sucks for Memorial Day weekend 2015

[katzklaw]

got my first one already, and it was only Thursday! fortunately it was a very minor one, but still..

in the campground that i am now on my 4th summer at, i'm known as pretty much the guru of the program we use to register guests. if someone has a question, or can't figure out how to do something, or something stops working... the answer is usually "ask Katz" so yesterday i walk into work for my afternoon shift and am greeted with "oh yay! you're here! help!". i thought something had gone wrong on a reservation, as the co-worker who was asking my help was holding a receipt in her hand, and she had a guest in front of her.

turns out the only thing they were questioning was a math issue combined with a slightly confusing receipt output. they wanted to know why they paid $55 as a 1 nights deposit, but the receipt they just got said it 3 nights @ $58. they had the 10% member discount card, so they were convinced that the math was wrong somehow... because the receipt is stupid sometimes (we get questions on stuff on the receipt all the time, but anyway) the receipt prints it out as such: 3 nights @ 58. minus the 10% discount, then plus the 5.5% tax... and when someone makes a reservation, the computer considers that end total and calculates the amount of the 1 night deposit based on that rate, so 58 - 10% + 5.5% equaled the exact amount of their deposit... but i HAD to show them on a calculator and explain. they left satisfied in my answer. i don't think he was happy that the tax added after the discount, but o well.

unfortunately by the time i walked in, the desk clerk who HAD been handling it was also confused by the receipt and had apparently put in a call to the manager that the computer had done the math wrong on a transaction and she couldn't figure out how to fix it... or something of that nature.... because i got a call later on the radio asking about it...

ah well... it's Friday now... got over 140 families pouring in today. wish me luck!...in all likelihood i'll be bringing you more stories as the weekend wears on... but hopefully not many this year!

[BrenDAnn]

Best of luck, Katz! I have a feeling by the time the weekend is over this is going to be a rather lengthy thread!

[Ironclad Alibi]

I don't think he was happy that the tax added after the discount, but o well.

Maybe he wanted the tax to added before the discount? Final result is the same.

Or maybe he didn't want the tax to be added?

[wolfie]

Or maybe he didn't want the tax to be added?

But those are carpet tacks

They're tea tax now.

[dalesys]

Naw, t'umb tacks.

[katzklaw]

rant inc... tomorrow.. after a good night's sleep. right now i just staggered in the door at 11pm when my schedule said 9:30

[katzklaw]

warning: long

so yeah... the park i'm working at is closed in the winter... too dang cold in northern wisconsin to stay open in winter... but people still call to make reservations. the boss contracted with a reservation service to take all the calls over the winter... i don't really like the Big Yellow Campground contracted reservation service, if for no other reason that they don't know the idiosyncrasies of the particular park they're making a reservation for... but in addition to that they keep making errors... not in what they're doing, but how they're doing it. rule number one of every Yellow campground i've ever worked at over the last 8 years is if the site was randomly assigned by the computer never tell someone what site they're in.. rule number two is if you do end up telling them their site OR they request a site or an area specifically... LOCK the reservation in the system so they can't be moved. the service has been breaking BOTH of those rules all winter long, and it bit us in the ARSE last night...at LEAST 3 times that i know of just for yesterday. shudder to think of what 4th of July will be like, but anyway

suck #1

Guest comes in, computer had assigned them a site about 5 spaces up a row, and they wanted to know if they could get the end site instead. i checked, and the end site was not locked, and had no notes, so i said "sure" and swapped the sites, proceed to get them checked in, and we go on our merry way. a minute or so later i get a call on the radio that the camper i had just sent out to the end site got there, and it was already occupied. everyone came back to the office, and party number 2, the people actually in the end spot, told me that they had made the reservation 2 months ago (so before we opened) and they specifically asked for that site so they could be near family... they knew what site they were going to ahead of time, so they parked first and were about to come into the office... that's why they were already on the site with.

so that was screw up #1 of the reservation service for just this weekend alone. party number 2 stayed on their site, as they had requested it, and it was the error of the service that it wasn't locked. party number 1 was told they could go back to the site they had originally, OR there were 2 other sites available. all other sites were taken. the wife said she had to go discuss it with her husband and she left... she never came back, so i had no idea where they were.

a little while later, my guys outside are calling me again that the guy from party #1 had pulled into a site randomly (another end site, and this one WAS locked... and was with party #2. so they really couldn't be moved. i gave the available sites over the radio again, and the outside guy took the guest around to one of the sites in the back. few minutes later outside guys are on the radio again... site in the back is too small... where else can he go. i give the available sites AGAIN... meanwhile while all this is going on i've never had less than 3 people in front of me waiting to check in at any one time...

another couple of minutes go by, and my outside guy suddenly calls me saying that the guy was pulling into another site, and had told my outside guy that he was just going to pull into whatever site he wanted and we were just going to have to deal with it, he had waited long enough... or he was going to leave. the only reason he was "waiting" was because he never sent his dang wife back in stating what site OF THE 3 I TOLD HIM I HAD AVAILABLE he wanted. he didn't want those, he wanted one of the "empty" sites he saw around him... requested and locked reservations be damned... i informed my outside guy of the available sites YET AGAIN (are we keeping track? how many times is that now?) and the owner was called because now this guy is angry (guess what buddy, so am i, because someone can't seem to understand simple English... NO you can't have that site, or that one, or that one...you can have THIS one, or nothing).

we have a row of sites that back up into the trees that the people who work here camp in, and there was still 2 or 3 spots in the middle of that row... but the sites are comparatively spacious... the owner ended up putting him into one of those spaces...

end result: 3 night stay comped (around $55+/- per night). possibly more free stuff... i'll hear what if anything when i go to work this afternoon

suck #2:

A couple weeks ago, a guest called to confirm her reservation, and she stated a site number, and asked if there was any chance she could get any closer to her family. when i checked, she was not on that site number, so i checked the log for that reservation, and she had originally been put on that site, but again, no notes, no lock (reservation service screw up #2), so someone else had come along and moved her because someone else asked for that site. not only was she not on the site she thought she had, she was even FARTHER away from her family than before. i got the owner's approval to place her pop up camper on a tent site, and we thought all was solved and she hung up happy...

fast forward to last night. they arrived, and the tent site had a log along the side of the site, and an oddly placed stump that, while not a problem for a tenter, made it extremely difficult to get a pop up camper into the spot... queue many frantic minutes of desperately searching the system for something anything remotely close to where she wanted to be (got nothin) and her fussing at her husband on the phone (another case of "that site is empty, why can't i have that one?"... fortunately the wife in the office with me understood what was going on and shot him down... but she was still incredibly frustrated). somehow they managed to get the camper into the site eventually anyway...

end result: 11 free passes to the jumping pillow for ALL the kids in all the families of the group that had wanted to stay together in the first place. ($3.75 each). again, possibly more, but not sure.

at least one of these two also got free breakfast (highest priced item on the menu is $5.50) for the whole weekend... not sure who, tho.

suck #3:

this one i only overheard.. my co-worker handled it. but another case of "was in an end site, got moved, not happy". (screw up #3 for reservation service.. for this weekend alone mind you...) oddly enough this guy was only moved one space over... but the end spaces have a nice big yard, so they're desired over the mid-row spaces. guy had called ahead, and knew he wasn't in the site he thought he had, so we arranged to help him out when he DID get here... which happened to be at around 10:15... after we were technically closed. we informed him of the few spots we had, my outside guy takes him on a golf cart and shows him the sites, he comes back and takes the first spot that he had when he first got here (not the one he thought he had, but the one next to it...yeah, that one.) and said "and I'll want to speak to the manager in the morning." with that "i'm really irritated, but i don't want to take it out on you because its not your fault" look and tone. thank God for that at least. we had one angry guest who was reasonable.

end result: unknown at this time, but probably more free crap

and while this was all going on... i was NON-STOP from the time i walked in the door at 3, till i closed and locked the door at 10. 140+ check ins yesterday.. 600+ people in the park at the end of the day.

phew! (i slept late this morning >.> )

[Minflick]

Please tell me your owner/manager won't be using that reservation group EVER again....!