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I'll do my shorter one first, then save the longer one for later.
this happens at least once a week
me- you can guess
ta- travel agent that should find a new line of work
ta- "I need to cancel this reservation, confirmation number 6xxxxxxx"
me- "ok, let me bring that up real quick"
pull up confirmation
me- "ok, I have that reservation on my screen, it does look like it is past the cancellation deadline, if I do cancel there will be a one night penalty billed to the card that is used to hold the room, would you still like me to cancel"
ta- "yes, but there will be no cancellation penalty"
me- "i'm sorry ma'am, that is company policy, the only time we can waive the penalty is for extraordinary circumstances, changing you're mind at the last minute is not considered an extraordinary circumstance"
ta- "well, it should be waived because no one told me when the deadline was"
me- "it says on the reservation that it was booked on your gds system, that system should have told you when the deadline was"
ta- "well, how the hell am I supposed to be able to figure out the deadline on the gds system"
me- *stunned silence* then "i show that an email was also sent out to you, and those very specifically state the cancellation deadline, there is nothing I can do, you can either cancel and pay, or not cancel and stay, no other options are available right now"
next, could turn into a war story if I had a direct extension people could reach me at...
ta- "i made a terrible mistake, I canceled a hotel room, I meant to cancel a flight"
me- "ok, do you have the original confirmation number"
ta- "yes, it is 6xxxxxxx"
me-"ok, i see that as having originally been for arriving monday the 5th of november staying 1 night, i am sold out that night, but if you'd like to hold I can talk to my supervisor about getting that reinstated"
ta- "no, that's not correct, it was reserved for 5 nights, I know I put in 5 nights on my (insert name of gds software)"
me- "i'm sorry sir, but the reservation was only made for the 5th, I can talk to my manager to reinstate the 5th, but I know he won't ok 5 nights, I've already oversold for all of them, the best I can do is find the nearest Holiday Inn with availability still"
ta- "that is not acceptable, I've already checked, the nearest one is 12 miles away, I need that location, how do you expect me to tell the guest that he isn't at the hotel he reserved"
me- "I can't help on that, I've given you the options available to us, I can either see about reinstating the one night or finding a room at another holiday inn."
ta- "I don't care what you have to do, get a me a room at your hotel for those 5 nights, you're already oversold, just oversell yourself one more room"
me- "our limit to oversell is 5 rooms, and they must be made at least a week in advance, I am already at 5 rooms oversold each night and it is not a week in advance, sir there is no way I can get you a room here"
ta- "well, this is just poor customer service, you should hold rooms aside for travel agents, we do send you the most business"
me- "actually sir, the majority of our business is from people reserving online, approximately 2/3 of our business to be precise, that aside, even if you were one of the biggest VIPs in the company, I don't have anything available"
ta- "well, make something available"
me- "ok, give me about an hour, I should have a quote from a contractor on how much it will cost you to build a room by then, but on this short of notice your guest may have to stay in an unfinished room"
ta- "that is very unprofessional, I demand to speak with a superviser"
me- very honestly "i'm sorry, my supervisor isn't here right now, only supervisor is the front desk supervisor, I can't transfer out of my department, to reach the front desk supervisor you will have to call back and ask the operator for the manager on duty"
ta- "no, if you are at the hotel you can transfer"
ok, i'm not at the hotel, but even if I was, many of our hotels really do only allow the operator and front desk to transfer to prevent the switchboards from overloading, so I tell him...
me- "i'm sorry, but due to switchboard limitations the only people able to make transfers are the front desk and the operator"
ta- "fine, i can tell you just don't want to help me, maybe my guest will ok me using someone other than you, because it's obvious you don't want our business"
ok, wtf, it's not as if i had rooms and refused to book him, i was SOLD OUT, i have no choice but to turn people away... grr, you'd think that travel agents would know better.
this happens at least once a week
me- you can guess
ta- travel agent that should find a new line of work
ta- "I need to cancel this reservation, confirmation number 6xxxxxxx"
me- "ok, let me bring that up real quick"
pull up confirmation
me- "ok, I have that reservation on my screen, it does look like it is past the cancellation deadline, if I do cancel there will be a one night penalty billed to the card that is used to hold the room, would you still like me to cancel"
ta- "yes, but there will be no cancellation penalty"
me- "i'm sorry ma'am, that is company policy, the only time we can waive the penalty is for extraordinary circumstances, changing you're mind at the last minute is not considered an extraordinary circumstance"
ta- "well, it should be waived because no one told me when the deadline was"
me- "it says on the reservation that it was booked on your gds system, that system should have told you when the deadline was"
ta- "well, how the hell am I supposed to be able to figure out the deadline on the gds system"
me- *stunned silence* then "i show that an email was also sent out to you, and those very specifically state the cancellation deadline, there is nothing I can do, you can either cancel and pay, or not cancel and stay, no other options are available right now"
next, could turn into a war story if I had a direct extension people could reach me at...
ta- "i made a terrible mistake, I canceled a hotel room, I meant to cancel a flight"
me- "ok, do you have the original confirmation number"
ta- "yes, it is 6xxxxxxx"
me-"ok, i see that as having originally been for arriving monday the 5th of november staying 1 night, i am sold out that night, but if you'd like to hold I can talk to my supervisor about getting that reinstated"
ta- "no, that's not correct, it was reserved for 5 nights, I know I put in 5 nights on my (insert name of gds software)"
me- "i'm sorry sir, but the reservation was only made for the 5th, I can talk to my manager to reinstate the 5th, but I know he won't ok 5 nights, I've already oversold for all of them, the best I can do is find the nearest Holiday Inn with availability still"
ta- "that is not acceptable, I've already checked, the nearest one is 12 miles away, I need that location, how do you expect me to tell the guest that he isn't at the hotel he reserved"
me- "I can't help on that, I've given you the options available to us, I can either see about reinstating the one night or finding a room at another holiday inn."
ta- "I don't care what you have to do, get a me a room at your hotel for those 5 nights, you're already oversold, just oversell yourself one more room"
me- "our limit to oversell is 5 rooms, and they must be made at least a week in advance, I am already at 5 rooms oversold each night and it is not a week in advance, sir there is no way I can get you a room here"
ta- "well, this is just poor customer service, you should hold rooms aside for travel agents, we do send you the most business"
me- "actually sir, the majority of our business is from people reserving online, approximately 2/3 of our business to be precise, that aside, even if you were one of the biggest VIPs in the company, I don't have anything available"
ta- "well, make something available"
me- "ok, give me about an hour, I should have a quote from a contractor on how much it will cost you to build a room by then, but on this short of notice your guest may have to stay in an unfinished room"
ta- "that is very unprofessional, I demand to speak with a superviser"
me- very honestly "i'm sorry, my supervisor isn't here right now, only supervisor is the front desk supervisor, I can't transfer out of my department, to reach the front desk supervisor you will have to call back and ask the operator for the manager on duty"
ta- "no, if you are at the hotel you can transfer"
ok, i'm not at the hotel, but even if I was, many of our hotels really do only allow the operator and front desk to transfer to prevent the switchboards from overloading, so I tell him...
me- "i'm sorry, but due to switchboard limitations the only people able to make transfers are the front desk and the operator"
ta- "fine, i can tell you just don't want to help me, maybe my guest will ok me using someone other than you, because it's obvious you don't want our business"
ok, wtf, it's not as if i had rooms and refused to book him, i was SOLD OUT, i have no choice but to turn people away... grr, you'd think that travel agents would know better.
How in the world do you mix these two up?
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