Trails End Manager Mistreatment

[littlejoe]

Just got back from the Fort after 12 days, and for the first time in 18yrs I have a complaint. On our first night the whole family headed to the Trails End as tradition. When we got there we told the receptionists that we had an 8yr old who would not eat the buffet and we wanted to know if we could order just fries off the menu. They both said no problem, just let the waitstaff know, which we did. She also said no problem.
However when dinner was over the waitress came up to us and told us that the manager would not allow it and she had to charge us for a full buffet (an adult one at that), she apologized and suggested we talk to the Manager, which we asked to do.
Several minutes later the manager named LeeJean came out and immediately gave off an attitude like we were bothering her. We explained the situation and she wouldnt hear any of it, in fact she even tried to turn it around saying it was our mistake we had misunderstood them. When I said that I did not misunderstand three people, she looked at me and told me that this was Disneys policy, she would speak to the girls and the best she could do was change the buffet price from an adult to a child and then walked away.
I sat there with my mouth open wanting to go after her and say that we have been going there longer than she has worked there and we didn't deserve to be talked to like that but I had my whole family there. The waitress then apologized for the way we were talked to and said she had remembered us from years past and we didnt deserve that.
Does anyone else have any similar stories about this woman and who I can write to and complain about her.

 

[DisCamper]

Welcome to the new world where customer services is out the window. When I worked as a CM that would have been handled by the serve. If a manager had to get involved the server would be in trouble. The first thing Disney teaches you at DU is the guest is always right. I would have taken it up with the duty manager and have them take it off my bill. Sorry to hear that but you will find that in more and more places now

 

[Teamubr]

Were you refering to Trail's End? I'm not sure I have heard of Trailside. I would probably go back and talk to a different manager. Buffets aren't cheap and the whole "I have to charge you an adult price" for an 8 year old would have been a deal breaker.

j

 

[LarryJ]

Just got back from the Fort after 12 days, and for the first time in 18yrs I have a complaint. On our first night the whole family headed to the Trailside as tradition. When we got there we told the receptionists that we had an 8yr old who would not eat the buffet and we wanted to know if we could order just fries off the menu. They both said no problem, just let the waitstaff know, which we did. She also said no problem.
However when dinner was over the waitress came up to us and told us that the manager would not allow it and she had to charge us for a full buffet (an adult one at that), she apologized and suggested we talk to the Manager, which we asked to do.
Several minutes later the manager named LeeJean came out and immediately gave off an attitude like we were bothering her. We explained the situation and she wouldnt hear any of it, in fact she even tried to turn it around saying it was our mistake we had misunderstood them. When I said that I did not misunderstand three people, she looked at me and told me that this was Disneys policy, she would speak to the girls and the best she could do was change the buffet price from an adult to a child and then walked away.
I sat there with my mouth open wanting to go after her and say that we have been going there longer than she has worked there and we didn't deserve to be talked to like that but I had my whole family there. The waitress then apologized for the way we were talked to and said she had remembered us from years past and we didnt deserve that.
Does anyone else have any similar stories about this woman and who I can write to and complain about her.

I assume you meant Trails End and for dinner there is no menu, it's just the buffet AFAIK which offers a fixed number of items and I don't think fries are on that. Even then fries don't seem to be anywhere so it's interesting you were even able to get those. I can't speak to how the manager in your opinion treated you, but wonder why all the waitresses said no problem to just french fries.

Larry

 

[chartle]

Some thing is not making sense, why where you charged the adult price for an 8 year old?

 

[martymarty]

I wouldnt have paid.....plain and simple. I would have told them to take it off the bill, and if they didnt.......Id walk, then what are they going to do? esculate it to a REAL manager, call the cops............bring it on Id let the cops know I was being ripped off being charged a FULL ADULT buffet......... Can you tell I have about had it with cutomer service? In the last two yrs I have left a $0.00 tip 3 times (not saying your wait staff deserve that) but in general "service" is really starting to SUCK and I refuse to tip someone for rude, unprofessional, lack of respect, and just plain laziness

[rant off]

 

[littlejoe]

I apologize for Trailside, thats how mad I was; "Trails End".
There was no problem getting the Fries, the waitress brought them out in about 10 minutes.
As for getting the CM in trouble, I think that was going to happen because as she (waitress) was apologizing for the way the the manager treated us she refered to her getting fired for speaking her mind in the past.
If it was up to the waitress the customer would have been right, it was the manager that didn't want to hear it and she had her mind made up before she even came out to us.
As for the adult price I didn't even pick up on it till the manager said she she was going to change it, then I realized she was allready holding an "adjusted slip" that showed a differant number than we had checked in as. So it was obvious that it had allready been changed by the manager prior to her coming out and she wasn't doing us any favors by changing it again to reflect my daughters age.
I didn't want to cause a scene there because my kids were all around and this is supposed to be a happy time so I didn't want to ruin it, but a letter is forthcoming to Doug Lord who is the general manager of Fort Wilderness.
Don't get me wrong this isn't about a price...it was about the way this woman talked to and treated us.

 

[DisCamper]

I just remember I had some fort friends get charged for an extra dinner one time because I came and sat down for a few minutes to find out what park everyone was going to. I think Trail End has a new system I’ve seen someone walk around with something like an IPad and they input how many adults and children and witch table for billing.

 

[pmm0724]

My grandson is a very picky eater and I asked if he could just have milk instead of kid's buffet. Waitress said no problem. Turns out he liked the chicken and ate some of mine as well as some cookies for dessert. Since he did eat some, I offered to pay for his buffet. The waitress still didn't charge us.

This was a couple of years ago, so guess things have changed. At their prices, kids are way overcharged for what they eat.

 

[2goofycampers]

Here is some places to let them know what happened.

1.Voice mail for Fort manager - Doug Lord 407-824-2042
2. WDW email - wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com
3. Fort guest services manager Jeff.C.Martin@Disney.com

 

[littlejoe]

Thank you 2goofycampers, that information is exactly what I was looking for.

 

[KPSmithSr]

I would think the information 2goofycampers has about the managers would fit nicely in the FAQ for the Fort. IMHO

 

[rock_doctor]

I would call the restaurant manager now and follow up with a paper letter to the resort manager. Who knows, LeeJean may not even be a manager there and was forced to fill in for somebody who was out...and that is why she did not care. IMHO we all must follow up when we are mistreated. We all love Disney and tend to give them a free pass but imho this is the wrong thing to do. They need to be held to the same or even higher standards as other similar organizations. Let your fingers do the walking now and you pen at you earliest convenience. Let us know what the final result is once everything irons out. Good luck

 

[DisCamper]

I would have had it fixed before i walked out the door plus some free stuff to boot.

 

[cm8]

I would have had it fixed before i walked out the door plus some free stuff to boot.

I know that's right or she would have had an adjustment made to her attitude with a boot

 

[martymarty]

I would have had it fixed before i walked out the door plus some free stuff to boot.

yep!

 

[CCIntrigue]

I would have had it fixed before i walked out the door plus some free stuff to boot.

I agree!

 

[parrothead365]

Free stuff from Disney Thats a good one

 

[DisCamper]

Free stuff from Disney Thats a good one

You just have to know how to play the game

 

[parrothead365]

You just have to know how to play the game

I'm not that good...You rock