I ask your opinion

 

As I may have mentioned in the past, my wife and I own and operate a small
motorcycle campground.

Earlier this year we gave 5 gift certificates to a charitable organization, each
certificate good for two nights in a cabin.  We never heard anything from them
until last week.

Seems a member of that organization got all 5 certificates, which expire at the
end of this month, and several certificates from a local restaurant which have
already expired.  He showed up last week wanting to redeem all our certificates
and asked about the possibility of redeeming the restaurant certificates which
were out of date.

Even though we explicitly stated that we don't sell food, he whined and cried
that he was going to have to drive all the way (a whole mile) to a restaurant
where he had certificates to a free meal.  My wife was cooking my dinner at the
time (I was at my regular job) and he asked if he could have *that*.  Then he
asked if she would get up early on Saturday and cook his breakfast.  I won't
repeat the answer she gave him but you can guess.

This guy lives 30 minutes away.  Most of our guests come from hundreds of miles
away.  He asked about redeeming the certificates for cash since there were not
enough weekends between now and the time they expire.  

Uh, let me think about this.  No.  

We're not allowing him to bump people who already have reservations but he's
staked his claim to cabins every weekend that isn't fully reserved in advance.
Most of our reservations come in during the week prior to the actual stay.

For the past two weeks we have had to turn away paying customers who needed a
place to stay during a motorcycle tour, to accommodate this guy who is just
riding a free horse because it's there.  He would never pay to stay anywhere
that close to his home.  The only bright spot is that after this weekend he has
only one certificate left.

Last night he showed up again, in a cage, and bragged that he had gotten the
restaurant to honor $120 worth of certificates even though they had expired.  He
brought guests, also in a cage, and occupied two of our five cabins, knocking
motorcycle touring people out of a place to stay.  Then he complained that
somebody over 100 yards away had their radio too loud and that he came there
looking for peace and quiet.

Then he asked if we were going to offer anything to the charitable organization
next year.

I am of the opinion that:

1. Someone staying at a busy motorcycle campground should not reasonably expect
absolute silence at 8:30PM on a weekend.

2. Someone who hoards and attempts to use en masse five free passes is less than
honorable.

3. Someone who hoards free passes to a restaurant and forces that small business
owner, through the threat of negative publicity, to accept them when they have
expired, is less than honorable.

4.  It'll be a cold day in Cozumel when that charitable organization gets
anything from us in the future.

I ask you, the motorcycle community, am I wrong on any of these points?  Should
I have handled it differently?  How?  

The majority opinion to these questions will probably determine our policy on
this in the future, as to how we handle the redemption of freebies, or whether
or not we even offer any charitable certificates.

--
Jack

 




Is it safe to assume that you contacted said organization to be sure the
member came by all this honestly......as opposed to just pocketing them as
they arrived.......or some other questionable manipulation ??

Given all that you have said, I'm afraid that his initial whining would have
resulted in him receiving NOTHING, if I were in your place.

 



I once watched the owner of a local music store waste a full hour with
a lady (?) who absolutely *refused* to accept his bottom-line price on
a guitar she wanted for her son.  "You sell me cheaper, you sell me
CHEAPER!", she continued to repeat in an ever-rising crescendo.

When he finally ran out of patience he picked up the guitar off the
counter, hung it back on the wall, and told her "I'm sorry, mam; but
that price was only good for an hour, and now it's gone back up to
list price! Have a nice day!"

She went ballistic, but he just smiled and repeated the same thing
over and over until she left in a huff.

 



Friend of mine had something similar, back when I used to do autojumbles
(swapmeets, you call 'em), and some dork wouldn't pay the price has was
asking for a side panel but kept demanding a discount.

He just smashed the thing to fragments in front of him, and handed them
over for free.


--
BMW K1100LT  Ducati 750SS  Yamaha XT600E  Honda CB400F
chateau dot murray at idnet dot com
"What you're proposing to do will involve a lot of time
and hassle for no tangible benefit."

 

Jack Hunt wrote:


each

Screech... stop... back up....

What was the (explicit or implied) agreement you had with this
organization? Ie:

(1) what did you expect them to do with the certificates?

(1a) who did you want to benefit by giving them?

(2) are you certain that they understood your expectations?

(3) were the certificates intended for members of that organization
or for the recipients of their charity?

(4) does their organization management know about this person's conduct?
I get a sense of misappropriation.


SQ