Sometimes Squeaking Helps

The day before C and her family came into town the last time, we were having a conversation about what they were planning to do when they were here. She mentioned they were going to visit the children's museum and also mentioned the trouble they had the last time they went. All eight of them went to the museum together, and expected to pay the 'family rate' as was posted. It turns out that they were told families were two parents and up to four children. This seemed odd to C and her husband and they questioned it--and were told 'this one time' that they could get into the place for the family rate. Well, I had not heard this story before and it rather got my back up. The more I thought about it, the more I felt I needed to do something.

The first thing I did was to call the museum to see if I could confirm what the family rate was. Sure enough, the person I talked to told me the exact same thing. WTF??? I thought the reason for family rates was so large families could participate the same as small families can. I then called the YMCA to ask about THEIR family rate--and their's was the way I thought it should be. The policy at the YMCA is: A family consists of how ever many members live in the same household. (Or something along those lines.) So, with THAT straightened out--I thought maybe the policy of the museum was something unique to our city, which wouldn't have surprised me!--I decided to pursue this further. (I think our city motto is : Anything for a buck!)

My next step was to contact--by email--the director of the museum. Now, my email wasn't the most pleasant, but it definitely was NOT mean. I just questioned her as to why someone who decides to have a large family should be penalized because of it. Well, THAT got such a fast reply that I didn't even think anyone could type that quickly! She wanted more information and wanted to assure me that the policy of the museum was NOT as I was lead to believe. For the remainder of that afternoon, we emailed back and forth with her last email stating that she would get to the bottom of this the very next morning during their daily meeting. Wow.

The following morning I received another email from the director thanking me beyond words for brininging this whole matter to her attention. It seems as if the 'cheat sheet' the volunteers used DID state the pricing policy as C was told--and this was TOTALLY WRONG! Somehow or another, the sheet had been typed up incorrectly and who knows how long this had been going on. It just so happens that no one had bothered to take this up with the director before, so it couldn't be corrected until I told her about it. As an apology, she offered C and her family a free pass to the museum--and she thanked me over and over again. So this proves that--at least some times--the squeaky wheel DOES get the grease!

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