Middle Eastern customer service: a post-script
So, the other week I wrote a long post bitching about Israeli customer service and how truly appalling it is. It turns out that customer service in the OPT isn't that much better and the following incident was just too shocking/annoying/ridiculous to be left un-blogged (as it were).
From Tuesday night to Wednesday night this week Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, was observed in Israel. This is the holiest day in the Jewish religious calendar, a day of fasting and repentance before God (or G*d as they would write here, you don't write His name down) for the sins you have committed against Him and against your fellow man. Across Israel everything grinds to a halt - no traffic on the roads, absolutely no shops or restaurants open, no public transport, hotels don't serve food. Shabbat shutdown and then some. People wear white clothing and everything is very, very quiet. So naturally me and some of my fellow Gentiles decided to high-tail it out of Jerusalem into Bethlehem, where this shutdown will not apply, for a night and a day at the Intercontinental with its pool, jacuzzi, sauna, gym, open bar and luxurious double beds. This was the point at which, once again, customer service in the middle east tried to screw us over.
One of my friends tried, every day for three days, to get through to reservations at the hotel to book rooms for we four girls but to no avail - every time she called she was put through to a dead line. When she finally got through, the (somewhat snotty) woman in the office told her she was out of luck and the hotel was fully booked. Naturally we were pretty peeved by this state of affairs, looking forward as we were to loafing around in the sun by the pool, so Tamar and I decided to do a last minute check online. The hotel website told us that there were, in fact, rooms available so we called the hotel to double-check and were told, by the same snotty girl in reservations, that the computer was wrong and the hotel really was fully booked. Doubly frustrated by this, when the little box that offers an online chat with a customer service representative flashed up we decided to write a strongly-worded online-chat-letter of complaint. Whoever and wherever the guy or girl was - I pictured a little guy with a mustache in a call centre in Mumbai - when we told them our problem, they checked online, found rooms and successfully booked them for us.
Thrilled that we had beaten the system, we thought it best to call the hotel and confirm the booking. When I got through to reservations, the snotty girl was still in the office: I said I was calling to confirm our reservation and she almost shouted at me "WE'RE FULLY BOOKED!" Firstly, that was clearly bollocks and secondly, easy love, who rattled your cage? I bit my tongue and said we had reservations and I was just calling to confirm and lo and behold, our rooms were in the system. Customer 1, snotty girl in reservations with a bad attitude and temper to match 0.
I've actually just got back from our brief sojourn there and it was pretty splendid. We had a great meal out last night at Reem-al-Bawadi, although it was marred somewhat by the presence of the owner's son who provides the in-house entertainment, him on the microphone and another guy with a double-keyboard (very cool), both of them doing VERY LOUD Arabic singing. Back at the hotel the beds were indeed luxurious, the cocktails in the bar were rather delicious and we spent the whole day loafing in the sun by the side of the pool, avoiding the children who were dive-bombing and feeling rather pleased with ourselves. Having said that, our food took forever to arrive and the guy with the coals for the nargileh could never be found when a new one was needed. Customer service in the Middle East: not so much with the service for the customer. Oh well. If I want prompt service and a cheery attitude I can always move to America. I gather they're very cheerful there.
P.S. That letter from Rach, sent at the end of August, still hasn't arrived.
From Tuesday night to Wednesday night this week Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, was observed in Israel. This is the holiest day in the Jewish religious calendar, a day of fasting and repentance before God (or G*d as they would write here, you don't write His name down) for the sins you have committed against Him and against your fellow man. Across Israel everything grinds to a halt - no traffic on the roads, absolutely no shops or restaurants open, no public transport, hotels don't serve food. Shabbat shutdown and then some. People wear white clothing and everything is very, very quiet. So naturally me and some of my fellow Gentiles decided to high-tail it out of Jerusalem into Bethlehem, where this shutdown will not apply, for a night and a day at the Intercontinental with its pool, jacuzzi, sauna, gym, open bar and luxurious double beds. This was the point at which, once again, customer service in the middle east tried to screw us over.
One of my friends tried, every day for three days, to get through to reservations at the hotel to book rooms for we four girls but to no avail - every time she called she was put through to a dead line. When she finally got through, the (somewhat snotty) woman in the office told her she was out of luck and the hotel was fully booked. Naturally we were pretty peeved by this state of affairs, looking forward as we were to loafing around in the sun by the pool, so Tamar and I decided to do a last minute check online. The hotel website told us that there were, in fact, rooms available so we called the hotel to double-check and were told, by the same snotty girl in reservations, that the computer was wrong and the hotel really was fully booked. Doubly frustrated by this, when the little box that offers an online chat with a customer service representative flashed up we decided to write a strongly-worded online-chat-letter of complaint. Whoever and wherever the guy or girl was - I pictured a little guy with a mustache in a call centre in Mumbai - when we told them our problem, they checked online, found rooms and successfully booked them for us.
Thrilled that we had beaten the system, we thought it best to call the hotel and confirm the booking. When I got through to reservations, the snotty girl was still in the office: I said I was calling to confirm our reservation and she almost shouted at me "WE'RE FULLY BOOKED!" Firstly, that was clearly bollocks and secondly, easy love, who rattled your cage? I bit my tongue and said we had reservations and I was just calling to confirm and lo and behold, our rooms were in the system. Customer 1, snotty girl in reservations with a bad attitude and temper to match 0.
I've actually just got back from our brief sojourn there and it was pretty splendid. We had a great meal out last night at Reem-al-Bawadi, although it was marred somewhat by the presence of the owner's son who provides the in-house entertainment, him on the microphone and another guy with a double-keyboard (very cool), both of them doing VERY LOUD Arabic singing. Back at the hotel the beds were indeed luxurious, the cocktails in the bar were rather delicious and we spent the whole day loafing in the sun by the side of the pool, avoiding the children who were dive-bombing and feeling rather pleased with ourselves. Having said that, our food took forever to arrive and the guy with the coals for the nargileh could never be found when a new one was needed. Customer service in the Middle East: not so much with the service for the customer. Oh well. If I want prompt service and a cheery attitude I can always move to America. I gather they're very cheerful there.
P.S. That letter from Rach, sent at the end of August, still hasn't arrived.
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