This is only the second bad review Iβve ever given in 40years. We actually LOVE this place and hope to come back soon. However, had the most horrible customer service experience today from an awful employee. My little fella (8yo) was petting the guinea pigs (fully supervised by his granny who was directly behind him). He went to pop the guinea pig gently back down when the poor guinea pig must have got a fright or was anxious to get back in his pen and scratched my boy all the way up his arm. My boy was fine but out of fright dropped the little animal about 30cm into his pen. As granny was standing directly behind (I was 10metres away with Pram). She made sure my boy and the guinea pig weβre both fine.
The employee marched over to my boy shouted loudly at him that is not the way to treat the animals and to βget out and leave!β All in front of granny and the other kids and parents who were there.
When I heard and saw what was going on. I confronted the employee visibly upset. I told her she shouldnβt speak to children that way especially when it was an accident, showed her the scratches on my boy and asked for an apology. We paid a lot of money to enter the park and are only human. We all deserve a bit of respect and it was no way to talk to a child who is actually very gentle and kind with animals and would never intentionally hurt one (we have baby animals of our own at home and he is so gentle).
The employee said she wasnβt going to apologise, told a mistruth saying my son wasnβt supervised and then exaggerated massively the distance the animal was actually dropped. She was extremely rude and arrogant and much to my own dismay I then become even more upset and slightly louder unfortunately. I told the employee instead of shouting at my son who was hurt after being scratched and upset at having to drop the little animal, she could have approached the situation differently and explained what could have been done and how to correctly handle the animal once it starts to scratch.
It was a horrible experience. I asked to speak with the manager. the employee wrote the managers number on a piece of paper and threw it out the window. Witnesses told me to βstop f^cking shouting and arguingβ in front of the kids. This part was ridiculous as they were the ones swearing loudly in front of all the children. All I can say is they must know the employee personally to be speaking in that manner. Surely customer services representatives should be able to de-escalate a situation rather than make these things so much worse. A simple apology would have calmed everything down.
I rang the manager Debbie who was nothing but understanding. I told Debbie that the employee should never speak to a child the way she spoke to my son. And instead of yelling at him to leave⦠should perhaps have just spoken to him quietly and shown him the correct way to handle a guinea pig once he has been hurt and scratched. She could have been respectful and accommodating to both child and animal. 5 stars for Debbie who obviously knows how to communicate and deal with children herself and has excellent customer service skills. 0 stars for the awful employee who was rude and insulting. Massive inservice customer skills training needed in this regards especially in relation to children as this appears to be a farm directed towards families and animal lovers. My only regret is getting upset with the whole experience and raising my voice when I should have just spoken with the manager or owner in the first instance as they obviously have more experience in this department.
Any other employee I have ever dealt with before in Marshallβs have been absolutely lovely, mannerly and respectful and wonderful...
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