As can be seen by my recent posts, my boyfriend and I just returned from a week-long vacation in British Columbia on a snowboarding trip. The weather was amazing and almost every waitress we had was very nice, but outside of that, the service we experienced was quite often terrible, which I thought was weird, given the current economic climate.
Air Canada was the first offender, which is especially awesome since Canadian airlines are expected to experience an 86% profit loss this year. We arrived at the airport, checked in at a kiosk, printed our bag tags, and went to line up at the main counter. Before we could reach it, an Air Canada employee rudely re-directed us to a single counter across the lane. It was because we had oversize bags, she said. We questioned this, since Matt flew with a board only two weeks ago and it wasn’t an issue, but she quickly barked, “Trust me. I’ve been working here for 20 years. You go over there.” There was only one counter open and a huge line, which got bigger by the second. It was February, ski season, and everyone had oversize luggage. So we had to wait half an hour in line to check our bags (only to be told it didn’t matter that our bags were oversized because they were pre-registered) while the six check-in counters across the lane were almost empty. Nice way to treat your winter travelers, Air Canada. Glad to see that Canada’s ski-resort tourism business is so important to you.
Hotel staff (off resort) were just as bad. One receptionist rolled her eyes when we asked directions to the ski hill. Rolled her eyes! And at one of the ski hills, a lift attendant yelled at us because we boarded an empty gondola while he was busy chatting with his bros instead of doing his job. I know you don’t get paid much, resort staffers, but we’re paying up to $75 a day to be there, so we expect civility in return.
Now, I don’t expect to get a medal becuase we went on vacation, but this is a recession and Canadian tourism is down. And we were out spending money. So how ’bout treating the customers you do have with care? And while I’m at it, BC should get off the ‘Toronto sucks’ train. As one woman put it when a Golden store clerk commented that we (Torontonians) “invade” BC: We spend money. Lots of it. I don’t see much of a point of running a business in a tourism town if you only want BC residents to come to it. Good luck with that.
Photo: Flickr
