Good Customer Service...eventually

On our recent camping trip we had a bit of an issue at the campground we stayed at. On our last night of tent camping a group of young men came in at 11:50 p.m. Yes, right when we were going to bed, in they rolled. They were up pitching tents, talking loud and celebrating our nation's Independence with some adult beverages. I am sure they were all "legal" but the more celebrating they did, the louder they got. On top of the celebrating they were attempting to pitch two tents straight from the boxes they just purchased them in from what looked like Cabelas. Picture tailgating at your favorite sporting event then add assembling two tents in the middle of it all. It really wasn't a pretty site or sound.

They had their car headlights, their camping lanterns, their flashlights and their loud voices bouncing all over the campsite into the wee hours of the morning.

As you will soon learn, I am a stickler for rules. I like rules. To me, rules provide the necessary guidelines to keep people from doing things that ruin things for other people, people like me. It just so happens that this campground had some pretty specific rules against doing all the things this group was doing. But at the time there was no enforcement.

As we checked out from the campground later that same morning I inquired about the rules and if what we had experienced was the "norm." We really liked the campground, location and amenities were nice and it was clean. Best showers and bathrooms we have ever had. It was just that one experience that was about to end any possibility of a return trip.

My inquiry about the night's events led to a long discussion, longer than what it needed to be with the manager of the campground. It seemed that others had complained as well. But it seemed to take a long time for the manager to see it from our point of view. As each camper checks in they are to sign off acknowledging these rules. Rules that are meant to be followed and will be enforced. Their lack of enforcement of their rules ruined our night. But the manager didn't want to listen. Didn't want to understand our concern.

Until we told him that we would not be coming back. You could see the attitude change on his face instantly. We were not longer whiny campers that couldn't handle a couple guys enjoying their summer break. We meant something. Money. Dollars. Sales. Bad Testimonials. Walking out the door. His door. His campground.

"Oh, it was that bad?" he said.

"Yes, that bad, we won't be back, it was that bad," I said.

He got it. He finally got it. He made us a couple offers for future discounts, stated he didn't want to lose our business and apologized for not responding and reacting to the issue. He assured us that those things are not typical for his campground.

Will we go back. Probably. We really liked the location. We would be willing to give it one more chance. We did get good customer service, eventually. It just took a lot of patience and explaining on our end. It should not have been that hard.

Makes me wonder though, why should it be so hard sometimes to get the service that we are promised from people that want our business? Getting good service, particularly after a bad experience shouldn't be, should it?