I know it's been a few years, and as usual, I haven't been blogging, but it's time to come out of my hiatus to post the one place that I HOPE will reach the message better than ANY ratings site that StillPoint Lodge actively tried to hide...
It's removed from Yelp and TripAdvisor trying to slander me as if I'm a competing company (see 2 paragraphs down), shadowbanned from Google (I couldn't find it just looking it up through incognito, but still up if I login with the same account I used for posting the review, and blocked from Facebook. However, I'm hoping that this blog post still stands and even shows up in major search engines to expose these shysters. If I can steer one tourist away from renting an overpriced log cabin and Kirkland Signature amenities, I'm happier to count that as my biggest achievement and contribution to society.
Again, to any attorney, Stillpoint rep, or whoever is reading this blog, this is my complete, with receipts and video proof proving that I was a CUSTOMER and NEVER worked for Stillpoint Lodge or ANY job in the hospitality industry. Even if it means pissing away my savings and going flat broke, I'd rather starve in the streets than to even be the CTO/CIO of a hospitality company offering me tens of thousands of dollars to work for them, just to prove that I have no intent to work for a company even remotely competing with Stillpoint... Just so when I'm pushing 55 years old, some lawyer can't come in and say "well, you work for [insert hotel group name] now, remember the review you made for Stillpoint Lodge 18 years ago? Now I can prove you're biased!". I'm THAT serious about proving my integrity with my review with these shady so-called people.
Here's the full review I posted, but also expanded on with more information to make it more "bloggy":
My experience here has been a rollercoaster ride, seeing both the Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde side of JT Thurston, the owner. I was only able to record a small part, but I believe it sufficiently exposes them (video link at bottom) If I was able to perform my duties on public land I doubt we'd even cross paths, but most of the test area was on resort property.
Now, I have been an RF Engineer since November 2019 to present at the time of writing this blog post, and I had a brief stint doing an FCC-mandated test for an Alaskan wireless carrier; it was a temp job, and if anything (to preemptively quell any notions that I've been fired or whatever), I've been there the longest before all the areas that needed to be tested were ended since my staffing agency has commended me as one of the more skillful testers due to my extensive IT background, I am still employed by the agency, and I'm still a candidate for the next time my services are needed with said wireless carrier.
The FCC would give us a grid to test (I'm guessing a 1 mile by 1 mile square; I never measured it), and if it passes, great. If there's any hint of a connectivity issue, we either have to retest it if it's passing by a hair, or report that we can't get it to pass at all if it doesn't, which would mean that the carrier is either mandated to fix the problem, or pay a hefty fine, which some insider info did mention the worst-case scenario was multiple 7 figures for the entire project, so we were given carte blanche to charge as much as we wanted to, even at prices considered extortion to anybody from the continental US (e.g. $160 for the worst hotel I've ever stayed at in Anchorage (Chelsea Inn), 3 fairly basic meals for $100 in Old Harbor (including a ham sandwich, although to be fair it was pretty good), $125 to rent a '92 Ford F-150 with a severe vacuum leak for 5 hours in Kotzebue, or in this case, $700 to just ride an ATV or a boat ride for half an hour with Stillpoint - receipt below).
I gave JT the MOST exhaustive description of my work that I've EVER given to ANYBODY in my ENTIRE career from my first job when I was 15 all the way to present, and I've ran it all down in advance, and he was lucky to get it since either the employee directory was either horribly outdated (one village rep even passed away almost half a year prior), or ironically, 2 villages can't even make or receive calls outside the service area and I can't reach anybody, so I've had to make an unannounced stop and wing it with at least 5 tests... No reservations, no warning, just flying into say, Point Hope and hoping the locals would either find a way to contact the local representative, or let me borrow/rent their car or ATV on blind trust and creative problem solving; I even almost rode in the back of a police car in some town near Kodiak (forgot which one) to do my testing.
However, most of the testing grounds were on private land; if there had been even 10 square feet of public land for both grids I had to test, I'd rather run in circles on that 10 square feet than to even cross paths with anybody, but I had no choice but to deal with JT, especially considering that since there's no public land left on Halibut Cove; even their "post office" is a boat for that reason.
Once he (I can't stress this enough) FINALLY understood what I was doing, he practically sang to me about staying there and enjoying their amenities. Now since I'm used to working for the cheapest bastards on planet earth where I've had to fly on Spirit Airlines despite being willing to pay the difference, or drive 5 hours a day for a week in a cramped and underpowered 78 horsepower Mitsubishi Mirage, not to mention everybody loves an employee that stays under budget (despite the fact that I had so much expenses giving that company so many interest-free loans, 2 of my personal credit cards raised their credit limit by $11K, and I have enough rewards points on my Chase Sapphire card to pay for 2 nights at Stillpoint... That I'm going to use for paying for a week at The Maldives; I like tropical beaches better anyway; I probably would've come back here strictly for vacation, but soz, you guys lost a potential customer by being total assholes), so I only paid for the bare minimum with Stillpoint unless I had to retest.
With that in mind, I did specifically verbally mention I'd only stay the night if it failed*, and it's standard policy to retest at 6-8 AM the next day* to rule out network congestion (e.g. if there are a large amount of people using the network and there's not enough backhaul, it'll slow EVERYBODY down).
Sure enough, after riding an ATV in circles and making several circles through the waters both tests failed, and I did tell JT that I'm going to check out of my preexisting hotel in Homer (King's Landing) to return the next day, especially since I was completely unpacked since I did other tests in the Homer, AK region, had confidential documents on the desk (it's not anything that'd need a government clearance, but I could have my job on the line if someone else saw it), my unlocked .45 with a match-grade trigger in a drawer of the nightstand for self defense against bears or crackheads that I'd prefer nobody else touch, and I was due to check out the next morning anyway. Had JT not offered me a night at Stillpoint, I would've just extended my hotel stay at King's Landing for another night or two and took the water taxi to and from the island, or even just double-book for a vacant bed at King's Landing and stayed at the island despite it being a waste of money.
Since I chose to stay, I was even making plans for the next water taxi inbound to Halibut Cove with another employee within earshot of JT*, and even reiterated to JT that I was checking out of King's Landing to come to Stillpoint*. Although I do accept fault for not making it SO explicitly clear that a 3 year-old would understand it, apparently the 4 clues I've indicated by asterisks weren't enough for him to understand.
When I returned the next morning, JT was absolutely livid and hostile, even going as far as lying to Zach (sp?), the general manager that I didn't tell him I planned to return at all, and going back on everything we've agreed to as if it never happened...
It was also sad yet hilarious to see him vacillate between demanding I leave ASAP (even going as far as demanding I call a water taxi on speakerphone) and allowing me to stay on extortionary terms (e.g. allowing me to stay in crew's quarters, but no amenities for the same price as a full cabin)... I decided to leave out of disgust and let someone else handle this territory.
Although having me tag along in a luxury yacht was the most fun I've had in a while it's only changing my review from "negative stars if I could" to the 1-star you'd probably see on reviews, but as mentioned, they manipulated their reviews to keep any bad press away instead of admitting their mistakes with integrity.
EDITED TO ADD to a review: A business that operates with integrity accepts criticism and right their wrongs, not silence their dissenters; I hope Stillpoint Lodge's reply reinforces their lack of values fact loud and clear, which instead of "[hoping] that I choose to delete it [myself]", I will do the opposite and further expose their corrupt ways. As mentioned in my previous review (which they most likely haven't thoroughly read and understood... I'm seeing a trend), I've made many thorough outlines of my scope of work via many long phone calls, texts, and conversations over many days.
In hindsight, given their reply, I'm more inclined to believe that they're feigning ignorance and/or acting out of malice and perhaps even prejudice; I gave JT the benefit of the doubt, but further reflection dictates it's nearly impossible to misconstrue my intentions since I've expressed/implied minimum 4x that I'd be back (whereby my only culpability was that I didn't make it any clearer), and even then, a reasonable person would've figured it out instead of being hostile, belligerent and adamant about removing me, which is why I wrote the initial review, yet they still the nerve to claim my "response was unprofessional".
I've never claimed to be a guest, nor given their demeanor, would've been anyway. It would've been great to stay and enjoy the amenities instead of my coworker (though he doesn't really like seafood), but it's not within my morals & ethics to knowingly do business with racketeers who at one point, wanted to charge me a full rate to work for 4-5 hours (on video below). By the way, you never "provided" a water taxi; I paid for both days with my personal credit card (not even my work's) -- first day was a hyperinflated, price-gouging $700 that I still have the receipt of, and about $40 each way the next day via an unaffiliated 3rd-party water taxi.
To anyone else reading this, as you can see by the video below, they don't deserve your business; there are plenty of better resorts in Alaska that [hopefully] genuinely operate in a fair and equitable manner. While trying to look them up for the Better Business Bureau, it seems that the people that HAVE worked there are actually miserable about their lack of professionalism and even refusing to grant days off on Glassdoor and Indeed.
Video of my encounter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDJ0dFBSv6g
