Dear Editor:
I just finished reading Michael Eng’s article in the Plant City Observer, and I am alarmed by what I have read. My wife and I purchased our Walden Lake home last December, partly because of its location on the golf course, and feel we were duped. The troubles with the course and possible redevelopment were not ever mentioned or disclosed to us. That would have affected our decision and, possibly, our offer.
The problem with the management of the course is lack of any marketing or common sense on the part of the owners of Walden Lake Golf & Country Club. I have lived here for six months and have not been contacted or received any information from the club about membership — or even an invitation to come visit. I have played the course and mentioned each time that I recently moved into the community. The response I received was a shrug of the shoulders or a blank stare. You would think if they were interested in building membership, then they would reach out and attempt to get new members.
We moved to Walden Lake from another part of Plant City. A few years ago, my wife and I joined the Walden Lake club for a summer membership special. The membership included use of the pool and fitness facilities, along with supposed invitations to social gatherings. When I arrived to sign up, the marketing person at the front desk (I know this, because her name plate included the word marketing in the title) knew nothing about it. I had to press her to get information, and she reluctantly went back to the club manager and inquired on my behalf. He simply handed her a piece of paper, which she handed to me and then went back to doing whatever she was doing before I arrived.
When I asked for details, she took the paper from me and read it, handed back to me and repeated what she and I had just read. After talking it over with my wife, we decided to give it try — despite the way I was treated the day before thinking it was just a new program that hadn’t been fully communicated.
I returned the next day to join and had to remind her what it was I wanted to do. She searched around for a bit, found a copy of a membership form for me to fill out and then took my check, typed up and handed me my membership cards and then just sat there waiting for me to leave. I had to press her about how to get into the facilities. She took the envelope with the cards from me and highlighted the access code and told me to punch this code in the door to gain entry. No tour, no “thank you for joining,” just basically an attitude that I was bothering her and needed to leave.
I expected to receive a thank-you letter or e-mail, invitations to any social events or some form of contact from the club to see if I was interested in joining full-time (one of the benefits of the summer package was the $1,000 initiation fee would be waived if we joined before the expiration date). I was ready to join full-time, but because no one took the time to contact me, in any way, over a period of five months, I didn’t feel welcome or that my business was important.
They believe people should be begging them for the privilege to be associated with the club. I would almost say they are trying to run everyone off, so they can claim the course isn’t supported by the community and use that as an excuse to move forward with their development plans. If they can show the city the golf course isn’t bringing in enough revenue to maintain all 36 holes, then they figure the community and the city will have no choice but to approve their plans. The development plan is where they see a large profit to be made, and that is what they want.
Robert Rogers