Portland Parks & Recreation Customer Service Center

I was planning a park event remotely (originally from Portland but now residing in California) and had to iron out some details about a picnic site we reserved. I called P&R for what I thought was a simple question (does the park have undercover park tables?) but the lady over the phone was clueless and incompetent. She was a friendly-​clueless but lacked basic knowledge of doing her job. She then had to escalate me to her boss who was such a delight … *extreme sarcasm*. He clearly thought I was wasting his time and was outright rude … giving me one word responses and had an attitude I could feel 600miles away.
I expected way more from these folks. Your customer service stinks!

These folks get a well-​deserved 5 stars!
Because of the complexity of my company’s reservation, it took two phone calls to complete everything. Esther and Rolando were both very helpful. I even got a phone call 2 days later to let me know my permits were approved.
Then, I needed to go to the PP&R office to pick up the permits and access key. Things didn’t go completely smooth, because some notes didn’t get added to my reservation in the computer system. BUT, they were very nice and very helpful. They got it figured out and I was in/​out within about 10/​minutes.

Here’s the review I would have liked to have read before I embarked on a visit to the Customer Service Center for the city’s Parks and Recreation office –
If you decide to get married at one of the city of Portland’s parks, you have to wait in line on the first business day of the year you wish to be wed.
You could attempt to secure your wedding site via telephone, but the Customer Service Center gives top priority to in-​person customers and the city of Portland has a very finite number of days that really work for hosting outdoor events. You do the math. Now reread the first statement.
The Portland Parks and Recreation Customer Service Center is in the lobby of the Portland Building. There is a small hallway between the entrance and the actual parks office where customers can queue, but given how cheap the rates are to rent a park spot, there will be many customers. So unless you’re one of those deranged types who can wake up and get yourself in line by five in the morning, you will probably be waiting outside the building for the bulk of the time.
Did I mention you’ll likely be lining up outdoors? And the first business day of any year is usually in January? Yup, it’s cold. You won’t feel your toes after a while. And you might be burly and lumberjack-​like in your constitution, but for a wait that long, plan to dress as if you’re going on a winter hike.
The employees at the Customer Service Center know how it is. They’ve witnessed the same thing at the start of every year. Perhaps because of that fact or independent from that fact, the employees are very nice. The head of the center came out to greet the outside queue-​ers with a carafe of free coffee and pleasant assurances that the people in line would probably advance to inside the building no later than 9:30. Of course, at the time it was closer to 7:30 and even complimentary caffeine didn’t completely dissolve the frostbite gathering around my digits. But the department really does try to exemplify the customer service mentioned in its title, despite being a government entity and red tape and processing fees and all that bureaucratic brouhaha. Basically, don’t be a brat. Everyone there knows it’s cold, and everyone is trying their best to get your money and your name reserved to a site as quickly as they can.
And once you get into the building, it’s heated and feels like fricking Tahiti after a long slog through the Arctic Sea!
And once you finally make your way into the office, you’re helped by a flesh and bones person who patiently takes all your information and answers your questions in a prompt manner! The actual transaction takes maybe 10 minutes at most! Of course it would make more sense for someone with the parks department to assign each party a number then call in the numbers. But I would imagine that even if the Customer Service Center went with that procedure, it would be a lot like the DMV and no one could really venture that far, anyway.
Let’s revisit the numbers. Wedding planning is infuriating. Basically, if you attach that weighty «W» word to any of your items when you decide to get hitched, you’re going to pay more, sometimes a lot more than you might for a different kind of event. As soon as you mention your intended nuptials, even the dustiest and tackiest of ballrooms raise up their rates as if they receive only celebrities and trust fund children as their clientele. Even if you have the budget, it’s painful to fork over so much money for a space you’ll only need for a handful of hours. The reason why it’s worth the two-​hour wait at the Portland Parks Customer Service Center is because the wedding sites run as low as $ 160.00. That’s a number any budget-​conscious couple can get behind. Of course, there’s an application and processing fee of $ 80 on top of that. It’s still the government, after all.
Kimberly V, your hair looks terrific. Remember, this is the review I would have liked to read beforehand.