Jul 5, 2009
Sundance Vacations receives complaint about solicitation
I found this Sundance Vacations complaint while reading an article about the success of the Harrisburg Music Fest on PennLive.com.
Posted by jandree22 on 07/03/09 at 10:45PM
We were up today and it was a decent sized upbeat crowd considering the cool, showery weather. Tomorrow should be much nicer though.
The one complaint I must say, is I am sickened with how many solicitors there are up there. I was hassled about signing up to win this car, win that car, win free windows, Patriot News, etc. Oh and the friggen Sundance Vacations people hit us up at least 5 times! Beware the blue polo shirts, they were EVERYWHERE. I don’t like to be rude, but I eventually had to just flat out ignore them. I don’t mean to discourage people from going because we still had a great time, but event coordinators really need to get a handle on this.
I respect Jandree’s right to post her opinion. In fact, her comment illustrates our need to devise a way where Sundance Vacations can interact with fans effectively while reducing the overlap of requests. The event staff is large and employee B has no idea that employee A has already approached a particular consumer. We expect consumers to simply say, “No. Thank you” or avoid eye contact. We should and will think about ways to improve the customer experience. Thank you for the comment Jandree22.
That being said, we do offer something of value to every consumer in attendance. Sundance Vacations’ sponsorship of the Harrisburg Music Fest provides the much needed capital to host the event in the first place. Without sponsors, there would be no Harrisburg Music Fest for Jandree and others to attend.
Some consumers may prefer that solicitors be eliminated entirely. They may be the same people who dislike junk mail, disapprove of telemarketing calls, have a TiVo to avoid commercials and a SPAM filter. I firmly believe, as members of society we have an obligation to each other to participate in its economy. You may be disappointed by having to say “No, thank you” one too many times but the $80 million in travel sales that Sundance Vacations generated in 2008 is a gift to the economy. I can’t think of a single job that an event attendee might hold that isn’t tied back to the success of Pa’s businesses. When our employees (event staff, marketers, managers, secretaries, sales staff and even janitors) spend their paychecks at your restaurant, in your retail store or at your garage we keep you employed for one more day. Our sponsorship money pays the bands and entertainers who then are able to feed their families or buy a new equipment truck.
We all help each other and are responsible to each other.
The response to Jandree22′s comment was both very nice and very true. The last statement sums it all up and is just the honest to goodness bottom line. I do have a possible suggestion for the overlap of introducing ourselves to the same person more than once. When I visiting London, England there were several demonstrations going on the street to support differnt groups. If a representative spoke to you, weather you donated or not they gave you a sticker to wear. At first we just stuck our stickers in our pocket. But then realized by watching others who were wearing their stickers, they wrere able to glide to the crowds without being approached again. We placed the stickers on our shirts and also glided through the crowd without be stopped again. A nice bright sun sticker just might do the trick!
I will admit even as an employee, at any of our sponsored events, My family and I are overwhelmed with the amount of Sundance t-shirts we will see upon our arrival to those events. Generally though, the staff doesn’t “push” themselves on us and we always enjoy ourselves.
I think the response was well written and the last sentence is truly the bottom line. To make a suggestion about overlapping on requests, I have a good idea. While I was in London, England we walked through some demonstrations going on the street for some local groups. Once they spoke to you , weather you donated or not they gave you a sticker supporting the cause. At first we just stuck the sticker in our pocket. But after watching others who wore the sticker glide through the crowds without being stopped again, we proudly placed the sticker on our shirts. We too then glided through the crowd without being approached again. A nice bright sun sticker might do the trick for Sundance.
I like Candy’s idea of the stickers. The couple events I was at, the Sundance people were so nice and they didnt know I worked here too. I saw what a great job and hard job they have…
Very nicely said and the sticker idea is definitely a good one.
Has anyone seen my keys?
“You may be disappointed by having to say “No, thank you” one too many times but the $80 million in travel sales that Sundance Vacations generated in 2008 is a gift to the economy. I can’t think of a single job that an event attendee might hold that isn’t tied back to the success of Pa’s businesses. When our employees (event staff, marketers, managers, secretaries, sales staff and even janitors) spend their paychecks at your restaurant, in your retail store or at your garage we keep you employed for one more day. Our sponsorship money pays the bands and entertainers who then are able to feed their families or buy a new equipment truck.”
I had to requote this part of the response to jandree22, one because it was such a wonderful response & two because it resonated with me so much. I love that Sundance is assisting to expand the economy and is providing many jobs not only to their employees but to other businesses as well. Though I am new to Sundance I am thrilled to be employed by a company that thinks this way..So Kudos Sundance keep up the good work!!!!
Deja Vu of my thoughts. Couldn’t have put it any better.
i think they are inthe break room…
I can see now it’s flaming adequate for me to comments
a lot of towards the helpful photos
Having reading this blog i realize it was helpful in so many ways. Genius!