50's Diner Problem and Gold Parking

[hamoperator]

How did your wife cut up the two sandwiches and not realize there was no meat!?

Dealing with 4 hungry kids (1 1/2, 4, 5 and 6) You push down on the bun and cut; We didn't have any reason to think they couln't handle the job of making a sandwich. You hope that what you purchased is there! From now on at Kings Island we will check to make sure its all there.

[BavarianBeatle]

I will put in my two cents worth now. The Gold Pass lot situation has been ridiculous all year. I did get checked on Sunday at around 3:00, for the sixth time in 27 park visits..... After we were checked on Opening Day and then not checked over and over again, my kids started counting.

The manager could have dismissed your complaint and said, "You have no beef with us"...........

But I'm on your side on this one. With the prices they charge, an error that basic is unacceptable.

[ucattitude]

200 pages of complaints and complements.

That exhibits how things fell apart during the Paramount days. This is just a reminder that it takes some time to turn around the mistakes that Paramount made. Gotta have faith that CF will do it. But, Rome (not Rome, GA) was not built in a day. Now in the years I was a supervisor at the park, I could count on one hand the number of complaints that my operation would receive in a given season. Not that I was a perfect manager but I'd say that it would be the same of any supervisor in the park. I can not imagine any manager keeping their position with the receipt of that amount of complaints. Now we would get a few complements attributed to an employee each week. Those employees would get Apple Cards from Guest Relations.

That was for the entire department, not just one location...thats why I said managers. Again they were compliments and complaints. I kept my position because I personally did not receive a "receipt" of that amount of complaints. We too corrected our complaints and responded to serious ones and disciplined when necessary. We also rewarded our associates with Star Cards which allowed them to purchase items when they collected enough points....not sure what an apple card was used for,but that was an era when I was a kid. I kept my position due to several personal accomplishments that I achieved at the park and am proud to have worked under the Paramount name (if you would like to know those accomplishments I would be more than happy to send you a message). I still enjoy Kings Island regardless of who's name is on the sign and agree with you that Kings Island will continue to prosper as a great amusement park not for the namesake but because of the associates who make the job fun and enjoy it. There will always be a few that will not cut it in such a customer service based industry, and will eventually be weeded out. I still see people working at the park that used to work for me and have now become managers and full-time managers. Thats what makes the park so great.

[Hank]

I am an organist. When I play a wedding, I cannot goof up - would you expect the bride to start walking down the aisle a second time after I made a mistake and had to start the song over again? I don't think I'd be asked to play many more weddings - or anything else, for that matter. So, when I have to take my car back to the service dept. more than once for the same repair, I ask the manager if he has a daughter, and if so, can I play her wedding? Then, I explain that as she walks down the aisle, I will hit some wrong notes on the organ and ask her to go back and start again. He says, "That would be horrible". I say, "Then why didn't you fix my car the right way the first time? In my job, I don't get a second chance"!

I am darn sick and tired of lowering my standards. Do the job right or get the hell out! That goes for EVERYBODY.

[dakota2112]

For what it's worth... I've seen an increase in botched fastfood orders in general in recent years, so I am not surprised to see a decrease in the tolerance of such mistakes. Everyone's human, I know... but for me personally, something gets screwed up with my order about 25% of the time that I get fast food. The 50s Diner made it right, but the underlying issue is that most of the time the employees couldn't care less that they screwed up - and that is a problem.

I'm 40 years old. I'm old enough to remember having to drive 15 to 20 miles in Colerain township to get to a fast food restaurant. (McDonalds) Fast food restaurants have always messed up orders. If you frequent fast food (which I try not to) you have to learn to check your order before pulling through the drive thru. If that is to difficult, get out of your car - walk in the restaurant - and watch your order be prepared.

Or better yet, go somewhere that you can watch your order prepared... cough, Chipotle, cough.

Good for you. But you missed my point: the paying customer shouldn't HAVE to doublecheck their order in the first place. I don't care if it's just lowly fast food, they need to get the @*(#$ order right the first time, but when they screw it up, they act as if it's business as usual and completely acceptable.

And thanks for assuming I'm a lazy drive-through user. I'm not, and I rarely eat fast food to begin with. When I do, it's usually subway.

[MarketingExpress]

I am an organist. When I play a wedding, I cannot goof up - would you expect the bride to start walking down the aisle a second time after I made a mistake and had to start the song over again? I don't think I'd be asked to play many more weddings - or anything else, for that matter. So, when I have to take my car back to the service dept. more than once for the same repair, I ask the manager if he has a daughter, and if so, can I play her wedding? Then, I explain that as she walks down the aisle, I will hit some wrong notes on the organ and ask her to go back and start again. He says, "That would be horrible". I say, "Then why didn't you fix my car the right way the first time? In my job, I don't get a second chance"!

I am darn sick and tired of lowering my standards. Do the job right or get the hell out! That goes for EVERYBODY.

Hank, in your situation, you would probably be considered a professional playing in a very formal environment. Therefore it is imperitive that you not "goof up" because it will effect your future business.

We are talking about a 15 year old or so kid possibly at their first job, not a professional. If this was a 4 star restaurant, I would expect the high standards, but not at an amusement park.

[Hank]

^ You're right. But, they do charge 4 star prices!

I guess I just get fed up with what seems like constant mistakes no matter where you go - at age 50, I'm tired of it all.

[Beast1979]

You shouldn't go buzerk when someone gets your order wrong, they're human. They make mistakes.

But that doesn't mean they can get it wrong all the time and ignore it, they should do their job and do it right, one or two mistakes in a day is ok but constant errors are not acceptable.

So it's all dependent.

[WooferBearATL]

It's actually awesome to be on a forum with so many Perfect Individuals.

I count myself truely blessed to be surrounded by people that never make mistakes.

It's truely astounding!

[Hank]

^ God bless you!

[dakota2112]

We are talking about a 15 year old or so kid possibly at their first job, not a professional. If this was a 4 star restaurant, I would expect the high standards, but not at an amusement park.

If they're getting paid, then doesn't that by definition make them a professional?

Try to look at it this way... the customer is essentially performing the quality control at fast food establishments, so when a screw-up is found, someone needs to be made aware of it even if the problem was fixed on-the-spot. That, for me, would be justification of filing a complaint. I've worked in QC before and if problems are not formally logged, nothing will ever improve.

[Avatar]

Everyone seems to be focused on the sandwich maker and we don’t know age or the experience of the said individual, I do know they would be far more professional at sandwich making than me.

Truthfully I think if a manager would have come to speak to the upset customer that may have been enough to diffuse the situation. Supervisors/Mangers are trained on how to handle these types of situations, plus it would make the guest feel that they were heard.

That is the only thing I think the park could have done to alleviate the situation other that what they already did.

[WooferBearATL]

You know, life must be exceedingly difficult when such little things create such a major uproar.

I'm wondering how certain individuals may react to something that you know is (uhhhh) really important?

[gburn07]

From my perspective and from previously working at a pizza buffet, mcdonalds, and now being a waiter at Dennys, people feel that us lowly workers in the food business are inferior and cannot do anything right. Granted it is just a summer job for me I still take pride in working my butt off and to please people. I work so fast and hard I do at times become entangled with problems but everyone does. Granted as well that there are a lot of customers where when they really see my sympothy for the mistake I made on their order *I really do feel bad* they will not do or say anything, but alot of times an older group of people than I am will think that I am just a dumb 19 year old who knows how to do nothing and does not care about my job will yell at me like I stabbed them. Its ingrateful (sp)?) people like that who can really make your day horrible. Even when the problem is corrected they will still complain and pretty much overdo any problem they encountered to be more like a near death incident. People are selfish and cheap nowadays and unless you give someone not only their correct order along with it being free along with a ten dollar gift card to come back they will never be happy! This woman sounds like the perfect example sorry to say.

[Dane]

People make mistakes, in this case it was fixed immediately and was not all a big deal.