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This is from my early days as an agent (pre 911) it still makes me mad.
I had these clients who were very Religious - they would pay more for later flights because they had to go to Church. I don’t have a problem with this, but it has to do with the events to unfold.
So they had a set of tickets that were the “use it or lose it” kind and had to make a change - no can do.
A week later the airline they were booked on had a horrible accident. The airline was allowing people to change dates, change flight equipment or get a refund if they stated that they were afraid to fly.
So guess who calls me to get their tickets refunded. I said I would look into it and call them back. I spent the next half hour being very upset about having to lie to the reservationist at the airline because a) these God fearing, church going folk obviously didn’t have a problem with my heathen soul lying for them and b) there were several airline employees and their families on that flight and I was going to have to lie to someone who may have known and been friends with the people who died (my roommate’s ex-girlfriend was on that flight too). My boss saw my distress and said to call them back and tell them to lie for themselves and if they gave me any trouble to fire them as clients.
So I call them back and state the reasons they could give to get a refund. I said “so you are going to have to lie and give one of those reasons instead of the real reason you have to cancel the trip”. They told me to go ahead and lie. I gave them the phone number and said that they were going to have to lie for themselves I wouldn’t do it. They insisted that it was “part of the service charge” that they had paid me. I got to say “if I were to sell my soul for $25 I would have at least asked for the ability to play great Blues - I’m sorry I can no longer work with you - perhaps you can find another agent who will be better suited to your needs.”
I don’t know if they ever did get the refund, but I haven’t heard from them since.
I had these clients who were very Religious - they would pay more for later flights because they had to go to Church. I don’t have a problem with this, but it has to do with the events to unfold.
So they had a set of tickets that were the “use it or lose it” kind and had to make a change - no can do.
A week later the airline they were booked on had a horrible accident. The airline was allowing people to change dates, change flight equipment or get a refund if they stated that they were afraid to fly.
So guess who calls me to get their tickets refunded. I said I would look into it and call them back. I spent the next half hour being very upset about having to lie to the reservationist at the airline because a) these God fearing, church going folk obviously didn’t have a problem with my heathen soul lying for them and b) there were several airline employees and their families on that flight and I was going to have to lie to someone who may have known and been friends with the people who died (my roommate’s ex-girlfriend was on that flight too). My boss saw my distress and said to call them back and tell them to lie for themselves and if they gave me any trouble to fire them as clients.
So I call them back and state the reasons they could give to get a refund. I said “so you are going to have to lie and give one of those reasons instead of the real reason you have to cancel the trip”. They told me to go ahead and lie. I gave them the phone number and said that they were going to have to lie for themselves I wouldn’t do it. They insisted that it was “part of the service charge” that they had paid me. I got to say “if I were to sell my soul for $25 I would have at least asked for the ability to play great Blues - I’m sorry I can no longer work with you - perhaps you can find another agent who will be better suited to your needs.”
I don’t know if they ever did get the refund, but I haven’t heard from them since.
"You'd feel a Hell of a lot better if you'd just rip into the occasional customer."
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