Unwelcoming horrible experience
One star — a deeply disappointing experience for our veteran family We flew from Texas to visit over Labor Day weekend and arrived on Saturday with tickets purchased through the military base’s ITT office. I’m a disabled veteran, and this was supposed to be a special outing for our daughter. One of the ticket PDFs supplied by ITT was corrupted, but I had both the original purchase receipt and the emailed receipt. We understood that the damaged PDF presented a problem. What we did not understand was the dismissive treatment and lack of meaningful help. The employee we spoke with, Maddy, came across as passive-aggressive. She directed us to call ITT, even after we explained that the office was closed for the holiday weekend. We were then told to wait until ITT reopened because the tickets were valid for a year. We explained that we lived in another state and were only visiting for two days. Their proposed solution was to purchase admission again with a 15% discount—still totaling nearly $200—and “see” about getting a refund later. Asking a family that already paid to spend that much again without any assurance of reimbursement was unacceptable. We were also told we would receive a refund for the parking we had already paid for. Despite staff appearing to process it, I never received that refund. My fiancé went back to ask whether anything else could be done because our daughter really wanted to visit. He described the person he spoke with as even ruder and more aggressive. Ultimately, we left and spent our day elsewhere. As a family of color and a veteran family, we left feeling unwelcome. I cannot know whether race or veteran status played any role, but the way we were treated made us feel like nobody wanted us there. A ticket issue could have been handled with empathy, clear explanations, and basic respect. We will never attempt to visit again. Other families, especially veterans and families of color, should be aware of our experience.
By T T.