Bad experience at a local CC plus attaboy for golf18.

Long story short (and I am not without fault in this) I was treated like @$#! by Echo Creek CC in Murchison Tx today.

I belong to a club already but 2 times a month I'll go play somewhere else just to get a change of scenery etc. I book tee times online through Golf18network and have NEVER had an issue and will continue to use them and recommend them to everyone I know after today.

I always take my vehicle and my usual partner rides with me but he offered to take his this time since I paid for his tee time and the course was 50 miles away. Well, I never take my wallet out of my trucks center console so naturally when I loaded my clubs and shoes into his vehicle I forgot my wallet and the emailed receipt for the course.

When I got to Echo Creek, I walked into the pro shop and told the lady at the counter what I'd done and she promptly replies "No receipt, no play" and went back to what she was doing. I informed her I had a copy of my email on my iPhone which was the receipt I needed to print anyway and she told me not good enough, it has to be in print. I was getting frustrated very quickly with the shortness of her attitude but gave it one more shot and told her I had the cord to my phone in my golf bag and I could plug it into her printer right on her desk and print it out and I'd gladly pay for the use of the printer to which replied "it's against policy" without even blinking or looking up. At this point I'd had enough so I thanked her for her time as nicely as possible and asked if I could speak to the course manager and she said I was, was there anything else so I walked out.

I called the website number off the receipt in my phone, he apologized immediately and said he had the CC's number in front of him and would place me on hold and call the management. 5 minutes later he came back on the line and told me he was extremely sorry but she was adamant, unless I wanted to to pay again, I wasn't playing on their course today. He then told me there was no call for her behavior and he was crediting my account the green fees I'd paid and Echo Creek could just deal with it.

I thanked him for helping me out, drove the 50 miles back to my course and played the worst 14 holes of my life due to the frustration and then just went and hung out in the pro shop and BS'd with the Saturday attendant for an hour.

I take full responsibility for forgetting the receipt but for the love of everything holy I had 3 solutions to the problem and she flat out did no care and was rude about it. I will NEVER spend a dime at that club and will do everything in my power to discourage any of my friends from doing so either.

Golf18network however will have my business for the rest of my golfing life with the service they gave me today.

Sorry, had to vent somewhere and I figured this was the best place.

That's odd because I did the SAME exact thing but when I offered to show them the receipt on my phone they accepted that and I was able to play.  Different course different rules I guess.  But I really don't see the problem when the receipt is right on your phone.  Im sorry you had to go through that kinda makes sick when you golf that course next time if you ever do you know what I mean.

Reg there is another club very close to me I play once a month or so because I'm thinking of joining (really tough course, actually above my ability but excellent shape at all times and it makes me play smarter since I can't make a lot of the shots required) and I don't even bother to bring the receipt there anymore, I just have one on my phone just in case. Their pro shop logs every tee time received online in the starter book so they already have your name and number of players when you show up.

This place looked like a pretty nice course so I was looking fwd to playing it today but now I'll never know. I can tell where my money isn't wanted so I'll simply spend it elsewhere.

Unbelievable, yet believable.  I'm sure she was the course manager.  You see people in the "service" business acting this way all the time, but it kills me how they keep their jobs.

Ya know, in the economic situation we're in, anyone in a service industry that has as much competition as golf courses do for entertainment dollars, there is no excuse for that kind of treatment.

To me, it's pretty simple -

1. Fire her.

2. Never play there again.

I had a similar situation at Casselberry yesterday. I received a birthday coupon from them on their website (my birthday was last week), but I don't have a printer here at home, so I brought the coupon up on my smart phone. When I got to the course I explained that to the pro, showed him the coupon on my smart phone, no problem.

This woman at that course - 'receipt must be printed'...? Get out of here. It's the 21st century. Even if her fear was realized, that you were trying to shoot an angle for a freebie, you have to let it go for the sake of building clientele. She's incompetent.

Amazing that one can get on an airplane with a boarding pass ( a receipt of sorts) on a smartphone yet cannot play a round of golf with the receipt of a phone. In spite of using computerized tee times ,and most being affiliated with online booking agencies, some still have one foot stuck in the last century

Exactly my thoughts.

I'm glad to see I'm not in the minority here thinking I was jerked around a bit. I tried every way I could to accommodate her from the email (my email address isn't some 2ht4u69 crap, it's my first and last name) as well as the receipt which was in my name, to print it, and golf18 offered to fax it as well. None was good enough.

Oh well, I'll just spend my money elsewhere. I'm not a 250k a year income guy but I make excellent money in my field and I have almost no debt so when I see "shiny" I buy it. Their loss, not mine because I'm a good customer wherever I happen to go. Southern Hills, The Challenge at the Woods, Lands End CC etc all take my money and give me everything I could want for it so I'll continue to patronize their places of business as well as golf18network for my other tee times and never darken the door of Echo Creek CC again.

I've never been in the service industry at all, started a military career at 18 which ended abruptly with a torn ACL and miniscus at 30 which wasn't repaired properly and I've been in the oil/gas industry ever since. I've owned hot rod garages on the side however and worked in several others over the years just because I enjoyed making cars ignorantly fast. I never treated a customer that way, even the ones who can't be pleased and have unreal expectations I've always tried to take care of because it only takes one with the right friends to tell everyone you're not worth the money you bill and it will spread like wildfire.

I agree completely. Call this course up and see if you get someone other that that lady to answer, and if so ask to leave a message for the owner. If it is that lady who answers, either ask for the owner himself or just go to the course's website and see if they have an email or any other way to contact them. The way that lady behaved was absolutely unacceptable, and I believe that I'll have to start using this golf18network if their service really is that great.

Certainly worth a rant.

A copy of your OP should be sent to the course owner/s.

Man that's awful. Thanks for the heads-up, now I know never to play there.  Also, good work on getting a review up on Golflink so quickly.

You'd think courses would want to try to attract and hold on to customers.  Unbelievable.

It really is, the gentleman I spoke with was a complete professional and had a solution on the spot to take care of it, went the extra mile to call the club house himself and when that didn't work offered to credit my acct the full fee before I even thought of it. I'm not a huge spender with them either, like I said before I have my own club I'm a member of so I only book online probably 2 times a month. I will give them every dime of my business from now on for anything I book online.

I hit a few other local review sites with the exact same review. I tried to make it as open and honest as possible without coming off like a butthurt child which is how I felt hahaha.

I'm going to shoot you a PM as well about some courses in your area.

Agreed.

And further, look what's happening just by virtue of this thread - golfers around the world are now hearing about this. That's why I said she should be fired - for one, she obviously is stuck in 1983, being ignorant of the modern methods of receipt-presentation, and two, the OP's complaint has now been radiated throughout the...world, basically, about this course and this woman. I'll never play there should I find myself in that corner of the world. Too many other courses more than willing to accept my business.

I book online ALL THE TIME, never been asked for a receipt. Every course has some way whether it is penciling in a book or having a seperate set of printed emails that they receive from the online agencies they do business with.

Completely unacceptable considering I would think, everyone is fighting for everyone elses business. I agree with everyone else on contacting the course owner.

OP, that behavior is deplorable both as a person and a business manager.

Just a bit of a broader perspective, being 52, I have a pretty large dataset to draw upon, and I have observed that customer service across the board (retail, service, professional, etc.) has undergone serious decay in the past 20 years or so. Just doesn't make good business sense, esp in today's economic landscape.

My home course is a bit of a throwback. They still call members and guests by their last names (I still can't get used to that) and will go out of their way to accomodate you in any way possible. A real 1930s kind of feel, from back when the customer was king.