Thanks for the opportunity to expand. I'm a business owner and also a pretty easy going guy. I'm 65, been hunting and fishing all my life, used processors and process myself. He did a mulie buck for me first, no problem. A bit of a cold disposition, but I knew that going in - I've had a cabin there for 30 years and know the back story, etc..
On our elk, a couple days later, we booked it in directly with the boss - clean quarters, some trim - requested it broke down and wrapped basically - and got a quote of 170 or so for the 2 antlerless elk. He did not want to store it for us til our summer scouting trip (of course, we would expect to pay for locker space) but we said we could come back skiing, and my partner picked it up a couple months later during the Holidays. Whole dialogue - like the others I've had with Chris - a bit abrupt. He's busy, it's hunting season, blah, blah. Ok; get a different occupation if you don't like the public or dealing with meat.
What we got was plastic unmarked bags of about 10 lbs apiece. I wasn't there, but my partner picked it up - have been hunting with my buddy, best friends, country neighbors since junior high - here's what happened. As he is trying to understand why the meat bags aren't marked or in any way identified as to cuts, or trim, etc, loading it into coolers, etc., he loads out and signs off on the credit card.
My buddy delivers my share, and we have to just eenie meenie it out, one for you, one for me type thing - no idea who was going to get what. Now, this means I have to individually thaw and process all these bags one by one, all over again, to see what I have. These are cheap thin plastic bags like you would buy ice in, so even if I could identify it as something to freeze for later consumption, I can't trust the bag.
This has the practical outcome preventing me from making sausage, due to my own logistics, so I made a lot of jerky and re-packed the (scanty) good stuff. There was a lot of waste, so the dog ate well. Some spoiled meat, but I won't lay that off on Deemo's except to say that it went in there clean and cool, late Oct. Hard to not wonder if he just off loaded a bunch of trim on us, the way this scenario was playing out.
OK; My buddy then called me a month or so later to tell me that he got the credit card bill. $450 bucks. That's about what it would cost to butcher whole critters and process it right - cut and wrapped. So, he calls Deemo's.
Now, my pal emphasized to me that he knows he can get testy, and managed that characteristic in his phone chat. Talking to Chris, it was apparent that Chris did not note (or remember) that we brought in quarters. In fact, he soon cut my buddy off, saying he couldn't talk to him, and handed the phone to his counter lady, who reached a compromise with my pal on the money. I have always found the staff to be pleasant, Chris seems to be the only testy one.
So -
- an uncaring disposition.
- either an careless or unconcerned approach to logging the job in.
- Unwilling to locker it for us - not a problem, just a bit odd.
- product unlabelled and not freezer ready if it was.
- Charged as if the animals were brought in whole and done right.
- Unwilling to calmly and clearly discuss a valid customer issue - I'll lay half of that on my buddy, but I know he would not have gone in guns blazing - just calling in to point out the error.
When I stayed at my outfitter buddy's earlier that season, and we discussed where to process, they said they would not use Deemo's, which would have been 75 miles closer, but instead drove to Bozeman. I think that speaks volumes.
Anyone can make an error or two, but I think patient civility and getting the gist of the order correct is pretty much mandatory. I can't take another chance on that guy, or wish to have any more unfriendly - almost confrontational - conversations with him. He'd do better staying on the back counter and let someone with a pro-service mentality handle the retail.
