wherin I tell a caller to go to hell

[smileyeagle1021]

You know, the best part about my weekend job is that for 16 hours a week I am the manager on duty (actually 17 if you include the times I come in early sense I have seniority by one week over the person I replace). Anyway, last 10 minutes of the B shift and the phone rings, I'm doing her end of day cash count so she answers the phone, I only hear her end of the conversation, but I hear her say,
"yes sir, we do have a room available tonight with 2 queens"
"that will be at $79 plus tax"
"I believe we are still accepting the AAA discount, let me check that and if we are see how much it would be"
"I'm sorry sir, I no longer have the AAA discount available"
"OK, and was there anything else I can assist with?"
"Thank you fo calling and have a good evening"

anyway, 15 minutes later I get a call
me- I love my authority, and did I mention I only have 4 rooms left and could give a crap if you book or not now
sc- the certified AAA douche
italics- thoughts

me- (hotel) this is smiley speaking, how may I help you?
sc- yes, I want a room with 2 queens for tonight
oh shit, I know where this is going
me- Ok, I do have one more room left with 2 queens for tonight, that will be at $79 plus tax.
sc- what is the AAA discount?
me- I'm sorry, with our limited availability tonight we are no longer offering any discounts.
sc- but the girl before said there was a AAA discount, she lied to me.
me- sir, I overheard the call, she said she thought that the discount was available but had to double check, I never heard her tell you that it was available.
sc- well, she should have known if it was available or not, so you should give it to me anyway.
now, if I had not heard the previous call I would have said OK, given him 10% off and been done with it, but I do have a spine
me- I'm sorry, but AAA does not have last room availability and I distinctly heard CW tell you that the rate was not available and she was correct.
sc- that is still an unacceptable mistake.
me- would it change your opinion if I told you she has only worked here for 3 weeks and that it was an honest mistake?
sc- no, becaust you guys should still honor what you quote.
me- in that case sir we do not really want nor need your business.
sc- I want the manager on duty
me- I am the manager on duty
sc- and you're not going to do what is necassary to keep me as a guest
me- no, because we have 5 rooms left and we've already beat our revenue target for tonight, so I'd just as rather tell you to go to hell for lying to me about one of our employees and take my chance on someone else calling in, was there anything else I can assist with?
sc- ...
me- and thank you for calling and have a good evening.

oh, and in case y'all was wondering... I ended up renting out that room 10 minutes later

oh and on an unrelated notes, we have gotten some fun calls, I had one person agree to reserve the room only if I came with it... I think they were a former employee...

I also got an annomymous call asking me to call the police because they had good reason to believe there was drug activity in room 201... then they were upset when I told them that they would have to call the police themselves because niether I nor any guest at the hotel had seen anything to indicate potential drug use so I would be filing a false report if I were to call them, but if she had evidence and reason she was free to call them... and let's be honest, I don't want to call the police and say "hey Fenrus (I just chose him because that would be really f*ing funny if I actually got him on dispatch), I just got an anonomous call saying one of my guests is doing drugs, they refused to give me their name or contact information or any information on why they believe the guest was doing drugs, but I guess I should call you to tell you that my hotel has a potential drug user in it"

so how's the rest of y'alls nights giong?

[Fenrus]

You know, it'd be REALLY F*ing funny if you actually got me... cuz I'm sitting here manning the phones, bored out of my MIND...

On the bright side, I got to watch the entire movie of 28 Weeks Later, because no one's calling...

[smileyeagle1021]

You know, it'd be REALLY F*ing funny if you actually got me... cuz I'm sitting here manning the phones, bored out of my MIND...

On the bright side, I got to watch the entire movie of 28 Weeks Later, because no one's calling...

yeah, I just finished U-571 (I love that movie)

btw, did you get anyone that called in claiming to have good reason to believe that someone in room 201 was doing drugs?

[Fenrus]

We actually get that almost every week from a place in Taylorsville, and every month from one in Cottonwood heights...

None tonight though.

[smileyeagle1021]

yeah, i think that lady was prank calling... I think she knew damned well that there wasn't any drug activity going on in room 201 and that if she called the police she'd be charged with filing a false report but if she could get someone else to call the police then whoever it was in 201 she had a grudge against would have the hassle of the police showing up and someone else gets the blame for filing a false report... or something like that...

[Evil Queen]

If she did call 911 from her phone, yours at the front desk would be going batshit craZy with this annoying twirly beepy sound.

You're so lucky, getting to tell your guests to go to hell.

[smileyeagle1021]

If she did call 911 from her phone, yours at the front desk would be going batshit craZy with this annoying twirly beepy sound.

You're so lucky, getting to tell your guests to go to hell.

no, it wouldn't... that's the thing... she was calling from an outside line, so if she called there would be no record of it in our system (and actually with our phones it just flashes an alarm on the monitor, no noise that I'm aware of).

and yes, that is the beauty of the night audit, while I'm the only one there I am the god of that hotel...

[JLRodgers]

One of my friends (who works at a hotel) had a light flashign with sirens (ok, bells or something) because one room dialled 911. He panicked (obviously) and called the room. Woman picked up and said "what are you talking about? I didn't dial 911!" So he called the police and said there must've been a mistake. While he was on the phone -- 911 from the same room! Police said "we'll send someone anyway. Don't worry about it." Then 911 call again, and again!

Police walked in, got the room number, went up..... her daughter had been calling "home" which just happened to have 11 in it (phone automatically did 9 or something). Cop "nicely chatted" with the woman and kid. Came back laughing. Mother called down and said "please turn off our phone" Rest of night was uneventful.

[Evil Queen]

Something similar happened at my hotel. Kid (maybe 11 or 12) picked up the phone and thought he was calling room 118. Well, he was an idiot and didn't listen to me when I said to call other rooms, dial 5 first. In the hotel he was last in the transfer number was 9 so he hit 9, followed by 118.

Can you see where I'm going with this?

Cops called me, asking if there was a problem and I booked it to their room (104, i think) to see. I told them someone in the room called 911 and they had a lovely chat with the officer that showed up some 30 seconds later.

[mattm04]

I had a friend who stayed at a hotel where they had just had a new phone system put in the day before. The code to dial out long distance was.... 9(got outside line dial tone) + 91 + 1 + area code + number. Local calls were 9 + 71 + number.

The next day they had plastered ever wall, door, etc, with bright red signs informing guests of the "new" procdure. When they did room service they changed the cards on the phones out.

I wonder what idiot set that up?

[cinema guy]

I once had a malfunctioning phone at work (two or three jobs back). Dial 9 for an outside line - no ring tone, dial 9 again - still no ring tone, and one more time - "Hello, do you require police, ambulance or fire?"

(For those of you in who don't know the UK emergency number is 999).

[Sorianna]

I accidentally called 911 once (not at a hotel, but still). I panicked, hung up, and got to panic even more when the police called me 30 seconds later, asking if I'd called 911. I explained the accident, they were like "oh, ok, not a problem" and we ended the call... then someone knocks on the door... It's the poliece (hooray for the station being two blocks away). They came in to check that nothing was going on, I explained my mistake again, and they laughed with me, and left. I guess they were really happy with the new call tracing tech they just go. It was a very eventful mistake.

[BaristaTrav]

Is $7.90 worth sacrificing your dignity over? Oh that's right. SC's have no dignity.

[Emrld]

My sister had a phone number that was area code a digit 911 and three more digits.

I can't tell you how many times I called and got put to 911 instead. They would answer . . .I would give them my name and the number I was calling.
Finally after three months . .. my sis got a call from the phone company . . .they were told to change her phone number.
(Apparently it also happened with about 4 other people on a regular basis when calling her.)

[One-Fang]

Here in NZ our emergency number is 111. Some time ago I dialled 911, can't remember why, can got a recorded message stating "The emergency number in New Zealand is One. One. One. Please hange up and dial One. One. One." (Yes, it was said with capitals like that).

Nothing more than amused, a few months later I was discussing the prevalence of American television shows and their influence on us and wanted to show him that if you dialled 911 you got a recorded message. Apparently, at some point in between, someone had clued up that it was stupid to play a recorded message to people likely to be in panic mode.

Dial 911 - "Hello, do you require Police, Ambulance or Fire?"

(thinking) "Oh shit!!!" Heheheh. I knew they had that call-back tracing thing going on though so I just mumbled "wrong number" and hung up.