Called to make a reservation from the road last night. After navigating the third world, broken English gauntlet he goes into another of the canned disclaimers. This one he was saying that guns were allowed as long as we were meeting Texas requirements. First of all this was out of the blue. Secondly, the hotel was in Tennessee. So I asked him what Texas had to do with anything. Got the normal incoherent repeating on his original nonsensical statement that we had to follow Texas requirements.
Has anyone encountered any similar nonsense or have any idea what the hell he was talking about?
I'd think I was dreaming the whole thing but the conversation was on speaker and my wife was WTH was that all about.
So, I stayed in a HI Express last night but still have no idea what the hell transpired.

Likely just has to do with them not having a firm grasp of US states.

I get that sometimes from customer service call centers. They see my address is listed in "AR" and want to talk about Arizona. Had one argue with me one time that they were pretty sure Arkansas was AK.

Tennessee, Texas, Texas, Tennessee. Potato, tomato.

Your answer is the American education system

New Mexico, old Mexico, whatever

quote:

Ticket agents for the Olympic Games consider New Mexico to be foreign territory. Wade Miller, a Santa Fe resident and volleyball fan, ran into evidence of the geographic goof when he called the Summer Olympics ticket office in Atlanta. Miller was assured that volleyball tickets remained available and things went smoothly until the ticket agent asked for his address and zip code.

"She put me on hold, then came back and said she couldn't sell tickets to someone who lives outside of the United States," Miller told the Associated Press.

Miller spent the next 30 minutes trying to convince the ticket seller and a supervisor that New Mexico has been a state since 1912. The supervisor proved just as adamant as the original ticket agent.

"I told her I was calling from New Mexico and emphasized the New," Miller said. "She told me, Sir, New Mexico, old Mexico, it doesn't matter. I understand it's a territory, but you still have to go through your nation's Olympic committee.' "

Miller said the supervisor suggested he contact the Mexican or Puerto Rican Olympic committees.

Without being paranoid about it I'm really unclear what prompted the subject to even come up. 30 years of travel including dragging gun cases through the lobby and never had at question about it.
Again rounding out the reservation and he started blathering about Texas requirements

quote:

Originally posted by Powers77:
Without being paranoid about it I'm really unclear what prompted the subject to even come up.

Ignorance and stupidity are the culprits.

They, and most hotels chains, have an app so you can make reservations without talking to anyone or waiting on hold.

Some "call centers" are shops in other counties and the "agents" can be handling everything from take out food orders, to utility/services, reservations, tech support and other things.

They get a call, their computer pops up the "company they work for" and the dialog follows scripts.

It will get worse, not better.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
They, and most hotels chains, have an app so you can make reservations without talking to anyone or waiting on hold.

Yeah probably going to transition to those. Spoiled by the old corporate Egencia agents, you know call them and have someone smart enough to screen options for you.

Sounds like a foreign call center person reading from a script. I call my wife and she makes the reservations for me when I’m on the road. I asked and she hasn’t had anyone mention firearms before.

My strangest interaction was stopping at a hotel and asking if they allowed dogs. The woman said no, I said thank you, and was about to move on when she looked outside at my truck and saw Boris looking back at her from the passenger window. She asked if that was my dog, I said yes, and she said OK. Boris was a Siberian Husky/GSD mix and scared most people, not because he did anything that warranted it, but people would see him and cross the street rather than walk near him. I didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I didn’t ask her why she changed her mind.

I recently had several stays at the Holiday Inn at the Cleveland Clinic.
I think the first thing I was told was that NO firearms were allowed, this was repeated several times.

^^^^^^^^
Disgruntled patients?

If she dies, she dies. Now that is funny!

The last legislative session Texas passed SB 20 which says that hotels must allow residents to store firearms/ammo in their rooms. This is to prevent residents from being forced to store them in their vehicle where they could easily be stolen. I'm not sure why Texas requirements would be cited for a Tennessee hotel unless the hotel chain has adopted the Texas requirements nationwide.

Sounds like a glitch in the script TN vs TX.

I despise the "empathy" scripts now being used for customer service. It's very common in text chat support. Lately I am pretty relentless on them for this - "please spare me the mock empathy on the script, just listen to me, and provide straight and clear answers". And the next response is in the affirmative, and then includes some more mock empathy. "Please read what I just told you and dispense with the mock empathy." More affirmation and mock empathy. "If you do not follow my request I will be very dissatisfied with your service". Then you might actually get the gears turning in their head - provide satisfactory service by doing as the customer asks, or sticking to the script and it's canned responses?

I also despise the fact that text support usually means they are juggling multiple cases at once which creates long delays in responses. And I tell them that also. "Please stay in this chat and resolve it quickly instead of juggling multiple chats at once, your slow responses are wasting my time, and making me dissatisfied with the level of service." Long delay then mock empathy....

They say it's faster but it takes forever to use chat. Phone call to a person is usually faster, especially if you get past the foreign call center to a US based supervisor or actual problem solver.

Oh, and hotels, airlines, and rental cars - for personal travel I always book direct on their websites, or sometimes a phone app. No calls and no aggregation sites (Orbitz, Travelocity) always direct. Some exceptions are using Trip.com for local carriers in Asia but that is rare. I can book domestic business travel on a corporate website, but I do have to talk with an agent for international business travel - company policy.

quote:

Originally posted by texassierra:
The last legislative session Texas passed SB 20 which says that hotels must allow residents to store firearms/ammo in their rooms. This is to prevent residents from being forced to store them in their vehicle where they could easily be stolen. I'm not sure why Texas requirements would be cited for a Tennessee hotel unless the hotel chain has adopted the Texas requirements nationwide.

I'll bet this is what he was referring to. Silly foreigner unable to distinguish between Texas and Tennessee. I'll also bet they have adopted a corporate policy. Only an issue for me if I need to drag a long gun case to the room that they might see.

quote:

I despise the "empathy" scripts now being used for customer service. It's very common in text chat support. Lately I am pretty relentless on them for this - "please spare me the mock empathy on the script, just listen to me, and provide straight and clear answers". And the next response is in the affirmative, and then includes some more mock empathy. "Please read what I just told you and dispense with the mock empathy." More affirmation and mock empathy. "If you do not follow my request I will be very dissatisfied with your service". Then you might actually get the gears turning in their head - provide satisfactory service by doing as the customer asks, or sticking to the script and it's canned responses?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Empathy is fine. The CSRs do not listen effectively. That is the problem.

100% foreign call center. Also, download the IHG app for your phone. Calling those clowns (or any other travel-related business) sucks. On the phone the room can be booked in literally a minute. No speaking to some guy on another continent.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeNH:
100% foreign call center. Also, download the IHG app for your phone. Calling those clowns (or any other travel-related business) sucks. On the phone the room can be booked in literally a minute. No speaking to some guy on another continent.

Agreed. The IHG application is really good. As a matter of fact, I’m posting from the Crowne Plaza in Key West. Sunday night, we stayed at the Holiday Inn resort in Key Largo. Both rooms were booked using the app. The stay in Key Largo was free, using points, again managed in the app.