Teach the staff how to treat people with respect and accept that bad things happen and they can help solve them
October 2024
We were looking forward to coming to Cabanon de Le Corbusier and purchased our tickets way in advance. We were staying Northwest of Nice and left at 8:00 am for a 10:00 am tour. We tried to load the address on our car - since there is no street address number, the car would not take the address. So we used our Google Maps. We came down the hill and saw the sign for the Cabanon and Google Maps said we were here. We were not there, but we did not know that. I got out of the car and walked around looking for the building. We asked two different groups of people. The first did not know and the second group did, but they did not know how to get there without looking it up on their google maps. Their conclusion was to go the railroad station. Not sure why our tickets did not just give the train station as the address.
After all of this we called the staff to say we were coming late and they said too bad - so sad. You are out of luck. We drove there anyhow. They made a bad situation much worse. 1) Did they try to make any accommodations - absolutely not. 2) It was so bad that when we asked to go to the bathroom for some in our party - the receptionist said there were no restrooms around the area - they actually had one and let ticket holders use it - we had six tickets and she was saying no restrooms around. 3) They had 11:00 am visit open without anyone going into the building and we asked if they would just give us a ten minute tour and Amy, who apparently was in charge - said "NO"!.
I ran a not for profit for 37 years and we worked to get to yes, never to say no so quickly. Did she do anything to acknowledge that we had driven nearly two hours - that we were probably 900 feet away, just up above and maybe - just maybe she needed to try to do something. NO!!!!!!
I have never been treated like this by any museum, cultural facility in my life and in particular in France.
One of the staff acted like she wanted to help. Although even her solutions were not helpful.
As with most customer issues, these issues have been known to the organization before. I believe they have known that google maps does not get you to the building, have they done anything to solve that? Have they tried to get a number on their address so that car maps can get you there? Have they put any signage up to the area where google maps says you have arrived to solve this issue? Have they trained any of their staff not to dismiss people who have arrived late with some type of accommodation other than you can see it from the outside?
In the organization that I ran, my staff would have been trained to resolve issues not make them worse.
Did they even try to give us our money back - that was not the option we wanted - they do not offer to give your money back - in fact they say you do not get your money back - but you can write to an address.
Save your time - save your money - I am certain this is a worthwhile thing to look at - but if something happens you will run into a buzz saw that shows no mercy and solves no problems.
I do not normally turn into an ugly American - but folks and their procedures/attitude can bring it out in anybody. read more
