EDIT: Changed to 1 star since they STILL have not responded.
Outstanding cheese. Expensive and boring tour. Really awful customer service.
Pro-tip 1: head to the cashier to purchase your cheese while everyone else is busy tasting. SPOILERS: the cheese is all delicious. Truly. No need to bother with tasting. Pick something that sounds good and get some. You won't regret it.
Pro-tip 2: do NOT have it shipped to your house. Instead, get in line early (remember, you're going to skip the tasting, right?) buy the cheese, then get back to your hotel, wrap each jar carefully, and check your bag.
Pro-tip 3: customer service is unheard of at Surfing Goat Dairy, so be prepared with your order BEFORE you get in line. And for the love of god, don't ask the cashier for something complicated like 3 different cheeses and a box of truffles. She will implode. First, she'll remember that she hates her job and she will declare that under her breath from time to time throughout your transaction. Second, she will do her best to pretend she knows how to operate the credit card machineāas this is clearly one of her main duties, being the cashier and all, it is pretty surprising that she doesn't know how to use it. Finally, she will spend nearly 30 minutes getting your order together. 3 cheeses, and a box of truffles. I ain't kidding, brother.
------------------------------- A brief aside ---------------------------------------
In my modest assessment, given that I am familiar with credit card machines and the Principles of Ordering Things, I can say that this transaction should probably have taken 5 minutes, tops. She nearly sextupled the time! Such efficiency!
After battling with papers she hates filling out she will phone her teammate for help. She will say, "Ugh, you come here and take these orders, I hate the credit card machine. I guess I'll box up these truffles.." She will say it just loud enough for you to understand what a terrible inconvenience it is for you to be purchasing anything from the business at all.
Shame on you for wanting to purchase delicious goat cheese, you jerk!
Believe me, if there were another goat cheese dairy nearby that offered amazing goat cheeses at extraordinarily high prices, I would have gone there instead. I really would have.
Also, my cheese arrived broken about a week ago (a week later than promised). I emailed the only email address I could find on their website (I guess it is company policy to treat their customers poorly, or else they might have provided a customer service email address or phone number. Isn't that like, business 101?) I didn't ask them to send me more, I only asked them about the possibility of a refund FOR THAT SINGLE CHEESE. Even if there WAS no possibility, they could have at least done me the courtesy of writing back. Right? Am I crazy?
At the end of the day, I'm left with a lot more questions than answers. How do they make their cheese so good? What do they put in there? Shouldn't someone be around to field customer complaints and concerns? Is it the same woman who is also the cashier? And how did that cashier even get a job there? Nepotism? Who does she know? What does she know? Why does SGD even have a gift shop if you don't have a team there to run it? Why have two counters when you can only order from one? Why is there no sign pointing the way to the cashier? Why not provide the sheets for ordering cheese to the public so they can, you know, fill 'em out before they get to the cashier? Why are the menus hidden? Again, how does that cashier maintain a position there? HOW? WHY?!!
They have the monopoly on delicious cheese! They can do whatever they want! Run away!
PS. The Surfing Goat website is terrible. All of the links currently (1/29/2019) take me to an admin blocked webpage through the Wordpress build. So, you know, there's that too.
PPS. Hey, I'm an operations manager. Get at me. I'll fix your problems.
PPPS: the cheese is...
Ā Ā Ā
Read more
Learn more insights from Wanderboat AI.
