Margaritaville Party??? Beware!!!

[OOGIERULES]

Just came off the Crown and want to alert those planning a Margaritaville party.

This is a letter sent to the president of Margaritaville:

Dear President;

Thank you so much for returning the phone call and leaving your E-mail address. The phone message you returned was initiated by my wife, Nancy , but I am more involved in the situation than she.

What I wish to accomplish by this note is to make you aware of a situation so hopefully there is no reoccurrence and ultimately avoid disappointing prospective Margaritaville customers.

I was recently on the Crown Princess which made a port stop at Grand Turk on October 3, 2006. Prior to that, at the end of August, I had E-mailed to Margaritaville and asked if when we get there, could there be any kind of "party" for our group. I was thrilled to receive a note back from a Mr. Anthony in short time. He wanted to know how many people, date, time, etc. I responded back it would be the 3rd of Oct, approx. 40 people and around 10:30-11 a.m. since it was a short port call. he wrote back telling me he would make sure we had a great time there and would set us up by the DJ near the pool. He asked I re-confirm just before going away, which I did the day before sailing and also to ask for him when I arrive in Grand Turk.

With all this leg work done and many people counting on me for a good time, I was relieved and excited that we were going to have a blast. Our group had almost doubled!

So much for good planning. When I arrived at Grand Turk Margaritaville at 10:30 a.m., per instructions, I asked for him. He was NOT there. I found an individual whom I later find out is a supervisor. She was kind enough to get him on his cell. I never got a chance to speak with him, but through his supervisor, it was apparent he forgot about our group. His first response to her was that I did not confirm with him. This was obviously an attempt to make me look like a total fool and deflect from his own inefficiencies. He said he was at the bank and would be back in 20 minutes however.

People were gathering and time was passing and NO mgr. At 11:15 a.m. I finally left. I found out later that day he finally arrived at 11:40 a.m. and made out like I blew it because I wasn't there. Again a feeble attempt at shifting the blame. I even received a call onboard the ship in my stateroom, from a lady by the name of Jeannie. She did not give me her title, but she apologized profusely for the way in which we were treated.

As I said at the onset the president, the purpose of this letter is bring this story to your attention so it does not re-occur. I realize in the scheme of things Margaritaville will not suffer from this one incident. But I know as a businessman you are not willing to toss aside revenues either. With approximately 70 people ready to have a great time, that does represent some decent purchasing power. By the time he was there the count was a feeble 13 or so.

Additionally as we all know bad news travels real fast. I have already posted my displeasure with this occurrence on the cruise message boards and indeed people from this cruise are commenting:

1-OOGIE!!!!!!!

I'm shocked....I've never known you to lose your cool. This guy must have really dropped the ball.:(

2-Al, Kudos to you for your communication to Margaritaville. Right is right, and what you were promised he certainly did not deliver. As you know, a few of us got together and had a few drinks anyway and held up our glasses in a toast to you & Nancy.;)

 

3-Good for you Oogie. Glad to see you didn't let this go. At least we did get together with some of our CC group.

 

We loved Grand Turk. How great is it to get off the pier on to a white sandy beach. It was our favorite stop. Forget Margaritaville.

__________________

 

 

So let the words speak for themselves. I would hope Margaritaville would prefer to do business with an untarnished record. The manner in which I (for the entire group) was treated was absolutely deplorable. We were blown off and I was lied to by your mgr.

I hope alerting you to this matter will put an end to a situation, that if left unchecked will leave many dollars in cruise passengers pockets, instead of ringing in your registers!

Thank you for your attention to my concerns,

Al Goldstein

[OOGIERULES]

Just received this note back from Margaritaville:

Dear Mr. XXXX,

 

I was dismayed to read of our lack of follow up on your group in Grand Turk earlier this month, please accept my sincerest apologies for the inconveniences we caused you and your group as it is not indicative of our standards.

 

I am passing your information on to our Caribbean Operating Partner, to follow up on his lack of organization that resulted in your group being left “over promised and undelivered.” I assure you they will take the appropriate steps to prevent this type of situation from occurring again.

 

I thank you for taking the time to write as our customers feedback is important to our continued success. And yes, as a business person tossing aside any revenue is unpleasant but more importantly not ensuring customer satisfaction is most disturbing and we will address accordingly.

 

Sincerely,

Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville