Sad week for Manhattan bowlers
Aug. 13th, 2008 07:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wwcitizenSo, our struggles have come to an end. The executive committee and I, the league president, worked very hard - against all odds - to negotiate better pricing and expectations of our bowling league for the better part of three months. The first bowling house where we'd been for the better part of 10 years, AMF 300 NYC at Chelsea Piers, kicked out all their leagues. They have become "entertainment houses" rather than bowling establishments. Because of the new restrictions on bowling they implemented, we couldn't keep our USBC sanctioning there; we had to leave. If that wasn't bad enough, the ONLY house in Manhattan accepting bowling leagues was at Port Authority - Leisure Time Bowl (smarmy, slimy folks).
These guys knew they were the only viable option for leagues in town. They had us up against a wall. From the outset, they weren't willing to budge or give us anything within our pricing structure or expectations of the house - no food/drink discounts, starting 30 minutes later than at the previous place, inconvenient ways of holding make-up games, no banking provided to the leagues, etc. The place from the outset of our negotiations was difficult to deal with and they didn't care. We'd make a suggestion, they'd say, "No." We'd offer some other angle, "No, we can't do that." or "That's not what we normally do and we're not comfortable with that." Excuse me, aren't WE the customers??
Two weeks ago, the house sent me an email with an unexpected requirement - a deposit due to them in two weeks. Knowing our league and how unresponsive the captains have been to email requests for information (50% of the league captains drove most of the decisions for the entire league). Leisure Time didn't tell us what the deposit was, gave us no amount, and provided no guidelines on figuring out what the deposit was supposed to be, but it had to be to them by August 15. HOW, pray tell, can you run a business like that??
I replied instantly to the guy with copies to the league secretary and treasurer, and asked for more precise information. His response: "I'll be back in the office on Saturday and will respond then." I was fuming (mind you, this was during the week that I was leaving my firm in Manhattan). I called the guy on Saturday late afternoon after sending a follow up email Saturday morning. The first person that answered "accidentally" hung up on me, and then when I talked to the smarmy bastard, he was in a hurry (on a Saturday night) and would get me the information later in the evening. NO response. No response on Sunday, either. We didn't get the deposit information until Monday night at midnight, 6 days AFTER he sent us the timeline of the deposit - and he sent it only to me; I had to forward it to all the people that needed to help get the deposits from people.
The guy wanted 15% of the ENTIRE FUCKING YEAR'S GUARANTEED EXPENDITURES including the food and drink guarantee. FIFTEEN PERCENT as a deposit. That was equal to almost $8500.00 - and they wanted that in NINE DAYS. I fired of a very heated email to the salesguy and his boss copying the exec committee because the demands were highly unrealistic - during the summer no less - to get that sort of money so quickly. Leisure Time agreed to extend the dates, so that we had more time to gather the funds. The other leagues at the same house weren't being treated like we were at all. They weren't required to put down nearly as much deposit as us, though apparently we were being charged MUCH less than the other leagues. Then it hit me: They don't want us there because they're not making enough off of us and they're being ultra difficult to us so we'll not want to bowl there.
Sure enough: They admitted that there were "MANY other leagues and corporate events that were banging on their doors for the Tuesday night slot, all willing to pay MUCH more than you." Well, by the time I sent the email to the captains Friday, about 5 separate individuals had left their teams, and two more teams had dropped out leaving us with 11-12 teams out of 14 (we guaranteed 14-16 teams). After I updated the captains on the full deposit requirement, teams dropped off like bees getting smoked. Within two days we were only 7 teams. By dropping out, the league decided to disband because the price, requirements, and expectations we had to fit into were all too high and too great a change to move forward.
It was hard to admit, but at least it wasn't my decision and we did the best we could under the circumstances: the league has been canceled until further notice. I plan for us, the officers, to begin advertising the league again in October through January and thinking of innovative ways of garnering more interest in the league next year so that we can be a stronger, more committed/connected (and responsive) league. During the two weeks leading up to this, out of 48 people, we received three checks - and one of them was from a new person to the league, whom I'd never met. Even two days after the cancellation announcement, I'm still trying to figure out a way we could have negotiated differently, but my officers assured me there was nothing more we could have done.
The economy is causing the service industries to become more apathetic to serving and complacent in their customer base rather than becoming better at servicing their customer. It's an odd, tenuous relationship - service to economy. When things are great in the economy, service seems to get better because there's more competition. Then the economy gets crappy and service goes way down because competition is jumping ship and all of a sudden the one place left to serve can call the shots. Funny thing is, though, they're also typically the first to go when the economy's on the upswing and competition comes back - you reap what you sow.
These guys knew they were the only viable option for leagues in town. They had us up against a wall. From the outset, they weren't willing to budge or give us anything within our pricing structure or expectations of the house - no food/drink discounts, starting 30 minutes later than at the previous place, inconvenient ways of holding make-up games, no banking provided to the leagues, etc. The place from the outset of our negotiations was difficult to deal with and they didn't care. We'd make a suggestion, they'd say, "No." We'd offer some other angle, "No, we can't do that." or "That's not what we normally do and we're not comfortable with that." Excuse me, aren't WE the customers??
Two weeks ago, the house sent me an email with an unexpected requirement - a deposit due to them in two weeks. Knowing our league and how unresponsive the captains have been to email requests for information (50% of the league captains drove most of the decisions for the entire league). Leisure Time didn't tell us what the deposit was, gave us no amount, and provided no guidelines on figuring out what the deposit was supposed to be, but it had to be to them by August 15. HOW, pray tell, can you run a business like that??
I replied instantly to the guy with copies to the league secretary and treasurer, and asked for more precise information. His response: "I'll be back in the office on Saturday and will respond then." I was fuming (mind you, this was during the week that I was leaving my firm in Manhattan). I called the guy on Saturday late afternoon after sending a follow up email Saturday morning. The first person that answered "accidentally" hung up on me, and then when I talked to the smarmy bastard, he was in a hurry (on a Saturday night) and would get me the information later in the evening. NO response. No response on Sunday, either. We didn't get the deposit information until Monday night at midnight, 6 days AFTER he sent us the timeline of the deposit - and he sent it only to me; I had to forward it to all the people that needed to help get the deposits from people.
The guy wanted 15% of the ENTIRE FUCKING YEAR'S GUARANTEED EXPENDITURES including the food and drink guarantee. FIFTEEN PERCENT as a deposit. That was equal to almost $8500.00 - and they wanted that in NINE DAYS. I fired of a very heated email to the salesguy and his boss copying the exec committee because the demands were highly unrealistic - during the summer no less - to get that sort of money so quickly. Leisure Time agreed to extend the dates, so that we had more time to gather the funds. The other leagues at the same house weren't being treated like we were at all. They weren't required to put down nearly as much deposit as us, though apparently we were being charged MUCH less than the other leagues. Then it hit me: They don't want us there because they're not making enough off of us and they're being ultra difficult to us so we'll not want to bowl there.
Sure enough: They admitted that there were "MANY other leagues and corporate events that were banging on their doors for the Tuesday night slot, all willing to pay MUCH more than you." Well, by the time I sent the email to the captains Friday, about 5 separate individuals had left their teams, and two more teams had dropped out leaving us with 11-12 teams out of 14 (we guaranteed 14-16 teams). After I updated the captains on the full deposit requirement, teams dropped off like bees getting smoked. Within two days we were only 7 teams. By dropping out, the league decided to disband because the price, requirements, and expectations we had to fit into were all too high and too great a change to move forward.
It was hard to admit, but at least it wasn't my decision and we did the best we could under the circumstances: the league has been canceled until further notice. I plan for us, the officers, to begin advertising the league again in October through January and thinking of innovative ways of garnering more interest in the league next year so that we can be a stronger, more committed/connected (and responsive) league. During the two weeks leading up to this, out of 48 people, we received three checks - and one of them was from a new person to the league, whom I'd never met. Even two days after the cancellation announcement, I'm still trying to figure out a way we could have negotiated differently, but my officers assured me there was nothing more we could have done.
The economy is causing the service industries to become more apathetic to serving and complacent in their customer base rather than becoming better at servicing their customer. It's an odd, tenuous relationship - service to economy. When things are great in the economy, service seems to get better because there's more competition. Then the economy gets crappy and service goes way down because competition is jumping ship and all of a sudden the one place left to serve can call the shots. Funny thing is, though, they're also typically the first to go when the economy's on the upswing and competition comes back - you reap what you sow.
