Whacko-Magnet

An agent tells me:

So far this week I had a lady trying to buy a ticket to fly across country to pick up a cat she purchased, but she needed 3 hours to bond with it before boarding the plane. Apparently they don't sell that type of cat in Colorado because it's too cold.

Then I got a man stranded in the Philippines because his ex wife revoked his passport for back child support.

There was a woman demanding to know what system we booked with because she was a travel agent and was entitled to a special rate not available to the general public. And we don't know what we are talking about, so give me a supervisor.

And then, the ever annoying man who tells me he can get anything he wants if he yells loud enough.

Grrrrr

It irritates the heck outa me when customers will not stop what they are doing to actually pay attention to what I'm asking them.... "What city would you like the hotel?"
"Whaaaa? Huhhh???? Can you repeat that??"
Over and over and over......

Too Much Time on Her Hands

What would possess someone to stay on hold for 3 hours? My customer this morning told me she would try not to take it out on me or hold it against me but she sat on hold for that long yesterday.

I'm sorry, but even if it were urgent I would just call back in a little while, certainly not hold for hours at a time. No way would I hold that long for a reservation. She did not book by the way after all that.

Park Hyatt, Michigan Ave, Chicago

I usually avoid naming names at all cost but this time I will not refrain. The housekeepers kicked off a day of striking to protest working conditions at the hotel. It's the hottest day of the year with temperatures over a hundred degrees. So what does the hotel do? They turn on the outside heat lamps above the picket line. The heat lamps are designed to keep customers warm in the winter while outside.

The thing is... there is no way it could possibly have been unintentional. The lamps are not automatic and even after they were notified the lamps were on it took an HOUR to turn them off and pass out water to the employees.

Geez...I can't imagine what the problem could be that the employees would need to picket. Hmmm. If they treat their employees this way while they are outside where all the world can see it I can only imagine what conditions must be like behind closed doors.

I say, lets support the workers. That is not the only hotel in the area. Let's avoid it at all costs.

Now It's ME!!

I like to think I'm reasonably intelligent. My sister is also reasonably intelligent. We both have a fairly high IQ and she has a slightly higher IQ than mine. (OK, it's only 2 points higher but you get the point).

We got on the phone with each other so we could compare the costs of flights. Since I work for a specific company I'm very familiar with their website, but I'm not so familiar with other company websites. We had both found a company that you can bid on flights and decided we would try it out. What the heck. Worth a shot if we can save a few bucks.

She is on her computer looking at the website, across town I am on my computer looking at the same website. We are both searching in vain for the "one way" option. Mystified, she tells me she is sure she has seen it in the past and they must have removed that option. I am grumbling pretty loudly at this point, indignant this company would not offer that option. What kind of company IS this anyway. There are plenty of people wanting to book one way., why is it not offered???

Suddenly, my sister says, "Umm, There is a button. Right in the middle of the screen. "

Just about that same time I suddenly see it too. We both burst out laughing and can't stop.

We are too stupid to travel!!!!

Hey, But That's Different...

I had a customer this morning that called in to make a hotel reservation. From the get go he sounded very annoyed. I asked him if he had tried to book online at the website. Exasperated he tells me "Yes, of course."

So I continue to look up the hotel he wanted, gave him his total and asked him for his credit card number so I could access his point information.

"Don't you have a way to pull up my information?"

I politely tell him I am unable to get into his account information because I am travel and I need his credit card information to proceed with the reservation. By now he is getting irate, tells me I need to pass on a message at our next "meeting" that he is unsatisfied with how difficult we make it for our customers to use our services.

Wow. Really?? Would you have that same feeling if someone easily got that information and booked a trip to Paris on your dime? But that's different....

Another Perspective

If you are calling into the call center because you can't figure out how to book a reservation on the website it's probably not a good idea to complain about getting a call center in India. You will not get any sympathy from me.

I hear all too often "Oh, thank goodness you're in America."

Just FYI.... every single person who works in a call center in India, without exception, has an advanced degree. Every single one of them is bilingual and spend many, many months in voice training. In fact, many of them speak multiple languages. Could that be why they have an accent?

So.... you call me, and lament you can't figure out the website but yet, when you get someone who is obviously way smarter than you, who is unfailingly polite and offering to help you, you want to complain because they live somewhere else. You really are too stupid to travel.

I Can Perform Miracles Part ll

So a woman calls in and needs a room in San Diego for tonight. She has a specific hotel in mind that her sister had stayed at several months ago. When her sister booked the reservation she got a special pricing and a few perks with it.

Well, not only are the special pricing and perks not available any more but the hotel doesn't have availability. The agent does her best to find a suitable hotel for her but the woman doesn't want any of the suggested hotels.

Finally she tells the agent to "Call me back when you find a hotel, I need to leave now. And by the way, I have a dog. You need to find a hotel that will take my pet."

I Can Perform Miracles

An agent tells me:

A woman calls, obviously from the road, around 6pm. She says she needs a hotel in Orlando near Disney World TONIGHT and for the next 4 nights. She has a specific hotel she wants. Great, I'll give it a shot... We get through the locating the hotel phase and surprise, sold out. I spend 10 minutes offering alternatives and she becomes more and more irate telling me she "just" talked to them and they have rooms available.

I explain that sometimes they don't allow us to book after a certain level of capacity, but I avoid asking her WHY she didn't book with them directly (I want the sale obviously). So after 10-15 minutes of finding alternatives I find one located on the property of Sea World that has a great rate for Florida residents, which she is.

I get to the point of asking for her credit card information and she drops the bomb on me...."I left it at home... but I can give you my Social Security number and you can look it up, right?"... No. I ask her if she is near home so she can get it. Of course she is not. In fact she is 30 minutes from Orlando and she's been driving for 4 hours and she is just NOW deciding she should figure out where she will be staying!

I finally get her to agree to an alternate credit card and she starts yelling at me about how she has 2 small children sleeping in the back and how dangerous it is to be talking on the phone at night and having to dig through her purse for a card. I offer to wait while she finds a safe place to pull over, which doesn't go over well.

Needless to say the card doesn't have enough limit on it, so it would not go through. She ends up less than impressed with my abilities to perform miracles

Are You Smarter Than a....

I can't tell you how many times a caller will call and demand to know why a hotel will only have a king sized bed when they put in 3 adults in the search criteria.

As wonderful as technology is it is not without it's limitations. The information within the website is mind boggling. There are perhaps a million hotels, flights and cars at any given time. Are you seriously so pathetic you can't think for yourself and decide that 3 adults probably don't want to sleep in the same king bed???

So, you ask... What can I do? Well, for starters, use your brain. If you all don't want to sleep together, then get another type of room. No other room type you say? Well, get 2 rooms.... or just stay home.

Pay Your Bill

An agent tells me...

So... I get this caller, young woman, who wants to use her points to book a hotel but her card is suspended for non payment. She wants to know if she can use her points anyway. The way this particular point program works is this: We charge the card the cost of the reservation, then using points will credit back the amount to the card. So basically the card needs to be in good standing so we can charge it.

She starts arguing with me, she wants to put her points towards the reservation.... I tell her she needs to discuss this with card services. So I finally get her to agree to be transferred. She just couldn't understand why she could not use her points.

About 15 minutes later, I get her again! They have not lifted the restriction on her card. She is insisting they told her she could use her points without using her card. Uhhhh, really???

Sooo, I tell her again that I cannot process a reservation for her using her points without being able to initially charge the card... she goes ballistic! She is freaking out that she needs to book a flight TONIGHT!!! She demands to speak to someone who can release her points.

Unfortunately we can't do much to help you if you don't pay your bill. Customer service was able to transfer her points to a frequent flyer account and she was able to book with the airline. I hope she has cash for when she gets there...