another episode in poor customer service...

[Guest]

When you pass the PAT you are a card carrying PGA member, The PGA of America. When you get you tour card you are a PGA Tour member.

[Mr.Buckethead]

Thanks for your assurance.

My brother-in-law has passed the PAT.

[doublesuited77]

UPDATE--

Head pro was away traveling until Thursday so I sent an email instead. I got a response within an hour. He thanked me for my email, apologized for the incidient and promised to followup with Jeff immediately upon his return. He also promised to followup with me again after he has spoken to Jeff.

All things considered, I am pretty happy with the reponse i got.

[AndrewM]

PGA certification = PGA card. He means a class A certification. You do get an actual "card," yes.

And if this guy (buckethead) thinks being a Class A PGA Pro is as easy as taking the PAT and a "few classes" he obviously has NO idea of the cost or work involved.... regardless of whether or not you agree with the program you have to respect the work that goes into it.

[Mr.Buckethead]

I never said I didn't respect the work that went into it. Try reading my posts again.

[Logie]

Glad to see you had a swift response. I dont see the point asking for free stuff as the course wasnt the problem, its just the staff speak to people like shit which is not on!

[golfchief]

Sounds like you handled it right.

[easygrip]

You did the right thing DS77. I can't say that I would have done the same, especially if my son were with me. I would probably still be locked up. I have worked in some sort of customer service my whole life, and while it is true that he may have had some tragedy in his life or just been having a bad day in general, there is no excuse for speaking to someone in that manner. I would not ask for anything free, just a humble, sincere, FACE to FACE apology from this jerk. Accept no less, and no more. You deserve the respect.

[Sowbug2000]

UPDATE--

Sounds good....I can't wait to hear about it. This guy is a jerk.....NO excuses. You don't talk to paying customers like that EVER. Please keep us posted.

I would like to see this guy appologize. Face to face. Good job.

[Big Lex]

Yeah, I guess the term "Card" is more commonly associated with touring pros, but club pros talk about getting their "card" as well. Like Erik said, I meant the Class A certification.

[Soup Fan]

Well crap. I won a free foursome to this place and if that is how they treat paying customers, I am afraid to see how they will treat my group when we walk up and my brother is dressed like this:



I am supposed to play there this Thursday. Forecast calls for mid 80s and rain. Wish I wasn't an hour's drive away.

[Richie3Jack]

It sucks to hear this happen, but I understand what happened (although it doesn't excuse the assistant's attitude).

At 6pm the employees are itching to leave the place. Most of them, particularly the assistant pro, gets paid like crap. Meanwhile the head pro usually makes pretty good money, sets his own 40 hour work schedule (while the assistant is working a 60+ hour week) and a lot of that is often spent doing lessons, which are far less of a pain that working behind the counter. Plus, they are great money maker.

But the assistant and the other employees can't leave until everybody is off the course and after being at the course for probably close to 10+ hours, they are not in the mood for another customer. Especially when they probably have to show up the next day at 7am for another full day of packed muni course.

I don't agree that you should never talk to a paying customer like that as I've seen countless occasions where customers completely cross the line (this poster didn't do a thing wrong). And that's probably what drove the bad attitude here as the assistant probably has dealt with his fair share of horrible customers. To compound the issue, the course and the head pro will almost never stick up for the assistant no matter what the customer does. In no exagerration, there was a time I saw a customer start swearing at an assistant over a frost delay and then grab the assistant and try to assault him and the course and head pro did nothing but apologize to the customer. Most examples are far less extreme than that, but just imagine putting up with lesser, but similar instances like that all of the time.

I'm all for a movement that forces courses to get better rangers. 99% of the rangers out there are absolutely worthless. I worked at one course in Myrtle that one year forced each of the assistants to spend at least one day a week rangering. They gave us carte blanche in our rangering duties and we did things that rangers should do like:

1. Keep up the pace of play.
2. Locate golf balls for golfers who can't find them or are teeing off on a tricky/blind tee shot.
3. Give course tips i.e. yardage, etc.
4. Service the customer on certain things, like finding out whether or not they paid for their tee time instead of forcing the customer to prove it.

When we were given carte blanche, the replay rate shot through the roof and the course was wildly popular because of it. But instead, most courses are content with rangers who do virtually nothing and appeasing a handful of golfers while the rest of the 100+ golfers have to suffer. It's really a backwards way of looking at things.

It seems like you handled it the right way by just e-mailing the head pro. The assistant had no right to treat you like that, but it may have been a misunderstanding (who knows what the ranger told him) and a long time of frustration that let all of this happen.



3JACK

[JaY_B]

Nice year old thread.

[Jack_2251]

Maybe in his "personal" phone call, he had a problem like someone in the family passing away or his girlfriend dumping him etc., and he didn't react well to it.

[rgoudy1975]

I'm glad to hear it worked out. I agree that his behavior toward you was totally unacceptable, but I really try to give people the benefit of the doubt; i.e. as Jack_2251 said maybe he was dealing with something terrible. I'm a very even keel type of person and have to remind myself constantly that not every one else is so.

[golfchief]

Theres no reason for any person in that position to speak to a paying customer that way,none.

[jwnolefan]

wanted to share this with you guys and get some opinions on what I should do next. Clearly, many golf courses forget that they are in the service industry.

I would wager that the ass. pro just wanted to pocket your $20 and was pissed that the ranger was busting him on it...

[Wisco-Kid]

I would wager that the ass. pro just wanted to pocket your $20 and was pissed that the ranger was busting him on it...

Yeah - Good Call!