sucky customer and sucky coworker

[vacation_rentals_suck]

Guest called to reserve a property but the system was down. He calls back three days later and the property he wanted was booked.

Guest: Can that guest be moved?

Me: No sir

Guest: but I called to book it three days ago it and your system was down

Me: I'm sorry but its no longer available

Guest: thats not fair

Me: Its first come, first serve

Guest: but I came first and your system was down and you are punishing me for that

Me: yes but sir you waited three days to call us back

Guest: so what?

Me: so the property is not available and I am not moving this guest

Guest: you know you dont give real good customer service...everyone else I talk to there is always so helpful.....I dont wanna deal with you, lemme talk to Pam.

Pam, not a manager, just a reservations agent like me, called the other guest and asked if they'd be willing to move due to a misunderstanding. The other guest said yes and the stupid bastard got his way. Pam then chastised me for not doing what she did and said Mr. Moron was real nice and books with us every year. UGGGGGGGG...........I am also mad at the other guest for agreeing to move thus allowing my SC to get his way

[Fungus]

Karma my friend! Eventually it'll get her.

[StarSong]

I HATE it when people give in to SCs!

[blas]

Your coworker seems just as "lovely" as your boss.

I am saving a special flaming bag of pooh for both of them.

[crazylegs]

I've come to the conslusion that VRS works with people outside of the phylum Chordata hence the continual problems.

[donruss]

She should not have chastised you but if all parties are in agreement, what is the problem? Minor suck on your co-workers part but she saw a potential problem and tried to solve it, and did to.

[jerkface11]

She solved a problem customer A caused by bothering customer B.

[katie kaboom]

She should not have chastised you but if all parties are in agreement, what is the problem?

The problem is this guy pitched a hissy fit and got away with it. And if they get away with it once, they'll continue to do it over and over again.

[Peppergirl]

She should not have chastised you but if all parties are in agreement, what is the problem? Minor suck on your co-workers part but she saw a potential problem and tried to solve it, and did to.

Because, as a co-worker, she had no right to come in and undermine a decision he already made to a customer - right or wrong. A manager, yes - but not a co-worker.

Besides, why should a customer who had nothing to do with it be asked to move? Just because a customer didnt fuss about it doesn't mean they're happy about it. The customer might be inwardly seething about it and may complain later.

[South Texan]

She should not have chastised you but if all parties are in agreement, what is the problem? Minor suck on your co-workers part but she saw a potential problem and tried to solve it, and did to.

I fully agree. I do not see what was so bad about her calling the other customer to see if it was ok to move them. She went a little above and beyond the scope of her job, but she ended up with two happy customers and another rental.

She should not have chastised vacation_rentals_suck, but I think she did a good job of resolving the situation.

[auntiem]

I agree with Peppergirl, if I'd been asked to move I might have done it (because my vacation time is highly flexible) but you can bet your bippy that I'd never book with that company again.
Since I rarely use my agent card on vacation most companies don't know I'm an agent, but if I get treated badly then for sure I'm not going to let my clients book the property either.
So your co-worker didn't "fix" anything - they made a worse mess in my opinion.

[JustADude]

I agree with Peppergirl, if I'd been asked to move I might have done it (because my vacation time is highly flexible) but you can bet your bippy that I'd never book with that company again.

I believe it was "move" as in "move to a different and equal property" rather than "move" as in "move to a different time slot".

Still, the guy got away with it by whining and bitching because he couldn't get his way. May a completely insurance-covered* calamity befall that vacation house while he's there.
*Owner's not involved, after all.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

She should not have chastised you but if all parties are in agreement, what is the problem? Minor suck on your co-workers part but she saw a potential problem and tried to solve it, and did to.

That she did, but now the SC knows they can get their way by complaining and being a humongous pain in the ass.

And now somebody else will have to deal with that from this SC because Pam shirked the responsibility not to reinforce it.

Plus, as Peppergirl mentioned, the original tenant of that property could be cheesed off and decide not to do business with VRS's company, in which case you've lost a good customer by placating a sucky one.

[Snowbird]

I agree the situation was sucky in general. What I'd like to know is why the rental agency didn't take potential customers names and numbers to call back once the system was operational again.

Are there so many calls that this would be prohibitive? I mean, it's not really the customers fault that the system was down, even if it was his fault for procrastinating three days before trying again ( maybe something important came up?). I dunno there.

I'd hate to call and be told I would have to call again and then have no idea how long that would take. My luck would be that I'd wait half an hour when the problem was fixed in fifteen and someone called just after it was fixed, getting the place I wanted.

[Ree]

It seems to me that "Pam" is just more experienced and knows her customer base really well. That's probably why the customer asked for her. She probably quite often goes above and beyond to keep her customers happy.

In this case, she knew that a customer, who is normally a very nice guy and regularly books, was upset, so she tried to help out. The fact that she said he was normally a really good customer but was making a fuss was likely an indication to her that something needed to be done to smooth the waters and VSR didn't seem to want to try, nor did he seem to know exactly how to do it, so she stepped in.

It can't hurt to ask, and that was all she did. Obviously Customer B didn't really have a preference or they would have said it was a problem to move their booking. I highly doubt she flat out told them it had to be changed.

Yeah, it's first come, first served, and he WAS first, but VSR's computer system was down. That was not his fault.

What I would have done in that case was take all the information manually, with a phone number, and called the customer back as soon as the system came back online. To me, that's good customer service, and sometimes, that's the kind of thing that gets recognized when it comes to advancement.

I don't know why it took him 3 days to call back, but I do know that sometimes, life gets in the way of those important phone calls we need to make. (I have 2 fairly important phone calls that I have meant to make for the past 3 weeks, but before I know it, the day is over and I still haven't made the call. I figure I will do it the next day, but then something else happens or the line will be busy, and it's a repeat all over again.)

I don't think this was a case of an EW or a customer having a tantrum and getting his way.
I would have been pissed off too if I had tried to book only to be told the system was down, and then, when I did call, was told the place I wanted had already been booked.