Hilarious exchange with Hotels.com makes you wonder: Is anyone reading your complaints?

Reading comprehension is one of the foundations of primary education. (I ought to know. My eight-year-old struggles with his reading assignments from time to time.) But you’d expect a full-grown employee to actually take the time to read and understand something like a complaint email, right?

So would Ned Uyeno, who recently tried to cancel his Hotels.com room in Japan. When the site refunded only one of his rooms, it set off a chain of events that Uyeno is having a hard time comprehending.

Me too.

Uyeno did everything by the book. He logged into Hotels.com and executed the cancellation, expecting a full refund of $878. But Hotels.com only issued a credit of $439.

Hotels.com claims that their system assigned each room with a confirmation number. But this is not shown on the confirmation I had printed the night I made the reservations.

Hotels.com cannot show me proof that I was sent or notified that their were two confirmation numbers the night I made the reservations.

I tried to resolve this issue by going through their customer care department and was subjected to the worst example of customer service possible. I had to make eleven calls, disconnected four times (hung-up on more likely) and was promised by the last customer representative that a refund would be issued due to fact that I had only one confirmation number to use and to make up for the horrible way I was treated in trying to explain my situation.

But Hotels.com didn’t refund the second room.

I suggested Uyeno contact Hotels.com by email, asking for the promised refund. Here’s an edited excerpt:

Uyeno: Please review your customer care center recordings and system records for my itinerary number. They will show that the reservation was canceled on June 15th. I followed the instructions of your customer care person and entered the itinerary number and the screen showed reservation canceled. At no time did a message appear on the screen stating that a second itinerary number was required or needed to be canceled. How would I know about a second itinerary number when I was only given one?

Hotels.com: We apologize for the inconvenience and delay of response. After conducting an investigation in your reservation, it shows that there are two rooms under two different names: Uyeno Vivian and Verde-Uyeno Rosarito. Record shows that you were able to cancel room under Uyeno Vivian and was refunded amounting $439.26. However the reservation under Verde-Uyeno Rosarito was not cancelled and charged for the fee. Since you booked two rooms at the same time in your account, you were sent one itinerary for the two rooms booked.

Uyeno: By your own admission in the attached email I was given only one itinerary number for TWO rooms. Using the only itinerary number to cancel the reservations YOUR system only canceled one room. How is this my fault? Please issue a refund immediately for the second room.

Hotels.com: We apologize for the delayed response and for the inconvenience this may have caused. We are sorry that only one room has been cancelled and only half of the amount has been credited to you account. As one time courtesy, we will release your credit in the amount of 439.26 USD within 24 hours. You may want to call your bank within the next 3 to 7 days to see if your credit is posted. Thank you for choosing Hotels.com.

Why did Hotels.com have a change of heart? Maybe someone actually read his email and reviewed his file. Then again, maybe they noticed he was copying me on the exchanges, and suspected they’d get a note from me if they didn’t fix the problem. It’s difficult to say.

So what do you do when a company refuses to listen to reason? Uyeno had a few more options, including appealing to someone higher up at Hotels.com or taking the company to small-claims court. But persistence can also be an effective tool, and Uyeno’s persistence paid.

  • Chicky

    First, I’m glad Mr. Uyeno got his refund. That was the right response for Hotels.com. Having said that, why is it so very difficult for a company to do the right thing the first time, WITHOUT customers pestering them, and copying Chris on their e-mails?
    Apparently, getting it right the first time is nearly impossible for some companies. Do the right thing the first time, and you won’t end up on elliott.org.
    I know what it is. They’re playing the numbers game. They figure the odds are in their favor no one is going to pursue the complaint, let alone e-mail Chris, so their half-baked response will be sufficient and allow them to keep $400. Yay.

  • BucksterSF

    Why on earth would you be given separate bookings for the same room on two nights???

  • Kim

    Unfortunately, the inability or unwillingness to read is not limited to the travel industry. I find the same problems with insurance companies, retail stores, computer support, etc. The difference is that in travel, the time constraints are a bigger issue as you need to catch a flight, return from your vacation, or check out of your hotel. For these reasons, it is critical to be an informed consumer so that you can point to their own rules and regulations.

  • http://bidontravel.com/blog/ Don Nadeau

    Delta Airlines in its pre-merger days proved you could build an incredibly positive public image by handling complaints well, even if your actual service (in terms of on-time flights, delayed bags, etc.) lagged some of your main competitors.

    Delta hired warm, friendly, take charge people who were highly motivated to resolve customer problems.

    Why don’t more companies understand this? Customers develop strong, long-term bonds with companies that treat them well in adverse situations.

  • Katie

    Clearly, they were tired of dealing with him, so they offered the refund as a “one-time courtesy.” That’s wrong–he was entitled to the refund, so it shouldn’t have been done as a courtesy, it should have just been *done.*

  • LeeAnne

    The “one-time courtesy” thing would have sent me over the edge. It’s not courtesy, you morons, it’s just giving the customer the money you OWE him!

    Keeping his money would have been theft, plain and simple. He followed the rules, he legitimately canceled a refundable room. They did not provide the services, therefore they have no legal right to keep his money. How dare they suggest that giving him money that they have no right to keep is a courtesy?!

    Clearly they don’t understand the definition of the word “courtesy”…which goes right along with the lack-of-reading-comprehension theme of this article. And speaking of that – my theory is that the reason this exchange, and so many others with “customer service” departments, are so incomprehensible is because the agents are in other countries in which English is not their first language. They don’t understand what you write, and can’t compose a comprehensible response, because the barely speak our language.

    The only voice we customers have is to vote with our dollars. I have used Hotels.com in the past…never again.

    Maybe someday, some travel company will learn that treating your customers like cash cows that can be mistreated, denied services, and stolen from, will result in their not HAVING any customers.

  • Jeanne in NE

    Perhaps this situation was not pre-scripted? The excerpts printed looked pretty much scripted. All it needed was the “May I have your name, please?” and the “Okay, Ned, thank you for calling us. How can I help you today?” intro.

  • Chuck

    Everytime I’ve looked for a hotel on hotel.com it’s exactly the same as the rack rate I’ve found on the regular hotel’s website. Why go through a third party when I can get the rate directly from the hotel and if there’s a problem it’s with them directly not some middle man?

    The only time I seem to find a decent rate is from opaque sites and since I’m a repeat buyer to a lot of places I can usually figure out what I’m going to get. I get a lot of Fairfield Inns for a ridiculously low price usually 40 dollars or less a night.

  • Ed

    I have found that when dealing with customer service people is that you *NEVER* give them more than *ONE TASK* at a time if you expect it to be done.
    When writing to customer service, and you give a list of things you want done, usually only the first item will be completed…the second one will not. Why? Most customer service systems work off of a ticket system. A customer service request comes in, creates a ticket that is placed in a bucket for pickup by a rep. The Rep takes ownership of the ticket, performs the action (usually the first one listed) and once the action is complete, he/she sets the ticket to complete…*EVEN THOUGH THERE ARE MORE ACTIONS*. The ticket is set to “done” or “Completed” and now the ticket is moved to a completed hopper for archiving…the rep moves to the next ticket!
    I *ALWAYS* open separate issues if I have more than one issue that needs to be addressed!

  • Ed

    Oh yeah…and most customer service reps are graded on the number of tickets they grab and the length of time it takes to close the ticket….satisfaction is *NEVER* considered. So it behooves the rep to cycle through as many tickets as they can to keep their numbers up….satisfaction is only determined when the company mails out customer satisfaction cards…and then usually only in the aggregate!

  • http://nmdfreelance.com Nancy Dickinson

    I was rather hoping to see some of the “hilarious” back and forth they had going on. Having worked on a toll-free line for a major camping company, I know how it’s “supposed” to work and I like to see how things pan out now.

    In the past, a customer had a problem. They called the toll-free line and got a human. Said human spent as much time as necessary with them until all problems were resolved. I ended every call with, “Is there anything else I can help you with today?”

    Now – A customer has a problem and they call a toll-free number. They spend 6-7 minutes navigating voice or button prompts to get to the correct department. I’m not old, only 46, but I could handle a variety of problems when I worked a toll-free line – not just one.

    After finally getting to the correct department, said customer is now on hold listening to the same song OVER AND OVER again for 20 minutes. If the customer hasn’t hung up by now because their kids are graduating high school. they finally get a human but said human doesn’t speak English very well and must work off a script. If your problem isn’t one that happens often, you’re SOL and now you have to work to get them off script – you know the one – it usually starts each response with, “Thank you for calling _____ and I’m so sorry you’re having this problem.”

    Now – and this is key – the person you are talking to is working very hard to frustrate you. They don’t understand what it is you’re asking. Maybe their accent is too thick you can’t understand them. You want a supervisor but they are ALWAYS in a meeting. You need a refund, they want to charge your credit card, twice.

    I could go on but you get the drill, having gone through it how many time?

    Customer service now, at the corporate level, is non-existent. The toll-free numbers are designed to frustrate you so you never call back again. It’s not that they don’t want to solve your problems (they don’t), it ‘s that they don’t want to spend the money required to give good customer service.

    Paying Salaries for CSR’s – costs money
    Paying for that toll-free line on a per call basis – costs money
    Issuing refunds because they messed up – costs money

    These guys don’t WANT to spend money. Their whole business plan is to figure out how best to separate you from yours. Bad customer service is key. The average consumer will actually spend very little time resolving a problem like this. The companies KNOW the odds are with them that customers will just give up at some point and accept there’s nothing they can do.

    And they count on it, trust me!

  • tim

    If you don’t get the satisfaction you want, and if you have the time AND if each call costs them, I guess a way to get back at whoever is providing the customer DISservice is to just make a lot of calls. once you’re connected, the die is cast and the bill is on the way from THEIR phone service provider,
    I DO go through the steps of getting satisfaction, though I have never had to resort to repeated calls on their toll free line to run up their bill. it remains a weapon in my arsenal, just in case.

  • http://hotels.com Jean

    Just tonight I tried canceling a reservation for the upcoming weekend only to learn it was non-refundable. I was never told this during the reservation conversation or I never would have made it. I was told tonight it states it right on my e-mail confirmation. Sure enough, it was there. Unfortunately, you don’t see that it is non-refundable until after you pay for it so you virtually cannot get a refund. I spent over an hour on the phone trying to talk to a supervisor. Once I was put on hold for 20 minutes and the second and third times I called I was disconnected due to “no answer.” I will continue to pursue.