.
This was our first and last stay at the Wilderness Resort but our second of many stays at the Kalahari.
Isn't there a theory that if you receive good customer you'll tell 5 people but if you receive poor customer service, you'll tell 50 people (or something like that!)?
Thanks for reading my rant!
Just thought I would pass along my story of poor customer service.
Last summer we decided to take the kids to the Wisconsin Dells for some fun over Thanksgiving Break. We had 2 nights booked at the Wilderness Resort last weekend and were anticipating a lot of fun in their 3 indoor water parks. Our plan was to leave Sunday morning and return on Tuesday. On the Saturday before we were going to leave, I checked out the Wilderness website and found out that one of their water parks (the Wild West, it's also their largest park!) is open limited hours during the off season.
Since it's about a 4 hour drive to the Dells from St Paul, MN we had hoped to get on the road by 9am so we could spend some time in that particular park. Well were delayed a bit because I had Fire Dept call and the freezing rain overnight made the roads super icy.
We did the best we could and made it to the Wilderness at 2:20pm. After checking in, we had less than 30 minutes to spend at the Wild West. The Wilderness website had boasted about bumper boats and a few water slides in the Wild West. We walked in to find that the bumper boats weren't free. They were $4/ride. There was nothing about this on the website.
The kids were a little disappointed but we moved on to the other rides. We went on one family slide together and then decided we had time for one more ride.
My daughter and I grabbed a double tube and climbed the stairs to go on the 'Black Hole'. We waited in line for about 5 minutes when 3 girls got in line behind us. They noticed we had a double tube and told us that we needed single tubes (now we had gone on a similar ride in SoDak over the summer and you could use single or double tubes).
Knowing it was close to closing time, we hurried down to change tubes. At the bottom of the stairs there was a chain across the entrance. Just then a supervisor walked by. I explained that I grabbed the wrong tube and needed to grab 2 single tubes. I also explained we had been in line for 5 minutes and that this was our only chance to go on this ride.
He didn't seem to care. His response: "It doesn't matter. I'm going to blow the closing whistle now."
I was dumbfounded.....
After climbing over the chain (we were still on the ride side of the chain), my daughter and I met up with my wife and son and walked back to our room.
I was pretty steamed. This was our only chance to go on 'The Black Hole' because that park didn't open again until after our departure.
We talked it over as a family. My wife called the hotel manager and explained the situation. All they would say was 'We'll check into it."
Not once did they say "What can we do to make it better".
We then looked into the Kalahari Resort (about a mile down the road) and found that they had rooms available. It was a little more expensive but we decided it was worth it.
So we moved from the Wilderness Resort to the Kalahari Resort and had a great time.
This was our first and last stay at the Wilderness Resort but our second of many stays at the Kalahari.
Isn't there a theory that if you receive good customer you'll tell 5 people but if you receive poor customer service, you'll tell 50 people (or something like that!)?
Thanks for reading my rant!