Guest Services

Ok so i will let you know that this is part rant before it gets started then if you dont want to carry on reading stop right here...

I ask this because i have only be able to attend one game so far this year and that was on wednesday, but has anyone noticed if there has been a lack of guest services staff ? Now i understand that if you are figuring on less fans in seats then you will not need as mnay people to 'help' them but you should still have enough to keep an eye on things happening in the stands. Either way, on a night that you have $ dogs you should expect to have a few people show up.

My wife broke her foot over last weekend, but she still insisted that we go to the game. (she really wanted that blanket) Now we like to sit in the LF bleachers, i mean hey who doesnt, and with the fact my wife is in a wheelchair we use one of the platforms they have about halfway up. They have railings on one side to stop people coming back and forth in front of the wheelchairs etc. Usually (at least every game we attended last year) they have always had at least one staff member out in the bleachers just keeping on eye on things.  They had none on Wednesday and so people didnt care about going the long way around, they would just climb over the railings. After a couple of near misses the inevitable happened, as some idiot climbed over and stepped down straight on my wifes bad leg and actually catapulted her forward out of her chair. i exchanged some words with him but was more concerned about getting her out and to the first aid station, get some ice that sort of thing.  Trying to find a rep was rediculous and when we finally encountered a service rep, she directed us to a first aid station that was closed. We then saw a supervisor who instead of offering to help us in any kind of way, told us we had to go to the other one on the other side of the stadium. As we all know, its hard to walk around the concourse at times, you try doing it with a wheelchair!!! After finally making it around and with my wife in tears, we walked in to two people bickering back and forth about whose job it was to be where and to answer what call. We sat there for 5 minutes before my wife got upset and told me to take her home. Then they decided to acknowledge us and oh did we need help? Yeah but too late now we are going home. We could have used an escort to the first aid station or better we could have used someone getting us some basic items like an icepack and bringing them to us rather than being forced to navigate our way around the stadium.

Going back around we saw one security and one guest services member in the 20 or so sections we covered. I dont know if i am worried by that or appalled. i dread to think what would happen if anything serious happened on the concourse or in the seats

It was not until we were leaving up on the bart plaza, that two ladies at the door noticed something was wrong and asked what happened. i was so pissed off by then i couldnt speak very well and said we were just going home. They stopped us and insisted that our problem whatever it was get sorted out before we left or at least make a complaint. Has anyone ever made a complaint at the coliseum that has actually elicted a response? i am curious because i am not really expecting to hear back from anyone. Anyhow they did call their boss, who i guess called the Stadium Operations Director whose name was David Avila. He talked to my wife a bit and the supervisor pulled me aside and asked me what happened and to write a statement. Do you know what his response was to me? He asked me why didnt i hit the guy that fell on my wife? I mean seriously, what kind of response is that? Sure it might have given me some satisfaction but it wouldnt have helped as i would have been the one getting thrown out!!! i could not believe he said that to me, as he confided that this is what he would have done! Is this for real? is this the attitude that the people working their have? Oh they will sort out their own problems we dont need to interfere? Crazy...

Whats even more crazy is we are actually going back tomorrow!!! I will be taking a lot more precautions tomorrow and i hope we make the whole game this time. If anyone who was sitting in the rows in front of us reads here, i want to say thanks for the offers of help and suggest that maybe the A's should be giving you guys and gals jobs and firing who they got now. To everyone else here, if you want to stop by and say hi please do so, you cant miss us. I'm the big loudmouth lunk sitting beside the lady in the wheechair and we will hopefully be on the second or third platform in from the flag poles.

There will never be anything happens that will make me hate the team on the field, but damn i cant wait for fremont and a modern stadium...

Night all