A letter… (part 2 – finale)

So, after that letter was sent out, the Assistant General Manager of the hotel called and did his usual thing of apologizing, empathizing, etc…

His letter post-telephone call goes like this…

Dear Mr Lee,

Thank you for taking my call this morning and for allowing me the time to follow up on our recent email correspondence. As agreed I have summarized the details of our conversation in writing.

Firstly, I wanted to take the opportunity to respond by phone myself to offer both a thank you for the feedback and also a personal apology for the service you received.

It is very rare that we receive such a real and precise description from our guests and we have to admit that your complaint has made a big impression on us. We are strong believers that we have to put ourselves in the shoes of our guests in order to understand how we can improve our service levels. It is clear from your comments that you experienced several service failures during your stay.

We have shared your feed back and your disappointment both in the morning meeting with all departments as well discussing the comments in more detail with our operational department heads. I spent time highlighting the simple measures that could have been taken to ensure your stay was a pleasurable one. In addition I have also asked our training manager to incorporate your feedback letter into future service trainings to highlight how simple service exchanges can make or break a guests experience in the hotel.

As discussed we were surprised by the comments regarding check in and out as our Front Office department regularly scores high on friendliness although I can admit that on occasions there has been comments made regarding the friendliness of our concierge.

Thank you for the kind words regarding the service and personnel in the Club Lounge and also your experiences in Sheraton Amsterdam Airport and Sheraton Stockholm, after these interactions I hope Starwood can continue to count on your custom in the years to come.

Regarding the hotel, I know there is little I can say in this email that will prove to you that we have listened and acted upon your comments. The proof will be in the service you receive the next time you opt to stay with us and I hope that will be soon.

In the meantime if there is anything further I can help you with please do not hesitate to contact me.

Warm regards

And my reply to this one was…

Dear Mr. X,

Thank you for your call and subsequent mail.

Your response has been most prompt and it addresses the underlying issue of service that I had the unfortunate chance to experience, to a certain extend.

As mentioned, not everyone who writes in are looking for compensation (in this case, points) unlike the multitude of cases that you encounter.

Subsequently, I was dismayed and rather insulted with such letter by your property’s first correspondence that evidently came across as a “copy and paste” job. This added salt to the wound, the fact that no one in the hotel took my remarks seriously; hence my detailed reply.

Some just state their points and do not return – I believe I am one of those.

As far as I am concerned, I have voiced my experience and dissatisfaction and have received a satisfactory response from the hotel representative (you, to be exact).

I therefore consider this matter to be done and over with. Time will tell whether I will choose to return to the your hotel.  For the moment at least, the company’s and my personal selection of hotels in Brussels will exclude your property.

Mr. X, thank you once again for your personal intervention in this matter.

I wish you a pleasant day ahead.

Regards.

Thanks for reading!

THE END

A letter…

A little letter to the hotel that warranted a call from the Assistant General Manager this afternoon… 🙂

Dear Ms. X,

Thank you for taking the time to write to me with regards to my recent stay with your hotel last month.

Whilst there was nothing wrong with the physical condition of the hotel and my stay in general, it is my opinion that the hotel management ought to look into the attitude of your staff members, in particular your front desk and concierge team.

The insolence of your staff members coupled with the stand-off’ish attitudes that I have encountered is certainly unbecoming of any reputable hotel, let alone a Starwood and least expected in an international city like Brussels.

Is it possible that your concierge asked me to locate your bellman in the other end of the lobby in order to claim my luggage when he is at the counter doing nothing and the luggage storage is just behind him?

Is it possible that your front desk personnel allow guests to cut the queue at the reception counter and when asked, offered no explanation or apologies but reply with an indignant “I have better things to do than to explain myself to you” face?

Is it possible at 0800hrs on a weekday, your hotel – one of the leading business hotels in the centre of the European government and in the middle of down-town Brussels do not even have a copy of English newspapers for guests / SPG Platinum members / club room residents? A curt “No” to my request was the answer.

Is it possible that your housekeeping staff members do not reply a simple “bonjour/bonsoir” when greeted along the corridors?

These are just a few examples of attitude issues that I can think of at the moment. Coming “home” to a hotel with no friendliness and all that attitude certainly makes me think twice about staying at your hotel, let alone recommend it to my colleagues and friends.

I may understand that the lack of warmth may be a cultural issue and that I may have been “spoilt” by the excellent services accorded in the course of my stays with the various St. Regis, Westin and Sheratons. But if you have an opportunity to look at my stay patterns, I stay mainly in Starwood hotels in Europe and have not, at any point face service levels lacking basic manners like these.

I am not here to preach on what I, as a guest expect – expectations are highly subjective. All I am trying to put through is that we are, at the end of the day guests – not fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters or other family members to share your staff members’ troubles and/or show attitude to. Your staff members are there for only one reason – to do their jobs with reasonable manners and decency; that’s the bottom line.

I understand that at the end of the day like other businesses, profitability is what matters for the hotel. Perhaps the hotel is doing so well so as to neglect the fundamentals of service.

As such, I will vote with my wallet and have advised my company’s travel coordinator to avoid the your hotel for all future company travels.

Additionally, I will not accept your free “goodwill” Starpoints as a matter of principle.

Personally, I am clear on which hotel I will NOT stay at on my next trip to Brussels – and possibly my change of loyalty programme come 2010 to some other reputable chain of hotels.

Regards.

And the initial email that brought it on…

Dear Mr. Lee,

Thank you very much for staying with us last month.

We have received your completed electronic questionnaire with some additional feed back about your stay in the Sheraton Brussels Hotel.

From your earlier feed back we realize that you have experienced some poor service performances with some member of our staff at the front desk. We are very sensible about the disappointing you have expressed about the staff attitude. We do apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Your comments have been brought to the attention of those concerned.

We appreciate how upsetting this situation must have been for you and as a gesture of goodwill; we will credit your SPG account with 3000 extra free points.

Dear Mr. Lee, you are a very important client to us and we highly appreciate your business; once again, thank you very much for having shared your comments with us. We will do our outmost to give you a personalized overall experience and we really sincerely hope to welcome you back to the Sheraton Brussels Hotel.

Very kind regards,

Ms. X

I Hate Riga!

 

 

 The dysfunctional Reval Hotel Latvija

Already?!?! But you just arrived!! I can hear it from my boss hahaha!

 

Big boo boo started from the airport when I took the taxi…

 

It was fucking raining / icing and the guy refused to carry my suitcase into his trunk. He only did it after me ASKING him to.

 

He then proceeded to drive like a madman in the RAIN and dropped me at the side of the road in the rain.  I asked him to drive up to the lobby (shaded area) but he refused!  What a bastard.  Suffice to say he didn’t get a single cent of tips.

 

Next, I went to the reception to check-in only to be notified that “we are out of superior rooms”.  And they downgraded me to a standard room… Take a look at the difference.  I payed an extra 40 euros a night…

 

Standard Room 

 

Superior Room

Me being me, went down to reception, made a HUGE fuss and demanded to speak to the general manager (hahaha ex-hotelier for you).

 

So now I’m waiting in my crappy room for their phone call for a room change.

 

PFTTTTTT.

 

s says (17:52):
he told me alot of things about my website first, then i asked him whether he was you
s says (17:53):
you know his status also says Paris / Frankfurt
s says (17:53):
somebody tries to act you eh?
s says (17:53):
maybe it’s Leo wannabe
s says (17:53):
haha !
s says (17:53):
you’re too famous
leo™ Riga, Latvia says (17:53):
lol
leo™ Riga, Latvia says (17:53):
no lah where got… paiseh only
leo™ Riga, Latvia says (17:53):
u think i kenny sia ka
s says (17:53):
..don’t even say kenny sia lar
s says (17:53):
first off, he’s not half leng jai as you
s says (17:54):
and you are much friendlier than him

 

Hahah eat yr heart out Mr. I-Have-Big-Coconuts-Kenny-Sia

 

The epitome of bad customer service… Part 2

Received this e-mail in my inbox…

Dear Mr Leonard Lee,

Thank you for your e-mail 06 April 2007 and trust that the subsequent discussion we had has gone some way to address the feedback that you raised. Please find our responses as per below:

1) External Content Provider
We have checked through the statement dated 24 March 2007 and confirmed that you had been charged on External Content Provider for 012 XXXXXXX with a short code of 32180. Rest assured we have unsubscribed from this short code as of today.

Mobile 365 Asia Sdn Bhd is one of the External Content Providers (ECP) who provides the SMS services to their customers, amongst others, Maxis users. The services rendered may differ, ranging from online contest, voting, hot tips and gaming results taken from advertisements in magazines, newspapers or television and the charges can be a one time charge per SMS sent or done via a single subscription.

We have also credited RM0.32 cents (including government tax of 5%) into your account. This credit will reflect in the next forthcoming bill dated 24 April 2007.

2. Roaming Service
We do have Roaming Service available in Germany, Latvia and Poland. Please find the network operators that Maxis has roaming agreement by country as per below:

GERMANY – VODAFONE D2, 02 (Germany) Gmbh & Co, E-Plus and T-Mobile
LATVIA – LMT and TELE2
POLAND – ERA GSM and PRK Centertel

3. Maxis One Club (MOC)
This MOC card status was tagged to your account today. We have made the arrangement with the relevant department to send the card via mail by end of this week.

We wish to also thank you for your feedback on dissatisfactory services that you have experienced. It is through such comments that we are able to monitor our services and keep abreast of our customer’s expectations.

Mr Leonard Lee, we hope the above information helps to clarify your concerns and at the same time we would like apologize for any inconvenience caused to you.

Thank you once again and we look forward to your continued support.

Well well… How now?

The epitome of bad customer service…

Today, I received two calls from two well known companies in Malaysia; Maxis and Dell.

Scenario #01: Dell Malaysia
You may have read my brief post on this. Well the essence of the story is, my laptop screen was loose on the left hinge and it flickers when I unplugged my AC adaptor.

My e-mail to Dell on Friday, as you can see below is rather self-explanatory.

Dear XXX (name changed),

I AM EXTREMELY ANNOYED that you guys at Dell can’t get your act together.

I called in this afternoon to report that my screen was flickering when I unplugged the adapter whilst my computer was running. I also mentioned that the hinge was loose on the left side of the screen. All this I had to repeat three times due to the fluency (or lack of) of your call centre personnel in English.

I am to leave for Frankfurt for 2 weeks for business on Sunday and I understand that your service team doesn’t work on weekends. I offered two choices to the person who attended to me;

1. Get my laptop serviced today (Friday, 13 April 2007) or
2. Service on Monday in Frankfurt Germany.

Your kind call centre personnel who attended to me managed to get things in order for your guys to service it in the evening today. Arrangements were made with your service team and courier service to be at my office between 6 – 7pm.

So your delivery guys came and delivered the “parts” to be replaced. The technician came promptly soon after and to his and my dismay your delivery guys sent the WRONG ITEM.

Your kind technician then assisted to get the correct parts sent to the office again and it arrived, 1 hour later.

Again, we were surprised to find that it was only the BACK COVER of the display that was delivered. I clearly stated that the screen was flickering.

Now your poor technician is attending to my laptop. It’s 8.15pm. I want to know what happened and I want someone senior to talk to me. ON THE PHONE. IMMEDIATELY.

I am very very annoyed.

Leo

So they called up and did the whole customer service thing. Here’s the highlights of the conversation.

“I understand how you feel”
No you do not understand how I feel waiting for 4 hours to get a simple service done.

“I’d feel the same way if I was in your position”
You have no clue of my position. I had to clear up my work before I left for Frankfurt on Sunday. I finished my work and left office at 1.00am on Friday as a result of waiting on your incompetent service team. To make things worse, your claimed “worldwide next-business-day warranty” does not apply in Frankfurt as my laptop isn’t supported in Germany.

“We are taking the necessary steps to improve our service with your feedback”
That’s of no concern to me. How can you compensate me for time and money wasted whilst waiting on your service team? I refuse to be made a guinea pig in your “customer service improvement programme”.

“We apologise for the inconvenience caused to you following your experience with our service team”
Apologies not accepted and inconvenience barely scratches the surface of the duress you guys put me through.

“Please expect another call from us to get back to you on our investigations of your case”
Please refrain from calling me anymore as I am in Europe for two weeks. You guys are not going to pay for my phone bill. I want all correspondences in writing from this point onwards so that I may consider legal options (cheh, like real only lah hahaha!).

Scenario #02: Maxis Communications Malaysia
Essence of the story – I’ve been charged for junk sms’ which I never subscribed to, roaming episode in Estonia, screw-up regarding my VAS (value added services), Maxis One Club membership.

Dear XXX,

I have three issues of concern.

1. External Content Provider
Of late, I have been getting unnecessary junk sms’ from various providers which I have contacted the Maxis call centre to be removed from all lists. This has worked. However, I have been billed RM 0.30 for something I did not use. Please refer to Page 3 of 11 on the Statement dated 24 March 2007. Please investigate and revert to me.

2. Roaming service
I will be travelling once more to Germany, Latvia and Poland and would like a written assurance that the roaming services in these countries are working. I do not want to be caught in a foreign country without access to my e-mails and incoming calls once more after the horrendous episode in Estonia not long ago.

I would also like to highlight that “the secondary Maxis Mobile line 012 XXXX XXX was not provisioned for roaming service” mentioned in your previous mail is no fault of mine as I had used the service and it was in my rate plan prior to the change of my rate plans in January. In conclusion, it’s not my problem. It was the lack of checking and follow-up of your staff that led to my troubles. “Goodwill waiver” hardly describes nor justifies anything.

3. Maxis One Club
After our your e-mail dated 22 March, I have since received my bill dated 24 March but not the Maxis One Club pack. It seems that your billing department is more efficient than your Maxis One Club.

In essence it shows how you guys drag your feet when it comes to recognising your “valued clients”, by treating them like second class citizens. Your distinguished company has no qualms on using the courier service when my bills are above RM 1,000 but too stingy to send your marketing packs.

I am a paying client like all your other “valued clients” and do not deserve second-class service, or lack thereof.

As such, I will be moving all my non-essential numbers to another better service provider upon my return, in early May.

Let me add that to date, no one from Maxis has called to apologise personally over the incidents and level of service that I have received. It is only after the e-mail has been copied to your CEO, Senior GM and Head of Consumer Services that a reply was received from you.

Thank you.

Anyone in the same boat as me? Pfffftttt!