This is the first in a series of articles about customer service mistakes. I invite readers to send me your stories and if relevant, I will post them here. This is not a complaint site, but merely a venue to use these blunders as lessons on delivering great customer service. Company names will not be used.
Martha was taking a business trip out of town and remembered that she had previously stayed at a hotel in Virginia near her client’s office and realized that she had enough “points” on their rewards program to get a free night. So she picked up the phone, called the rewards number and asked to make a reservation at the hotel, using those points.
The agent told her that she only had enough points for one night and that their policy required that points be used for both nights, so Martha would have to buy points to pay for the second one. She said OK thinking that she would be charged for those points during the stay, not immediately. Martha asked several times about the cancellation policy, as she wasn’t 100% sure that she would be staying both nights, She was told she could cancel anytime up to 6pm the night of arrival.
The agent confirmed the reservation in Philadelphia (!) and Martha quickly corrected her, as she was only interested in travelling to VA. The agent apologized, then re-booked her in the correct location, or so she thought.
A couple of hours later, Martha received two emails: one confirming a reservation for the correct location and another confirming a second reservation in Chicago, another place Martha was NOT travelling to.
She quickly picked up the phone and cancelled the Chicago one. A few minutes later, she noticed that her debit card had been charged for the points for the second night, points that she had thought would not be charged until she actually stayed at the hotel.
She called the rewards program again. This time she was told that although she could cancel her reservation, that she could not cancel the points, that their policy is to put them back into the account to be used later. None of this was told to Martha on the phone with the agent. After about 90 minutes on the phone speaking with various agents, none who were sympathetic, none who offered anything but a brick wall in response to her request, she finally spoke to a supervisor who agreed to refund the money for the points, but would have to cancel the reservation to do so.
Later that day Martha found out that she would only have to be in VA for the second night. She went back online, and adding insult to injury, she saw that the room price for the same hotel was half the price that they attempted to charge her for the points to pay for it.
The next hurdle came when the refund didn’t arrive when it was supposed to. After several calls to the rewards program, where she was told that there were no notes in her file about it, she lodged complaints to the BBB and her bank. The refund money came in soon after, but the damage was done.
Is this any way to run a business?
Susan Martin, Business Coach
