Am I Being Unreasonable?

[Toon]

I just had a quite unpleasant evening at league tonight.

NT State Championships are coming up and we need to nominate 3 games to use a qualifying. I picked tonight which is fine. It costs $38 on top on league fees of $25 to nominate. Bit steep but ok.

I started practicing and the odd lane had a pinsetter that stopped every second shot. Causing the tech having to stop play and fix it every frame. I counted 42 scores that had to be changed. As well as having to stop play constantly. Not to mention due to overbooking the league the night started 20 minutes late.

After we finished, which I did bowl terrible. My own fault.

I told the staff member that I am not using this night as qualifier as the pinsetter was having issues all night and I am not paying $40 for it.

Was told i was stealing from the centre and I have a lot to learn about bowling etc.

Am I being unreasonable? If you were qualifying for a tournament and had the machines breaking every frame, would you have complaints?

All i said, was that Im not paying for the qualifier and I will qualify next week when the lanes are playing up.

Do people think that is fair?

 

[RobbieB]

If you had bowled well, would you have used the scores? If you felt it was enough of an issue to affect your qualifying, you should have let them know as soon as you realised it was going to be an issue. Do you really think you should get a freeroll because of machine malfunction?

 

[John_Velo]

G'Day Toon,

At the end of the day all you can expect is that the three games would be hassle free, typical league night. Then if you bowl bad so be it.

But if the centre equipment has been shocking, in this case you are not saying the lane conditions where not to your liking, but that the pin setters where faulty causing delays. Then I would expect the centre to say, sorry mate, happy for you to try again next week.

Of cause if you threw big, would you ask to do it again? Tough call, but a reasonable request with what you have stated.

 

[Roysa]

I just had a quite unpleasant evening at league tonight.

NT State Championships are coming up and we need to nominate 3 games to use a qualifying. I picked tonight which is fine. It costs $38 on top on league fees of $25 to nominate. Bit steep but ok.

I started practicing and the odd lane had a pinsetter that stopped every second shot. Causing the tech having to stop play and fix it every frame. I counted 42 scores that had to be changed. As well as having to stop play constantly. Not to mention due to overbooking the league the night started 20 minutes late.

After we finished, which I did bowl terrible. My own fault.

I told the staff member that I am not using this night as qualifier as the pinsetter was having issues all night and I am not paying $40 for it.

Was told i was stealing from the centre and I have a lot to learn about bowling etc.

Am I being unreasonable? If you were qualifying for a tournament and had the machines breaking every frame, would you have complaints?

All i said, was that Im not paying for the qualifier and I will qualify next week when the lanes are playing up.

Do people think that is fair?

I think Toon the problem is in bold, if you asked them rather than told them, you may have got a different responce. Just a thought.

 

[Andrew S.]

Assuming you were bowling in League, will your scores count for your League night?
And dont you pay in advance when bowling a qualifier?

 

[amagill]

Did you ask the league secretary if your scores for that night should not be counted? I mean, due to the pinsetter problems, your scores were no good for the qualifier, so I assume they'd be no good for your league either...

EDIT: Spelling

 

[Toon]

Fair points, yes my scores counted for league but I wasn't very fussed as it is a social league.

As far as the scores, my scores werent so bad that i wouldn't qualify as there are not alot of competitive bowlers up here.

It is more the fact that the whole night should have cost $65 to bowl of a pair of lanes that broke every frame and had to constantly walk back and forth to the counter to ask for them to fix it.

 

[da_cowman]

It is more the fact that the whole night should have cost $65 to bowl of a pair of lanes that broke every frame and had to constantly walk back and forth to the counter to ask for them to fix it.

That's true regardless of the price.

I think it's a matter of you nominated it, and when aware early that there were going to be problems you may have had a chance then to get your money back. To ask at the end of a set is never going to work, regardless of what the reasons are. It's the same as nominating for a squad at nationals and getting the pair that you've just watched a group of guys totally destroy. You know it's unlikely you're going to shoot the score you need, but there is nothing you can do about it.

Cow

 

[Toon]

Hi Cow,

I understand your opinion totally. Half the issue was the centre was extremely busy with little staff and lots of lanes problems so I waited till the end to say anything.

At the end of the day, I only paid for my league bowling and spoke to the manager today and said why I didn't pay.

 

[Andrew S.]

Hi Cow,

I understand your opinion totally. Half the issue was the centre was extremely busy with little staff and lots of lanes problems so I waited till the end to say anything.

At the end of the day, I only paid for my league bowling and spoke to the manager today and said why I didn't pay.

You'd better hope the NT State Committee doesn't monitor this site...

 

[nomore4s]

Just to clarify a few points on this thread.

It is actually Darwin City championships and you need to do an all events to qualify for masters, so a singles, doubles and trio's is needed. The $38 on top of league costs would have been for prize fund(for that series - league linage is used if qualifying during league), All events & masters nominations which are 1 off costs.

I was also under the impression that you needed to pay for your events before you started bowling.

The condition of the lanes and machines up here are very poor and there are constant breakdowns, delays, ball jams etc etc on nearly every pair, balls are constantly damaged and I've never seen lanes mark up the tracks on your balls like this centre (most of the top bowlers here don't use their good equipment in this centre because of this). So while I understand your frustrations it is also par for the course here and while you were constantly going to the counter to get them to fix the issues on the lane this is when you should have raised the issue about your qualifying scores not wait till the end when you have scored badly.

At the end of the day the masters fields up here are never full, there is obviously no carry over for the masters final and you still need to throw 2 more series for qualifying so I would probably have just worn the cost - especially as most of the cost was for all-events & masters nomination anyway. I personally think you can't just wait till the end of the set to complain because if you had thrown a massive series you would have happily paid and there wouldn't have been an issue. I understand your frustrations though as it has happened to most bowlers up here at one stage or the other.