Season Pass Processing

[The Interpreter]

2005 was around the last year that they stopped issuing passes with your picture actually printed on the pass itself. Like other have said, now when your pass is scanned, a color picture displays on the monitor (which is easier to verify your identity than the small black and white image that used to be printed on the pass). That is when they verify that the person using the pass is in fact the person who owns the pass.

Assuming their computer system is up and working. If one had, for instance, a Kings Island Platinum Pass at Carowinds on, say, April 3 of 2010, and attempted to gain entry, one might well spend more than 20 minutes "trying" to gain entry to a park where one had been admitted the day before. At minute 21, and manager number three, one might even leave the park and head back home, taking one's nickels with them. Just theoretically, of course.

One might even think the park would be nice and/or gracious or about it...but that, too, would only be theoretical, sad to say...

[BavarianBeatle]

I plan on coming down for the 24th and 25th. If I get to my hotel at around 7:30 on that Friday night (the 23rd), can I run over to the park, around 8 or 9ish, and process my platinum pass? I know that's late, but it looks like the park is open until 10:00 p.m. that Friday, so perhaps the processing center is as well?

I could just do it the morning of the 24th, but it would be nice to have it out of the way.

Since the park advertises the option of upgrading a single day ticket to a season pass, it would make sense to keep the processing center open so that people could take advantage of this offer as they were leaving the park.

[CoastersRZ]

2005 was around the last year that they stopped issuing passes with your picture actually printed on the pass itself. Like other have said, now when your pass is scanned, a color picture displays on the monitor (which is easier to verify your identity than the small black and white image that used to be printed on the pass). That is when they verify that the person using the pass is in fact the person who owns the pass.

Assuming their computer system is up and working. If one had, for instance, a Kings Island Platinum Pass at Carowinds on, say, April 3 of 2010, and attempted to gain entry, one might well spend more than 20 minutes "trying" to gain entry to a park where one had been admitted the day before. At minute 21, and manager number three, one might even leave the park and head back home, taking one's nickels with them. Just theoretically, of course.

One might even think the park would be nice and/or gracious or about it...but that, too, would only be theoretical, sad to say...

This is purely theoretical, isn`t it? I mean, I had issues with my Kings Island Platinum pass on the second visit last weekend. They aren`t still having problems with this, are they? If they are, they need to get things figured out, and at least streamline the process for handling such issues. Twenty minutes is a bit long to simply print out a receipt that can scan at the gate, which is what they ultimately did for me last Sunday.

[The Interpreter]

Yes, they are having issues. And the way they acted, you'd think they had never had issues in the past. The person who had the difficulty posts here quite frequently and, was, in essence, bluntly accused of having already entered the park on the day in question (as in today). This at 9:05 a.m.

It should also be added that the handstamp ink they were using the day before is even less permanent than that used at Kings Island most days last year...

Of the four people at the park the person involved dealt with this morning, not one was understanding, nice or even cordial. Not one.

[CoastersRZ]

Wow. I wonder if this is just a glitch affecting Kings Island Platinum Passes or if other Platinum Passes have been affected. One has to also wonder if this glitch applies to just Platinum Passes, and if it is just at Carowinds. Ie, have similar things been happening at Kings Dominion? I`m still slightly concerned I`ll have issues with my Platinum Pass at Kings Island/other Cedar Fair parks I visit this summer.

Fortunately for me, they didn`t accuse me of already entering the park that day (I arrived right around 10). They did ask me multiple times if I had renewed my 2009 Platinum Pass to a 2010 Platinum Pass! I even have "`10" written on the back of my pass, since when I renewed and processed back in October, KI gave me a new, exactly identical Platinum Pass. I wanted to be able to differentiate my 2009 pass and 2010 pass!

Hopefully, they get this figured out and soon.

[The Interpreter]

I almost wonder if the scan in the parking lot is the problem. The pass scanned just fine in the parking lot...then a big red X and pass already used at the entry gate.

Quite frankly, I about half expected them to attempt to arrest the poor passholder, who had only paid nearly $150 for entry to ALL Cedar Fair parks, including one that straddles North and South Carolina, on any day when the parks are open to the public.

[CoastersRZ]

Well, my pass scanned just fine in the parking lot the first day. The second day, my pass did NOT scan at the parking lot tolls. And then it did NOT scan at the entrance gate either, just showed the big red X. I presume it did the same thing at the parking toll as well. Clearly there is something wrong in the system that they need to figure out, hopefully sooner rather than later.

[The Interpreter]

They could start by realizing their system has problems, and quit blaming the customer.

You would have thought they had never encountered this issue before.

[goofywdw]

They could start by realizing their system has problems, and quit blaming the customer.

You would have thought they had never encountered this issue before.

What do you mean quit blaming the customer?

[The Interpreter]

Bluntly and matter of factly telling the customer that he is incorrect and that he has already entered the park and cannot re-enter...by three different employees. Our system is correct...you have been in the park and cannot re-enter. Not even an "I'm sorry." That and running said customer back and forth between Guest Services and the Gate, each time telling said customer he will then be admitted...

After 20 minutes of this nonsense, I left...

[CoastersRZ]

By blaming the customer he means by accusing them of already having used the pass that day to gain entry into the park. Or in my case, them asking me multiple times if I had in fact renewed my pass and if it was indeed a 2010 pass.

You should not accuse a customer of doing something wrong if you know you have a problem with your computer system. I mean, last Sunday I was told my one of the admissions managers that my KI Platinum Pass was about the seventh or eighth pass that had worked the previous day, but was not working on Sunday, for whatever reason. So clearly they knew last Sunday that they had some sort of computer problem. One would have thought that they would have tried to fix it by this weekend. In any event, you do not want to be making your paying customers mad. Because they are giving you money. And once you loose a customer, it is hard to get that customer back again.

So was it you whose pass would not scan in? I would have been irate at the situation you described. (I was a little mad last weekend, but the employees were generally nice about the situation, and it only took about ten minutes to straighten out, and they did not accuse me of already being in the park that day.

[The Interpreter]

And this past Saturday (as in less than 24 hours ago), they acted like they had never, ever encountered this problem before, and no one had any clue what to do...other than to repeatedly blame the customer.

What a way to treat a guest from another park who paid a premium to be able to visit other Cedar Fair parks.

[CoastersRZ]

They clearly haven`t had very good customer service training. First and foremost you should apologize to them. There was once a time where "the customer was always right" as well. You would much rather have the customer leaving happy after the good service they received, then making the customer mad and leaving angry, because they might not ever return, and will spread their bad experience to their friends.

[The Interpreter]

Like, perhaps, on the Internet....

Not even once was the word "sorry" or anything remotely resembling it used....

[goofywdw]

It's difficult sometimes when you have a lot of people trying to get into the park free. There are definitely flaws in the system and you are right. It is totally unfair to punish those who do not try to cheat the system and are just doing what they were told. I have had people try and use their friends pass, and even people try to come up to me form outside the gate and ask for a hand stamp! Sometimes associates just see so much of the bad that is gets hard to trust everyone. That's where there could be improvements made in the technological aspect. There's a lot of room for improvement. Just shows how hard our job can be sometimes.

[The Interpreter]

That seemed to be exactly their attitude...poor me....I have to enforce all these policies and people are trying to get in for free. The mere possibility I might be right was beyond them. Nor did they care. Not even in the slightest.

[CoastersRZ]

Except in this situation, and in my situation last week, the park hadn`t even opened yet. Its kind of hard to have already used your pass that day before the park even opened. And secondly, Carowinds has none (at least from last weekend) that they had some issues with the KI Platinum Passes. One would think that they would be able to pull up the history of the pass to see when it was swiped in and where. If not, they might want to look into a feature like that. Clearly though, there is a serious issue. And it appears that this time, it resulted in a very upset pass holder, who will undoubtedly think twice about returning to the park.

I`m still shocked that they did not apologize. In my years at Coney, they have always stressed the importance of apologizing, even if you did not do anything wrong, and even if the customer is in the wrong. You need to listen to their concerns, and try to appease them. After all, without customers, your business can`t properly function.

[The Interpreter]

If Cedar Fair passes still had years and photos on them, this would not have happened. And who decided not to put that information on the pass but only in a computer system that doesn't seem to function all that well? Cedar Fair...of course.

[CoastersRZ]

Was it Cedar Fair that decided not to put the pictures on the passes? I seem to recall that my 2006 season pass did NOT have a picture on it anymore. I would look at my pass, but they made me turn in that pass when I purchased my 2007 pass. That is the only old pass from Kings Island that I do not currently have dating all the way back to 1998! 2000 was the last year that they actually printed the names on the passes at Kings Island.

[The Interpreter]

Paramount Parks started it. Cedar Fair each year makes a decision about what to do. By now, they are responsible for the decision. If it did not work for them, they could have changed it. They have not.

In fact, they have carried over that system to their legacy parks.

[BavarianBeatle]

I have always had issues with the rule that you can only use a season pass once a day! For example, during the Fall, I have taken the kids during the day, then retured with another adult and no kids for the Haunt at night. In my opinion, "season" means anytime during the season. They should change the name to "Once a Day During the Season" Pass, since that is, in fact, the rule.

[The Interpreter]

IF their handstamp ink actually worked, it might not be such an issue. The ink Carowinds was using Friday was even more water soluble than what Kings Island often uses, if that is possible. I am beginning to think they WANT the handstamp to wash off...then to deny you re-entry.

[BavarianBeatle]

Makes you wonder how many people who are improperly denied reentry actually pay for a ticket....

[CoastersRZ]

Which again flies in the face of good customer service. I wish they would use the good black light ink that they used to use. That way you don`t have to worry about the ink washing off if you wash your hands, unlike the ink that they currently use. I guess they figure there is some cost savings with the ink that they use now. Even still, they could find a more permanent ink than what they used last year.

How much longer before they try and incorporate the "No re-entry rule" all day and throughout the entire season, and not just after 7pm during Haunt? They would truly have a captive audience then to buy their ridiculously priced food items. But they would surely tick off a lot of customers if they did that. But anymore, I think Cedar Fair is more concerned with trying to make a nickel or two than how they treat their customers/the customer experience. Even if that means they make a nickle now at the expense of dozens of nickels down the road. That is just bad business any way you dice it!

[The Interpreter]

I also wondered something else Friday. Many Carowinds patrons are black. As you know, black people come in very different colors, from almost white to nearly charcoal. And what color was the re-entry stamp? Black. A black guy in front of me actually asked the stamping associate "How are we supposed to see that?" She had no answer!

[CoastersRZ]

Wow. Until you mentioned that, I hadn`t even thought about that type of situation before. I guess thats where the ultra violet ink really would come in handy.

[Jasper]

When I was up at the park Friday getting my pass processed, I upgraded to a Platinum Pass, no problems at all. It was also nice to see the park again and it killed me not being able to go in.

[The Interpreter]

Then you would have loved Carowinds Saturday...if you had been Friday. They'd claim you had already been there Saturday...probably!

[beastrider97]

Just got my sweet platinum pass on Saturday. I got the one with all the rides on the front. New background for my phone!

[bhi11]

Is the pass processing center open on Sundays? I can't find any hours for it on the KI website.