Tweet
About 3 weeks ago, my fiance's boss's boss came to tell her that she would be going to a mandatory 2-day training seminar in Illinois. We live in Massachusetts so this was going to be a 4-day 3-night business trip. This was a surprise not only because of the short notice, but because travel is NOT part of her job and she's never been on a business trip in her life.
And with the way things are going so far, I don't think she'll want to ever go on another one!
The trouble first started with an argument among the bosses over whether she could go or not because "there's no money in the travel budget." It was eventually determined that because this was training that was required by a vendor, then the vendor would be the one paying in the end, so yes, she is going. But that took a WEEK to resolve, and the training conference is now only two weeks away.
Then the next problem was who was going to book the flights, hotel, and rental car? They asked her "why can't you just book them and put them on your company credit card?"
Because, dummy, she doesn't have one! She doesn't travel as part of her job nor is she responsible for buying anything so she has no NEED for a company card! One of the sales reps offered to use his card, but for some reason they said no and that her boss's boss would take care of it. This took ANOTHER WEEK to figure out, despite my fiance asking them EVERY DAY about this.
Now the damn event was less than a week away and NOTHING was done aside from registering her for the training.
Finally, last Friday, her boss contacted HER boss and asked if the tickets et all were taken care of. His response?
"Oh.....I probably should've done that, huh?"
Thus, her boss was forced to go to my fiance and say "I really hate to have to ask you this, but can you cover this and we will cut you a check after?"
This is where I started to get pissed myself, because at this point I'm sure getting reimbursed is going to be like pulling teeth. But she agreed to do this.....her boss promised to personally ensure that the reimbursement check will be expedited to her. I will believe that when I see it
So that meant we had to take time out of our already busy weekend so figure out the flights, hotel, and rental car on our own. This is when we found out that you simply can't get a direct flight from the Boston area to the city where she needed to go. Her choices were to fly into Chicago and drive 3 hours to the hotel, fly into St Louis MO and drive almost two hours, including crossing the Mississippi River (and she HATES driving over bridges), or accept a long layover in Dallas-Forth Worth.
Then we found out that because her bosses had dilly-dallied so much, most of the flights were already completely booked. She had no choice but to take the two-leg flight through Dallas and book First Class seats (extra $200) because there were no coach or business class seats left.
Oh, and she had to go in to work for 6 hours on Sunday and stay late on Monday because she was going to be out at months-end due to the trip. She works in finance, and this was her busiest time. So she had to get as much done ahead of time as possible.
But wait! The fun is just starting!
Tuesday morning she got up early and went to catch the airport express but to Logan Airport. The bus was half an hour late. So instead of getting into Boston early, the bus was now heading into the peak of rush-hour traffic.
Every single person on that bus - including my fiance - missed their flights because of that. Luckily she was able to rebook for the next flight, but now she had 2 hours to kill at Logan and an even longer (3+ hours) layover at DFW.
She finally landed in her destination city just after 9PM, and got to the hotel an hour or so later. Total travel time? 15+ hours! That's almost as long as it would've taken to just drive there!
She just texted me a little while ago to say that she got to the training seminar early, only for the person running it to say "it doesn't start until 10."
The itinerary, which I saw with my own eyes, quite clearly said it started at 9. Also, the sales rep, who also said it started at 9, hasn't show up yet and is now (as of this moment) half an hour late by his own statement.
So yeah....this has been totally fucked up from end to end, and she's not even halfway through yet!!!
And with the way things are going so far, I don't think she'll want to ever go on another one!
The trouble first started with an argument among the bosses over whether she could go or not because "there's no money in the travel budget." It was eventually determined that because this was training that was required by a vendor, then the vendor would be the one paying in the end, so yes, she is going. But that took a WEEK to resolve, and the training conference is now only two weeks away.
Then the next problem was who was going to book the flights, hotel, and rental car? They asked her "why can't you just book them and put them on your company credit card?"
Because, dummy, she doesn't have one! She doesn't travel as part of her job nor is she responsible for buying anything so she has no NEED for a company card! One of the sales reps offered to use his card, but for some reason they said no and that her boss's boss would take care of it. This took ANOTHER WEEK to figure out, despite my fiance asking them EVERY DAY about this.
Now the damn event was less than a week away and NOTHING was done aside from registering her for the training.
Finally, last Friday, her boss contacted HER boss and asked if the tickets et all were taken care of. His response?
"Oh.....I probably should've done that, huh?"
Thus, her boss was forced to go to my fiance and say "I really hate to have to ask you this, but can you cover this and we will cut you a check after?"
This is where I started to get pissed myself, because at this point I'm sure getting reimbursed is going to be like pulling teeth. But she agreed to do this.....her boss promised to personally ensure that the reimbursement check will be expedited to her. I will believe that when I see it
So that meant we had to take time out of our already busy weekend so figure out the flights, hotel, and rental car on our own. This is when we found out that you simply can't get a direct flight from the Boston area to the city where she needed to go. Her choices were to fly into Chicago and drive 3 hours to the hotel, fly into St Louis MO and drive almost two hours, including crossing the Mississippi River (and she HATES driving over bridges), or accept a long layover in Dallas-Forth Worth.
Then we found out that because her bosses had dilly-dallied so much, most of the flights were already completely booked. She had no choice but to take the two-leg flight through Dallas and book First Class seats (extra $200) because there were no coach or business class seats left.
Oh, and she had to go in to work for 6 hours on Sunday and stay late on Monday because she was going to be out at months-end due to the trip. She works in finance, and this was her busiest time. So she had to get as much done ahead of time as possible.
But wait! The fun is just starting!
Tuesday morning she got up early and went to catch the airport express but to Logan Airport. The bus was half an hour late. So instead of getting into Boston early, the bus was now heading into the peak of rush-hour traffic.
Every single person on that bus - including my fiance - missed their flights because of that. Luckily she was able to rebook for the next flight, but now she had 2 hours to kill at Logan and an even longer (3+ hours) layover at DFW.
She finally landed in her destination city just after 9PM, and got to the hotel an hour or so later. Total travel time? 15+ hours! That's almost as long as it would've taken to just drive there!
She just texted me a little while ago to say that she got to the training seminar early, only for the person running it to say "it doesn't start until 10."
The itinerary, which I saw with my own eyes, quite clearly said it started at 9. Also, the sales rep, who also said it started at 9, hasn't show up yet and is now (as of this moment) half an hour late by his own statement.
So yeah....this has been totally fucked up from end to end, and she's not even halfway through yet!!!
Comment