On Friday, I hitched a ride back to T.O. with FCLF (French Common Law Friend). We had a rendezvous at the Thrifty on Laurier. I was a few minutes early, so I wandered in and sat down in the waiting area. Now, I wasn't being particularly noisy or anything, but I wasn't in stealth mode either. I sat there close to 10 minutes without seeing even one employee.
FCLF showed up at the appointed meeting time, and we started talking so it is likely that someone heard us (or should have). He waits a minute or so and then wanders over to an open door that apparently leads to the office space.
"Hello? Hello?"
No one comes out. There's no bell, there's no sign indicated someone will be back in five minutes. How do we attract attention? FCLF calls them on his cell phone.
"Hi, I'm standing out front and there's no one here and I have a reservation."
Okay, so then whomever he was speaking to actually put him on hold! We could actually hear the person in the back. I don't know why he was put on hold when he or she could have just said someone would be out in a couple of minutes. But he decided to stay on hold just so we could see how long it took. And it lasted at least three minutes before the utter ridiculousness of it caused FCLF to hang up. At which point someone did actually come out to the front to say that someone else would be with him....when they could find the guy.
THEN, after the relevant guy shows up (another couple of minutes) and starts the reservation, the phone rings and he picks it up without a word to FCLF and proceeds to have a fairly long conversation (in normal time, not so long maybe, but in customer service time when you're ignoring another customer who is right in front of you and whose transaction you've just interrupted, a very long time). This is one of my HUGE customer service pet peeves. And if you have to talk on the phone in the middle of my transaction, you better say "excuse me" before you pick up that phone and then you better apologize when you hang up.
The only good part of that whole encounter was that we got a free upgrade because there were no compact cars available.
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Wow...what a bummer that morning was. Super bad CS skills too and I should know having worked in a half dozen call centres. However, my free upgrade was nice and the location was convenient. Every man (and woman) has his (or her) price I guess...
Signed,
FCLF
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