Email coupon fun

[bhskittykatt]

We currently have a couple really excellent deals through Groupon-like sites. You purchase the voucher through them and then call and book your room. When you check-in, your voucher covers your room rate. When guests call to book voucher rooms, I always tell them it's really really important to bring that voucher in, because that is their form of payment and that is what we need to turn in to the company that sold the voucher so we can get reimbursed. They can print it out, they can email it to us (many forget to print a copy and just email it to us from their smartphone while I check them in), but we MUST have that voucher.

SC walks in with her 15 yo daughter.

SC: "Yes, I have a reservation."
Me: "Okay." *goes through the process of looking her up* "Do you have your vouchers with you?"
SC: "No, but I have the numbers here." *hands me a paper with handwritten voucher numbers written in red crayon*
Me: "Okay...I do actually need the vouchers. We have a business center..."
SC: "I don't have them! I got a new computer and I lost them!"
Me: "Are you able to access your email from our business center?"
SC: "Didn't you hear me? I got a new computer and lost all my old email!"
Daughter: "No, Mom, that's..."
SC: "I don't see why you are making this so hard! I paid you! Here is my reservation confirmation!"
Me: "Yes, but we need physical copies of those vouchers to send to [company]. The voucher is your payment to us."
SC: "I already paid you! I want to speak to a manager!"
Daughter: "Mom..."
Me: "All the supervisors have gone home. I can have one speak to you in the morning. Are you sure you lost the email?"
SC: "Yes I'm sure, I had to replace my computer! Call a manager at home if you have to! I'm not paying anymore!"
Daughter: "Mom..."
Me: *gives up and turns to daughter* "Can you get her email up on those computers?"
Daughter: "Yeah. Come on, Mom, you can still get your email, I'll show you."
SC: "Huh?"
Daughter: *drags SC off to the computers*

SC came back a minute later....with a receipt email from the company that said "Click here to print your vouchers!"

Me: "Um...the vouchers have a barcode on them. I think you need to click on this link in the email to bring up the actual vouchers."
SC: "Gah!" *storms back off to business center*

A few minutes later and she finally gets the vouchers printed. I check her into a junior suite room that has one king bed and a pull-out sofa (which is what all our different suite types have). SC comes down about five minutes later.

SC: "I was told my room would have two queen beds!"
Me: "I'm very sorry. I'm not sure who told you that, but none of our suites have two queen beds. I do have a standard waterview room with two queen beds."
SC: "No, I want a suite!"
Me: "Well, all our suites do come with a pull-out sofa bed."
SC: "No! That's not what I was told!"

This went back-and-forth for some time. I eventually moved her to an executive suite, which still has just one bed and a pull-out but has a separate bedroom area, and she seemed placated with that.

I checked her reservation, and one of the supervisors made it and had notes for housekeeping to make sure the bedding for the pull-out sofa was ready. Somehow I really doubt that she was told her room would have two queen beds...

The final cherry on top was that even though I went through my spiel when she checked in (around 6pmish) covering the hours of our various outlets including the pool, she came down at 8:10 upset that the pool closed at 8. I know it's kind of early to close a pool, but you were told and had some time to use it if you really wanted to.

[dalesys]

Did you detail someone to operate other high-tech devices for her? Like light switches, faucets, flush handles, faucets. doorknobs?

[raudf]

My ISP's email is a downloadable type, so I could very well lose my emails if I lost my computer and were stupid enough to use it for anything...

That said, the lady hasn't a clue about technology. I'm sure she also believed that because her bookmarks were missing, the websites must be gone too. I'm glad her husband assigned her a carer for while she was out in public (aka her daughter, who took after him.)

[DGoddessChardonnay]

My ISP's email is a downloadable type, so I could very well lose my emails if I lost my computer and were stupid enough to use it for anything...

If you use a third party program (ie, Outlook or Thunderbird) to download your email, you can go into the settings and choose to leave a copy of your emails on your ISP server. Also, you can choose how long you want to save copies on your ISP server as well.

This way, if you lose your computer's HDD or get a new one, you can still download your emails and not lose anything.

[MoonCat]

I'm guessing she just thought that "her emails were in her old computer." Literally inside.

I say this due to working with someone who had to be told multiple times that yes, forwarding an email to someone else means you WILL still have that same email in your own inbox, and similar things.

[wolfie]

If you use a third party program (ie, Outlook or Thunderbird) to download your email, you can go into the settings and choose to leave a copy of your emails on your ISP server. Also, you can choose how long you want to save copies on your ISP server as well.

This works until the saved e-mails build up to the point that they fill your ISP's quota for inbox size - at which point, some ISPs will start "bouncing" incoming mail, and others will delete your entire inbasket to make room.

Of course, if you change your computer, and also change ISPs, your old e-mails are gone.

[RealUnimportant]

This works until the saved e-mails build up to the point that they fill your ISP's quota for inbox size - at which point, some ISPs will start "bouncing" incoming mail, and others will delete your entire inbasket to make room.

Of course, if you change your computer, and also change ISPs, your old e-mails are gone.

Depending on your provider, this can take quite a while... After the last iOS update, my phone auto-grabbed all the mails still on the server that were no longer on the phone, and I had to go through & manually sort through/delete over three thousand stored messages!

[Kagato]

This works until the saved e-mails build up to the point that they fill your ISP's quota for inbox size - at which point, some ISPs will start "bouncing" incoming mail, and others will delete your entire inbasket to make room.

Of course, if you change your computer, and also change ISPs, your old e-mails are gone.

And things like this is why I have my own personal domain name =p

(Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with gmail/hotmail/etc, it just seems a little more professional when someone gets an email from my address (at) glenstradwick (dot) com or (at) montwick (dot) com )

[raudf]

My answer to it is to just not use it for anything but the ISP's communication to me. I have three other email accounts that I can use for things I need, like one for my newsletters that wind up causing spam, one is for banking/billing only and the other is for my regular stuff.