Sunset Hills Country Club — Draw Your Own Conclusions
You know this is gonna be a post from an angry customer who feels like he got the shaft. I’m sure you’ll keep that in mind while reading this rant.
We recently joined the Sunset Hills Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Ca., going for the simple “Social” membership. This is a private club with golf, tennis, pool, gym, sauna, blah. With our membership level we don’t get free access to tennis or golf but we do have the ability to play for an additional fee.
We just got our first bill from them which included a round of golf and a cart rental. Weird, I’ve not played golf there yet and the date they listed was my daughter’s birthday, Father’s Day, the date my sister-in-law flew home and a day when much of family gathered at my place. Did I have time for golf? No. Did I play golf anyways? No. This was a mistake in billing. I suppose these things happen though it’s kinda shitty when it happens on your very first bill. Whatever, deal with it, right? We call them up and they tell us (get this shit… hold on!) that we have to come in, in person, to dispute the bill. Hmmm. Total of $94 in dispute and I might spend quite a long time away from work to handle it, possibly enough time for me to lose more in my own work revenue than the $94 total. All I could think was, WTF is going on here? Perhaps if they had sent me a copy of a scorecard indicating that I shot something in the mid 70′s I’d be less bent but as things stand I believe this is more over-the-top than dealing with SBC’s billing department as an ISP.
If I hadn’t signed a one year contract I would have sent them a note inviting them to eat a plate of donkey doo but now we’ve got to deal with this crap ourselves.
I wonder how others would deal with this type of situation? I’ve been blessed/cursed with a fiery Irish temper and from time to time it gets the better of me. I’m inclined to park my car in front of the club with a huge sign, telling the world just how crappy the customer service is (stop laughing Joe!). I don’t need my car that often and since I pay to have access to the facility I should be able to get away with it for quite some time. But would that be over the top? Am I expecting too much?
Running a company that lives and dies based on its customer service, the response I received was especially difficult to swallow. I know how difficult it is to do right by the customer sometimes but I know when it is just plain necessary. I don’t believe “the customer is always right” but I do believe in doing everything possible when you realize that the customer *is* right, especially when I know I’m wrong.
For now, my hope is that SHCC goes bankrupt. Perhaps they’ll surprise me in the future but I’m not holding my breath or changing my opinion until that day comes.
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