why is it always on tuesdays? (really long, some language)

[smileyeagle1021]

It seems Tuesdays seem to suck more than any other day of the week.

you want to what?

ok, I got this caller from Italy, if there are any members from this board from Europe who could explain this lady to me please do otherwise I'll just have assume she is insane.

me-
sc- italian lady with strange demands

me- reservation desk, this is smileyeagle speaking, may I ask with whom I'm speaking?
sc- good morning, this is SC (i should point out, it was 5pm at the hotel she was calling)
me- and how can I assist you today ms SC?
sc- I'd like a room on (nights)
me- and how many will be staying in the room?
sc- 1
me- and will this be smoking or non?
sc- non smoking
(ok, really it was a lot longer with a lot more repeats due to language barriers, but that's not part of the suck)
me- ok I have a king non available (insert sales spiel), and that is at $289 per night
sc- no that's not right.
me- I'm sorry (really confused)
sc- you forgot to give me the IBM rate
(she never said the words IBM before that point)
me- i'm sorry, with the IBM rate that would be $189
sc- what documentation do I need to reserve that?
(huh)
me- all I'd need over the phone is your name, contact information, and a credit card number to hold the room, then at check in we would need to see your government issued identification, your credit card, and something to confirm that you work with IBM.
(seems strait forward)
sc- I don't want to pay by credit card, I want to directly transfer the money to you... can't you just open an account or something for me to transfer the money into and hold the room with that?
me- no ma'am the only ways we can accept payment is by credit card or cash... either way we need a credit card on file to hold a room.
sc- no I think I want to just directly transfer the money.
me- I'm sorry ma'am, that just isn't possible (and if it was there is no way in hell we'd go to all the effort over a 2 night stay on a discounted rate)
sc- fine, I'll just talk to my manager and see what he can work out.


oh, I'm shaking in my boots, you're manager will call and I'll tell him the exact same damn thing.

please go back to bumfuckia and leave me alone

me- reservation desk, this is smileyeagle speaking, may I ask with whom I'm speaking?
sc- yeah, I have some questions that need to be straighted out
(that is never a good sign)
me- Ok, I should be able to answer those, and how can I help you?
sc- I notice on your website the parking charge is $14 per night, that's only for non guests right?
me- no ma'am, that is the rate for parking for guests.
sc- that is ridicules, I have never had to pay for parking before in my life
me- that is the rate for parking
sc- well why do we have to pay for parking
me- because the hotel does not own the parking garage, we just lease the space out of it.
sc- well you city folk need to get yourselves straighted out and start acting like you're in the real world *she then hung up*

ok bitch, you must come from some backwood bumfuck of a town if you have never had to pay for parking, not once... even the people in silver springs nevada, which up until today I thought was the model for least desirable place to live in understood the idea of paid parking, many of them had to pay for parking when they go into either carson city or reno... even my old roommate's parent's in kemner wyoming understood the concept of having to pay to park and the largest place they have ever been to was Logan.

oh and telling me that city folk need to act like they are in the real world is going to get you precisely nowhere with me because from my point of few you people outside of the big city need to start living like your in the real world.

you did not just ask that, did you?

ok, so for this one I'll skip straight to the suck, because it was a rather routine call up till this point

me- ok, so the rough total for room and tax comes to (amount), of course that does not include any incidentals.
sc- what's an incidental?
me- incidentals are anything like pay per view movies or room service.
sc- wait, do you mean you actually have to pay for room service?
me- (rather unprofessionally, I'll admit) did you just ask me that?
sc- what?
me- of course we charge extra for room service, you have purchased an item off a menu you will be charged for it, no different than going to McDonalds or Dennys.
sc- fine, I'll get back to you

seriously, that is competing for my all time stupid question... sadly my all time stupid question will never be beaten by me or anyone on this board (maybe some of you can)
and that question was
- "you mean I actually have to pay for the room?"

you didn't really ask that, pt 2

me-
sc- a hotel employee

me- reservation desk, this is smileyeagle speaking, may I ask with whom I'm speaking?
sc- yes, this is SC at (hotel that forwards calls to us)
me- and how can I assist you today SC?
sc- I already checked holidex for a friends and family rate at MCO** (our hotel codes are a 3 letter city code followed by a 2 letter hotel identifier... normally, there are some exceptions)... I noticed that they do not participate in the friends and family discount, but I was wondering if you could give me a friends and family rate anyway?
me- no, I'm sorry, for that location the employee must be staying to receive a discount, if you'd like I can find the closest location that would offer a friends and family rate.
sc- no, I really wanted that location, thanks anyway

ok, seriously, you work for the company and you still thought you could get away with crap like that.

and some general pet peeves
it doesn't matter how many times you tell me you want or need a room, if we are sold out that night we are sold out.
If you dial an 800 number, don't get upset when you get central reservation rather than a hotel, a very small portion of our hotels are large enough to justify their own 800 number, and a good portion of those that are forward those calls to central anyway... so deal with it
And to the hotel employees, listen to your guest and transfer them to the right place, I am NOT the manager on duty, not room 203, not guest services, not the shuttle driver, and most importantly not knowledgeable enough in your area to give a guest directions if they are lost, especially if the are lost because of a construction detour (ok, so that particular one was a few days ago, not today)
And finally to management, I still haven't forgiven you for writing up the one person who had the balls to write an open email to one of the hotels telling them that if they continued to misdirect calls to us every other call he would start releasing all calls from them as soon as they came in because he would have no choice but to assume it was more likely it was another improper transfer... that is NOT unprofessional, that is doing what is necessary, drawing a line in the sand and telling the employees to get off their asses and do their jobs... and management was afraid they might leave the department because of it... where's the fucking bad... they are causing agent burn-out because it is extremely difficult dealing with an improper transfer, mainly because we're just as pissed as the guest if not more so... oh and while we are dealing with that hotel's improper transfer we are making legit calls wait... (that hotel did not leave the department, but it did shock the managers into action... they honestly had no idea what was going on until some guy in central was so "unprofessional" to draw the line)

ok, /endrant

[Evil Queen]

sc- I don't want to pay by credit card, I want to directly transfer the money to you... can't you just open an account or something for me to transfer the money into and hold the room with that?

Holy Snap, Batman! I've never heard of such a thing! And I have Italian people stay at my [current] hotel often!

sc- what's an incidental?

I get sick of this question. -_-' I say it more times a day then what our Rate and Occupancy is! (which, by the way, we're at 100% at $269.99 )

[Umingmaq]

The only explanation I can think of for the Italian woman's problem is that she is not used to traveling and simply did not understand how to handle international travel, reservations, charges, and reimbursement. If you've never done it, you can easily make up all kinds of false assumptions. IBM had, and almost certainly still does have, contracts with major card companies for employees on business travel. Anyone who traveled more than once or twice on company business would have a company card, which you are required to use. And they would likely be booking through a contracted travel agency who would be responsible for assuring that she booked into a contracted hotel at the IBM rate.

And if she is not a regular traveler, trying to speak a foreign language over the telephone, without any of the verbal cues of face to face communication, can be especially intimidating and confusing. Been there, done that, felt like a real dork. (OK I are one, but still...) And the reference to her manager, unless she said it as a threat, could just mean that she realized that she didn't know what she was doing and was going to get help from someone who did.

Or maybe she is just a nutjob with a rich fantasy life.

[smileyeagle1021]

And if she is not a regular traveler, trying to speak a foreign language over the telephone, without any of the verbal cues of face to face communication, can be especially intimidating and confusing. Been there, done that, felt like a real dork. (OK I are one, but still...) And the reference to her manager, unless she said it as a threat, could just mean that she realized that she didn't know what she was doing and was going to get help from someone who did.

to be honest, I can not tell if she meant it as a threat or not... she seemed pretty upset that it sounded a bit threatening... however now that you mentioned it it could have been that she needed help... you would think that if they had their own travel agency she would have contacted them first rather than calling international to speak to the hotel...

[thehippie777]

In a way I am glad we don't have overflow calls. For some reason a lot of our guests forget most of the people in housekeeping & behind the desk are lucky to have a high school education...so I don't doubt a bit that calls get screwed up to you smileyeagle.

It's rare to pay for parking in small places where the hotel was able to purchase the land themselves. But in large places I am sure even a parking garage the hotel owns would need repairs etc, hence a parking charge. *shurg*

I can't recall being asked recently what an incidental is...lol yay me

Also, I would assume that hotel employee wanted to make sure she was getting the right info. I would, however, be flexible enough to see if there was another hotel close at least with the friends & family rate. But, what do I know eh? lol

[friendofjimmyk]

sc- wait, do you mean you actually have to pay for room service?

Just to play devil's advocate here - I'm sure you know this - some resorts offer all inclusive packages where room, food, and non-alcholic beverages are sold as a package....if your hotel is "resortish" (if that makes sense) maybe he thought that you had some kind of package that was all inclusive. However, he should have just not assumed or acted surprised that it wasn't included....

[chainedbarista]

*comes from bumfukeria's twin village* god, even i've heard of paid parking in the form of a parking meter; i seriously doubt that she's NEVER seen one of those.

urgh; i may be country, however, that doesn't mean i'm stupid.

unfortunately, she is country and stupid; another reason to migrate to bigger and better.

[Umingmaq]

you would think that if they had their own travel agency she would have contacted them first rather than calling international to speak to the hotel...

If she doesn't travel, she may not be aware how things should be done. "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by stupidity" - or, perhaps in this case, just ignorance.

Note that I am not saying that she wasn't off base, just offering a possible scenario based on a lot of experience with that particular company and, to a lesser degree, that particular country.

[smileyeagle1021]

Just to play devil's advocate here - I'm sure you know this - some resorts offer all inclusive packages where room, food, and non-alcholic beverages are sold as a package....if your hotel is "resortish" (if that makes sense) maybe he thought that you had some kind of package that was all inclusive. However, he should have just not assumed or acted surprised that it wasn't included....

the hotel she was calling was only a 3 star hotel... in suburban new jersey... and she was upset that she was only getting her room discounted to $79 a night... I'm praying she didn't really think she was getting an all inclusive resort for that rate...

If she doesn't travel, she may not be aware how things should be done. "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by stupidity" - or, perhaps in this case, just ignorance.

Note that I am not saying that she wasn't off base, just offering a possible scenario based on a lot of experience with that particular company and, to a lesser degree, that particular country.

you know, thinking about it... the more I wonder why she didn't just ask her manager in the first place what she needed to do...

[friendofjimmyk]

the hotel she was calling was only a 3 star hotel... in suburban new jersey... and she was upset that she was only getting her room discounted to $79 a night... I'm praying she didn't really think she was getting an all inclusive resort for that rate...
...

Well, in that case, she was just a moron!

[Umingmaq]

you know, thinking about it... the more I wonder why she didn't just ask her manager in the first place what she needed to do...

As long as we're playing scenarios (scenaria?) here, maybe she didn't want to admit her lack of knowledge to a sexist male manager who doesn't think that women are capable. Or maybe she was trying to get in touch with her masculine side and refusing to ask for directions. Or maybe she's just a bitch who can't understand why the world is the way it is and not the way she knows it should be. We will, most likely, never know for sure.

[BaristaTrav]

You should have gotten those peoples' #'s so you could have found out where the hotels are with the free parking and free room service.

[Bramblerose]

It
ok, I got this caller from Italy, if there are any members from this board from Europe who could explain this lady to me please do otherwise I'll just have assume she is insane.

Congratulations! You made it into my dreams! I dreamed this was a sub-plot in some crime show, but you handled things a tad differently and it stopped some weird international scam.

Aren't fevers fun?

[Dips]

It sounds likethe first SC was trying to pay by wire transfer. A lot of our overseas customers seem to prefer doing that over paying by credit card.

However, it's expensive. By the time all the intermediate banks have taken out their fees, we're down by $18 each transaction. So it's perfectly reasonable for your company to decide that they won't accept wire payments.

[Broomjockey]

It sounds likethe first SC was trying to pay by wire transfer. A lot of our overseas customers seem to prefer doing that over paying by credit card.

Reasonable, except that he wasn't asking for payment, but guaranteeing payment. I know for us, we can't take anything for deposit but a CC, because a) we can't check rooms for damages right as a guest is leaving, so we can't take cash, and b) our accounting department takes over a month for refunds, so we can't take a debit payment or such. If eagle's hotels work the same as mine, the deposit wouldn't be used for payment, but in case of damages, so a wire transfer still wouldn't be acceptable incase damages exceeded the deposit. The only time a deposit would be for room payment would be if they didn't show up. Apologies if you already knew some or all of this.