a plumpjack christmas!

i spent christmas week at squaw valley in lake tahoe, and it was a real adventure. we stayed at plumpjack, and this is what happened:

since we were celebrating Christmas in tahoe, my S.O.'s mom ordered the centerpieces of our Christmas Eve dinner from Smithfield Hams. Smithfield sends their perishable orders via UPS 2-day air in disposable styrofoam coolers, and his mom sent the order to Plumpjack. she had called Plumpjack prior to ordering to ensure a smooth delivery and she was informed it was no problem.

on Friday afternoon, they checked on the delivery, and according to the front desk, it had not arrived.

on Saturday morning, there was still no delivery, so they called Smithfield, who confirmed that the order had been delivered and provided some delivery details, but not the tracking number. when we arrived in tahoe around noon, my S.O.'s mom was agitated and nervous since the package was nowhere to be found.

i'm pretty determined so i returned to my room at Plumpjack, tried to call Smithfield again (with no luck) as well as trying a number of other hotels in the area. i also tried UPS' main 800 #, but they claim that they couldn't help me without a tracking number.

i really wanted to find the number for the closest UPS distribution center (the place where you have to pick up the package if you arent there for delivery), but i couldn't find the number and UPS would not give that out. So I called the UPS Store in Carson City, NV, and Brad, the manager, gave me the number for the UPS distribution center in Sparks, NV, where I spoke to Brooks who tried to track the package from there, but after doing some research, gave me the number to call the UPS distribution center in Tahoe.

at 255pm, Helmut answered my call, and I explained my predicament. He was the nicest guy EVER. He did some research and told me that there had been 233 packages delivered in that area, and that he'd have to check every one to figure out which one it was.

We got the call at 545pm from Helmut - he found the package by looking up Smithfield's account number, and looking at all of their shipments to zip code 96146 (how smart!). The order was from Smithfield Mail Order, and had been delivered on Thursday, 12/20, to my S.O.'s mother's husband at PLUMPJACK, 1920 Squaw Valley Road! So with Helmut on the phone, I went to the front desk, where Helmut gave me the 3 tracking numbers (the order came in 3 large styrofoam coolers), and Audrey at Plumpjack's front desk began to assist me. They looked everywhere, but couldn't find it. When I explained to them that it was coolers, they told me that it may have gone to the kitchen refrigerators, since the items were perishable. She then tried to blame ME for the problem (she tried to claim the package was addressed to the hotel and not to us). I was appalled.

On our way to dinner, I stopped at the front desk to speak to Audrey again, and she told me they had not found it, and she AGAIN tried to place the responsibility of this on us by telling me that it was only addressed to Plumpjack, and there was no guest name on it, which is why it went straight to the kitchen.

The General Manager, Mike Murphy, called me at 615pm. the items had been delivered to Plumpjack, but they had been "opened and dispersed", and they weren't sure where the items were. I thought it was ridiculous that they'd OPENED A PACKAGE ADDRESSED TO A HOTEL GUEST. He said they would monetarily replace or have their baker replace any items that were missing

To be helpful, I called Audrey and told her the contents of our order (2lb Smithfield ham, 1 whole smoked turkey, 2 orders of cream cheese biscuits (48), 1 order of sweet potato biscuits (24), and 1-2 Paula Deen gooey cakes so it would be easier for them to find.

Mike Murphy called me back at 709pm to tell me that EVERYTHING was gone except the Smithfield ham. After discussing with the family, we asked Mike at Plumpjack for a replacement meal as well as a bottle of wine or 2 for our trouble. We also told him we were having dinner at Plumpjack the next night, and that we hoped to meet him. Mike said it was his day off, but he would make sure we were treated well.

When my S.O.'s mom went to Plumpjack to pick up the ham the next day, Audrey accused her of lying about the contents of our order; she had spoken to Smithfield that morning to check our order with them. she also brought up the address issue and said that OUR ORDER was addressed to their chef at Plumpjack. This was the 3rd or 4th time she tried to bounce the responsibility of this onto us, and her behaviour of accusing us of overpadding our order as well as misaddressing the package when UPS had already clarified that it was properly addressed was absolutely outrageous and just adding insult to injury.

the dinner at Plumpjack that night was a debacle, and instead of comping our meal, they offered us complimentary desserts.

to make matters worse, the "replacement" items they provided for our holiday dinner were completely inadequate (instead of a whole smoked turkey, they sent us an $8.75 turkey roll from honey baked hams - no offense to HBH, but it was disgusting), but fortunately my story made its way to hilary newsom (sf mayor gavin newsom's sister!), as well as some of the investors in plumpjack, and i received an extremely kind email from hilary:

"I am deeply sorry to hear that the situation was not resolved. We pride ourselves in exceptional customer service and clearly we have not succeeded in this instance. I have taken the liberty of reversing the charges for three nights of your stay. Squaw Valley Central Reservations has credited 3 nights ($309.00), ($309.00), ($389.00) total: $1007.00 with tax: $1117.70. This should appear on your next credit card statement.

Again I am deeply sorry and assure you that we have addressed this situation internally in order to ensure that it never occurs again. We apologize that this affected your holidays in any way. We wish you a very happy New Year and hope that you will have the opportunity to return to our hotel so we can work harder to ensure that you have an exceptional stay. Should that opportunity arise, let me know and I will personally handle the reservation.

Sincerely,

Hilary Newsom

THE VERDICT: if you're going to squaw, definitely stay at plumpjack (the bedding is plush, the toiletries smell amazing!), but keep away from audrey (if she still works at plumpjack) - she's the rudest person in the entirety of lake tahoe (everyone else is friendly and kind). and request a room on the 2nd floor; i felt the windows on the first floor caused a security and privacy issue. plus you can hear every creak and step above you.

and i'm all for UPS after the awesome customer service i received from every place i contacted!