(Editorial Comment - Here’s a little rant via Re/Creating contributor Dragon Management about crappy service at a place called Splitsville.)
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[From an old friend here. And this on top of Channelside already sliding into shit-hole-ery...]
Sunday, August 24, 2008
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Splitsville Tampa - Absurd Policies To Splitsville’s owners:
I just wanted to write and express my disappointment in the experience I had at your establishment Saturday, August 23rd 2008.
I turned 30 on the 20th of August and I decided to celebrate at Splitsville. I expected 30-35 people to show up by 11pm. We arrived at 9pm and rented a bowling lane and pool table. While sitting on the patio with my cigarette smoking friends, I decided to take a walk around the corner to grab a cigar. Two of my friends came with me and we left our drinks with our party.
After arriving back at your door only minutes later, after finding the cigar shop closed…..on a Saturday night…..we attempted to re-join my birthday party. Upon re-entry, my friend was told he was now not allowed in because he was wearing a “jersey”. I calmly explained to the doorman that we were just in there, that we had a lane and a pool table and that this “jersey wearer” had paid a large part of it.
The doorman insisted my friend could not comeback in as his $9 drink melted on the table with the rest of our party. I immediately asked to speak with your manager. Two guys, mid thirties, pastel polos, came out and repeated what the doorman had told me as if they were twin robots. I explained that we had an open lane and pool table and planned on having 30 people arriving to spend more money here to which your manager replied “If I let him in I will have to let everyone in. After 10pm, no “jerseys”.
I tried pointing out to him a group of people on the patio, sitting right next to our party, wearing hats, t-shirts and flip flops! Your manager repeated the same info to me and basically said it didn’t matter that I was spending money here tonight and that these are the rules at Splitsville.
I promptly informed my party to finish the drinks they had bought, close out their tabs and end the games they were playing.
I then called the rest of my party and explained to them the “splitsville situation”. We took the party elsewhere and spent our money there.
The sad thing is, what my friend had on was a $250 authentic Yankess embroidered shirt. It wasn’t sleeveless or a button down. He had on nice blue jeans and dress shoes. As we stood there in shock at the mere absurdity of the situation, we watched guys in $5 t-shirts walk right through the door. Not to mention the fact that this “rule” was not posted anywhere at your establishment nor is it stated anywhere on your website.
As I stood discussing the situation out front of your establishment, while waiting for my party to pay their tabs, another “manger” came out and was talking to the doorman who had first denied my friend’s entry. As I watched him, I observed him saying “Well, Happy Birthday to you!” snide and sarcastically, mocking me as he talked to his doorman. When I asked him if he thought it was funny to ruin my birthday and mock me after I patronized his establishment, he replied, “Oh Yeah, well it’s my birthday too. So what. No jerseys. Get lost.” This was a sad, mid-thirties, balding gentlemen with a dark green polo. He then pointed his finger in my face and told me “Oh yeah, now you can’t come back in either” and proceeded to deny me entry back to my own birthday party. I explained he didn’t have to worry about me ever coming back to which he laughed and walked away.
I don’t expect your management to be moved by my experience at your establishment. Most likely, this will be filed in a complaint folder that no one takes the time to even care about. Especially given the way your middle managers treat patrons on a Saturday night.
Although you may say, “Its only one guy and our rules are our rules.” That is true. They are your rules but I can tell you that everyone I know and invited now knows this story. Plus I plan on telling as many people as I know to spend their money elsewhere when considering Splitsville.
So although you may see me as just one guy, I live in Ybor. I have lived in Tampa since 1986 and I have many friends here. I am a member of various professional associations and social clubs. We have functions often. There are many parties, celebrations and meetings that I organize or am a part of.
None of them will ever be held at Splitsville.
In closing I would like to commend the girls working the pool table and bowling lanes. They were very helpful and friendly. I can only imagine the frustration they must go through working for sad, power-tripping, middle managers like the ones you employ.
I am sure your mangers, should you decide to even talk to them about the situation, will try to paint me as disruptive or profane, but I assure you, I was very straightforward and respectful given the disrespect I was given as a paying customer of your establishment, who just had his birthday ruined by a frustrated little man with a walkie-talkie. Had I become disruptive to the point of deserving to be kicked out, I am sure the security guards only feet away would have intervened. Hopefully you have cameras out front and you can check the footage to verify my story.
To Splitsville, on it’s way to the same fate as Pop City. It’s so sad because these little situations add up causing fewer and fewer people to visit establishments in Tampa. Hopefully they keep those tourists coming in off those boats so you guys can stay afloat.
I also plan on sending a copy of this letter to your corporate offices so when they see the numbers down for Tampa, they might get an idea of why that would be.
Good day.
Jeff Paul Pesce |
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23 Comments
I’d love to see the reaction from Upper Management regarding this situation(if there is one)…I had a EXTREMEMLY bad service situation at margarita Mama’s recently, the manager apologized profusely for the rudeness of one of his servers, but the terrible food on multiple occasions, and lack of any service leads me to believe that apologies and gift cards to come back realy dont do any good….and now I found out the company that runs Margarita Mama’s filed Chapter 11.
The REAL reason these places are all shutting down:
Crappy management and a general “don’t give a ___” complacency. You could take this email and paste it over any complaint you recieve. No concern for the patrons of an establishment is precisely why people don’t go back. We don’t need them, they need us!
Who would want a stupid gift certificate or comp anything after an experience like this? I would NEVER spend a dime in that joint again.
Here is the FORM LETTER AUTO RESPONSE reply from “Upper Management”:
Hi Jeff
My name is Kris Knox and I am the General Manager at Splitsville. Although it will not help to rectify the horrible experience you had for your Birthday, I would like to start with a sincere apology. I am embarrassed about the way my managers reacted to your situation this past weekend. I really do appreciate you taking the time to inform us of your experience. Trust me when I tell you that we do not condone this behavior and we will be pursuing this further with our management team. We take a lot of pride in what we do here and fully understand that it is guests like yourself that we need to give a reason to come back and enjoy what Splitsville has to offer. I hope you would consider accepting my apology and contacting me further so that I may try to rebuild a quality relationship with you and your friends. I would love the opportunity to invite you back at your convenience so that I could make sure that your next experience is a great one. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely
Kris Knox
General Manager
Splitsville Tampa
813-514-2695
In fact here is an excerpt from “How to be a Great Manager” by John Handy, 1956 :
Hi (insert whiney customer name),
My name is (manager name here) and I am the General Manager at (business name here). Although it will not help to rectify the horrible experience you had for your (event name here), I would like to start with a sincere apology. I am embarrassed about the way my managers reacted to your situation this past weekend. I really do appreciate you taking the time to inform us of your experience. Trust me when I tell you that we do not condone this behavior and we will be pursuing this further with our management team. We take a lot of pride in what we do here and fully understand that it is guests like yourself that we need to give a reason to come back and enjoy what (business name here) has to offer. I hope you would consider accepting my apology and contacting me further so that I may try to rebuild a quality relationship with you and your friends. I would love the opportunity to invite you back at your convenience so that I could make sure that your next experience is a great one. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely
(manager name)
General Manager
(Business name, city)
(phone number)
Who the hell wears a jersey out on a saturday night? Especially a Yankee jersey? That is inexcusable. But I digress. It’s too bad that during the real estate boom the genius developers didn’t bother to transform Tampa’s downtown urban core, instead we got sprawl and New Tampa. Channelside almost seems like it’s a tiny little island all by itself. No real neighborhood around it, no markets, or apartments, no community. It’s such a waste, because downtown Tampa has so much potential. Just imagine if those two bankrupt luxury condo towers were turned into apartments. It would be such a huge economic boost to the area.
Hey ask the dude from Splittsvile to comp your next event and drinks and appetizers.
The manager acknowledged your complaint without any argument whatsoever, apologized, offered the opportunity to discuss the matter further and invited you back in an effort to earn your business again. Seriously, aside from going back in time to make sure the incident never happened in the first place, what else could he do? Oh wait, it’s worded professionally and doesn’t repeatedly misspell words like “manager”. It must be a FORM letter so it’s invalid. Yeah, you’re right. Let’s burn the place to the ground and hope that against all reasonable odds that none of the various professional associations and social clubs you belong to, and speak on behalf of will ever need to apologize for a client or customer having a bad experience.
You may have had a birthday but you still have a lot of growing up to do.
And no, I don’t work for Splitsville, proof being that if I did, your pal with the “$250 authentic Yankess embroidered shirt” (oh, brother) would never have gotten his sorry ass inside in the first place.
When they say “no jerseys” as their dress code, what do you think that means? That your friend and only your friend can wear a jersey on Saturday night just because your spending money there, like no one else is? hahaha! There are more important things to do then to sweat over the computer posting this nonsence. Please for your sake, stop throwing a hissy fit and wear some normal clothes out on a Saturday night, especially when your not going to a baseball game!
My friends and I have been looking for a place that doesn’t cater to whining, passive/aggressive, self-important, petulant douchebags. Now that we know you and your friends won’t be there, I think we will be. Thanks!
Well, first off it wasn’t a jersey. Second, in the letter that I wrote, although I spelled manager wrong twice, at least I didn’t resort to calling the guy a “douchebag” or a “sorry ass.”
I am sure in the same situation each of you dogging me would have just said, “Oh no problem manager. We will be happy to go elsewhere”
If you had read the letter, you would have discovered we had already been in Splitsville, paid, played and purchased drinks.
My friend, with his money still paying for one of their lanes and pool tables, was then not allowed BACK IN after we went to find a cigar.
The “jersey” was ok an hour before but now it isn’t.
That is absurd.
If it makes you feel good to dog me for being upset with an absurd policy and, venting about it just to be called names and have my grammer corrected, go right ahead.
I didn’t want anything free. The only thing I asked of the manager of Splitsvile is to change their stupid policy. Either they cater to sports and flip flops, or snooty, passive/aggressive, self-important, petulant douchebags.
By the way, if you look at their website, there are pictures of people wearing jerseys and just to clarify, there is no posted dress code anywhere.
Who wears a jersey on a Saturday night? People going to a bowling alley.
It’s a bowling alley not the 50/50 club.
Yoga, way to miss the entire point of the situation. However, I don’t need to point out your absurd viewpoints, no matter how much you want to try to sound intelligent the abundance of empty seats in the Channelside establishments says more than anyone can say.
“My friends and I have been looking for a place that doesn’t cater to whining, passive/aggressive, self-important, petulant douchebags. Now that we know you and your friends won’t be there, I think we will be. Thanks!”
No problem. Since Jeff already pointed out that a bowling alley only wants posh, stuck-up yuppies going there and you are turned on by this, I wouldn’t want to be around you anyways. The sad part is you could bring a group of 30 people and the place would still look half-empty. Which is the entire reason we were so disgusted at this.
We are progressive and have been in associations around Tampa, have gotten sidewalks put in a rough neighborhood, etc. and have fought to try to make some places better. All of that goes out the door when there is an establishment RIGHT WHERE TOURISTS GET OFF THE BOAT that has policies like this. Imagine if we had been tourists on a cruise and wanted to go hang out at a bar in Tampa once we got off the boat. I’m sure the first thing I would think of when a friend told me there is a place to go bowling, play pool and drink is to make sure I have my Armani suit on.
These policies hurt Tampa. And, as mentioned previously, you can argue your side all you want but the empty seats in the bars of Tampa’s hotspots negate any argument you can think of.
hahaha! Its a bowling alley!!!!!!!!! Not club 54, these guys need a slap of reality.
Well, for what it’s worth, if I had been in your situation I would have been upset and embarrassed and would have left just like you did. I also would have sent a letter of complaint. However, I would have at least had the stones to call Mr. Knox and hash it out further, especially if I had devoted two paragraphs to accusing his company (before the fact) of not taking action on my complaint. If nothing else, it would have been nice to rant to the person responsible instead of random people on the internet. Afterwards, I might have still been dissatisfied and may choose to not give them my business. But at least I would be able to make that decision knowing I had at least attempted to rectify the problem at it’s source. I think that would be a more productive and “progressive” approach.
To sum up:
* You and your friends had a bad experience.
* You registered a complaint with the management.
* Management responded to your complaint with acknowledgement, an apology and a request for an opportunity to make it up to you in an attempt to improve, all of which you decide to reject outright so you can write “Splitsville Sucks” on the internet instead.
If there’s some other point to this, yeah, I missed it.
And to anonyperson who says I suck;
As far as spending time around “posh, stuck-up yuppies”, it seems like you and yours are the ones pointing out how much everyone’s clothing costs.
“We are progressive and have been in associations around Tampa, have gotten sidewalks put in a rough neighborhood, etc. and have fought to try to make some places better. All of that goes out the door when there is an establishment RIGHT WHERE TOURISTS GET OFF THE BOAT that has policies like this.”
Seriously? All of your good, benevolent works are entirely negated by the poor handling of the enforcement of a bowling alley’s dress code? Seriously?!?
“These policies hurt Tampa.”
Agreed. So what are you DOING about it? Because if bitching on the internet about things that don’t go your way is what you consider “progressive”, there are a whole lot of “rough neighborhoods” that are not going to be getting new sidewalks anytime soon.
I love how the people of Tampa think we are living in a glamorous city. The truth is, in a “glamorous” city a “jersey” at a slump like Splitsville wouldn’t even be an issue. The people of Tampa try too hard to fit in to its naïve society by creating pointless rules for places like a bowling alley.
We had a similar experience at Blue Martini. A friend of mine was visiting from out of town and was wearing $250 jeans, the bouncer and manager would not let him in because of their no-jeans-policy. We decided to prove a point and went down the street to Wal-Mart and he bought $10 black Dickies. We walked up to the door and the manager was there and was happy with the pants. At this point, we were pretty annoyed and told them we were taking all of our friends and money and spending it at a place that doesn’t have monkeys for management.
This is just another example of how far behind Tampa continues to be in so many aspects. Hopefully one day, the city and its people will catch up to the rest of the states and realize how much they are hurting Tampa than helping it.
It takes a very narrow-sighted person to still place this in the context of one person bitching. Considering the question you asked in your last paragraph was already answered by the quote you took from me in your third paragraph, I’d say you are arguing just to argue. Because of that, I can understand why you are not grasping the full context of the rhetoric used here. I retract my Yoga Sucks comment as it has nothing to do with your viewpoints, it has to do with your inability to comprehend the subject matter. I wish you luck.
I did call numerous times and I even left voicemail. I suggest you try calling and you will get the long recording to nowhere. Plus, I did speak to who said tey were a manager when the incident happened.
As far as ‘doing something about it’……I don’t have to do anything more than what I have done.
I discussed it with a manager on site and he said and I quote ‘Well Happy Birthday to you! No jerseys. Get Lost.’
I called numerous times and was either placed on hold or send to a voicemail.
Then I decided to just Blog about it ON MY PERSONAL BLOG and forget it. Then a friend copied it to his public blog.
Seeing it as just one person is exactly the problem. Its 30 people with friends and a ridiculous story they will all tell next time they walk past a bouncer into a REAL CLUB, not a bowling alley trying to dress up like a place worth dressing up for.
Honestly, I wish Splitsville would stay in business but change the way they operate and train their managers to be humans and not apes.
The response they gave, offering me free stuff is not what will keep them in business and it is the only solution managers ever give. How about repremanding the employee? How about replacing them to areas more befitting for a person lacking basic social skills? Offering me a few watered down, free drinks is like a bandaid for a bleeding ulcer. I don’t want free stuff, I want them to address the problem directly and change policy to fix it. Mr. Knox addressed nothing and provided me with lip service and a bribe.
I dont have to do anything more than wait and watch as Splitsville goes Brokesville and dies due to the utter stupidity of their management. The place isn’t half as cool as they act. Its a bowling alley with fancy worn out decorations faking like they are a nightclub worth dressing up for.
Better go spend some money there while you can Yoga…..just be sure to have on your designer gear! The fashion scouts hang out there! Supermodels and Moviestars oh my!
You might even catch Trix-Tratz there and you guys can compliment each other on how well dressed you both are between slinging bowling balls.
All at a bowling alley.
WOW.
“I did call numerous times and I even left voicemail. I suggest you try calling and you will get the long recording to nowhere.”
Well, that’s interesting. I didn’t realize you had taken those steps. Probably because up until now you didn’t mention that you had.
I like to consider myself a fair person so I took your invitation to call the number listed in Mr. Knox’s reply (you know, as opposed to just assuming that there’s no point). The phone rang once and was picked up by an automated response. The first option given was to speak to a manager on duty, press 1, so I did. A young woman named Jordan answered immediately and I asked to speak to Kris Knox. I was placed on hold for less than 30 seconds and the next person who picked up identified himself as Mr. Knox.
Again, interesting. But hey, don’t take my word for it, give it a try and see what happens. (813) 514-2695. Not you of course, Jeff. You’ve done your due dilligence to resolve an issue. I guess. Onward to selflessly improving the city of Tampa by pointing out what else sucks, even if you don’t have to tell the truth to do it!
So what is the point of me calling again? So they can try to re-explain the purpose of their dress code policy on Jerseys which isn’t posted anywhere? So he can bribe me so I will stop feeling upset and insulted? So he can try to schoomze me over with comp crap from the same joint that gave me such bad experience?
I guess my point is, what is the point in calling again?
So I call again. I already explained myself and the situation. I don’t need to talk about it on the phone when I did it in person and via time stamped document by which I won’t be misquoted…although possibly misspelled.
As far as accusing me of not telling the truth, that sounds like a cop out to me. Your right. I made the whole thing up so I could garner attention from people like you.
My point was to let other people know what happened to me and how I was treated so the same thing doesn’t happen to them.
You sure you don’t work at splitsville?
I just talked to Mr. Knox VIA TELEPHONE and he explained they have taken it seriously and addressed the issue with their management team.
He excepted that it was a significant mess up and they are taking steps to keep it from happening to anyone else in the future.
Thats all I needed to hear. Hopefully it doesn’t happen to anyone else. Thats why I wrote anything about it in the first palce.
That is truly all I care about.
Long live Splitsville.
That’s great. Whether or not you are ever a customer of theirs again is entirely your personal choice, but you have taken steps as a responsible consumer to present them with a serious problem that they can now work on and hopefully provide better service in the future. Way to go. And I’m not being sarcastic in the least.
PS: Happy Birthday. Sincerely.
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