Dear Don
Thank you for me giving me the opportunity to address Mr. Meadow's complaint.
First, I would like to say that Mr. Meadow's complaints are valid to some degree and that he is entitled to his opinions, however I feel that some are a bit exaggerated and unfair. He makes quite a few claims based on 2 days of fishing, and I'd like to address those. My intention is not to make excuses, but to provide some context for your readers to fully understand what happened, for anyone that cares to read.
I'd like to clarify first that I have multiple roles. First and foremost, I'm an agent specializing in fishing trips in Argentina and have been doing so for 10 consecutive seasons, and that I have an office and home in Buenos Aires. Also, I've been a guide in Texas and Argentina off and on for over 10 years and also am involved in outfitting a few projects here in Argentina, both of which have been written about in your publication, so I don't want your readers to confuse those roles with what happened with Mr. Meadows.
I was not in charge of organizing Mr. Meadow's entire Argentina trip, rather I was an agent when Mr. Meadows asked me to arrange 3 days of fishing and a few nights lodging in a hotel, within a larger itinerary handled by another agency.
My first suggestion was to put him in Tipiluke lodge because of it's proximity to San Martin de los Andes and private waters that fish well for that time of year. Mr. Meadows indicated that he did not want to pay full fare for his non-fishing wife at an expensive lodge, and requested that I put a guide to take of his wife's non-fishing needs while he based out of a nearby town fishing. He also indicated that he preferred to fish in public waters.
Given these parameters, I made the best decision I could, based on my 10 years experience in Patagonia. I chose San Martin de los Andes as a base to try and accommodate both he and his wife simultaneously, which has its own limitations.
I arranged 3 days of guided fishing with a guide sub-contracted through a very well known and respected outfitter. What transpired was a series of delays in payment that caused an unanticipated situation.
The first delay was regarding a payment problem due to U.S. Postal Service. As an agent, I work alone for the most part, and have my offices in Argentina. I have a PO BOX in the Sates that I use, by which the mail is forwarded to an assistant while I am away. Contrary to Mr. Meadow's impression, this was not merely a friend, but rather a guiding partner in Texas that I employ on a part-time basis to handle all my mail and banking transactions during my absence. This is not an unreasonable arrangement in this day and age.
The mail was returned to Mr. Meadow's due to the fact that his mail service had `Return Service Requested', in which case the USPS does not forward the mail, thus it was returned to him. I did not realized this at the time and have since corrected this by requesting that clients payments by check (antiquated) go directly to my bank or my assistant, which Mr. meadows promptly did.
On Febraury 21, 2007, 3 weeks prior to his fishing dates, Mr. Meadows notified me by email of a possible cancellation or rebooking of his trip. Upon notice of Mr. Meadow's, possible cancellation, I notified the outfitter and chose to withhold Mr. Meadows' final payment to the outfitter to wait for confirmation because refunds are not possible within 30 days for most operators in Argentina (some do not refund money within 60 days). I thought I was doing Mr. Meadows a favor, however, in retrospect this was a mistake due to my inexperience with cancellations with this particular outfitter.
Mr. Meadows did tell me eventually that the trip was going to go ahead as planned, but 5 days later, not 2 days as he indicated. In any case, I immediately forwarded the funds to the outfitter.
However, according to the outfitter, the money never arrived, and I was notified of this situation only 3 days to Mr. Meadow's arrival. The outfitter advised me that he had to let the contracted guide go because he `needed to work'. The money finally did arrive just before Mr. Meadow's arrival, but well short of the normal 30 day period as is common in this business. My suspicion was that it was not a very glamorous booking for this particular guide, 3 days of fishing in public waters, and that the guide took a bigger booking at the last minute. The San Martin area is highly competitive, with all the guides fighting for big bookings in some of the most expensive lodges in all of Argentina.
There are a host of reasons why a fishing trip can fail (guide could have died for example). Being an agent, a middle man, is not an easy position to be in. There are things that we cannot control or be responsible for. Regardless, it was my moral duty to provide Mr. Meadows with what he paid for : 3 days of guided fishing in public waters and lodging, and in the end, that was what I provided to him.
It is nearly impossible to find a guide in the Patagonia region on such short notice in the middle of high seasons, yet as an agent familiar with the area. I managed to bring guides FROM ANOTHER OPERATION and paid out of my own pocket to substitute. This would have been very difficult to do had I not personally been in the region.
Upon arrival, Mr. Meadows seemed already visibly upset with me, as I met him on the first day and accompanied him to the river to break the news of the change to him. Mr. Meadows was not happy with the fishing to say the least for the first 2 days with one of the best local Argentina guides in the region, but I assure you, it was as good as it was going to get for public fishing in this area, taking also into consideration the bad weather we had and one of the major river systems being blown out due to heavy rains.
To make up for it, I offered Mr. Meadows and his wife 2 nights free stay in one of my lodges/operations in Alumine, but he refused to even seriously entertain the idea. On the 3rd day, Mr. Meadows opted out of fishing and decided to continue on his trip without my services even though I had arranged for 2 veteran American guides who were free that day to help me.
In short, Mr. Meadows didn't get exactly what he thought he was going to get due to the original guide reneging on his commitment, but Mr. Meadows was taken to fish essentially the same rivers he would have in the itinerary that I gave him. In actuality, 2 of the rivers were blown out, so they would have been unfinishable anyway, and we took him to better public waters, albeit 2 hours to the north.
Regarding some of Mr. Meadows specific charges, I was not being evasive about giving him his itinerary for the reasons he assumes. It's not particularly useful to make an itinerary for 3 days of fishing in public waters. Being a guide for more than 10 years myself, I always defer those decisions to the guides themselves.
I agree with Mr. Meadows that I have some limitations, however I don't agree with some of his assessments. I routinely handle bookings of up to 20 people within my booking business, and this was theoretically one of the easiest bookings possible, so to botch this would definitely make me look really stupid.
I have spent more hands-on time on the ground in all parts of Argentina than perhaps any other agent actively booking trips here today. When I don't answer emails for 3 days and say that I am out fishing, I'm not having fun, but rather playing host to clients on the river. My regular clients actually appreciate this personal attention. Most agents wouldn't assume this role, nor put their face in a difficult situation as I was an unhappy client trying to resolve problems.
I have an extremely loyal following. Most of my clients realize that I'm not a pencil-pushing agent sitting in an office in the U.S. and appreciate the fact that I am on the ground overseeing various aspects of their trips. I never pretended to be anything more than that. I am truly sorry that Mr. Meadows did not have a good experience with me, but frankly under the circumstances, I don't think anyone else could have done any more for him.
Sincerely,
Joey Linn
