Poor Customer Service

There are countless examples of good customer service incidences and likewise bad ones as well. I have recently encountered the later on a family ski trip to Squaw Valley.

The first day we arrived it was raining, so we decided to forgo doing any skiing until the next day when the rain was supposed to turn into snow, as it did to the tune of 22 inches.

Both my sons needed to rent ski equipment, so around lunch time I checked to see what time we could get the equipment for the following day from the ski rental shop closest to the cable car. I was told I could pick it up at 3:00pm.

We came back at 2:40pm, as I thought it might take a while to fill in the forms and was told by one of the employees that they would take care of me then because it was so close to 3:00pm. So, I filled out both forms and we were ready to go by 2:45pm.

Then the "manager" entered the scene. He tells me that we cannot rent the equipment until 3:30pm. I responded that I new I was early, but thought it was 3:00pm. Then he said. "OK, 3:00pm, you still have 15 minutes". There was no "I am sorry but you will have to wait sir". In fact, I had already caught him in a fib about the time, and there was no apology about that either. He just turned from me and walked away. If they had been busy it might have been a little more understandable or at least forgivable, but we were the only customers in the room and there were three employees, which ironically were bemoaning the fact that they had only booked around $400.00 that day.

The icing on the cake, was when we heard one of his employees ask this "manager" if they shouldn't help us and he ignored the question and walked away from his employee. I took the completed forms and dropped them in the trash as we headed out the door and back to the hotel room.

I am the worse type of customer when it comes to these instances, unfortunately for businesses most customers fall into this category. I do not yell or complain, thus giving one time to correct the problem (not that I think they would have). I just take my business elsewhere. We went back to the room and I went online and found a ski rental shop that had several location including Tahoe City, it's name was Tahoe Dave's. Both my sons ending up getting Demo packages at about half the cost of the standard package that was offered by Squaw Valley. Also, the customer service at Tahoe Dave's was outstanding. So, for a short 5 mile drive we ended up with better equipment, better service, and a cheaper price. Needless to say, when I return to the Tahoe area I will be going back to Tahoe Dave's.