Six Flags Great America accused of denying pass refund for deceased husband

Lord Gonchar said:

To deal with what I'm dealt? To accept other's established conditions out of a general respect?

I wouldn't call that respect necessarily. And more often than not, I think that opens up the door to being taken advantage of.

You can't really be taken advantage of if the rules were established in advance.

That is to say you bought the passes under a certain condition and now you want to go against those conditions. Or like I said in the last post:

I bought the pass. I intended to use it. My situation changed. None of that is on Six Flags and I'd feel awkward putting it on them.

If anything, I'm trying to take advantage of my changed circumstances to go against the agreed upon conditions of the sale. Six Flags did nothing wrong for me to expect to get my money back.

Wow. I actually agree with Gonch. ;)

I think you misspelled always.

;-)

So I heard a story from a friend who, as an amusement park employee, was faced with the unpleasant task of dealing with a death at the park. The death was health related and had nothing to do with anything at the park itself. As the deceased was being carted away the poor woman's husband turned to my friend and said "I suppose this means we'll be getting a refund..."

Honest to God.

Just seems like a no-brainer to me for the park representative to have said we're so sorry, of course, here's you refund (perhaps while thinking to themselves, really? A death in the family and you're looking for a refund?). Why invite trouble -- or bad PR?

Just going out on a limb here, but I highly doubt this was the first thing, or even on a list of things, that the person thought of.

DOCTOR: "I'm sorry, he's gone"

WIFE: "No! Well...at least I save receipts..."

She was begrudgingly going through the family finances, and came across the passes purchased for the family. What was supposed to be a ticket to family memories was a memory of what now could never be.

Asking for the refund in this scenario is neither right or wrong, and no, you have no idea how you would act in someone else's shoes in this scenario. You can only speculate how you may act, and even then you are just as likely to be incorrect as you are correct. The power of the situation, much less someone else's situation, leads to guesswork on what actions a human will take.

That said, the right thing for the park to do is to simply offer a refund. Do they have to? Of course not.

What sucks is that a person has to resort to contacting the media to get a company to treat people like...well...people, especially an entity like Six Flags, which is supposed to represent family fun and apparently wants to focus on customer service. I would expect this behavior from, say, an insurance company, but not Six Flags. I'm proud of her for sticking up for what she thought was the right course of action, despite the fine print.

Raven-Phile said:

Yeah, if one of my family members died, the last thing I would be thinking to do is to get refunds on things like that. It's just at the bottom of the list of important things that need taking care of.

People have a funny way of grieving, in a very sad way. Don't judge it until you have seen a loved one go thru it.

Right, because I've never had a family member die, ever.

No, but you aren't this family. That's the point that seems lost in the "too bad for you" crowd. It's this:

OhioStater said:

Asking for the refund in this scenario is neither right or wrong, and no, you have no idea how you would act in someone else's shoes in this scenario. You can only speculate how you may act, and even then you are just as likely to be incorrect as you are correct. The power of the situation, much less someone else's situation, leads to guesswork on what actions a human will take.

And I would add that if it were me in the role of Six Flags representative, I would not question the appropriateness of the request because I'm not going to be a dick to someone who just lost a spouse. It wouldn't be my money, and frankly if it were that big of a deal, I wouldn't want to work for a company that was OK with treating people that way.

RCMAC said:

So I heard a story from a friend who, as an amusement park employee, was faced with the unpleasant task of dealing with a death at the park. The death was health related and had nothing to do with anything at the park itself. As the deceased was being carted away the poor woman's husband turned to my friend and said "I suppose this means we'll be getting a refund..."

Honest to God.

Eh, that approach sounds far too passive. He should have had the body carted to guest services along with the ticket stub. I don't imagine there'd be any trouble getting the refund.

This has nothing to do with what is right. It is a classic "feel bad" story picked up and sensationalized by the media. It really is a non-event.

I am in the industry and the reality is that people lie. All of the time. My park has several "no refund" policies and you would be amazed at some of the stories I have been told from guests looking for a refund. I actually have been told by a guest that a family member was killed in combat in Iraq the day before a cabana reservation and they wanted a refund. After some quick research, this was not true. People are sick.

So those of us in customer service become naturally skeptical over time as to the truthfulness of "I want a refund" stories.

But, it just so happens that this story seems to be the truth, so it made a good news story. The reality is that 99% of other similar hardship stories are made up by liars trying to work the system.

I don't blame SF at all for their initial response. And after investigating, they made it right. What more can you expect?

If you work in the industry, I hope you don't work at the same company I do. People might be dicks, but I'd rather give them the benefit of the doubt, especially for something like this.

If I gave every guest the benefit of the doubt, I'd be giving out dozens of refunds and free stuff all day long. The legit guest service issues I deal with I take care of the guest. But for the 95% of other issues that are complete BS, I have found the people complain just to work the system and are trying to get something for free.

Sorry, I have found that people have been conditioned to complain just to get something for free. "What are you going to compensate me" is the most common phrase I hear when dealing with guest issues.

And even I get it wrong from time to time, just like in the article. But don't hate the player, hate the game...

If the pass was never used I don't see the harm in refunding if someone said their family member died. If they are lying, the worst case scenario is that they are being credited for services never rendered.

At my part time job in a theatre box office, I deal with the public.

Everyone who buys tickets to our show is told there are no refunds and no exchanges.

And a few people then later ring up and and tell us there was a death in the family, or a family member is in hospital, or there's a blizzard, or (my favorite) the guy who said he knew there were no exchanges, but he just wanted to trade his tickets for a different day.

We accommodate them. Are most of them scammers? Probably. Most of our shows are bringing several tens of thousands of dollars. Accommodating the few people who, for whatever reason, 'need' a refund or exchange doesn't cost us much and makes people happy.

I guess it is a matter of operational philosophy. My park is incredibly profitable and receives great reviews. But we just don't hand out a comp pass or refund to every guest who complains that he isn't "satisfied".

If the issue is legit, we will take care of the guest. But for the 95% of others, who are clearly working the system trying to get something for free, we don't do that much.

You have to manage the integrity of your service recovery program otherwise you will be taken advantage of.

The show's been running for 17 years, so our process works for us. Different businesses have different concerns.

It's a shame you feel that such a high percentage of your customers are lying. Even worse that you've already framed situations as a us versus them. If you think there are sides you've already lost, just like Six Flags did.

I went to my partner today and warned him that in the event of my untimely demise he is NOT to go around seeking refunds for my season passes, magazine subscriptions, club memberships, and the like.

He just looked at me. There was a heavy sigh and a slow blink in there somewhere, too.