Chit Chat

The moment when...

You are being yelled out for not having a reservation for a guest.  They yell and scream at you for being stupid.  Then they email their confirmation to prove they are correct.   Then you read the confirmation and have to point out to the guest that the reservation was made for 2016 not 2015.


Oops.  

 FYI the reservation was made through a timeshare exchange program.  The confirmation is in the guest's hand. It clearly says 2016, not 2015.   We are completely sold out this weekend.  We are under no obligation to put them up anywhere else either.


Moral of the story, read your confirmation letters, including the year        Sadly this happens about once a year to us.


Anyone else have stupid customer stories?









What differentiates an average host and a great host is anticipating unexpressed needs and wants of their guests.  Just because the want/need is not expressed, doesn't mean it wouldn't be appreciated. 
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Re: The moment when...

  • Haha!

    When I did customer service at a casino resort, I had a couple people scream at me for "messing up" their reservation (I was just the person checking them in; I was not the person who made the damn reservation). Whenever this happened, the manager would look it up in the system, and sure enough the guest made their own reservation via hotels.com or a similar website. They messed it up themselves. But it was always my fault. 
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  • All the damn time. I work for a large jewelry company, and we get ridiculous customer complaints on a daily basis. The best one recently was from a woman who got her engagement ring from us, and she paid for an extended warranty. She apparently slammed her hand in a door, bending the ring and losing the diamond completely (why she didn't look for it a little bit, I'll never know). She was pissed that we wouldn't replace her diamond for free - because the warranty does NOT cover stupidity (we do replace it if it falls out, but only when it's been inspected within a certain time frame, and not when it is completely the fault of the wearer).

    Another good one - a woman came in to a store upset that her fiance's wedding band was on back order. She was crying, and apparently the manager offered to buy her Starbucks. She came on to Facebook not to complain about the ring being on back order, but about the manager offering to get her coffee.
    BabyFruit Ticker
  • I used to work at a bookstore.  I was often yelled at cos the publisher pushed back a release date on a book.  

  • When I worked as a florist I would get yelled at a lot by parents of teenagers who were irritated because the yellow rose that we used for the bout wasn't the "right" yellow or the lavender ribbon in the corsage was too lavender.  Homecomings and proms always sucked.

  • I worked an 800 customer service number back in the day so I heard it all.

    Today, I work on compliance software. I regularly get yelled at by doctors because our software won't let them do things they're not allowed to do. Oye.
    Daisypath Anniversary tickers
  • I was a bank teller in college. People would yell at me all the time because they didn't understand the difference between current balance and available balance, and the fact that they had written a check 3 weeks ago that cleared and bounced yesterday.

    And I check all hotel & air reservations like 18 fucking times before I hit book!!!!

                                                                     

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  • lyndausvi said:
    I worked the front desk at a resort in St John, USVI.  I had a couple get mad because we didn't have their reservations.    They handed me the confirmation letter.  It was for St John's Antigua.   Totally different island and country. 

    They were so pissed at me.   Like I somehow was the one who not only booked the resort. One is St John and the other is St John's.  Notice the "s".  One is in the USVI the other Antigua.  
    Hahahaha!!!  I bet these people would have rather yelled at you then to accept what an incredibly dumbass mistake they made.

  • I think anybody who works in restaurants and hospitality long term are practically saints.  My MOH and her husband both have hospitality backgrounds (he in hotel management, her in restaurants/catering).  

    Side note, she said brides were her least favorite customers.  She told me once about a bride that called in while she was taking a 20 minute lunch, and instead of leaving a message and waiting for a call back (which she always did same day), the bride called my MOH's manager and insisted she be fired due to her "non-responsiveness".  
    Married 9.12.15
    image
  • I think anybody who works in restaurants and hospitality long term are practically saints.  My MOH and her husband both have hospitality backgrounds (he in hotel management, her in restaurants/catering).  

    Side note, she said brides were her least favorite customers.  She told me once about a bride that called in while she was taking a 20 minute lunch, and instead of leaving a message and waiting for a call back (which she always did same day), the bride called my MOH's manager and insisted she be fired due to her "non-responsiveness".  
    Totally agree with the bolded! 
    image
  • DH and I were that couple who accidentally booked for 2015 instead of the date we arrived in 2014. Whoops!!! The hotel couldn't accommodate us the first night so we just went somewhere else, no biggie. 

    I worked in customer service for a publisher but can't recall too many mean people. One woman was incredibly, disgustingly nasty to me. But after I helped her, she kept calling me line directly because I was "so helpful!" Ugh. 

    I will never be mean to customer service people. I have gotten very emotional to my old bank and to Comcast when their mistakes cost me money, but I try to say, "I'm sorry, this is not your fault personally but I can't believe [company name] did this!!" 


    ________________________________


  • DH and I were that couple who accidentally booked for 2015 instead of the date we arrived in 2014. Whoops!!! The hotel couldn't accommodate us the first night so we just went somewhere else, no biggie. 

    I worked in customer service for a publisher but can't recall too many mean people. One woman was incredibly, disgustingly nasty to me. But after I helped her, she kept calling me line directly because I was "so helpful!" Ugh. 

    I will never be mean to customer service people. I have gotten very emotional to my old bank and to Comcast when their mistakes cost me money, but I try to say, "I'm sorry, this is not your fault personally but I can't believe [company name] did this!!" 


    I am the same way.  If I get angry over something that a company did I always make sure to tell the customer service rep that I am not yelling/mad at them but just yelling/mad out of frustration of the situation.

  • edited July 2015
    When I was in college I worked at the higher end 'bath product' boutique. This lady tried to return this tub of body lotion that she had received as a christmas present because she 'didn't like the smell'.

    Which is fine. If you had all the packaging and the product hadn't been used we would accept the return. So I took the lotion out of the box and went to open the product and right away I knew there was going to be a problem because she asked me what I was doing, and when I told her that I was checking if the product had been used she got super huffy.

    It was half empty.  I pointed it out to her and she said something along the lines of how are you supposed to know if you like the smell if you dont try it. And while I told her I understood, it still doesn't explain why half the tub was used. (No returns got resold due to hygenic reasons, but you still have to follow policy about them appearing unused).

    She then tells me that she let a bunch of family members test the product to see if any of them liked the smell, and since none of them did thats why she was returning it.

    She got very mad when I refused the return. But really, come on lady! seriously??
    image
  • I think anybody who works in restaurants and hospitality long term are practically saints.  My MOH and her husband both have hospitality backgrounds (he in hotel management, her in restaurants/catering).  

    Side note, she said brides were her least favorite customers.  She told me once about a bride that called in while she was taking a 20 minute lunch, and instead of leaving a message and waiting for a call back (which she always did same day), the bride called my MOH's manager and insisted she be fired due to her "non-responsiveness".  
    I think this is why I'm overall pretty chill.  I see people go off the deep end over stupid shit.


    One of the times we had a hurricane in St Thomas and the day after a guest was in tears, full-blown TEARS over the fact that Louis Vuitton was closed.  The island was under a curfew.  There was no power in the area where they store was located.   There were trees down.   No cell service.

    Perspective people.  Perspective. 






    What differentiates an average host and a great host is anticipating unexpressed needs and wants of their guests.  Just because the want/need is not expressed, doesn't mean it wouldn't be appreciated. 
  • DH and I were that couple who accidentally booked for 2015 instead of the date we arrived in 2014. Whoops!!! The hotel couldn't accommodate us the first night so we just went somewhere else, no biggie. 

    I worked in customer service for a publisher but can't recall too many mean people. One woman was incredibly, disgustingly nasty to me. But after I helped her, she kept calling me line directly because I was "so helpful!" Ugh. 

    I will never be mean to customer service people. I have gotten very emotional to my old bank and to Comcast when their mistakes cost me money, but I try to say, "I'm sorry, this is not your fault personally but I can't believe [company name] did this!!" 


    I try really hard to do this, because I know it's not the person on the phone who made the error or the stupid policy. But I really wish there was someone I could yell to or complain to about that stuff. Insurance stuff especially. 
    image
  • I worked at a bar in college and we had shots in those test tubes on weekends. The shots are pre-decided for the night and made up before the bar opens. Someone yelled at me once because the shots were not the one she wanted and why wouldn't I go make her one?
    What did you think would happen if you walked up to a group of internet strangers and told them to get shoehorned by their lady doc?~StageManager14
    image
  • Well, happy birthday to you!  What did the customer say?

    We've had to tell customers that when they sign a proof of their artwork, they're agreeing to the spelling.   If a word is spelled wrong on the proof, that's how we spell it when it's printed.   Don't yell at me about something that you should be looking at a wee bit more carefully. 
  • Haha!

    When I did customer service at a casino resort, I had a couple people scream at me for "messing up" their reservation (I was just the person checking them in; I was not the person who made the damn reservation). Whenever this happened, the manager would look it up in the system, and sure enough the guest made their own reservation via hotels.com or a similar website. They messed it up themselves. But it was always my fault. 

    Question on that. I was told by someone who works front desk for a major hotel in NYC that they do not legally have to hold a hotels.com reservation. Since they didn't book with them, it's not the hotels responsibility. Is that true? 
  • arrippa said:
    Haha!

    When I did customer service at a casino resort, I had a couple people scream at me for "messing up" their reservation (I was just the person checking them in; I was not the person who made the damn reservation). Whenever this happened, the manager would look it up in the system, and sure enough the guest made their own reservation via hotels.com or a similar website. They messed it up themselves. But it was always my fault. 

    Question on that. I was told by someone who works front desk for a major hotel in NYC that they do not legally have to hold a hotels.com reservation. Since they didn't book with them, it's not the hotels responsibility. Is that true? 
    Sort of true.  However, it's also a good way to get booted from Hotels.com.  So it's not something they do on a regular basis.  

    We have 24 hours to reject any reservations that is made on Hotels.com.  I've have reject a Hotels.com reservation once.   1 person on booking.com and 1 on hotels.com booked our last room at the same time.  They hit our system within a second of each other.  Since it put us over I had to reject one of the reservations.  I picked the Hotels.com one.  They helped the guest find another unit.








    What differentiates an average host and a great host is anticipating unexpressed needs and wants of their guests.  Just because the want/need is not expressed, doesn't mean it wouldn't be appreciated. 
  • arrippaarrippa member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    edited July 2015
    lyndausvi said:
    arrippa said:
    Haha!

    When I did customer service at a casino resort, I had a couple people scream at me for "messing up" their reservation (I was just the person checking them in; I was not the person who made the damn reservation). Whenever this happened, the manager would look it up in the system, and sure enough the guest made their own reservation via hotels.com or a similar website. They messed it up themselves. But it was always my fault. 

    Question on that. I was told by someone who works front desk for a major hotel in NYC that they do not legally have to hold a hotels.com reservation. Since they didn't book with them, it's not the hotels responsibility. Is that true? 
    Sort of true.  However, it's also a good way to get booted from Hotels.com.  So it's not something they do on a regular basis.  

    We have 24 hours to reject any reservations that is made on Hotels.com.  I've have reject a Hotels.com reservation once.   1 person on booking.com and 1 on hotels.com booked our last room at the same time.  They hit our system within a second of each other.  Since it put us over I had to reject one of the reservations.  I picked the Hotels.com one.  They helped the guest find another unit.



    Happy birthday!! Thanks for the clarification. Once I heard this, I started to only book hotels through the hotels themselves.


  • julieanne912julieanne912 member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    edited July 2015
    arrippa said:
    lyndausvi said:
    arrippa said:
    Haha!

    When I did customer service at a casino resort, I had a couple people scream at me for "messing up" their reservation (I was just the person checking them in; I was not the person who made the damn reservation). Whenever this happened, the manager would look it up in the system, and sure enough the guest made their own reservation via hotels.com or a similar website. They messed it up themselves. But it was always my fault. 

    Question on that. I was told by someone who works front desk for a major hotel in NYC that they do not legally have to hold a hotels.com reservation. Since they didn't book with them, it's not the hotels responsibility. Is that true? 
    Sort of true.  However, it's also a good way to get booted from Hotels.com.  So it's not something they do on a regular basis.  

    We have 24 hours to reject any reservations that is made on Hotels.com.  I've have reject a Hotels.com reservation once.   1 person on booking.com and 1 on hotels.com booked our last room at the same time.  They hit our system within a second of each other.  Since it put us over I had to reject one of the reservations.  I picked the Hotels.com one.  They helped the guest find another unit.



    Happy birthday!! Thanks for the clarification. Once I heard this, I started to only book hotels through the hotels themselves.


    I also think when you book through those sites, you get worse rooms sometimes.  We went to Vegas with FI's family for a football game, and they all booked through a package deal on Expedia.  Since we were flying from a different airport, we booked our room direct with the hotel.  Our room was WAY nicer than theirs.  I can't help but think it's because we booked direct.  I've had other times years ago when I'd use Priceline a lot, and I always seemed to get a shitty room... the one by the elevator, or the ice machine, or with a view of a wall etc.
    Married 9.12.15
    image
  • CMGragainCMGragain member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    edited August 2015
    Working retail was a valuable education in self control.  I will never forget the old Iowa farmer who screamed at me because I could not fix his smashed, 15 year old  Timex watch.  He had run over it with a tractor, and he demanded I give him a new one.  We didn't sell Timex watches.  He thought a Rolex would be just as good as his Timex.  I still laugh about it.. 
    httpiimgurcomTCCjW0wjpg
  • I worked in a call center taking calls for a computer repair company. One customer complained that I couldn't repair her broken computer screen over the phone. I told her I could set up an appointment for her to take it in for repair. No, she wanted it repaired over the phone. How was I supposed to do that?
  • arrippa said:
    lyndausvi said:
    arrippa said:
    Haha!

    When I did customer service at a casino resort, I had a couple people scream at me for "messing up" their reservation (I was just the person checking them in; I was not the person who made the damn reservation). Whenever this happened, the manager would look it up in the system, and sure enough the guest made their own reservation via hotels.com or a similar website. They messed it up themselves. But it was always my fault. 

    Question on that. I was told by someone who works front desk for a major hotel in NYC that they do not legally have to hold a hotels.com reservation. Since they didn't book with them, it's not the hotels responsibility. Is that true? 
    Sort of true.  However, it's also a good way to get booted from Hotels.com.  So it's not something they do on a regular basis.  

    We have 24 hours to reject any reservations that is made on Hotels.com.  I've have reject a Hotels.com reservation once.   1 person on booking.com and 1 on hotels.com booked our last room at the same time.  They hit our system within a second of each other.  Since it put us over I had to reject one of the reservations.  I picked the Hotels.com one.  They helped the guest find another unit.



    Happy birthday!! Thanks for the clarification. Once I heard this, I started to only book hotels through the hotels themselves.


    I also think when you book through those sites, you get worse rooms sometimes.  We went to Vegas with FI's family for a football game, and they all booked through a package deal on Expedia.  Since we were flying from a different airport, we booked our room direct with the hotel.  Our room was WAY nicer than theirs.  I can't help but think it's because we booked direct.  I've had other times years ago when I'd use Priceline a lot, and I always seemed to get a shitty room... the one by the elevator, or the ice machine, or with a view of a wall etc.
    I think this is true. I'm going on vacation next week, and when I was researching the hotel, there were many mixed reviews. It seemed that the people that booked directly through the hotel had a better room/experience, and their requests were guaranteed (like wanting a king sized bed, for example). I always book rooms directly through the hotel anyway. 

    I think it makes sense. People are probably booking through a third party to save money, so why would you get a better room than people paying more. Someone has to have the room by the ice machine. 
    image
    image

    image


  • arrippa said:
    lyndausvi said:
    arrippa said:
    Haha!

    When I did customer service at a casino resort, I had a couple people scream at me for "messing up" their reservation (I was just the person checking them in; I was not the person who made the damn reservation). Whenever this happened, the manager would look it up in the system, and sure enough the guest made their own reservation via hotels.com or a similar website. They messed it up themselves. But it was always my fault. 

    Question on that. I was told by someone who works front desk for a major hotel in NYC that they do not legally have to hold a hotels.com reservation. Since they didn't book with them, it's not the hotels responsibility. Is that true? 
    Sort of true.  However, it's also a good way to get booted from Hotels.com.  So it's not something they do on a regular basis.  

    We have 24 hours to reject any reservations that is made on Hotels.com.  I've have reject a Hotels.com reservation once.   1 person on booking.com and 1 on hotels.com booked our last room at the same time.  They hit our system within a second of each other.  Since it put us over I had to reject one of the reservations.  I picked the Hotels.com one.  They helped the guest find another unit.



    Happy birthday!! Thanks for the clarification. Once I heard this, I started to only book hotels through the hotels themselves.


    I also think when you book through those sites, you get worse rooms sometimes.  We went to Vegas with FI's family for a football game, and they all booked through a package deal on Expedia.  Since we were flying from a different airport, we booked our room direct with the hotel.  Our room was WAY nicer than theirs.  I can't help but think it's because we booked direct.  I've had other times years ago when I'd use Priceline a lot, and I always seemed to get a shitty room... the one by the elevator, or the ice machine, or with a view of a wall etc.
    I think this is true. I'm going on vacation next week, and when I was researching the hotel, there were many mixed reviews. It seemed that the people that booked directly through the hotel had a better room/experience, and their requests were guaranteed (like wanting a king sized bed, for example). I always book rooms directly through the hotel anyway. 

    I think it makes sense. People are probably booking through a third party to save money, so why would you get a better room than people paying more. Someone has to have the room by the ice machine. 
    image
    image

    image


  • lyndausvilyndausvi mod
    First Anniversary First Answer 5 Love Its Name Dropper
    edited August 2015
    If I have 2 reservations that request the exact same things I will pick the non-Hotels.com guest first.  


    ETA - or the one that booked first.   A lot of hotels.com people book last minute.  Sorry, if you book today for a tomorrow room you are not getting the best room if there is another reservation out there.






    What differentiates an average host and a great host is anticipating unexpressed needs and wants of their guests.  Just because the want/need is not expressed, doesn't mean it wouldn't be appreciated. 
  • arrippa said:
    lyndausvi said:
    arrippa said:
    Haha!

    When I did customer service at a casino resort, I had a couple people scream at me for "messing up" their reservation (I was just the person checking them in; I was not the person who made the damn reservation). Whenever this happened, the manager would look it up in the system, and sure enough the guest made their own reservation via hotels.com or a similar website. They messed it up themselves. But it was always my fault. 

    Question on that. I was told by someone who works front desk for a major hotel in NYC that they do not legally have to hold a hotels.com reservation. Since they didn't book with them, it's not the hotels responsibility. Is that true? 
    Sort of true.  However, it's also a good way to get booted from Hotels.com.  So it's not something they do on a regular basis.  

    We have 24 hours to reject any reservations that is made on Hotels.com.  I've have reject a Hotels.com reservation once.   1 person on booking.com and 1 on hotels.com booked our last room at the same time.  They hit our system within a second of each other.  Since it put us over I had to reject one of the reservations.  I picked the Hotels.com one.  They helped the guest find another unit.



    Happy birthday!! Thanks for the clarification. Once I heard this, I started to only book hotels through the hotels themselves.


    I also think when you book through those sites, you get worse rooms sometimes.  We went to Vegas with FI's family for a football game, and they all booked through a package deal on Expedia.  Since we were flying from a different airport, we booked our room direct with the hotel.  Our room was WAY nicer than theirs.  I can't help but think it's because we booked direct.  I've had other times years ago when I'd use Priceline a lot, and I always seemed to get a shitty room... the one by the elevator, or the ice machine, or with a view of a wall etc.


    We ran into this in Miami after we booked with Expedia.  Super cute room, but SMALL.  Walking down the hall while the housekeepers had the doors open, we could tell that we had probably the smallest room. 

    Law enforcement is fun, because my 'customers' are usually on the wrong side of things.  I had one woman yell at me because her common-law had missed Christmas after I had put him in jail.  It was apparently my fault that he had taken someone hostage at a school.

    Yesterday I was lodging a guy in cells, and he was so high that he thought he was buying cigarettes from me.  No, dude, I'm just counting out your money in front of you so that we can prove you got the same amount back when you're released in the morning.

    **The OMH formerly known as jsangel1018**
  • I worked at a chain restaurant as a host for a while, and at the same time worked as a job coach for people with disabilities, and was an aide at a school for kids with multiple disabilities. One of these jobs regularly made me feel like shit, and it wasn't the one where I had change teenagers' diapers.

    We didn't have reservations, just call-ahead seating. That's where you call, tell us what time and how many people are coming in, and we put you on the wait list that minute. That can help us plan for the night, and when you come in, we're ready to seat you next. Sounds simple, right?

    Apparently not, because people would regularly call in for four or six people, then show up with ten or twelve an hour after they said they'd come in. It was then my fault we weren't ready for them. (They also frequently insisted they had a reservation, even when I had been the one to give them the speech on the phone on how we don't do reservations, just this.)

    Also, every Sunday I'd get yelled at by the same two Panthers fans because we didn't have the Panthers game showing on the big TV in the bar. I'm in north Jersey, and there was always a Giants, Jets or Patriots game that half the bar was there to see.
  • The private club is interesting because it's member owned so everyone thinks they are your boss.  Thus everyone wants the best table and do not make reservations.

    The other night DH had a wine dinner for 90 people.  That took up the inside dinning room.  He had enough 80 people for a al carte dinning outside.    A 15 top comes in at 7:30 (hello, most popular time) WITHOUT A RESERVATION excepting to be sat.  Then they got pissed when they were told they couldn't be sat until after 9pm.   Like really pissed. Even though they could clearly see that every table was taken.   The GM had to step and and escort them away.      I like the new GM, he basically said we have sent out many emails saying if you do not have a reservation do no expect to walk in and get sat immediately.    

    Who walks into a restaurant with 15 and no reservation at the busiest time and except to be sat immediately? A 15 top at our place outside takes up 4/5 tables.  It's not like we hold 4/5 tables in the same area "just in case" a 15 top pops in.   People are crazy.






    What differentiates an average host and a great host is anticipating unexpressed needs and wants of their guests.  Just because the want/need is not expressed, doesn't mean it wouldn't be appreciated. 
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