Making it Right

My darling boyfriend was sweet enough to fly across the country to help me move two weeks ago. I don't know what I would have done without him! He was such a help moving the heavy stuff in and out of the apartments, and he drove the truck from Greenville to Atlanta for me. He was here less than 48 hours because he had to be back at work, but I am still so blessed to have a boyfriend who is willing to do that for me.

He always stays at a hotel when he visits me, so he needed one in Greenville the night before I moved and in Atlanta for after I moved. The Greenville hotel we reserved a few weeks in advance. However, I procrastinated booking the Atlanta hotel until the day before he needed it. And that was an absolute nightmare. Except that you have to be asleep to have a nightmare. Let me explain.

There is a hotel across the street from my apartment, literally within walking distance, that I booked on Thursday for a Friday night stay. I usually make reservations directly with whatever company, but for whatever reason I decided to use Travelocity this time. Travelocity sent me a confirmation e-mail and I went on my merry way.

Thursday I went to bed early (well, 10pm) so that I could be well rested for my big move the next day. Ah, sleep, how I love thee.

12:57 am Friday, my phone rang. Not cool, people, not cool. The number was blocked so I just ignored it and tried to go back to sleep. .... that lasted all of two minutes. My phone rang again at 12:59 am. Really, people? Go to bed. Of course, I didn't answer the second time either.

Then at 1:01 am, my phone rang again. I figured someone must be dying, so I finally answered. It was someone from Travelocity calling to confirm my reservation that I already had a confirmation number for.

Guys, I'm usually pretty easy going and don't get upset very easily. But for reals, I was absolutely livid. First of all, why would a business ever call me in the middle of the night? Second, can you believe he had the nerve to hang up on me without apologizing!? I usually don't have a problem falling asleep, but I was so upset that it took me over an hour to fall asleep again. Ugh, that made moving day miserable because I was absolutely exhausted. 

On Sunday after I was all settled into my new place, I got an e-mail from Travelocity.com. They asked me to fill out a survey about my trip. Awesome, they care what their customers say and sure after reading my feedback they will respond. Ha, such naive thinking. After I filled out the survey (where I gave the actually hotel very high ratings but then gave the reservation process the lowest possible ratings), I decided to e-mail Travelocity.com and let them know what happened.

On the customer service page of their website there is an e-mail form thing. I filled that out and explained the whole thing again. They e-mailed me back within 24 hours, as promised. If you think the e-mail said "We are so so so sorry, let us make it right!", you are wrong. It basically said "Sorry, you e-mailed the wrong department. Forward your e-mail to the right place and they will contact you directly." Really, he couldn't forward the e-mail to appropriate department for me? But whatever. I forwarded it to the appropriate e-mail address and waited on an response.

And then waited some more.

Finally on Monday, eight days after I initially complained, I decided to try again. But first, I did a little research. Obviously the generic customer service e-mail was no good. Who would be a better person to contact? Why, e-mail the  VP of customer care directly, of course! And while I'm at it, why not also e-mail his boss, the CEO?

Scott,

 

Because I am sure you are concerned with the success of your company, I wanted to let you know about my recent experience with Travelocity. You probably have high expectations of your customer relations employees, but I think you may be surprised to hear of one time when those expectations were not met.

 

On Thursday, April 19, I made a reservation with your company to stay one night at Wingate on Friday, April 20. I was moving to Atlanta the next day and although moving is a stressful project, I was relieved to check "book a hotel" off my list. After receiving a confirmation number, I went to bed confident that I had purchased a hotel at a great price from a reputable online travel agency.

 

Unfortunately, I was awoken from my much-needed sleep at 12:57 am by a phone call. Because I needed rest before moving day, I ignored the call. When my phone rang again two minutes later, I continued to ignore it. The third time my phone rang at 1:01 am, I finally answered. The person on the other end identified himself as a Travelocity employee calling to confirm my hotel reservation. He was unapologetic for having disturbed my sleep, and when I asked him to not call at that time of night, he simply hung up the phone without saying anything. 

 

As you can imagine, Scott, that does not make a very favorable impression of your company. When I received an e-mail asking me to fill out a survey about my trip, I did so. However, your company did not respond in any way. Additionally, I used the e-mail form on your website to describe my experience. Harry T responded that I had contacted the wrong department and that I should forward my e-mail to the Consumer Relations Department who would review the situation and contact me directly. Although I forwarded the e-mail as Harry suggested eight days ago, your company has not contacted me.

 

Is this how Travelocity normally responds to the needs of their customers? As you are well aware, it is much more expensive to develop relationships with new customers than it is to continue serving existing customers. I am afraid that if you continue to ignore your customers, the number of repeat customers will decline and Travelocity's bottom line will suffer.

 

Scott, thank you for taking the time to read my concerns about your company. I hope my comments are helpful as you seek to better serve your customers in the future.

...I had a response within thirty minutes. He said so so sorry, I've got my team looking into it and it will be resolved quickly.  Then today I got another e-mail, and yay, they are making right on their mistake!

Thank you for contacting our offices. We regret any inconvenience you have incurred.  Our priority is to offer complete and accurate information as well as superior customer service at all times, and we realize any dissatisfaction on your part is an opportunity for us to improve.

 

After reviewing your email, we understand your customer service experience was not what you expecting from Travelocity. We are constantly working with our representatives to provide an effortless way to satisfy your travel needs. Unfortunately, this was not what happened in your case. We have a strict policy about calling customers after 9pm CST or before 8am CST. In this case, there were several points that required our  Revenue Protection Team to call the card holder and get verification. I’ve listed a few of the reasons below that required a call to the card holder.

 

Next day check-in

3rd party, the card holder was not listed as the guest

No booking history in the past

Hotel check-in was across state lines

 

Travelocity must have a card holder authorization on this type of booking,  however there was no reason for a call at that hour.  The representative involved will have a re-training over this very situation to ensure this will not happen in the future.

 

Once again, please accept our apologies for any inconveniences you may have incurred. You are a valued customer, and we cannot erase what happened, but we hope you will give us the opportunity to regain your confidence.

Hmm, fair enough. I didn't realize it was so taboo to book a hotel room for someone else in a different state, but lesson learned. Oh, and they are giving me $100 off my next reservation. In conclusion, I can't say that my Travelocity.com experience was necessarily pleasurable, but I am willing to give them one more shot. I am at least impressed that they gave me the $100 voucher. I didn't ask for it, but it was certainly the right thing for them to do.

What about you? Have you ever been awoken in the middle of the night just to confirm an online purchase? Or has a company ever done right by you after a mistake? 

~em