Friendly Reminder: The customer is always wrong

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As some of you may remember, back in December it was reported that NYRA would offer a new wager called the Omni.

It was also reported at DRF (behind the paywall, sorry!) and probably elsewhere, plus there was plenty of discussion of it on Twitter. In short, it was generally known that, according to reputable sources such as Jerry Bossert and DRF, that this wager would be coming to Aqueduct in 2014.

Fast forward to today. I was getting ready to put in my wagers on the Busher (1 & 7 exacta box) when I noticed that there was no Omni offered. So, I asked and NYRA answered:

But what did that answer mean? Was the person manning the Twitter account unaware that it had been reported that they would be offering the Omni staring in Jan? Did they not think I was legitimately asking a question? Was it a reaction of displaced hostility based on the fact that other places and not NYRA had reported it? Confused, I enquired further and tried to clarify:

And then came the best part of all, the part where NYRA doesn’t helpfully answer the question of someone looking to spend on money on their product, but instead gives a dismissive answer that 1) doesn’t answer ANY of my questions and 2) leaves me feeling like I’m somehow wrong. How is that even possible?

Full thread here.

Well, thanks for the helpful information! Sure, sometimes 140 characters is hard to read, so perhaps they took my question as an attack, OR I’m reading too much into it when I perceive it as dismissive but I just can’t imaging having that kind of exchange with a non-racing company (which is not to say that it couldn’t happen, it’s just never happened to me, and I ask companies plenty of questions about their products on Twitter!).

For the second response I would have expected something more like “We’re not currently offering it but check our sites for announcements” which is roughly the same information but less, I don’t know, hostile? Bottom line, I closed the browser window with my ADW for the rest of the day and stopped spending money at Aqueduct. I would have played the rest of the stakes races but I was too steamed, and missing out on cashing in on an Omni didn’t help either!

I wish I could say that I won’t play a NYRA track again, but I love Saratoga too much. I could easily take a pass on the rest of the Aqueduct meet. But that’s part of the problem, places like NYRA at least occasionally act like they’ve got a captive audience, and for the most part they do. But, customer service like that isn’t gonna fly with people who aren’t already dyed-in-the-wool players, you know, the people that racing are desperately trying to attract (and keep!).