Letter: Tahoe Queen ruins 50th anniversary
To the community,
We just celebrated our 50th anniversary. We saved up to have a little party and then take our family to Lake Tahoe for a few days.
Back in April we booked the dinner cruise on the Tahoe
Queen for 12 people on July 17, our last night there. Since there was thunder that afternoon, we called the office to make sure the boat was going out. They asked for my name and confirmation number. They said, yes it was going out and to be there 30-45 minutes before the departure time of 6:30. We were there at 5:45. When we arrived, the boarding gate was locked and the
office closed. A crew member came out and said “tonight is a private party.”
I showed him my confirmation paperwork. He then went and got someone who we found out was Rubin, the food and beverage manager. He told us in no uncertain terms we were not getting on the boat. We could see he didn’t want to help us. He was rude and obnoxious in his attitude. He basically said that this was a $30,000 booking and our 12 people wasn’t very important.
We asked what he could do to help us with this situation. We asked for a phone number to speak to some
one else in charge. We were told they could put us on the Dixie. By now it’s almost 6:30. The
Dixie had already sailed.
When my husband explained that “you could have called us and let us know this was happening” he was told we called and left a message. It’s now 7pm.
The kids are hungry and the adults upset with how the situation was being handled.
When we got home Saturday, I checked my answering machine. It was Thursday at 11:44am. The message was from the company stating “the boat isn’t going out tonight, but we can put you on the Dixie.” I’m away from home, having family time. I’m not thinking about messages. You don’t call five hours before to tell us our cruise wasn’t going out.
You can’t tell me that the party of 160 was a last-minute booking. They had plenty of time to notify us of this event. We’ve all ready paid for the dinner cruise. We were told. we’d get our money back. That’s not the point.
Our celebration was ruined. The whole situation with Rubin and his attitude was very unprofessional. He wasn’t a very good representative for the company.
Ron and Anita Pasch, Livermore
How sad for the Pasch couple trying to celebrate on the Tahoe Queen, and yes – terrible customer service by Lake Tahoe Cruises. LT Cruises should invite the party of 12 back for a complimentary dinner cruise, and try to improve their communication policies.
Irish Wahini,I’m with you on this. Lake Tahoe Cruises should make this right by the Pasch family! A full comp is in order.
We need to draw people here, not send them home to Livermore with a bad experience of Tahoe.
LTC? I think a hand written apology to the Pasch family is the right thing to do as well as an explanaton to the community that you are striving to provide the best possible customer service. Which you are…right?
Just my thoughts on this, Old Long Skiis
Why would you publish this one sided letter from someone from Livermore? I’m sure there’s 2 sides to this story and if Aramark were an advertiser with you, I bet you would have looked into that first. Is this a newspaper or a gossip blog? Get their side and publish that, unless you’re just lashing out at businesses that don’t spend money with you? My next letter will be a one sided complaint against LTN, which I expect you to blindly publish.
Poor customer service to say the boat is not sailing when it is. I can’t imagine these folks would even want to get on the Queen after that experience even with a full comp. However, it begs the question; who gives your home phone as your contact #
especially when you will be in Tahoe? That’s an old guy mistake.
I hope to see a response from Tahoe Queen here. If events went down as described, a public apology, a comp cruise, AND a stay here in Tahoe might help to cover for an employee’s poor handling of the conflict and lack of effort to make things right. Leaving a message on a home phone without much lead time to change plans, and then not helping the family to find another way to celebrate, is heartless. However, if there is more to the story, it’s a good time to get that out there. To the family and others, always leave a cell phone or hotel contact phone number when you make reservations for activities while traveling. That would have prevented this mess. Tahoe Queen: The family had a confirmation number. Do the right thing.
This reminds me of the Grandmother stating that her granddaughter was asked to leave a KFC due to her appearance.
Judgements without all of the facts can create an unjustified perception of a local business. This should have not been printed until the local business was called and had an equal opportunity to respond to these allegations.
Kae I think there is a better way to handle this type of situation in the future.
Porked in Tahoe South
It is a sad story but I must agree with fifty year resident and others that the management of Lake Tahoe cruises should have been contacted and then determine if there is a story there.
It is not that this is an every day happening. Thousands of people have remarkable experiences seeing the Lake and Emerald bay for the first time for a fraction of the cost of renting a boat and going on their own.
Knowing the amazing General Manager, I know that he will do the right thing with the couple to make up for the bad experience.
Now you owe the Tahoe Queen an obligation Kae to make things right. I hope you will reach out to them and show them for the asset they are to the community and the visitors just as you are.
Full disclosure: I am the owner of Ski Run Marina. Tahoe Queen is my tenant
“That’s an old guy mistake….” says Atomic…
I say,
With this type of attitude in SLT it is best go somewhere else.
North shore is far more appealing.
I must agree with 50 year resident and others who feel that you should’ve contacted the management of Tahoe Queen first before publishing this to determine how newsworthy it is
Tahoe queen provides numerous first time amazing experiences for those seeing the lake for the first time for a fraction of the cost of renting a boat to do so. That is the story. A fluke is not.
Knowing the general manager well, I know that the couple will be properly treated and compensated.
Kae, what is left is for you to make it right with The Tahoe Queen. They are a great asset to the community just as you are.
Full disclosure: i’m the proud owner of Ski Run Marina, where Tahoe queen is a tenant
I’m not surprised at all that they wrote a letter to the local paper. People do that all the time when they feel that they have been slighted. And they did contact management first. That, apparently, got them nowhere. Yes, agreed, there are 2 sides to every story. But I don’t think its fair to chastise people for writing in to the local news service.
This is a “letter to the editor” and not a story written by LTN. Anyone can send a letter to the editor for publication, just like Bill Crawford frequently does, or like Ken Curtzwiler recently did.
For the record, the job of a Food and Beverage Manager is not to interact with the public; and sometimes old people can get confused and be unreasonable. I’m not taking any sides on this until an explanation from Aramark is forthcoming.
I do find it interesting how so people who live in SLT are always so fast to blame local businesses and local government when only one side of a story has been shared.
C.J., I’ll help you pack…..not. Your bags are already full of wrong, wrong and wrong.
The Tahoe Queen called them 5 hours ahead of time. Unfortunate, but enough time to get on the Dixie.
I have friends that work the boat and there is constantly confusion on whether the boat is going out. They get a call last minute saying “we are not going out, stay home”. Very poor management.
Atomic,
Whatever.
4mer and others, most long time locals, especially those in the lodging business know of Aramark’s track record for poor service and even worse record for treating employees. Common knowledge amongst a lot of locals.
The Pasch’s are correct, you don’t book a private cruise last minute. Most likely the Aramark reservation system did not have the private cruise in the system and the res agents continued selling space for that particular cruise. In any case, the Pasch’s should have been offered a full comp and given ample notice of the opportunity to cruise the Dixie. The res system would have known it was a large private group and that it was a 50th anniversary. With their reservation system located in Arizona its no wonder they did not follow up..
Mansoor, you are being a bit two faced in praising the local GM. You have been at war with Aramark for years about fulfilling their contractual obligation to dredge the channel which they have never done. The Tahoe Queen has gotten stuck at least 6 times this summer putting their customers at an inconvenience waiting to get pulled out of the sand.
No issues with Aramark.
Wherever you got your information, Reza , is not a reliable source.
Mansoor, shame on you. Do you deny it is Aramark’s obligation to dredge the channel at their expense? Do you deny that the captains have been using the big paddle on the back of the boat to push sand out of the channel because Aramark won’t pay for the dredging? Do you deny that the Queen gets stuck in the sand when the wind blows it sideways? Its been going on for over 7 years Mansoor. Everyone who lives in Tahoe Meadows knows it as do you. How can you be trusted to provide good service when you allow your boat to get stuck that often?
Mansoor is part of the “behind closed doors” cronies in this town.
If he told me it was sunny outside… I’d still check.
Arrogant and deceitful, part of the “some pigs are more equal than other pigs” crowd.
I am the daughter of this couple, I’m 37 years old and a Regional President for a publically traded company, I know business and I understand from time to time, customers will be unhappy. I called the Manager on behalf of my parents. I spoke to the Manager on duty on his cell phone. I asked him how he plans to resolve the situation? He said he will refund our deposit OR put us on the next day sunset cruise. We were leaving early the next day, a member of the family had a plane to catch. I asked him to do more, this was not a fair resolution for this large party. (Even complimentary tickets for the anniversary couple would have been an appropriate resolution). They offered us the Dixie, not a refund–we would have been charged full price for the Dixie–which had already left. The worst part, in my opinion, was how an employee on the deck boasted the $30K deal for 160 people was the obvious choice for them. I agree, a cell phone should have been left. BUT,my Mom called the Tahoe Queen twice to confirm that same afternoon–she gave them her confirmation number and last name, and they confirmed it’s a ‘go’. They should have told her about the Dixie at that point, we would have accepted this alternate solution. She was calling primarily to check the weather, but also to make sure it was all okay. It broke my heart to watch my 68 year old Mom in tears on such a special day.
PS…it took 1 more hour of us calling around to restaurants in South Tahoe to accommodate a hungry party of 12. I thank Stateline Brewery for accommodating us!
Please–get The Tahoe Queen’s comments on this event, everything stated by us is true.
Wow!
A lot of emotion here with spitballs flying in all directions. Too many personal snipes for sure.
Like most incidents such as this, I doubt that the full fact list on either side has been disclosed. Further, there was poor handling and poor choices were made by all the parties.
It is true that Aramark is not known for being the most pleasant and most professional tourism related business in the area.
At the end of the day, what was missing was a decision by one of the boat company employees to own the situation and do a little more than leave a message for the customers. Some diplomacy and on the spot attention could have averted most if not all of the heat. Shame on the boat company for not covering it better.
I come from experience, having been in business in Tahoe in a travel and tourist related endeavor. Courteous Customer service is not a very well practiced art in Lake Tahoe, and it is getting worse. I will always remember the times some jerk tried to break the line in front of the “common people” at my service desk by angrily asking “Do you know who I am? I am in a hurry.”
I never gave these bullies any satisfaction, and it made the majority of those watching pleased that they didn’t have to take second seat to a self important idiot.
The way it shakes out in Tahoe and most everywhere these days is:
Appearance or impression of wealth and Money equals deference, courtesy and getting your way ahead of others—
Lack of impression of obvious wealth and money equals being blown off, little courtesy, and being relegated (so to speak) to the back of the bus.
Until we treat each other as equal humans without estimating the size of our bank account it will not change, and we all are the worse for it.
Disappointed-
I liked your letter, except you did not need to add your professional pedigree in the first few lines.
Don’t play that game.
Your job doesn’t make you any more, or any less, entitled to courteous, equal treatment than anybody else.
observer you need to reread her opening line, she was making a point that she understands business and the occasional unhappy customer, which in fact she was in this situation.
BTW congrats the the Pasch family on the 50, that is no small feat!
To the Pasch family,
I am so sorry your special day was ruined and I hope this doesn’t leave a bad taste in your mouth about the whole of South Lake Tahoe. Given that you called Aramark and gave your confirmation number there really is no excuse for what happened to you except the right hand of the corporation doesn’t know what the left is doing.
If you do return to Tahoe may I suggest you try some smaller locally owned businesses that may take better care of you?
Congratulations on 50 years of marriage!
Thank you danwilvers for setting observer straight.