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The Weiner Brothers VP Tour: One Guides Opinion
My introduction to the studio process and tour was to typify my
experience with the studio in question: massive disorganization and corporate cost cutting measures that helped the disorganized and dishonest sometimes to almost comic levels. My experience was so overwhelmingly negative at this particular studio that I thought I would start blog about my experiences. See these links: http://theweinerbrothersvptour.blogspot.com/ http://www.savingmike.com/ I offer this site in recognition of the observation that we have become, to a depressing degree, a society geared to the sound bite, and that many individuals have lost the ability, if indeed they ever possessed it, to read material lengthier than photo captions. If you take nothing else from this site, I hope it will be the following information, which may save you from making an ill-advised, and no doubt costly, mistake. Recent sources that have worked the summer 07 season and been dismissed have outlined an interesting series of events. Run Weiner run! "THEY HAVE TAKEN AWAY ALL COMPUTERS FROM THE TOUR DEPARTMENT!" It seems that the employee rights have been curtailed more then increased at Weiner's by denying employee's the use of computers for Internet and job related duties. The computers that used to be in the tour department (except those used by the manager or at the ticket counter) have been removed because the guides were obsessive about watching for updates on the Weiner blog or constantly tuning into the blog. The blog created such a stir, that people were checking it constantly... This computer section was a row of eight terminals by the tour management office and an outside desk for the manager of retail. I guess they just couldn't' bare to see their tiny empire crumble before their eyes. The guides used the computers to watch the Internet, a more useful aspect of the computers was the Excel program they used to fill in the guide reports. So the reports are simply done by hand now and are watched by managament as they are filled in and then corrected. "Good advice is always certain to be ignored, but that's no reason not to give it." - Agatha Christie Rumor has it that several senior guides were recently terminated by studio management. You mean after all that rah, rah, about power house studio, and all that flak about how wrong I am, they end up firing the dynamic duo? Rob and Tony: the price of loyalty, what? You could always post your story to the blog and go to Yahoo, Tripadvisaor or Eopinion and tell the public how the tour really operates. The excuse for the firings is that the studio wanted to get rid of part-time employee's. The real reason for terminating guides or anyone at Weiner's is that they do not want to pay benefits or raises, anyone who has been employed over a year job is in grave danger. Good luck Rob and Tony, you will need it. Much tension exists between the guides and management as the union is keeping a close eye on the department. I hope a seniority system is now in place and guide hiring and retention is based on ability and not looks. I also hope they raise pay and observe fair lunch and break rules. I wonder if I can get a refund for my dues? The Weiner Bros. studio propaganda department is in full swing with the current director and manager of the department planting many positive reviews even one from Burbank. In a Yahoo review section at this web address:http://travel.yahoo.com/p-reviews-2812783-prod- travelguide-action-read-ratings_and_reviews-i The reviews run like a tour brochure, the planted reviews were placed to counter a host of real negative reviews and boost the tour. It is no surprise instead of fixing the problems with management and a bad tour, they simply continue to stick their head in the sand and in fact crack down within the department. On November 18, 2007 they have planted yet another false glowing reviewing entitled "Great Tour!" This seems to be an expanded review that was taken from a prior positive rating with the same title from 3.20.07. The prior review although shorter has almost identical basic content as the November posting, i.e. everything is great except the museum which is average but you only spend a short time there so it is OK. Since I have posted the Yahoo link several people posted long, insightful, valid, truthful reviews of their tour experience from actual guests and not the management of the department. I wish they had posted this material to my blogs, that is what the blogs are for, do not be afraid to voice your First Amendment rights. If you are not comfortable posting to the blog you can also post your story/review to this link as well: http://www.epinions.com/content_285923315332 I have posted one of the reviews to the comments section of the blog as it is long. Here are some sections in brief: Go to Universal or NBC instead! We just took the Weiner Bros tour yesterday because I had family in town and wanted them to have a good time. I myself am a local here. The 42.00 tour was disappointing to say the least and I would not recommend it. I have to admit, I am shocked at the positive reviews I read, the people must be rich and don't care about money or are desperate for Hollywood. You don't get to see any shows being filmed and certainly not any stars, but I think what was disappointing the most was the fact we wasted so much time driving around looking at the outside of the sound stage buildings, though we were told what shows were filmed in there, what is exciting about staring at the outside of a building? Almost every place the guide took us, she informed us we were not supposed to be there, but she would be a "rebel" and take us anyway! If we weren't supposed to see the sets for shows, what were we supposed to be seeing? Their big claim to fame is the Weiner water tower, not near as much fun as taking Barham off of the 101 and getting close to the Hollywood sign. At the end of our tour, our last stop was the Weiner museum, where we were told we had 8 minutes to view it. You couldn't possilbly see anything in 8 minutes much less read any thing about it. She kept telling us we would have to "come back" to be able to take more time in the museum, well we felt we had paid for that privelege THIS TIME, why would we give them another 42.00 at another time? It's overpriced, boring and over rated. Go to NBC for the 8.00 tour and see the set of the Tonight Show and Access Hollywood. Go to Universal and see Jaws, King Kong, actual movie sets, special affects and all day attractions. You will get more for the 50.00 you spend there as opposed to the 42.00 you pay at Weiner. "Overall, our experience was terrible. The unfortunate thing is that the experience is still ongoing. The golf cart that we were assignmend to wasn't safe mechanically. It would jerk backwards and forwards every time the driver started to move. My guests and I questioned whether the cart was in safe working order but the guide said it was the worst cart ever but we'd go ahead anyway. We should have insisted on getting on another cart because we got terrible whiplash. In addition, the speaker system wasn't working so those of us towards the back half of the cart couldn't hear a thing of what the guide was saying. The guide didn't seem to care much at all about her job and if she was trained well for her job, it certainly didn't show. The guide took a corner too sharply and ran up the curb into the garden. She stopped and asked if anyone was hurt. My friends told her that I was hurt because I'd had my elbow slammed into the arm rest with the sudden stop going up the curb. Despite knowing this the guide kept driving and crashed into a concrete barrier. My friend and I were both hurt with whiplash and contusions. She recommended we be taken offsite to the hospital for treatment at their occupational health unit. We were told that all expenses would be covered by Warner Bros. We waited for the taxi that they paid for and we went to the hospital. Following receiving treatment at he hospital we finally got to go home. After all what should have been a fun day of sightseeing was a six hour nightmare. Fast forward three months to October and we received a medical bill from the hospital for $180. I called the VIP Tour Manager to ask why it wasn't taken care of and I was told it would be paid by the insurance company right away. Fast forward another two weeks and I received the exact same medical bill this time saying that I was late with payment. I called the VIP Tour Manager again and I was told that it would be paid the same day, that if the insurance company hadn't paid it by the afternoon then it would be paid on the office credit card. Fast forward to the following day and I received a call from a very, very rude insurance agent asking me if I'd paid for the hospital bill. I immediately called the VIP Tour Manager to find out what was going on. No returned call as yet. So nearly four months later I am still dealing with this nightmare and I wish I had never chosen to take my visitors to the Warmer Bros tour. As far as what you see on the tour, I tend to agree with some of the negative reviews. You don't get to see any stars or inside any of the working studios. You just get to drive around and see the outdoor sets (fronts of houses, street scenes etc). We also saw the Museum which consisted of costumes from different shows, it wasn't very big and didn't take more than ten minutes to see. All in all, I'd say take your money elsewhere." If you have a complaint, you might want to also write to the studio president and let him know what is going on with the tour department and studio, please send correspondence to: Alan F. Horn President and COO, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Warner Brothers Studios 4000 Warner Boulevard Burbank, CA. 91522 |
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