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In late June I was contacted to advertise on a golf card of a well known course in my area, which I agreed to do. It was an easy process and the graphic artist did a great job on my ad.
A couple weeks later in early July, I was contacted by Chris about an opening for ad space in a golf course guide for a course in my local area. He said a realtor had the space and backed out last minute so he could sell it to me for 1/2 price. He specifically said the ad was for hole #6 in the course guide. We even discussed how this was the longest hole on the course and towards middle of the course guide book making it an ideal placement to put an ad. No other ads would be present on this page either.
In working with the graphic artist on this ad, I was even sent proofs showing how my ad would look on the pages in the book with the hole.
I received a copy of the book on 10/13/2023. My ad was on the back page just before the golf card in the back of the book. I emailed Chris and he responded back immediately with the message, "Call customer service." No apology, no "hey what's wrong, how can I help." This was very surprising since Chris had seemed very interested in talking to me when he was trying to sell this ad space to me.
I called the company and the man I spoke to was very rude. He claimed the ad was for "best available" and I was just "hung up on not being placed on a hole." I relayed the information about the hole I was promised my ad would be on and the guy said again I was just being irrational and it wouldn't have mattered what hole I was on.
First, I would have never bought ad space if it was for some random spot in the book and certainly not for the back of the book. The only reason I did it was because Chris told me it was on a well known hole, a very specific location and there would be no other ads on the page where I was located.
Secondly, as a business owner I believe when you tell a customer your service or product is for something specific then you deliver on that as agreed. This was not something I imagined as accused and it was definitely reasonable to think as a customer I would be very upset to see this was not even close to what was discussed.
Thirdly, referring someone to customer service is fine but as a sales person and relationship manager it is a situation like this where personal outreach matters. I can only assume Chris knew he messed up and was going to hear about it so he didn't take the extra effort to speak to me and try to make the situation better.
It is very unfortunate this company has chosen to not have more integrity in their sales and lacks meaningful customer resolution processes to correct situations besides being rude and insulting to their clients. Mind you this company sought me out to advertise in these materials and I did not even know about them beforehand. There were mixed reviews when I looked them up but it seemed legitimate so I agreed to try this type of advertising.
As a brand new business this was image in my local community where I am known, money and lost opportunity for my business with highly disappointing results based on the poor sales and decisions made by this company.
