squirrel
Sunday, July 31, 2011 11:00:36 PM
Most of you know I spent MANY years inside the business, spread across several shows throughout multiple states. I grew up in Northwest Indiana and the the Lake County Fair (Crown Point, IN) was my 'stomping grounds' when I got into the business. The next closest county fair was in Porter County, IN - which ran a couple weeks before Crown Point. We used to call it 'the warmup' because there were not as many rides and the lineup was always different (since played by different shows). In the past, CVS had the date for years, and the customer service was always good -- I can't remember any complaints from our 'group' as we grew up and visited both fairs.

As many know, NAME now has the spot, and I've heard good things about the iron they bring in and usually hear good remarks about the spot. Unfortunately, a close friend of mine who I grew up with, has told me otherwise via his Facebook. It seems he had some very bad experiences out there for his family, including ride operators who used foul language around his children, as well as playing favorites on who rode the ride and who didn't. Then as the comments rolled on with his Facebook post, there is another complaint that an operator was arguing with a parent over the child being tall enough to ride, including saying the yardstick at the ride used to measure the child was 'wrong'.

I have to say that it's customer views of operators in this industry that lead many to give it a black eye. NAME is supposed to be one of the 'top entertainment and amusement providers in the country', boasting their numerous state fairs and 'hundreds of rides'. I know that if the management was aware of things like this happening, that they would deal with it, but when you are running an operation of that size, it's hard to keep up. I've been in management shoes -- it's a tough job - but IMO if you 'take the position, then you have to tow the line - plain and simple...

Another example is a personal experience that happened earlier this year down here in KY at the Murray-Calloway Co. Fair - where the show looked beautiful, prices were good, and overall was a great night. Until the last ride of the evening. There, after my wife exited the ride, she pulls me aside to tell me that the operator stunk like a bottle of alcohol and she was extremely upset over the fact that he felt the need to touch her legs while putting on her seat belt [insert sarcasm here] Now we all know that a 20 year old woman is totally incapable of hooking a seat belt up by her self on a ride that loads one seat at a time, where the operator can VISUALLY check the status of the seat belt without putting his hands on the customer, let alone a female, let alone my wife. I immediately complained to the show office about this incident and they seemed concerned and unhappy with what they were being told. Now whether or not they did anything about it is another story. I held back on posting this before, but this, combined with my close friend's experience up north, has boiled me over the edge.

I am a showman, and am proud of it. I spent a good part of my life as an entertainer, ride operator, supervisor, maintenance mechanic, electrician, truck driver, gopher, and more positions that I have forgotten over the years. Hearing and experiencing things like I mentioned about above kills me and makes our whole industry look bad, whether you want to admit it or not. It's damned embarassing. There are thousands of us in this industry that take pride in what we do and would not let this happen on our midways. But there are the few that ruin the whole experience for our customers. We need to go back to the days when we 'handled' our own and when we had a problem crew member that made us look bad, we ran them off the show.
squirrel
Sunday, July 31, 2011 11:13:58 PM
I didn't mention above -- my personal experience at the Kentucky date I mentioned didn't involve NAME - it was on a Myers Int'l Midways date... I'm not bashing the shows, I'm bashing the people who made those shows look bad and hoping my post will bring to light for the owners that they have some issue employees they need to deal with because it's making their image look bad when the customers have experiences like I described/experienced.
rockindodgem
Sunday, July 31, 2011 11:22:33 PM
well thanks for the honesty SS.

I plan to see NAME at the indiana state fair in a couple of weeks and I totally agree, I try to not bash shows but I absolutely hate it when some jerk in a show shirt has to ruin the experience. I remember a few years ago when farrows played the state fair and i got into a heated arguement with a jointy and ended up going to the office and found out that I was the 5th person to complain about him that day.
Never underestimate the power of Stupid people in a large group.