St Louis Blues Lose Fan After Disgraceful Customer Support Failure
In the wake of so much uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies are stepping up their game, offering refunds and special deals to loyal customers in order to maintain their support.
Unfortunately, the St. Louis Blues haven’t followed this example, and the recent disastrous experience by an anonymous fan is just one more unfortunate story in a string of poor customer support experiences by the team’s fans.
The fan, who has chosen to remain anonymous, had been a supporter of the team for over 7 year, during which he spent thousands of dollars on season tickets. He had intended to continue his support for the foreseeable future, “win or lose”, due to his love of the team – but unfortunately the insulting treatment he received at the hands of the team’s sales management changed all of that in just a few phone calls.
It took this fan over three months to receive a final solution for a simple request – that he be refunded his unused $22,000 for his seats for the 2020-2021 season that never happened, with the intention to renew payments once a new season had been confirmed.
Due to the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no guarantee when the season would commence, and with such a large deposit on the line it only made sense to have the funds returned until the new season was confirmed.
Sadly, this logic wasn’t clear to everyone. After weeks of unreturned emails – to his designated support representative and to two of the Blues’ customer support emails – the fan decided to reach out directly via phone call.
He was told to wait until the end of the day, when he would receive a call back from his designated support rep or from a different manager. The call never came, and he spent two and a half days waiting to no avail.
Finally, a second call got him in touch with Kyle Waymon, the sales manager for the St. Louis Blues. This is where things took a turn for the worse.
After explaining his simple request, Waymon began to speak aggressively to the fan and in a condescending tone. Not only did he accuse the fan of having “financial troubles”, but he then falsely claimed that if the fan went through with his refund request, that he would be giving up the seats that he’d had reserved for years.
This claim was later proven false by a client retention manager that got in touch with the fan towards the end of the debacle which makes us wonder what Waymon’s intentions were with the unnecessary threat.
After hanging up, the fan reached out directly to the management of the St. Louis Blues and provided a detailed explanation of the events, starting with his initial refund request made on March 22nd, 2021.
Days later, he was contacted by a client retention manager who apologized for the unprofessional behavior and worked to assist him in receiving his refund. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done and the fan stated his intentions to cut ties with the team.
After receiving his refund, he thought that the matter had been resolved. However, three months later he received a confirmation email from the team stating that his card was still on file and would be charged for the renewal of the new season, despite requesting otherwise. He reached out again, and a week later received confirmation that his card was finally removed.
It took this fan over three months to resolve what should’ve been a simple refund request, and this isn’t the first time he’d dealt with similar frustrations:
“This is just one story, I’ve had nothing but horrible experiences anytime I have had any customer support needs in the past. To me, this was not that complex, I was asking for a refund for a season that did not happen and intended to pick back up next season when they have things figured out and payments begin.”
With so many fans’ funds and loyalty on the line, we can only wonder why the St. Louis Blues management team has yet to step up and provide their customers with a higher quality support experience, especially in the midst of a pandemic that has impacted the globe.
