I work in the complaint department (CD) for a certain hotel chain. When someone calls in with a complaint, we gather all the information we can, and create a case.
We do our best to be polite and cordial, even when the customer is making an ass of themselves. I actually had a guy once go off on a 30 minute rant about how he was expected to pay for his room and couldn’t get it for free, then proceeded to call me the “worthless person who needs to get it fixed” before I could even give my expertly performed apology and empathy statement. No mater the ass hole, as long as they are not cursing at us, or insulting us(that guy only insulted me once, so I let it slide, plus I was able to note it on his case), we still have to be polite.
This isn’t usually too hard for me, since I’m a pretty chill person, and don’t let things get under my skin. I have my mother and school bullies to thank for the numbness I now feel when it comes to verbal abuse, and I’ve always been the glass half full type of gal. The world looks better with rose colored glasses.
More often than not, we get guest who call because they were inconvenienced by policy. The entitled people are the most fun to inform that what happened is policy, and they won’t be getting anything. Even with the ones that piss me off, I always do my best to remain as polite, cordial, and professional as possible. I’m also am amateur voice actor, so even though I’m more than happy to tell them that yelling at staff was what caused landed them on the Do Not Rent list, I can be very convincing when telling them how sorry I am that I can’t do anything more for them. I actually had someone just yesterday who thanked me for caring so much about her problems, all while I was silently judging her for being so entitled and flipping my phone off.
If they’re a nice person though, I genuinely mean it, because I have a very high sense of empathy and sympathy. The whole reason I took this job was so I could help people who need it.
TLDR: I take complaints for a hotel chain. I’m the type of person who actually likes helping people, as long as they don’t act like douche bags when asking for it. If I can’t help you, I will feel bad. However, if you are an ass, I will expertly hide the fact that I’m happy that you got what you deserved, to the point where you think I’m actually on your side.
So, here’s a run down of the call I had earlier today.
Here’s the cast:
DI- Deaf Idiot
S- Supervisor
ME- Umm… me?
ME: (in my usual cheery voice) Thank you for calling CD, my name is Matsuyo, can I get your name please?
DI: DI.
ME: Hello DI, how can I help you?
DI: Yea, I called last week, and one of your agents was really rude to me. Her name was Matsuyo, and she was horrible.
I’m at a cross between dumbstruck, and a laughing fit, but I manage to keep my composure. I just got done telling this guy who I was, but he’s just too dumb to realize it.
ME: Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. I would be happy to inform my S about it.
DI: Yeah, she wouldn’t even give me her last name, ID number, or even her badge number.
ME: Well, I can confirm that we are not allowed to give out that information for security reasons. I see here that you have a case from (insert date here)?
DI: Yeah, but that’s not when I called.
I pull up the case anyway. If I had spoken to him about this case, I would have noted it on there, and sure enough, my name isn’t anywhere on the case. At this point, I’m thinking this guy must have either had an issue that wasn’t worth documenting, like it was caused by him booking through a third party company that he needed to call himself, or I just didn’t get enough information for a case.
However, I can’t be sure, because I have absolutely no recollection of this guy. His name was super generic, and I talk to dozens of people a day.
Now, we record all our calls for quality, training, and legal reasons. If you say Jill promised you a free room, and they listen to the call and hear no such promise, you can hire all the lawyers you want, cause we got our asses covered.
Normally you can find the call by simply pulling up their reservation, finding the agent’s ID, and submitting a call review, but if they don’t have one, we can still do it. We just need the phone# they called from, as well as the time and date of their call. This is more for our Sales team, but I figured the same would apply for CD.
ME: Okay, well, I can still get this information to my S. I’ll just need to provide them with (previously stated information). Could I get the phone# you called from?
DI: I called from the hotel phone. Do you need my room number?
ME: Oh, I’m not sure if that would work, but I can double check to see if we would be able to use that.
I’m about to go into my group chat to find out if we can pull a call from a hotel room phone. I have nothing to hide from my S, because I know that no matter what this guy’s problem was, there’s no way I would have been as rude as he claims.
DI: When would I get a call back about this?
ME: Oh, well unfortunately, since this is a CD issue, you wouldn’t get a call back. Only the General Manager at the hotel calls guest’s back, as our phones don’t work like that. I can assure you though, if they listen to the call and hear the person you spoke to was rude, they will make sure that person is coached.
Everything I said was 100% the truth. I had nothing to hide from my S, and was more than happy to submit the complaint. I have very high quality scores (always get 100% on attitude), even better than some of my senior co-workers, so even if they listen to the call and think I WAS rude, I know I’m good. Besides, my dad raised me to be responsible, so if I make a mistake, I own it.
Unfortunately, this is where the shit hit the fan.
DI: So, I won’t even get a call back? How will they compensate me?
ME: I’m sorry, but CD doesn’t provide compensation. When a guest has an issue with CD, we handle it within our department.
DI: Can I get your name?
Whelp, so much for taking the simple route and just submitting the call review. Can’t lie to him, cause again, this call is being recorded. The only reason I didn’t tell him before that I was me, was because I still planned on filling the call review, and didn’t want to give him another reason to complain about me being rude or unhelpful,
ME: My name is Matsuyo.
DI: So you’re the one, huh? Then you remember how rude you were to me.
ME: I’m sorry sir, but I don’t remember you.
DI: Oh, well you will remember me once they listen to the call.
ME: Well sir, I can still get this call review-
DI: I want to speak to your S. I know you remember me, and you’re going to be sorry.
ME: Alright, I’ll go ahead and get you transferred over to S. Just know that there’s a hold time, and a voicemail option if you need it.
I then transfer DI over to my S, and give her a brief overview through group chat.
ME: I just transferred DI.
S: Okay, advise of hold time and voicemail.
ME: Already did. Apparently he has an issue with how I handled his call last time, and wants to report me. I was going to just submit a call review, but when he found out who I was, I guess he doubted that I was telling the truth. I have nothing to hide though, and if I was rude, I will happily be coached for it.
S: Did you transfer him yet?
ME: Yeah, I transferred him a few minutes ago. I’m just finishing up my disposition.
I heard nothing about it afterwards. No messages in group chat, no private messages, no direct emails. Either he hung up; they listened to the call and found nothing wrong; or they just couldn’t pull the call because his dumb ass decided to pay the phone fee for calling outside the hotel, instead of his cell phone.
I’ll update if I hear anything tomorrow. If you don’t see anything after this, then know that I didn’t hear anything, and never got in trouble.
submitted by /u/MatsuyoRific
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