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I work for a gigantic company just about every person in the civilized world has heard of, and I'm currently on travel to placate a customer who has experienced some issues with our products. The powers that be decided that in the middle of my trip, I need to make a side trip to their other location (1 1/2 hrs away) to perform some emergency maintenance. (Yes, they could do this themselves without a problem, and I'm no more qualified than they are, but such is life...)
I needed to cancel my return flight, and get a rental car and a hotel room in the city I'm visiting as the maint. is going to take place at midnight. I call our corporate travel agency to bail me out. One of the things that makes business travel somewhat less unpleasant is the fact that if you are ever in a jam, you call the agencies 800 number, say "fix this", and it just happens; even if it costs my employer hundreds of dollars to fix.
The morons at Enterprise rent-a-car have, for whatever reason, NOT listed the location across the street from where I am staying in the reservations system the agents use to reserve cars. She eventually has to call Enterprise on my behalf, make the reservation over the phone (while convincing Enterprise that they DO allow one-way rentals to be dropped off at DCA), and then has to find me a hotel in BFE, VA. (Lets just say it isn't on a list of common corporate travel destinations.)
The whole process took me 45 minutes, for which the travel agency will be able to bill my company the princely sum of $50. I'd be banging my head against the wall having to spend that long to process a "routine" reservation. I just hope she doesn't work for a boneheaded call center that grades her on how fast she gets me off the phone.
SirWired
I needed to cancel my return flight, and get a rental car and a hotel room in the city I'm visiting as the maint. is going to take place at midnight. I call our corporate travel agency to bail me out. One of the things that makes business travel somewhat less unpleasant is the fact that if you are ever in a jam, you call the agencies 800 number, say "fix this", and it just happens; even if it costs my employer hundreds of dollars to fix.
The morons at Enterprise rent-a-car have, for whatever reason, NOT listed the location across the street from where I am staying in the reservations system the agents use to reserve cars. She eventually has to call Enterprise on my behalf, make the reservation over the phone (while convincing Enterprise that they DO allow one-way rentals to be dropped off at DCA), and then has to find me a hotel in BFE, VA. (Lets just say it isn't on a list of common corporate travel destinations.)
The whole process took me 45 minutes, for which the travel agency will be able to bill my company the princely sum of $50. I'd be banging my head against the wall having to spend that long to process a "routine" reservation. I just hope she doesn't work for a boneheaded call center that grades her on how fast she gets me off the phone.
SirWired
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