Pompous know it all customer

[mechanic1908]

I've worked in the bowling industry for nearly 30 years.
Therefore I have a lot of experience, as you can imagine with the lanes and equipment.
We have one league customer who doesn't like the oil on the lanes.
The oil is required to keep the friction from the balls from doing damage to the lane panels as we have synthetic lanes.
He has bitched about it a lot and even though we have reduced the frequency that we oil the lanes for him, that wasn't enough apparently.
This past Wednesday he went in to the alley 2 hours before his league bowls and stole our cleaning crew's mop and pail out of the employee only maint. room.
He then proceded to mop the lanes oil off.
All of this while the counter staff just stood there and watched him and didn't say anything?!?!?!
The following day the cleaning staff couldn't understand why the floors were slippery as hell and all streaked. (Because they didn't know the mop was used on the lane and they reused it)
Unbelievable.
Some people should be shot.
Rant over.
Eric

[Pixilated]

Sounds as if somebody needs to have a talk with the counter staff as well ... if they didn't actually want to try to stop him, why didn't they call someone higher up over to deal with it??

Can he be given a warning of an imminent ban if he doesn't knock it off?

[mjr]

The oil is required to keep the friction from the balls from doing damage to the lane panels as we have synthetic lanes.
He has bitched about it a lot and even though we have reduced the frequency that we oil the lanes for him, that wasn't enough apparently.
This past Wednesday he went in to the alley 2 hours before his league bowls and stole our cleaning crew's mop and pail out of the employee only maint. room.
He then proceded to mop the lanes oil off.
c

The guy clearly doesn't know what the oil is for. I can't believe he likes DRY lanes. Most bowlers don't.

I don't have the experience you have, but I've done my share of bowling, and I hated dry lanes because I would have to change my approach completely, and as a "hook" bowler, I'd have to play out around the outside arrow, between there and the gutter sometimes just to get my ball to hook in like I wanted.

Do you use a "standard" house pattern? Do you have a way you could have diagrams of the oil patterns posted at your bowling center? Is there a way you can temporarily bar this guy from your establishment?

[emax4]

Sounds as if somebody needs to have a talk with the counter staff as well ... if they didn't actually want to try to stop him, why didn't they call someone higher up over to deal with it??

Can he be given a warning of an imminent ban if he doesn't knock it off?

I second this. What would be the consequences if he felt that the cash register drawers weren't popping out fast enough, or the place closes too early? On the other hand, you could hand him a toilet brush and say, "Seeing how you love volunteering here after the mop job you did, we need you to take care of the men's toilets..."

[starsinthesky]

Our bowling alley is serious about walking on the lane more than fouling out. If something requires a person walking down the lane, you have to get someone. Maybe he needs to be told the courtosey done by oiling less will no longer be extended to him.

[PepperElf]

This past Wednesday he went in to the alley 2 hours before his league bowls and stole our cleaning crew's mop and pail out of the employee only maint. room.

Sounds like someone needs to be shown the door.

but i do so love the toilet suggestion

[Smapti]

How does altering the physical characteristics of the play area not count as a violation of league rules? That ought to be grounds for having his team disqualified.

[mjr]

How does altering the physical characteristics of the play area not count as a violation of league rules? That ought to be grounds for having his team disqualified.

The guy better count his lucky stars he's not in a PBA Experience league, or on a US Open Pattern...

[bhskittykatt]

I'm not much of a bowler (my average is like 60), but I remember in AP Physics one of my classmates was a bowler and did one of his projects on the physics of bowling, and he talked about oil patterns and how the ball reacts to different patterns and how to put different spins on the ball and how you just can't go out and wipe off the oil from the lane or you break the game! The oil is there for a reason!

If this guy had tried that at any of the lanes around here, league or not they would have kicked his ass out!

[Food Lady]

How does altering the physical characteristics of the play area not count as a violation of league rules? That ought to be grounds for having his team disqualified.

Forget that. Going into an employee-only area is trespassing. Security should've been called.

[mjr]

The OP can correct me if I'm wrong, but generally a "house shot" or "standard" pattern is somewhere between 38 and 40 feet, with most of the conditioner toward the middle of the lane.

Maybe this guy thinks he's "too good" for a standard league pattern, and wants something more "advanced". Whatever the case, he's ruining the conditioner on the lanes, and completely destroying the oil pattern.

Here's a little bit of an explanation of oil patterns...

http://bowl.com/welcome/welcomedetai...?id=6442454951

so you can see, if this guy starts "mopping" the lane, bad things happen.