Bad customer policies lead to frustrated golfers

This past weekend my foursome scheduled a tee time of 9:07AM for the “inside course” at Community Golf Course in Kettering. Due to a wedding that we had to attend latter that day we only had time to play nine holes. Upon arriving there were just a few people playing, only one group of two on the first tee on the inside, and no one else to be seen. I thought it was a bit sparse for labor day weekend when the weather was in the middle 80’s with clear skies.

My girlfriend and I arrived before the other two playing, so I went in to pay. We needed a cart and the total was $79.50. Come again? Community Golf Course, 9 holes….that should be less than $50.00 for two people. I politely explain that we called ahead to reserve only a 9 hole round due to a wedding etc… Their response was that, “The city will not let us refund any money. We can only issue you a rain check.” I was not happy.

I grabbed the other two playing, told them it would be $80.00 to play 9 holes (all we had time for) and we all decided to leave. Naturally the person who is out the money has the most tied into the policy. I was more upset than the rest of the foursome.

To be fair, I looked on the City of Kettering Web site and I also searched long and wide for their policies online. There are none to be found. I was planning on posting them.

More interestingly, why would a company, or a golf course in this case, have such a ridiculous policy with a double whammy: No refunds; Only 18 holes (an “all of nothing”).

I can think of a few reasons:

First, they are assuming people are dishonest. Why force people to pay for 18 holes even the course is not busy (which we know on that day it was not)? Because they assume that some people will pay for 9 holes and then just finish out the back 9 and “cheat the system”. This is the easiest way to get rid of the opportunity to cheat on weekends.

Second, and a flawed theory, is that they want to “fill their course” by having people play all 18 holes and get the most out of every round. It is easy to assume that you could alternate the starting hole (e.g. first tee, or on hole number 9) effectively enough to make sure every part of the course got equal wear and tear. Further in this argument is that they can get more people playing if they have a full 18 holes for every foursome. This is also not true. They start people every 11 minutes or so no matter hoe many holes the plan to play. The constraint is time, not number of holes.

They are an example of a business that has a ridiculous policy for the sake of having it. I guarantee you that if you or I owned this golf course and a group of four people who were upgrading their golfing experience by renting a cart came in and only wanted to play nine we would try to still take their money. Especially if our course was not busy. By simply using your common sense, looking at the schedule of start time, looking that there is basically no one on the course today, we could bend the rules “just this once.” Thank you very much, and it will be $45.00 for you two, and $45.00 for your friends.

Finally the “no refunds” rule is just beyond comprehension in the consumer society we live in today. It costs literally nothing to void out a credit card sale. In fairness, we did reserve a tee time, so theoretically we took up a profitable space for the course. Except on this day like many others, when they had time to spare and no one was waiting. Also, because we warned my friends, they did not even enter the club house and therefore did not pay a dime. The four of us simply left and played a different course.

So what will I do with my rain check? I will probably play again. Community is a great course and I have played it probably a hundred times. It is so unfortunate that they have these antiquated and ridiculous policies with their customers. I wonder if the visionary John H. Patterson, the man that donated the land and money for the course and founder of NCR, would agree with their policies today.