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Caesar's Host - Seven Stars Birthday Dinner

I am paraphrasing this a bit from a letter I wrote to the host
supervisor as if I were addressing this group:

My wife and I would celebrated our Seven Stars birthday dinner at the
Eiffel Tower restaurant at Paris last week. We were expecting that
the meal would be comped but we were told there was a problem when
the meal was over and we needed to talk to a host that was on the
phone from Caesar's Las Vegas.

The host was Michelle McIlvaine. When I picked up the phone she
immediately and rudely stated that she wanted to talk to my wife. I
said I was her husband and that she could talk to me. She insisted
to talk to my wife and would not let me get a word in. After she
refused to talk to me, I had to run to the other side of the
restaurant and bring my wife to the phone. My wife asked who she was
and she stated that she was a Caesar's host and she had been there
for 3 years. Well, we have been Harrah's customers for over 10
years, so I don't understand what she was getting at there. Michelle
then proceeded to tell her that we could not do our birthday dinner
at this restaurant and that we would have to pay for it. My wife
tried to explain to her that our Caesar's host had arranged
everything, but Michelle would not hear any of that and refused her
request to be connected to our host's mobile phone as has been done
in the past. My wife got very upset when Michelle insisted that we
pay and handed the phone over to me. For someone in the customer
service business Michelle was certainly not very cordial and
accommodating. It was apparently too late to try to use what points
we had to cover part of the meal and we could not charge it to our
room, because we checked out early. I wanted to speak with our host,
but he was not available and Michelle again insisted that we pay for
our free Seven Stars birthday dinner. She then wanted to speak with
Jen, the hostess at the Eiffel Tower restaurant. Jen was in a
different office and someone patched her through while I was still on
the line. Michelle was not aware that I was listening in when she
gave Jen an earful about us. Michelle told Jen to not let us leave
the premises without paying, as if we were common criminals. She
said I "claimed" to be a Sevens Stars member and that I only had
$20.00 in comps and in her words my being Seven Stars
was "bullshit". I believe that was uncalled for. In 2004 our tier
score was a bit over 100,000 reward credits and in 2005 our tier
score was over 150,000. We have spent thousands of comp dollars in
the past and only have a little left. I don't understand what having
only $20.00 in comps remaining has anything to do with my Seven Stars
status. The fact is that we are still Seven Stars and should be
treated as such! My wife had more than $200.00 in her account at
that time.

After Michelle hung up with Jen, I called Jen back and told her I
heard that conversation and Jen apologized profusely. I have
absolutely no problem with the staff at Paris. The meal was great.
The service was great and they were all very polite.

After talking to our Caesar's host the next day, he found out that
the host at Paris he had contacted to take the comp up to the
restaurant apparently never did that. He has apologized for their
mistake and everything has been settled concerning our restaurant
bill.

My wife and I believe that it is very unfortunate that Caesar's has
someone unprofessional like Michelle working there and hope they will
do something about that situation. We have really enjoyed our visits
to Caesar's and would like to continue doing so.

I hope you told the GM at Caesar's and called Gary Loveman's office

···

at corporate. At 01:42 PM 6/4/2006, you wrote:

I am paraphrasing this a bit from a letter I wrote to the host
supervisor as if I were addressing this group:

My wife and I would celebrated our Seven Stars birthday dinner at the
Eiffel Tower restaurant at Paris last week. We were expecting that
the meal would be comped but we were told there was a problem when
the meal was over and we needed to talk to a host that was on the
phone from Caesar's Las Vegas.

The host was Michelle McIlvaine. When I picked up the phone she
immediately and rudely stated that she wanted to talk to my wife. I
said I was her husband and that she could talk to me. She insisted
to talk to my wife and would not let me get a word in. After she
refused to talk to me, I had to run to the other side of the
restaurant and bring my wife to the phone. My wife asked who she was
and she stated that she was a Caesar's host and she had been there
for 3 years. Well, we have been Harrah's customers for over 10
years, so I don't understand what she was getting at there. Michelle
then proceeded to tell her that we could not do our birthday dinner
at this restaurant and that we would have to pay for it. My wife
tried to explain to her that our Caesar's host had arranged
everything, but Michelle would not hear any of that and refused her
request to be connected to our host's mobile phone as has been done
in the past. My wife got very upset when Michelle insisted that we
pay and handed the phone over to me. For someone in the customer
service business Michelle was certainly not very cordial and
accommodating. It was apparently too late to try to use what points
we had to cover part of the meal and we could not charge it to our
room, because we checked out early. I wanted to speak with our host,
but he was not available and Michelle again insisted that we pay for
our free Seven Stars birthday dinner. She then wanted to speak with
Jen, the hostess at the Eiffel Tower restaurant. Jen was in a
different office and someone patched her through while I was still on
the line. Michelle was not aware that I was listening in when she
gave Jen an earful about us. Michelle told Jen to not let us leave
the premises without paying, as if we were common criminals. She
said I "claimed" to be a Sevens Stars member and that I only had
$20.00 in comps and in her words my being Seven Stars
was "bullshit". I believe that was uncalled for. In 2004 our tier
score was a bit over 100,000 reward credits and in 2005 our tier
score was over 150,000. We have spent thousands of comp dollars in
the past and only have a little left. I don't understand what having
only $20.00 in comps remaining has anything to do with my Seven Stars
status. The fact is that we are still Seven Stars and should be
treated as such! My wife had more than $200.00 in her account at
that time.

After Michelle hung up with Jen, I called Jen back and told her I
heard that conversation and Jen apologized profusely. I have
absolutely no problem with the staff at Paris. The meal was great.
The service was great and they were all very polite.

After talking to our Caesar's host the next day, he found out that
the host at Paris he had contacted to take the comp up to the
restaurant apparently never did that. He has apologized for their
mistake and everything has been settled concerning our restaurant
bill.

My wife and I believe that it is very unfortunate that Caesar's has
someone unprofessional like Michelle working there and hope they will
do something about that situation. We have really enjoyed our visits
to Caesar's and would like to continue doing so.

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lvndgreek wrote:

My wife and I believe that it is very unfortunate that Caesar's has
someone unprofessional like Michelle working there and hope they will
do something about that situation. We have really enjoyed our visits
to Caesar's and would like to continue doing so.

Hopefully without being overly presumptuous, this is the type of
incident I hope Jean makes note of in her continuing efforts to
educate casino management on the do's/don'ts of player management.

Such hosts are the casinos' weakest link (and don't you wish you were
empowered to say "Goodbye!"). This is one of the more abominable
tales I've encountered. Harrah's goes to tremendous lengths to court
7* players and along comes a host who apparently makes no effort to
investigate the situation much less accomodate the player, instead
merely checks a RC balance and dismisses the situation -- 100's of
marketing dollars down the tubes in one shot.

I draw a demarkation between two types of hosts -- those for whom
player satisfaction is their primary goal (maximizing player afinity
for the casino) and those who take it upon themselves to act first as
gatekeeper, with limited regard for the player. I can only fathom
that it's a power trip that motivates the latter.

I fully recognize that players can be a grubby, grabby lot at times (I
won't exclude myself :wink: and the casino must look to hosts to exercise
considerable discretion in wielding their authority. But casinos
should have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to the type of
indiscriminate judgement exercised by this woman.

I can imagine few worse scenarios than a ruined romantic evening at
the hands of a bureaucrat -- it's the epitome of what should be held
up to player development of what not to do.

- Harry

<<Hopefully without being overly presumptuous, this is the type of
incident I hope Jean makes note of in her continuing efforts to
educate casino management on the do's/don'ts of player management.>>

This does go in my Devil/Angel host file. However, there is an irony here. This same Caesars host took care of a problem for me about this time last year when my regular host had slipped up making a reservation. I had invited guests to the 4th of July celebration and when we got there, there were no tickets for us. Michaelle investigated the matter and produced the tickets in minutes. She was gracious, friendly and I kept her card as a good "backup" for my regular host.

I've noticed the Caesar hosts are under great stress. Harrahs is changing their job so drastically and so quickly. And unhappy customers are dumping on them right and left. I don't excuse her actions in the incident reported, but I do understand the pressure they are under. Hopefully things will be better as time goes by.

···

________________________________________
Jean $¢ott
New book coming this summer
"FRUGAL VIDEO POKER"
http://www.FrugalGambler.biz
  
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Despite what HET says about all their computer systems now being "joined"--we
  (hubby an IT professional and myself) have seen descrepancies and variations even between Harrahs and Rio! Much less a host trying to learn a new system at Caesars! We've found that like everyone else here has often noted--it pays to know what you have in TR credits and what you've earned on a DAILY basis.
   
  Also, all the Harrahs TR multiplier days we've received have been casino specific. Sometimes they will run them at 2 casinos on a specific day--say Harrahs and Rio, but usually they're only on certain days, at a specific multiplier and sometimes even for only certain level of players--like Platinums and Diamonds or Diamonds only etc!

···

#######################################################################
Jean Scott <QueenofComps@frugalgambler.biz> wrote:<<Hopefully without being overly presumptuous, this is the type of incident I hope Jean makes note of in her continuing efforts to educate casino management on the do's/don'ts of player management.>>
This does go in my Devil/Angel host file. However, there is an irony here. This same Caesars host took care of a problem for me about this time last year when my regular host had slipped up making a reservation. I had invited guests to the 4th of July celebration and when we got there, there were no tickets for us. Michaelle investigated the matter and produced the tickets in minutes. She was gracious, friendly and I kept her card as a good "backup" for my regular host.
I've noticed the Caesar hosts are under great stress. Harrahs is changing their job so drastically and so quickly. And unhappy customers are dumping on them right and left. I don't excuse her actions in the incident reported, but I do understand the pressure they are under. Hopefully things will be better as time goes by. Jean $¢ott
  ######################################################################

Jean H--
   
  You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
  And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go.... Dr. Suess

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