Tawanna A.
Yelp
I called ahead and "Greg" was extremely kind, professional and even encouraging. I'm a non-swimmer as is one of my kids. He assured us that once we made the trip up, he'd get us set up on a fun, safe activity. He suggested Monday so that it wouldn't be busy and there would be time for a quick tutorial. We arrived early Monday morning . A woman was in back at a desk. We stood there patiently waiting for her to complete her task. She saw us standing there but chose not to acknowledge us in any way. We just continued waiting quietly until she begrudgingly acknowledged our presence. Once she did, still upbeat, I asked if there was a "Greg" available. She said no one by that name worked there. I explained that we weren't all swimmers and that I had spoken to someone about kayaking lessons. At this point she became really annoyed and shot back that lessons aren't needed for kayaking and that they offer no such thing. At that point, something that "Greg" said became more clear to me. ( Long story, but because I had called about their Groupon he probably thought I was calling about standing paddle boarding rather than kayaking) Anyways, she says lessons are not necessary... that's fine and good to know, but in telling me this, her whole vibe is WAY off. She bluntly asks if we want to do it or not. I'm totally thrown off by her tone and hesitant to proceed because her energy has me wondering if I can trust her to set my children and I up safely on a water activity. Confused by her animosity, I paused before answering and now she's shooting darts of impatience from her eyes. I'm confused and disappointed by the reception but answer " yes" because we'd driven all the way up there to have some fun before school resumes. When I said "yes" she gave a really loud HUFF! And then she took her pen and literally SLAMMED the push part onto the desk in order to eject the tip!! She begins angrily writing something. Now I'm REALLY wondering what the hell the problem so I ask her if she is okay? She said something like -" Yeah, Since you want to do it I have to create a form for you" I'm said "umm okay". Though offended, my tone was calm, because again, if we do this she is the one who'll be getting us set up on the water, but my voice did change enough to let her know that I know her behavior is out of line and unwarranted. While she was writing, I said "We'll be right back". I'm a first time visitor so we go wandering around looking for an alternate company to utilize but they were the only ones there offering kayaking. My kids and I stand around contemplating just riding bikes around the harbor so that we wouldn't have to deal w/ her. While we were standing around, I saw a guy helping some men onto a kayak. When he was done he began walking toward the Kayak Center so I asked if he worked there. He said yes and I explained from the beginning about my phone call. He said it was CRAIG that I had spoken with prior to visiting. (The woman inside, had she been so inclined could also have easily made that connection that it was Craig ,not Greg, that I had spoken with). I asked him the name of the young woman inside, he said her name was Savannah. I described her behavior and told him that we were unsure about getting onto the water as novices w/ her help as she was clearly reluctant to aid us in any way. He said he'd be the one helping us onto the water, not Savannah. With that being said, we decided to go forward with our original plan. We approached the store front again. Savannah had written out forms for us to sign. Her attitude was toned down a bit by the time we returned, but it was still a far cry from friendly and still very much outside the realm of good customer service. At best, she was no longer openly hostile. I completed the makeshift form for myself and my children. Savannah offered that we could leave our bag in the office, which was nice of her. The young man got us set up in life vests, kayaks and paddles. We enjoyed the hour on the water. Upon returning to the office, Savannah was sitting in the back again, this time, having lunch. My immediate thought was that, if she was bothered by our patronage earlier, she was really going to flip her lid if we disturb her lunch! But, the clock was ticking on our rental period so I needed to go ahead and check out. She didn't seem additionally bothered by having her meal interrupted, she was her same sour self as earlier. I hoped that since some time had passed, perhaps whatever was bugging her would've been resolved, she'd realize how nasty her attitude was and offer an apology. Nope. We simply paid and left. The whole thing was so surreal. I don't know how she felt so comfortable to behave this way, but it sure was a shock to be treated so poorly. As awful as she was, Craig had been the complete opposite so, in fairness, I would still recommend the business. Hopefully, the next person can have the good fortune to interact w/ Craig not Savannah.
