Customer Service! 7.06

CUSTOMER SERVICE PLEASE: JULY, 2006
Well – this is more of a ranting…..I love IDEA as an organization. The conferences they put on are top quality, informative and well worth every penny spent between knowledge, new ideas, relationships and networking. I highly recommend you attend one if you can (Health and fitness related). 2006 was the first year of Inner IDEA – specific conference geared toward Mind/Body topics. Wonderful! Could not have asked for more from a first year! After 4 days of inner reflection, I moved onto the IDEA World Convention.

Issues right from the start. The hotel checked me into a room that was already occupied. And they tried to tell me I needed to go through their stuff to see if I knew them. WHAT!!! No – I want a new room – you figure out who they are – that is YOUR job! So we got a new room and the front desk staff ASSURED me my credit card information was transferred to the new room and taken off the old room (what had happened is they checked in the other people into my room and then checked me into their room). Mary Kate and another from her studio met me at the hotel and we got oriented for the week. I should have know something was up when everytime I picked up the phone they called me by the wrong name. Every morning I went down and asked – “oh, no, you are all settled and everything is arranged.” Andrea met me there the last few days. “Oh – everything is fine”. The conference was awesome! World is more general fitness related. Fun trade show, great sessions, wow! Near the end of the conference (they were sold out and we had to move to a near by hotel for the last two nights), we go to check out. WOW – I am charged for two rooms automatically! I politely remind them that everything was in order! So they refund my credit card and we try again. And again. And again. I have never taken over an hour to check out before with 3 associates working on it. Eventually we had to delete everything and put it all back in. Blah. This is their job – They do it everyday – I am not sure how this could happen.

So we pack all our stuff across the convention center to the other hotel and check in. This is also a BIG name hotel. “No problem – we are happy you came – thank you for choosing us”. We take our stuff up to the room (I have stayed here before and really had a great time), open the door and THE SMELL! Not clean (well the bed is made) and when the toilet flushed, POOP can up the sink! That is where the smell came from. So down to the desk we went.

Mind you – Mary Kate is large now – due to deliver in like a month. The elevator arrives, in she goes and we almost had a large accident. Someone had dumped all the black crystals that fill the cigarette trays all over the black marble floor of the elevator. You can not see it until you loose your footing! We caught her inches away from the floor. I thought this was a quality hotel……
Now we are at the desk. First they asked if we had turned the sink on to wash it away. That should solve everything. NO! I do not think so. Then they actually wanted us to stay in the room and they would send a maid up. POOP came up the sink when the toilet flushed (with no poop in it). The smell in the whole room is enough to make one sick. No maid is going to fix this in one cleaning. I showed her the pictures we took on my camera. “Ok – well let’s get you another room. Here you go – please be sure all your belongings are out of the original room within the next 10 minutes or the key will not work.” WHAT – the bell man - Let me get this straight – you put me in a room that is in a biohazard state, you try to make me stay there and solve the issue myself, then try to get me to stay there and have a maid cover it up until the next time I flush. Then you agree to move me but I have to move all my own stuff on your time schedule. We are already late to our session so we just go to move the stuff. We also mentioned the crystals in the elevator – not to get anything free, just to have it picked up. No thank you we will get on it, no questions to see if we were alright, nothing. Cares for their customers, my ASS. Big name, little service.

Up to the room we went, got the bags, moved the bags, got unpacked a little, noticed that the fridge was missing, called on the fridge and went down again. Ok – it has been 45 minutes. The crystals are still in the elevator. Actually – when Andrea and I went up 4 hours later – they were still there. And there was still no fridge. They wanted me to pay for a replacement since I must have taken the first one???? Whatever – we had two sinks and lots of ice on them. We MacGyver-ed a fridge. We are problem solvers. This company must think highly of itself and its liability protection to be putting people in contaminated rooms and ignoring serious accident situations. Wow – this would never fly at UREC.

Well – we had a mission – to get a dessert and have a drink before bed. I had eaten in the restaurant before – great desserts and drinks – so we went there. “Can not serve you, you must order at least one entry per two people – we are a restaurant” WHAT? I did not order dinner before. Oh, well. The little bar just outside is good. So we went to the little bar – cute, jazz music, comfy chairs to talk and relax. We order a drink each. Mary Kate wanted virgin margarita - no blender (no they can not use the one in the restaurant a few feet away) – ok, a Shirley Temple – no soda (or something as equally absurd for a bar). In the end there was nothing but tap water for Mary Kate. Then we went to order a dessert to share. No food service here – have to go to the restaurant that is 5 feet away. It seems like we have tried this route. Is there ANYWHERE to get desserts and a drink. Desserts are offered at the Café but no drinks. So I went the café to buy a dessert to bring back. “NO, you can not take the dessert out of the café – it must be eaten here. Well, can I have one of the ones in the “to-go” display? Yes – there is a $5.00 extra-charge for the “to-go” package. The dessert already costs like $8 for next to nothing I was not going to pay more! But Mary Kate wants dessert and now I do too. I ask if I can take it to the little bar to eat. “Oh, yes – that is why we have “to-go” selections – they don’t serve food in there.” I get the desert back to the bar – I do not even get in – “You can not bring that in here. We have no food in here.” It is a bar, I bought it at your hotel. Doesn’t matter. So back to the café – I want a refund and I want it now – for the whole amount. I must have had a look – after the first refusal, she did not question me after. Customer Service Please – or at least signage and appropriate information for all staff to pass onto customers. It is NOT strange to want a dessert with a drink. Now we just don’t want anything!

Well – Andrea and I went to go see “O” the last night. I pre-bought the tickets and we were going to pick them up at will-call. We arrive 4 hours early to get them and look around. No tickets. I have a receipt – doesn’t matter, my tickets were for a week before. WHAT??? No, they are for tonight. “Well – we resold them since you did not pick them up – you are out of luck.” How would I have picked them up last week when I was not in town for a show to be seen tonight? “Well – the tickets were for last week’s show.” No, my confirmation shows tonight –someone messed up on your end. Well, sorry – not our problem, we hire out the phone ticket ordering service. That is out of our hands.” No I think you do not understand. I paid for tickets for VERY good seats for tonight’s show and I am here to pick them up. I have confirmation. It is your problem. That company represents you and your company. It is not MY problem that there is a mistake. It is YOUR responsibility to fix it. “We are sold out – there is nothing I can do.” I want a full refund, including the taxes and extra charges. “We can not do that – we had to pay the other company for their services and we can only refund ticket prices for tickets we can resell.” Well – you did resell them, so that is fine, and you need to deal with the other company for their mess up. “I am sorry we can not do that. Next.” As I am soothing Andrea – the lady sells tickets for tonight’s show – sold out my ass. “Next” It’s me again. I am not going away until I have tickets in the best row of the house for tonight’s show. It may be prudent to get me your manager since you seem not to be able to do anything for me. “She is at lunch.” Well – we will sit here and talk to you until she comes back. [Andrea has to leave and pace to return her face color, breathing and heart rate to normal]. A phone call later – “she is actually out sick and will not be returning tonight.” Well – then I guess I need her boss, or the hotel boss – there is someone higher than you on shift tonight – I can guarantee it. I will wait. “Next” No I am sorry – I am still here, this rep is not ready to work with you- but that station is open. After three of these, the manager suddenly appears – guess she is not so sick. We go through the entire circle again – I should have taped the first round so she could have been up to speed. In the end we came to an agreement I am going to have tickets in the best row of the house for tonight’s show. I need them now. I have wasted over an hour on an issue that should have been cleared up by you in an matter of minutes. I am going to take my sister to the Ansel Adams show (on you). We will be gone about an hour and when I get back, I will come right here to see you (no I will not wait in line – I will come right to the counter) and pick up my tickets. If you can not make this happen, please have the hotel manager come immediately since you seem not to have the authority to do anything for me.

Andrea and I had a great time at the Ansel Adams show and the tickets were the best in the house. They did try to get me to pay for the upgrade. Whatever – that pays for my wasted time. The only issue we had then was that we had nothing to eat. After the WONDERFUL show (they were great seats) – we thought, no problem, it is LV, open 24/7. We will get food. We went through Paris – nothing is open, through NY,NY, nothing is open, and through about 4 more – nothing is open. What the Bleep! It is like 10pm. The night is young – Please show me the customer service in this town! Well back to hotel to pack. We did stop by the café (were I got the dessert and returned it). The lady seated us – but you could tell she did not want to. When we ordered, we were a bit over with our do not worry we will not return it – if it’s good. It was good.

The day to go home. We get the airport. We are early. As we always do when we travel in different directions, we end reminiscing over a glass of wine and then part for our flights. We enter a Mexican restaurant in the SW wing. We sit down at a table right next to another lady. The waitress comes up to us and says they are not serving on the “patio” anymore. Ok- we will go inside. She says it is full. Ok, we are only having a glass of wine each, we will be done before the lady next to us is done with her meal. No –patio is closed, the kitchen is not dong anymore orders to the patio. Ok, we will go get coffee. As we pack to leave, the waitress came and took the lady’s food order. Breath Andrea – not everyone has their customer service skills up to our level. We go to the coffee shop. Coffee machine is broken. Can’t serve anything – not even smoothies. Where have all the good customer service intentions gone? Ok – can we have a glass of water each please. It is a good thing that I do not throw things away and that the liquid rule was not yet in effect. We pitched the water, kept the cups and I came to the rescue. WE WERE GOING TO HAVE OUR WINE AND REMINISCING BEFROE GETTING ON THE PLANE! I put all the wine we could not drink the night before into a water bottle and put it in my bag to drink at home. Well – out it came, into the glasses it went and we drank! Hilarious if anyone actually knew what was going on – two girls that look like a train wreck hit them, drinking strange liquid out of clear coffee cups, laughing uncontrollably, while sitting on the floor on their yoga mats. Oh, good times, good times………

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