The Butterfly Place [Archive]

egrogan

07-02-2003, 09:23 AM

I have a complaint regarding The Butterfly Place. I live in Eureka Springs and I work at the Elementary School. We are in our 4th and final week of summer school and our summer school students have been studying butterflies, therefore, a trip was scheduled to see your museum. This trip was going to be the highlight of their learning experience!! Many of these children brought their parents (paying customers) so they could show them what they had learned about butterflies.

Our teachers called (weeks ago) to make reservation and get the price, etc. Well, yesterday was the long awaited trip..............We had a bus load of kids/parents. When they got there, they were turned away because they quoted our teachers (weeks ago) the wrong price! They neglected to include tax! Well, our teachers collected from the kids and parents exactly what was quoted - but they were short $22.00 for tax and they were told they couldn't go in. They turned away over $200.00 because of $22.00??!!!?!?!?!?! Not to mention that these kids would come back telling everyone how wonderful the Butterfly Place was and send even more business ($$$$) up to them....so in reality, they lost a lot more than the $200.00!

I have had several parents call me here at school today telling me how disappointed they were and how wrong it was for the business to turn away a bus load of children. These parents have also told me that the children said that the "ladies" were very rude. What is that teaching our children? My children aren't allowed to rude. These "ladies" were rude infront of the children and I think that is wrong.

I don't know who owns The Butterfly Place, but I hope they learn about what happened before these angry parents start calling them.

Grands

07-02-2003, 09:27 AM

Too bad, I wasn't there, I would have gladly paid the 22.00 to keep the children from being disappointed.

Please tell them Grands is so sorry.

I go with field trips to Wonders of Wildlife, I can't imagine if we were turned away.

egrogan

07-02-2003, 10:33 AM

Thanks, Grands for your input. As a parent, I also enjoy field trips and I hate to see dissapointments in the faces of children.

quiltcollector

07-02-2003, 11:08 AM

I took my 5 yr old daughter and niece last summer and yes it was neat 1 time it was highly OVERPRICED FOR THE 3 OF US and the help was RUDE

Cheesecake

07-02-2003, 11:55 AM

Butterfly Place The, (417) 332-2231, 2400 State Highway 165, Branson, MO 65616

http://www.butterflyplace.com/

info@butterflyplace.com

http://www.butterflyplace.com/images/butcoup.jpg

http://www.butterflyplace.com/images/map.gif

Bransonfan

07-02-2003, 12:09 PM

I sent them an email with a copy of the post and told them this was a very bad business decision on thier part. I also gave them the link so they could read and see what Branson visitors though about this.

Cheesecake

07-02-2003, 02:07 PM

Well I called back......to see who was there right now.

I spoke with Mary Ward, and she said, that this is the story:

Phyllis from Ark was told when she made reservations, to bring a Tax Exempt form, and there would be no tax charged when they went in.

The Bus group had no form, and they therefore had to charge the tax.

The Superintendant was called and confirmed the the Tax Exempt notion, and since they didnt produce the tax money, they didnt go in.

It was said that ARkansas doesnt have a form for Tax Exemptions, however Ward said that: Other Arkansas schools etc, present one.

* I am posting this as the other side of the story.

**********

Now for my opinion:

If there was some mistake, or confusion....surely there could have been some resolution other than turning away all that business.

Like wave the tax....or take what change was offered, and not get so huffy over the $22?....I sure dont know, but there is certainly something called Communications and Friendliness, missing here......just my humble opinion.

ggh

07-02-2003, 02:35 PM

It sounds like the Butterfly Place, and Mary Ward need to take a hospitality class. I understand that w/o the tax exempt letter the Butterfly Place would have to pay the tax - the BP must be in BAD shape financially if they were not able to weigh the word of mouth advertising of a classroom of students vs. the $22 and figure out which one would be more beneficial to them. (I also find it hard to believe that after driving a class of kids on a bus to Branson that one of the teachers or the bus driver didn't just pay the tax, but then that's what BP wanted them to do, so... not sure how I would have handled it, because I'm sure if the BP was rude to me, or my students, I wouldn't have wanted to spend my money with them either)

I haven't ever been to the BP, but have always thought it would be a fun place to go - but after this incident, I doubt they'll ever see any of my hard earned money.

freakyy4life

07-02-2003, 06:20 PM

I had planned on taking a group to this place this summer, but am definatly not now. Thats horrible. What is a measely 22 bucks when it copmes to the education of our youth? not to mention how disapointed the kids must have been.

Mike:mad:

Cheesecake

07-02-2003, 06:34 PM

Taking the devil's advocate position.....Im thinking they would say....

Well if we pay the taxes for ANYONE we will have to pay for EVERYONE.....or something like that.

*********

My opinion?........Those kids should have gotten to see the attraction, and the adults should have born the brunt of the disappointment.......leaving our bright eyed youth to still have faith in the general public.......by digging deeper for the Tax.

But that is pollyannic ....... I think......I hate giving people like that my money.........boy this is a hard call......ya think?

freakyy4life

07-02-2003, 06:44 PM

yes it is a hard call.

If i would have been there, i would have paid the 22 dollars just so the kids with me could see the exhibit, and like you said, still have some faith in the general public.

BUT, i would have also made sure the management got an ear ful. :D

jeep76

07-02-2003, 08:10 PM

We've been there and it is definetely overpriced. I think we paid about $10 a person and after about 45 minutes, you have seen everything there is to see and are ready to leave. For that kind of money you can buy a whole pail of beer at Ain't Misbehavin.

QueenAngie

07-02-2003, 09:29 PM

Those poor school children had to be sooooooo disappointed. My kids always looked forward to the class trips.

Shame on the Butterfly House and Mary Ward.

Surely some other arrangements could have been made between the adults and the manager of this attraction.

Could the school principal have faxed on school printed stationery that this group should be tax-exempt?

Why didn't 2 or 3 of the adults just wait in the bus for the rest of the group to go through?

Bottom line, in the business world, word of mouth can make a business sink or swim. The Butterfly House will receive lots of negative publicity over this incident and the sad story of the school children. For the $22.00 the Butterfly House will definitely take a hit from this.

bransonlocal

07-03-2003, 01:24 PM

Being a native to Branson, I have been to the Butterfly Place numerous times. Each experience was wonderful and fullfilling for me. I was not present to gage the reactions of the involved parties, but with past experience I have found the Butterfly Place to be a friendly and most relaxing establishment. Many things happen behind the scenes that people don't see. Just remember that there are three sides to every story.....your's...mine...the truth.

Cheesecake

07-03-2003, 01:37 PM

..........and the truth is terribly *taxing*, wouldnt you say?

Glad you registered and let us hear your side.

Welcome to the board, Bransonlocal ;)

Bransonfan

07-03-2003, 02:19 PM

The Butterfly Place has gotten alot of "bad press" in this thread and the other 2 on this board and for helping to create disappointment for a group of 4th grade students over 22.00, they deserve it. I noticed in another thread that other groups were thinking about going and now they are not. Maybe if they offered an apology to the children and offered them a free ticket to the Butterfly Place some of the bad feelings would be reversed. I have been to the Butterfly Place also but I never had a situation that caused me a problem, so bransonlocal if you have never had a problem there you wouldn't know how you would be treated.

shadesofblue

07-03-2003, 09:04 PM

It seems as if there are a lot of opinions concerning what the Butterfly Place is really about. Being a resident of the Branson area, my family has been to the facility many times. We have never witnessed any kind of rude behavior from the staff, and we were never put in any type of negative situation whatsoever. I can't imagine the "ladies" purposely being rude to a group of school children. In fact, my family and I have experienced nothing but kindness and generosity from the staff. Like others have stated, I think that there is probably another side of this story that needs to be heard. Regardless of this unfortunate situation that is likely a misunderstanding, I will continue to tell others that the Butterfly Place is one of the best family attractions in the Branson area.

ggh

07-03-2003, 10:45 PM

In the era in which I grew up, when I was working in a customer oriented business, our motto was "The customer is ALWAYS right" - even when the customer was wrong, we did all we could to please them and to make them feel like they had been treated fairly.

The Butterfly Place would have undoubtedly gotten rave reviews from egrogan, and the kids IF they'd been allowed to visit, even if there weren't many butterflies, and it was hot as a firecracker, because the kids would have a blast regardless, and the adult customers would have felt like the Butterfly Place bent over backwards to accomodate their large crowd.

Instead The Butterfly Place decided that instead of the customer being right, that the legit paperwork wasn't in order, therefore, the Butterfly Place put their foot down, and demanded they pay the tax - which they obviously didn't need to pay, since they had known for several weeks it was a school class coming, and they managed to talk on the phone to the superintendent, heck a stamp would have provided them with the proper paperwork for tax day. But The Butterfly Place stuck to their guns, demanding the taxes be paid - so much for being accomodating... you'd of thought they'd of realized that by refusing to let the customer be right, and letting them mail any tax exempt proof they needed, they'd of known they were going to have some negative feedback!

Wonder if The Butterfly Place management realizes now, that when someone has a BAD experience with someplace, they usually tell 9 people - if they have a good experience, they will share it with 2 - a bus load of kids and adults had a bad experience, say ~ 30 kids/adults x 9 people they tell of the negative experience with the Butterfly Place = 270 folks will learn via word of mouth of the negative experience they had with the Butterfly Place, all over a piece of paper. Wonder if it was worth it?

Bransonfan

07-03-2003, 11:26 PM

Very good point ggh. Not only has the post been viewed here 305 times as of this posting, but in Misc. Branson Info thread it has been viewed 270 times and in the Chit Chat thread 144 times.

Thats 719 views and more will view the posts yet.

Branson Mom

07-04-2003, 12:33 AM

Isn't it a shame that this situation has gotten this many people upset?

I would sure like to see a post from egrogan saying that the Butterfly Place had made ammends.

I've got to tell you. I've never been to The Butterfly Place. So I can't tell you if the people who work there are rude or if it's even worth it for folks to go to. When people write me and ask about places to take their kids I often suggest it though because I think it would be a neat thing for kids. I have a link to it on my website. Unfortunately this kind of negative information about the place makes me wonder if I'm steering people in the wrong direction.

Branson prides itself in being family freindly. A place where both kids and grandparents can be entertained together. It doesn't take much for word to get around which is obvious from just what's been posted here. There is no doubt in my mind that others here in town will learn of it as well. I certainly hope that if this is brought to the attention of The Butterfly Place owners it will be resolved.

L2006

07-04-2003, 03:18 AM

I have always heard one unhappy customer will cost you seven. Not only have they lost customers now, the children will not forget and that is the furture customers for the Butterfly Place. Sounds like it doesn't make any differents who is right or wrong, that $22,00 has cost The Butterfly Palace several hundreds of dollars now and in the furture. Doing this has not been good business move for The Butterfly Palace, so maybe they should rethink their stand on this and try to make everone happy if they want to stay in business. But then maybe they don't care what anyone thinks and will do it their way to the end.

jeep76

07-04-2003, 06:15 AM

Welcome to Bransonlocal and shadesofblue, who are, or who apparently represent, management on this sordid issue. I think this is one of those issues which will only get worse for The Butterfly Place the more it is discussed. Just like B're Rabbit, when he got caught in the tar baby, the more you try to get "unstuck", the more "stuck" you get. The smartest thing you could do would be to call the school, admit you made a very stupid mistake, and then offer to allow the school kids to tour your place absolutely free. In other words, cut your losses, and try to get out of this mess with a little dignity, and hope it will just go away. If you don't, this little "black eye" could turn into a "technical knock-out" which could get out of hand. All it will take is for a local writer or a local radio station to get a hold of this story and you will suffer huge and irreparible losses. From that local negative publicity, it wouldn't take much for a wire service or a network to lash unto this story and put the final nail into the BP's coffin. This messageboard reaches all over the country and has a tremendous amount of influence on Branson tourism. If you don't try to put the best possible face on this situation, I would like to be the first to pledge $50 to pay for the school kid's admission to this "Place With The Black Eye". I would hope others will do something similar. I think a local column on the campaign to aid the Arkansas school kids would be a wonderful story, and I'm sure some of our regulars here would be glad to forward details about this fund-raiser. Why should Jerry's kids get all the publicity these days, when we have this kind of injustice right in our very midst? Take my advice - cut your losses before it is too late! This will get real ugly! Someone connected with that establishment must have some brains! Now is the time to use them.

Cheesecake

07-04-2003, 07:32 AM

Jeep, your points are well taken. And, you are ooooh so right.

It would be just terrible if someone forwarded this to Bill OReilly on Fox News. A tiger who goes for the throat when someone has been treated badly, like the kids in this case. This incident could become a national disaster, and national news.

dmjmnelson

07-04-2003, 08:51 AM

I'm sorry, but I think some of the parents should have just came up with the $22.00. After the children got back to thier school the teacher should have faxed a copy of the tax exempt form and got a refund for the tax money. People need to understand that other people in businesses can have bad days and come across sounding rude when they are not. If I was one of those parents I would have just dug out the the money so my daughter could have fun.
David

jeep76

07-04-2003, 08:51 AM

We need an acronym for our movement to raise money for the Arkansas school kids. "Arkansas School Solicitation" is just too long and too wordy. I'm sure someone on this chatline, who is more clever than I, can come up with something.

Branson Mom

07-04-2003, 08:52 AM

Well said Jeep!!!!

Dmjmnelson - I'm sure most of us here agree with you. I surely would have paid the additional sum as well.

I think Jeep has come out and said exactly what the rest of us have basically been dancing around. It seems odd that there are suddenly new posters, defending the Butterfly Place when this board and the original post was brought to their attention by one of our board members. Now obviously someone feels the need to come here and defend the situation, to put the Butterfly Place in a better light here. They must feel in some way that the comments on this board could have an impact on their business. Just as they should see that the people they turned away can also impact their business.

For me the problem I have with the whole thing is that it was a bus load of kids, who drove around an hour to get there! A bus load, surely that in itself would have given someone a clue that it was a school group and some sort of arrangement could have been made to let the kids in the place. Quite honestly they have a coupon on their website, for $1.00 off adult admission and .50 off children admission. One coupon is good for everyone in the group. Couldn't someone at the BP printed one off for them, so they could get more of a discount? Or in another direction, I don't know if they give a local discout, but if they do, how terrible would it have been to let them in or at least $22.00 worth of them in at a comp price! Seriously is the cost of a little over two adult $9.95 tickets worth all of this bad publicity to them?!! Just my opinion.

QueenAngie

07-04-2003, 09:51 AM

We are just about to leave on vacation to Branson and I am soooo excited!

We haven't even packed the car, but have spent $$$$ on the Branson economy prepurchasing condo, attraction tickets, show tickets, restaurant certificates. Staying 8 days and 7 nights for even more $ into the economy.

What we just love about Branson is the friendly, caring, smiling atmosphere at all the places we choose to go to. Makes us feel 'right at home'.

Why just the day before yesterday, standing in a long return line at Walmart locally, the couple behind us started discussing how they had just returned from Branson. And here we are about to leave. Amazing how word of mouth spreads such good news/memories about Branson, even with strangers. I just suppose it can work the opposite too, don't you?

One friend just lent me her Branson coupon book that will also save $. But there is one coupon we won't need to use, the Butterfly House.

Let's go to Branson! Woo Hoo!

Branson Mom

07-04-2003, 10:17 AM

:) Queen Angie, You have a wonderful time here!!!! I'm sure you will! Be sure to let us know all about your visit when you get home! Have fun!

dmjmnelson

07-04-2003, 10:50 AM

Bransonmon, I have to agree with you, they should have gave them the coupon discounts. We have gone to places in Branson before and the person were getting our tickets from would ask if we had a discount coupon and some would reach under the counter and place one out and say know you do. That always surprise me when they do something like that.
David

jeep76

07-04-2003, 10:52 AM

This topic might be too sensitive for a local paper to handle, but a columnist from the Springfield paper might be interested. Every paper has a reporter assigned to local events who writes a column about what's happening in the area. That reporter's e mail address is usually listed, either at the column head, or else with the paper's addresses somewhere inside. Some of our members who have access to the Springfield paper could find this and send him/her the cut and pasted url of this thread, and the subject "thought you might be interested in this". Then the reporter could chase down the story and find out what is going on if they wanted. This story needs to be told regionally, then the wire services could pick it up if they wanted to later. They all have clipping services which look for stories like this, but first, someone needs to contact the reporter at the Springfield paper.

Suselit

07-04-2003, 11:15 AM

Contact News-Leader columnist Sarah Overstreet at 836-1188

or email:
Cheryl Whitsitt
Managing Editor (417) 837-1369 cwhitsitt@springfi.gannett.com
Jonathan Groves
Assistant Managing Editor (417) 836-1126 jgroves@springfi.gannett.com

scissortail

07-04-2003, 12:26 PM

:eek: Those ladies have no clue, what they came up against, when they wronged someone from this board! :cool:

Bransonfan

07-04-2003, 01:26 PM

What the Butterfly Place did not consider was all the bad publicity a situation like this could cause. The posts in all 3 threads, as of now, totals almost 1000 views. Good publicity is expensive, they could have had it for a mere 22.00, if the Butterfly Place would have just been willing to work with the school group this all could have been in thier favor and not against them. Look at the good publicity SDC got about a month back when, I believe it was nohonna, posted about her wheelchair bound mother not having to pay admission to the park and they also gave her mother a complimentary season pass. The businesses in Branson should be aware of this message board and how people from all over and some from outside the US read this board to get feedback on attractions, shows, lodging, restaurants etc. to plan thier Branson vacations. I think there would be alot less "Butterfly Place experiences".

Branson Dad

07-04-2003, 01:59 PM

Branson Mom told me about this and I need to speak my peace. I am shocked that one of our area businesses would have treated anyone rudely! I was taught early in life that if a person has a good experience, they will tell 2 to 5 people, but a bad experience will travel like wildfire. Not to mention that the original story of what happened is told several times before the last person hears it. We have all played the game of a story told to a line of kids will change several times before the last kid hears it. With all this taken into account, a story of a rude manager over $22 will be more hurtfull to the BP than they can afford. I know several theater managers that would bend over backwards to make a customer happy because they know the competition for business in Branson is real. If people get a bad deal, they will lose business. I have heard of families seeing shows for free with popcorn and drinks because of a mixup with double seating. I know that a Branson local can get in for $5.00 each at the BP. The BP could have let enough in at the local rate to make up for the loss, but then hindsight is 20/20.

Now time for my opinion. We can all say what should have been done, but it won't solve the problem. I think no matter how or why or who or what happened, the problem is real. There is no defending a bad situation when public opinion is concerned. There are only valid solutions. I offer this as my solution: The BP could call the school and try to make amends. They could offer a free tour for the kids to see the butterflies. The real cost for someone to walk through is zero. Letting a few kids walk through for free can inversly help the BP's reputation. Sure the BP needs to pay for the place to stay open, but is the solution going to cost more than the lost business caused by this incident? Wake up and smell the roses!!! Now is not the time to defend, but to "troubleshoot the situation, solve the problem, and bail out the boat before it sinks"!!!!!

Just my humble opinion,

Branson Dad

Bransonfan

07-04-2003, 02:02 PM

Very well said Branson Dad!

freakyy4life

07-04-2003, 03:11 PM

Just for the record....

I have blabbed my mouth around about this situation, and last night, i spoke to 4 different Youth Leaders within my denomination over at Muskogee, who had all planned on fitting The Butterfly House in on their youth groups annual trips to Branson. Let's see, thats about 200 kids, plus probably 10 to 20 adult sponsors...

How much money was lost just with those four groups over 22.00, not to mention my church group with around 50 more kids and about 5 adult sponsors? :D

I can assure you, that I am not through blabbing either ;)

Mike

soonermagic31

07-04-2003, 04:16 PM

I really hope they get their act together and make amends. The butterfly place is really an educational experience for the children and it would really be a shame if they do not right their wrong. I don't know about anyone else here but if you were a business owner in these tight economic times could you afford to have the bad reputation you are gaining by your actions? Business is about customer satisfaction which also means biting the bullet every now and then to maintain a good rep and customers. I was planning on taking my family there in a few weeks, but believe me I am rethinking my plans.