I began my call to you at 6:03pm today, waited for 35 minutes before an actual person answered the call. Fantastic! I’m used to things like this from you. Last time I phoned I only waited 30 minutes, so I guess I shouldn’t be complaining.
After listening to the best mix of oldies and early 90′s hip-hop I got to speak with “Mabel”. Please note that “Mabel” is in quotations and I highly doubt that that is her name. I asked Mabel about a hotels.com voucher that I got. I wanted to use the voucher for August 31-September 2, but the coupon said it expired August. I hoped that because I was booking before August and that the first date of booking was also still in August I would be able to use this voucher.
Not so, Mabel told me. After repeatedly trying to get her to understand that I’d still be technically USING it in August, she refused to understand my logic. Clearly you have a script and boy does Mabel know how to follow it. She repeated the same sentences over and over no matter what I asked.
Frustrated beyond words, I asked to speak to her supervisor; she gladly put me in the ‘hold loop’. I really like that you have a name for what you do to people, clearly no one has ever spoken to a supervisor without going through the fun that is the hold loop.
Another 20 minutes goes by, luckily the music selection this time was more uplifting: salsa! At this point I’ve now switched to the third phone in my house, as I’ve lost so much battery power just WAITING for a human to speak to me. The salsa number gets interrupted by a voice. A supervisor I think! But alas it was not so, it was Mabel again. She wants to “advise” me that she will be willing to accept my voucher, if I book today. I ask her to explain how that would work, as it clearly says on the voucher that I have to return the voucher AFTER my stay and she wanted me to send it in before my stay. She didn’t explain anything, she just repeatedly “advised” me that I needed to book today (congrats on training your employees to sell, sell, sell). Finally, I say that I will agree to book today if I get an email from her or someone at hotels.com saying that they will honour my voucher, if I do it the way Mabel advises. Unfortunately she can’t send out emails.
I hope you know what I did next. You guessed it; I asked to be put back on hold to speak to the supervisor.
Back to the sweet, sweet sounds of salsa, I wait another 30 minutes before the ever helpful Fred P. finally comes on the line. Let me clarify right now that by ‘helpful’ I mean complete and total ass. Freddy was not willing to listen to me at all and kept spewing out the exact same lines as Mabel. And when I told him what Mabel told me she would be willing to do, he completely ignored me. In fact, this is how the conversation went. “Well the woman I was speaking to before said she would honour my voucher if I booked today.” I said. His response was “No—“ then what sounded like him hanging up. Thankfully, he couldn’t get me off that easily. I waited until he returned. When I asked him if he’d put me on hold he said he had. I then told him that it’s customary to let someone know when they’re being put on hold, and not just stopping mid-sentence and expecting me to know this. He didn’t apologize and just continued speaking as if I hadn’t said anything. And what did he say? He gave me the same ‘advice’ Mabel has been giving me. Woot!
Beyond frustration I asked to speak to someone above him. Well guess what? No one is above Fred. Fred is the Man. Congrats Fred! Well I asked for the number to head office. Apparently they don’t give out that kind of information. You know, for being the Top Dog, he sure isn’t privy to much information. He did tell me to find and fill out this lovely email form. Wouldn’t even give me a direct link to it or anything, just told me to ‘find it’ on my own. 7: 23pm phone call ended.
Lucky me, I know how use the internet, I’ve found not only this handy form, but I’ve also found out your corporate number. So I’ll be calling that too.
I understand what both Fred and Mabel are telling me, but the fact that they were unable to DO ANYTHING to make my experience with hotels.com a pleasant one is completely unacceptable. You’ve lost a client. And guess what, I like to talk; I like to tell people about who I book with. I also like to blog about it, and tweet about it, and facebook about it, and send out mass emails about it. So thanks, I’ve got a lot of fun writing ahead of me.
Tags: call center, client services, customer service, horrible customer service, hospitality, hotels, hotels.ca, hotels.com
2 Responses to “An open letter to Hotels.com – thanks for the horrible experience!”