The boyfriend and I wanted to recreate one of our first dates, one year to date, and paddle boating at Lake Arlington was the second stop on our Sunday date day. Too bad Lake Arlington completely squashed our dreams when we were met with terrible customer service and a manager with one bad attitude.
To start, my boyfriend called in this morning to make sure the paddle boats were up and running, and we were told that they were, but there was a delay with that start time, so we should come in mid to late afternoon. Fine, no problem, as I was starving and wanted to grab lunch in a neighboring suburb first (one of the stops on our date list. Cheesy, I know).
We made it to Arlington Lake about 2:30, and were told that we would have about a 15 minute wait, as they were JUST getting the boats out and were still waiting on the fourth employee to show (apparently they can't run the boats without four employees). Again, fine, whatever. We hung around, and waited 15 mins. Then we were told by another employee we needed to wait another 15 minutes and that this employee was on his way and lived 10 minutes away. Annoyed, I was willing to suck it up because this was REALLY important to me, so we waited.
I finally began to lose patience after 30 minutes of waiting and asked if they could call said employee. The poor kids working behind the service counter were very apologetic and even admitted that this employee was terrible and unreliable, but he had worked there for so long he gets away with this type of behavior on the regular. Anyway, they called the employee and he said he was IN LAKE ZURICH!!! Are you kidding me? By this point, my dreams had been squashed, I had lost my patience, and I was seeing red. I explained to them that this isn't their fault, but a supervisor should be made aware of what's going on. I told them they shouldn't be posting that the boats are open and telling us it's a 10-15 minute wait, when in reality it would have been OVER AN HOUR. I then asked if they had their supervisor's number (assuming they had a work number), and I was given their manager, Kevin's, number. Again, I assumed it was a WORK number, so I stated we would give him a call.
This is where an already aggravating situation escalates to the fullest extent at the fastest rate possible ...
I had my bf call Kevin, and as soon as Kevin answered the phone, I knew it wasn't going to be a pleasant conversation. He was rude and highly agitated to be getting a call from someone he didn't know (understandable, but if he would have stopped talking for 2 seconds, we could have explained the error of calling his personal cell - we didn't know, what more do you want?) He wasn't even interested in hearing anything we had to say - my boyfriend literally probably got three words out because he was so dumbfounded by the audacity of this person, and then told us it was inappropriate for calling his PERSONAL cell. First of all, how embarrassing, as I would NEVER call someone's personal cell over a business issue, and he didn't even give us the chance to explain that WE DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS A PERSONAL NUMBER. Second of all, he should have been upset with himself that he didn't train these poor kids running the counter how to properly address customer complaints, and TO NOT GIVE OUT PERSONAL NUMBERS!!! I would have never thought in a million years that we had his personal cell. This isn't on us, it's on his poor management and people skills. We asked for the number we should be calling to address our issue so he could go on with his day, and he spit it out quickly as if he was trying to avoid us even getting down the number. I was so irritated that I hung up the phone before I could even take over the phone call. He tried to call back, but we ignored the call as we'd much rather prefer to deal with someone professional and through a company phone line.
All of this could have been avoided had Kevin simply, and nicely, explained that this was his personal number, and that we could direct our call to the park district. We would have apologized for calling a personal number, and moved on with our day. Thanks for ruining a special day for us, Kevin. What an angry little man.
I will never return to anything related to Arlington Heights Park District. Ever. Kevin needs to learn how to deal with customers and how to properly train his employees, and whichever employee made you lose two customers, and any future business from our friends and family, should probably be let go if you're unable to properly train him on how to get to work on time. I'm not sure I've ever been so irate in my life.
The facility isn't even clean and wreaks of stale cigarettes and the 90's. Do yourselves a favor and stick to the Vernon Hills and Lincolnshire trails (far nicer, bigger, cleaner, and worth your time), or scope out the paddle boating in Lake Bluff or Highland Park. read more