Cliffs of Moher V's Loop Head Lighthouse

doughef

Hi there

Just back from a short break in west Clare. Had a lovely time, stayed in Spanish Point.

but.. on a trip to the Cliffs of Moher I found all the staff completely rude and obnoxious, ticket lady being all uppity because we had a print out of our ticket purchase, toilet attending barging past a few old ladies while pretty much shouting at them to get out of the way.., and the ticket collector at O'Briens tower being a complete wan*er to a confused tourist who didnt realise there ticket didnt include entrance to the top of the tower..

Ticket collector "you do not have a ticket,.... "
Tourist "but I thought.....
Ticket collector "you do not have a ticket"
Tourist " but.."
Ticket collector " I said... You do not have a ticket"
How hard would it have been to explain that his entrance ticket didnt include admission to the tower and then explain how to purchase one ???

ok.. not exactly grounds for a complaint and I'm sure they have a pain in the hole dealing with tourists, but considering its a huge tourist attraction shouldnt they be a bit nicer??

However... we went out to Loop Head Lighthouse and that was a fantastic experience. The fellas out there were lovely, very friendly.. showed us into a waiting room and switched on the heaters for us, and the tour itself was very enjoyable..

The people at the Cliffs could learn a lot from the guys in the Lighthouse

Just sayin :cool:

BrianJD

This makes me so mad to hear. We've just spend 2 weeks on holidays in the US and it's so refreshing to have nice people in service areas. When you think that those people are in tourist areas then they should be nicer than nice. I would advocate cutting their wages so they have to rely on customer tips. It seems to be the only way that works.

Why be rude? Where does it get you? Do they not think that being polite and maybe even nice might make them feel better about themselves, or make their day go a little nicer? Do they not appreciate the tourists who still come to this over priced, over hyped little country of ours to be ripped off?

Gob****es

Shapey Fiend

Public service breeds that kind of attitude. I wouldn't paint everybody with the same brush but there are some spectacularly ignorant yokes in the council, bus eireann and such. They're in the private sector too but they're afraid of being fired which civilises them a bit.

dr.fuzzenstein

I think the two cannot be compared.
Loop Head was only opened recently, they have not yet been hardened by years of exposure to the public , it's a bit more off the beaten track and not as overrun.
Plus you can wander around uninhibited, there's a lot of nature about the place.
COM have long since stopped being about the cliffs, they are cordoned off and any walkway has been closed down.
The object is to get people into the car park, pay an entrance fee, pay to see the exhibition, pay for the food in the cafe and pay to go onto the tower.
And then kindly GTFO.
Loop Head would be all about the scenery, COM are all about bilking you for as much as possible, they ain't cheap to run! Better look at the Cliffs online.
It's like comparing a nature park to Disneyland. Not the same thing, really.

doughef

I accept your point about the Cliffs and the Lighthouse being different sort of attractions,
but... I was just making the point that its awful the way these people at the COM treat tourists, especially since its a huge attraction and worse still.. as you have pointed out,.. that they proceed to try and take every penny off you for the pleasure.
I noticed that the roads leading up to it are all double yellow lined so as you have no choice but to pay for the parking??

Not sure how much it was for the COM as the missus paid for it on line but the lighthouse was only 3 Euro and was just so much more relaxed and enjoyable.

Paparazzo

I was at both of them in August. In fairness, something had to be done at the Cliffs, it was absolutly wedged with people. But the carpark across the road is woeful looking. Chipping in the carpark, odd shaped planks nailed together badly for a fence, crappy kiosks to pay at, annoying security people.
I actually spent about 5 minutes at the cliffs and left! Loop head was far better, spent about an hour there. Didn't even go to the lighthouse.

dr.fuzzenstein

You're right, but we're all pretty aware about the nature of the COM and how they're run.
Most people think the scale of the development and the way it's run is ridiculous, it has nothing to do with nature anymore, they might as well build a theme park beside it and why not throw in a casino while they're at it?
Problem is, now it's here, it costs a lot to run and (this is where the unique Irish government logic comes in), you cannot drop the price because not enough money is taken in.
Whereas the entire rest of the planet will think the way to increase turnover is to drop prices and advertise like crazy and therefore encourage trade, the logic here is to increase prices and cut advertising costs when numbers are down since it's the logical thing to do.
So after you've increased prices to a point where nearly zero is being taken in, you close the thing down because it doesn't work.
This is a phenomenon not often observed in privately run companies in Ireland, because those who have tried it have mysteriously disappeared.
Another example of this fine piece of logical thinking would be that since up to 25% of shops have closed, due to the downturn in the economy, the local authorities would have responded by raising rates by 25% because the amount taken in has fallen.
So, falloff in turnover>increase prices. Flawlessly logical.
The rudeness is not on purpose, it's more that you're disturbing hardworking people whilst they're trying to do a job (same line of logic);)

Paparazzo

Oh yeah, forgot the carpark is just paying for the crap centre that no one wanted. And you pay per person in your car!! What a scam! Lots of people dropping off mates on the road before they went into the car park when I was there, great idea! Stick it to the man!