h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm going too, Amy

[Ben]

Lost half a day to migraine, and shouldn't go in to work today. I will though, because it is one of my bosses last days, and she needs to have a close-down meeting with me, even if I don't need a close-down meeting with her.

I also need to get some cat food - I have masses of Whiskas Kitten Food, but it sends the cats completely hyperactive, and I cannot cope with that *and* a possible recurrent migraine. Has anyone else noticed this with Whiskas?

Oh, wrote another poem yesterday. Two in fact. They are still in progress though, so I'll publish the link when they are fit for human consumption. Actually the second one may never be fit for human consumption; I have to wait and see what Chaiwallah says about it.

Ben

[p]

Nice new floor plan! A few new carpets I think? (With luck my new carpet will arrive in about 10 days. It's a reddish-orange colour, and the fun part is that since it's quite a dark room, it totally changes character between the showroom and the room, and darkens down into a lovely rich red.)

spelugx -- d/dt

[]
[¤o¤]

[Hyp]

Ok, yesterday's poems are here: http://uk.geocities.com/bethcargill/toofar.html#travelling and immediately following that one, here: http://uk.geocities.com/bethcargill/toofar.html#theprice

They are still both subject to fairly minor tweaking. In particular there is a debate going on about whether or not the quilt is really necessary in the first one. I like it, and hope that it works as a link to comfort(er); but I am not an American, so I may have misjudged it. Chaiwallah doesn't think the quilt is really necessary, and I would welcome some additional comments on that.

I guess I should actually re-write the second one entirely, since it is only about 80% of the way there, but there are only about 6 rhymes for 'choice' and I really cannot see a way of working 'Joyce' 'Rolls Royce' or 'invoice' into the damn thing!

The first one I wrote in the ususal way. (A1099343). The first three verses of the second one were written with one eye closed, lying sideways on the bed, in the midst of a migraine. Considering the minor complexity of the rhyme-scheme I don't think I did too badly. Lines 14 and 15 were written today.

Ben

[spk]

Hypatia, your customer service story reminds me of something that happened to us on our holidays.

To preface the story, we were intending to stay in a particular hotel, for which we had a coupon for 50% off (which we got when purchasing the DVD for My Big Fat Greek Wedding ). I had pre-booked on the internet. The hotel chain was a good one and the normal room rate was fairly expensive ($210 Canadian), so we expected something very nice. When we got there, the room was quite small and the hotel was scheduled for renovation this year, which meant that it was pretty run-down now and was now filled with several little-league baseball teams. We decided to look for another hotel. The people at the front desk were very helpful and phoned around for us. They also told us that if you walk in from the street, you could get the room for $114 - the $210 rate is the book rate. So, with our 50% coupon, we would have gotten the room for $105, a savings of a whopping $9.

Anyway, we ended up a very nice hotel, paying substantially more, but in a larger, recently renovated room. We told our sob story to the guy at the front desk and he threw in a special package that gave us free breakfast and access to a special lounge with free non-alcoholic drinks, hors d'ouvres and cookies. All was fine and we were happy. Until we were woken up at 1:00 in the morning by the clock-alarm going off in the room next door (our room had a door to the adjascent room, in case someone wanted to rent both). We called the front desk and they sent someone up who went into the room and turned it off. Fine so far. Then, at 2:30, we were woken up by the smell of tobacco smoke. Now, our room was on a non-smoking floor but very strong smoke odor was coming through that connecting door. We called the front desk, they sent the manager up, who sniffed around their door, then left. A few minutes later, the phone next door rings. Then nothing. We call the front desk. The said that the manager hand come up, then gone back down and called the room next door and told them not to smoke. They denied smoking. We said that the smoke was still strong in our room and they needed to do something about it. He said he would come up. While waiting, we figured that the idiots next door had their window open and the pressure was driving the smoke into our room, so we opened our window and stopped the flow. The manager arrived and said that he would move us. We didn't really want to move (our daughter slept through all of this, but would have to be woken to move), but being the nice people that we are, we agreed to at least look at the other rooms he could offer us. My wife left with him to look at rooms, while I stewed back in the room. When they came back, my wife reported that none of the rooms were as large as the one we were in (which was the main reason for choosing that hotel in the first place). I told the manager that it isn't us that should be moving anyway - we had done nothing wrong. It's the smoking jerks that should move. So, we were at an impass. He didn't want to move them, and we didn't want to move us. Finally, I suggested a compromise. He could duct-tape up the connecting door and we would see about getting another room in the morning, without a connecting door. So, he went off and found a roll of duct-tape and came back and taped up the door. We had some silent satisfaction as the duct tape loudly screeched off the roll, right next to the door.

Okay, so far so good. The customer service was not bad - the manager handled things very well, except for one point. When we first complained, he should have actually gone into the room next door and confronted the smokers. But otherwise, he couldn't be faulted. Not so with the next manager we dealt with.

Next morning after breakfast, we go to talk to the manager on duty. She takes on a very haughty manner and says that she can't control what other patrons do and that since it wasn't the hotel's fault, she feels that we deserve no compensation. This, despite the night manager saying that we would get a substantial compensation. The day manager said that the most she could offer was a $20 discount for that night, but if the other manager wanted to offer more, then he could do so on his own manager's account. Her manner was very condescending. So, we said fine and went back to our room. We decided to find another hotel and packed our bags. I went with our daughter to put the bags in the car and my wife went to check out. She went to the same manager and said that we were checking out and what had she come up with for compensation. The manager's mouth dropped open and with a completely changed attitude, she said: "You're checking out...AND...you want compensation? You were booked for 3 more nights. We don't want you to check out. Let me see what I can do". She types on her computer and finds us a suite. It's on an upper floor and is 2 rooms. My wife asks if there are any connecting doors. She types on the computer, says, "yes...but you can have that room too". My wife stays cool and says that we would like to see it first. So the lady gives her the keys. Just then, I drive up with the packed car. We go see the room, which is just amazing, then we go back down to the manager. We say that we will likely take the room, but there were a few other outstanding irritants. We had been charged for local calls, which was not supposed to happen with the special package. Also, at breakfast, our daughter was getting charged, since the special package only specifically named my wife and myself. The manager said that she would cancel those charges and that we wouldn't be charged for the rest of our stay, and typed away at the computer, presumably cancelling the charges.

So now we are happy. We have 3 rooms. The 3 of us each have a bathroom. My daughter has a king-sized bed all to herself. The suite has a living room. Breakfast is free, local calls are free and the lounge upstairs with all its goodies are free. Man, life is great sometimes, but you sure have to work at it. Living like kings, we were able to forget the previous bad experience with the hotel manager and enjoy our stay. But...

Comes time to leave. We get our bill and find that the two breakfast charges and the 2 local call charges haven't been cancelled and we have been charged for the other 2 local calls we made from the new room. We figure it will be no problem, just an oversight, and they will cancel the charges once we tell them our story. Not so. We are now dealing with a 3rd manager, who tells us that the special package gives you either free breakfast OR free local calls, but not both. We calmly tell her that the other manager agreed to give us both. She gets all stern and tells us that the other manager was wrong - it should have been one or the other. We tell her that we don't care if the other manager misinterpreted the program, what we agreed to was that we would get both. The manager stands firm and argues with us for at least 20 minutes. I couldn't believe that a manager would have so little understanding of customer service. Here she was arguing with us over a charge of $4.40 on a bill for over $1000.00. She was willing to piss us off and taint our whole experience at their hotel for a tiny charge. And I said that to her. I told her that she was being foolish to jeapardize our future business for the sake of $4.40. At this point, she was just too proud to back down and she said that she would talk to the other manager and see what we were told and would call us and tell us the outcome. When we got home from holidays, there was a message on our answering machine from her saying that they would reverse those charges. No apology though.

So, although our stay at the hotel was great, and all of the staff there were great, we won't go back because the managers there are a bunch of pompous jerks.

Ooooo, that was a bit long, wasn't is? Sorry.

Perhpas a bit long, but a good yarn at any rate.

I have four weddings to attend in the next three months. Why does this depress me? Oh wait, I know. I dated the bride to be of one of those weddings.

Not at all. It was a good read.

[{Courtesy}]

Ben, sorry to disagree with Chaiwallah, but I like the quilt. I think it's a great image.

GL, I've often wondered how much of a discount they really are offering with these packages. It's like retailers. They mark the prices up before they discount them. And we have a grocery chain here that gives 2 for 1 specials all the time. But the price for 1 is inflated by about 80%. And you pay the same price whether you get 1 or 2. So all they're doing is giving you a 10% discount and making sure that they sell 2 of them instead of 1.

Marv, are you performing the ceremonies?

Hypatia, no I am not. That was a one time deal. In general I think that people should get married by proper clergy, which I am not in my mind.

But improper clergy are so much more fun...!

B

I could hardly be called anything but improper clergy

Yes, but most clergy don't know anything about brownies.

Did I ever mention that I like brownies even more than I do cinnamon buns?

*lurks and 's*

My flatmate's gone home for the weekend, to mind his youngher brothers and sisters whilst his parents have a weekend away. It's a bit strange being on my own. I've never lived on my own for more than one night actually.

[p]