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From Customers_Suck
Sep. 21st, 2008 06:13 amThis post brought back memories.
A few years ago, I was doing hotel reservations for a conference. You HAD to confirm your going or not going until two weeks before the date, because the fancyschmancyhotel would NOT hold extra rooms: they are a very popular resort, the conference would take over 1/3 of their rooms, but if it was cancelled, they would have no trouble filling those rooms in a couple days.
So, GuyX does not return any info if he is going or not. I call his secretary twice daily for a week and some, until five days before the conference when he decides he is not going. 'Good', I think, since the resort already rented the unclaimed rooms for regular guests. I confirm with the secretary that it can not be changed anymore later, fax and e-mail her a copy of the material where it says there will be no room for changing his mind later.
Three days later, secretary calls and tells me (very embarrassed) that GuyX decided he will go.
He is a federal court judge. I work for the government. My boss sucks up to to the entitled guys who think laws and regulations do not apply to them. Micro-rant: WTF is wrong with the legal body here? They judge violations of the law, but think the law, any regulations, deadlines, anything that might limit THEM in any way are just suggestions.
I spend long hours that day (overtime, unpaid, hooray) and the next cajoling the travel agents in the area. No, FancySchmancyHotel has no rooms avaiable. None, they are booked solid and the waiting line is 300+ guests long. Beg, plead, pull off hairs, no dice. I even manage to track down the organizers of the conference and beg them for help. The best we can do is to find a five-star resort some 17 kilometers away (not five-star-deluxe like FancySchmancyHotel). Since there are up to a dozen people in the same situation (changing their minds last minute) the organizers of the conference managed to wrangle a deluxe charter bus to ferry the undecided back and forth.
I write it all down, explain the situation to my boss and to his boss, show all the repeated e-mails and faxes of confirmation: GuyX decided to go LONG after the reservation deadline, best thing possible is the secondary hotel and charter bus transportation. I am backed on this by the organizers of the conference, who call and fax the same information: even this arrangement is a courtesy above and beyond anyone's duties, since the Undecided Ones could not be arsed respecting the deadline.
GuyX is informed by this by my boss, and I am there during the call, so I know what was said, the pointing out of deadlines, how many exceptions were made for him speshul snowflake entitled craptastic moron (of course that was my mental dialogue), how we bent over backwards and made several other people bend over backwards, all in professional polite businesspeak.
GuyX returns from the conference wanting MY head on a pike, because -I- "dumped" him on a "shitty" hotel and "forced" him to take a bus back and forth, and that is because I am "racist".
Yes, GuyX is black.
No, I did not knew that at all: never met him, he was for me just a name on a list, but of course... "If things dont go PERFECTLY my way, it MUST be because I am being discriminated against!" Not because he waited until well past the deadline to decide to attend the conference, even being warned repeated times about the hotel policy. No, he was 'mistreated', 'disrespected' and 'abused', because I must be a 'racist shit'. I heard him yelling at my boss' boss, who, being the fantastic guy he is, let the man yell away then went over the profusely documented actions I took. He even brought out my time cards to show I stayed past close securing him a FIVE STAR apartment.
The cherry on top of the shitsundae? GuyX did not pay a single cent for this three-day stay at the conference. He did not pay for plane tickets, nor the room, nor meals, nothing.
GuyX left still huffing and puffing, even after my Boss' Boss told him, in polite words I can't exactly recall, "I am sorry your whiny shpeshul snowflake victim-complex ASS felt hurt, but it is your own damn fault."
A few years ago, I was doing hotel reservations for a conference. You HAD to confirm your going or not going until two weeks before the date, because the fancyschmancyhotel would NOT hold extra rooms: they are a very popular resort, the conference would take over 1/3 of their rooms, but if it was cancelled, they would have no trouble filling those rooms in a couple days.
So, GuyX does not return any info if he is going or not. I call his secretary twice daily for a week and some, until five days before the conference when he decides he is not going. 'Good', I think, since the resort already rented the unclaimed rooms for regular guests. I confirm with the secretary that it can not be changed anymore later, fax and e-mail her a copy of the material where it says there will be no room for changing his mind later.
Three days later, secretary calls and tells me (very embarrassed) that GuyX decided he will go.
He is a federal court judge. I work for the government. My boss sucks up to to the entitled guys who think laws and regulations do not apply to them. Micro-rant: WTF is wrong with the legal body here? They judge violations of the law, but think the law, any regulations, deadlines, anything that might limit THEM in any way are just suggestions.
I spend long hours that day (overtime, unpaid, hooray) and the next cajoling the travel agents in the area. No, FancySchmancyHotel has no rooms avaiable. None, they are booked solid and the waiting line is 300+ guests long. Beg, plead, pull off hairs, no dice. I even manage to track down the organizers of the conference and beg them for help. The best we can do is to find a five-star resort some 17 kilometers away (not five-star-deluxe like FancySchmancyHotel). Since there are up to a dozen people in the same situation (changing their minds last minute) the organizers of the conference managed to wrangle a deluxe charter bus to ferry the undecided back and forth.
I write it all down, explain the situation to my boss and to his boss, show all the repeated e-mails and faxes of confirmation: GuyX decided to go LONG after the reservation deadline, best thing possible is the secondary hotel and charter bus transportation. I am backed on this by the organizers of the conference, who call and fax the same information: even this arrangement is a courtesy above and beyond anyone's duties, since the Undecided Ones could not be arsed respecting the deadline.
GuyX is informed by this by my boss, and I am there during the call, so I know what was said, the pointing out of deadlines, how many exceptions were made for him speshul snowflake entitled craptastic moron (of course that was my mental dialogue), how we bent over backwards and made several other people bend over backwards, all in professional polite businesspeak.
GuyX returns from the conference wanting MY head on a pike, because -I- "dumped" him on a "shitty" hotel and "forced" him to take a bus back and forth, and that is because I am "racist".
Yes, GuyX is black.
No, I did not knew that at all: never met him, he was for me just a name on a list, but of course... "If things dont go PERFECTLY my way, it MUST be because I am being discriminated against!" Not because he waited until well past the deadline to decide to attend the conference, even being warned repeated times about the hotel policy. No, he was 'mistreated', 'disrespected' and 'abused', because I must be a 'racist shit'. I heard him yelling at my boss' boss, who, being the fantastic guy he is, let the man yell away then went over the profusely documented actions I took. He even brought out my time cards to show I stayed past close securing him a FIVE STAR apartment.
The cherry on top of the shitsundae? GuyX did not pay a single cent for this three-day stay at the conference. He did not pay for plane tickets, nor the room, nor meals, nothing.
GuyX left still huffing and puffing, even after my Boss' Boss told him, in polite words I can't exactly recall, "I am sorry your whiny shpeshul snowflake victim-complex ASS felt hurt, but it is your own damn fault."
