I’ll bet the staff of Disneyland Paris thinks Americans are nicer than Parisians.

And those examples… that’s nothing!  There’s MUCH worse than that.  When I worked at Disney an elderly coworker’s wife was shoved by a group of young people from Brazil, and in the staff areas the foreigners caused much more trouble than the Americans, they were incredibly rude and aggressive.

I agree with much of your point, but your example doesn’t advance it. In that case, much, perhaps all, of the fault law with the traveler in getting on the wrong plane.

And the traveler isn’t necessarily stupid. Yes, he should have checked the tickets when he got them, but not everyone is a seasoned traveler. I can easily imagine him glancing at the ticket, seeing Rochester, and not giving it a further thought.

For any of you unfamiliar with a Glasweigian accent, it’s quite… unique. She said that FAR AND AWAY the rudest, least considerate, and most demanding customers are… yes you guess it, the ones with American accents. Their most common demand was to immediately speak with an American. And not because they couldn’t understand her either, but merely because they didn’t want to talk to “a foreigner” – they would frequently give that as the reason.

In many cases they were beligerent to the point of being completely unreasonable, asking for the manager before she could make any offer of assistance, rejecting all attempts to solve the problem, yelling, abusing and threatening to take their (horrid) custom elsewhere. Those that did manage to explain their problem frequently argued over trifling matters that could have been solved with five minutes and a smile.

Believe it or not the problem is not specifically that Americans are rude. It is an issue of culture. American society teaches a “speak up when something’s not right” type of assertiveness. More than anything else, Americans just seem to be completely ignorant of the fact that other countries have different culture. It is not normal or polite in the UK to march in and slam a fist on the desk and loudly proclaim that you aren’t happy, and you deserve better. An exaggeration yes, but you get the idea.

Plenty of people will be annoyed at my post. And probably immediately respond. See above, a “speak up when something’s not right” type of assertiveness. If you don’t like how the world sees you, then remember this when you travel. There are ways and means to get what you need, and there are things you can do to ignore the things that really, truly, don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Getting “the 5% refund you deserve” for a light globe won’t necessarily make you enjoy the trip more, particularly if you have to argue with a staffer to get it.

Personally, I wouldn’t call the operator about the cable TV, I’d get out and enjoy the sunshine and the fun of being at WDW. More importantly, if you can AFFORD to go to WDW, quit complaining!

Having been both customer service and customer, I can tell you that the reason Americans are looked upon as the worst type of traveler is because a small minority gives all of us a bad name…but that minority is so consistently stereotypical and identifiable that the accusation sticks!

The majority of people with whom I dealt as a customer service representative were calm, kind, and courteous. They just wanted an inconvenience corrected, and 99 times out of 100 I could do that easily. But when I did have to deal with an incorrigible customer, 99 times out of 100 they were that stereotypical angry American. Sad, but true.

The few times I had to deal with difficult or unreasonable customers, the main reason they were acting so outrageously usually was because they had already dealt with another customer service person who wasn’t good at his or her job. Some of the most positive comments in my employee file were from irate customers who said I “saved” their vacation (by putting them on an earlier airport transfer bus, or giving them a refund on a $10 service fee – trivial items that I did not consider world-ending, but that the customer DID) when another representative wouldn’t.

BTW, as for generalizing that it’s Americans who complain the most, if someone has a southern, NY, New England, or Minnesota, or Valley (CA) accent, you’re not going to confuse them with a Canadian or European customer…it’s rather obvious. And since most hotel and cruise reservations contain the customer’s billing address, it’s no great mystery where he or she is from.

But Americans DON’T complain the most – French, Germans, and Middle Easterners do in my experience. But when a European or Asian customer approached me at the front desk, I rarely got the urge to take my break before that person arrived at my station! When you see approaching that slightly obese, frazzle-haired, loud, aggressive, sweaty person who wants me to think he’s a CEO when he’s really just a mid-level salesman, you just know what’s coming.

Also, for everyone who’s complaining that Disney overcharges, you need a lesson in capitalism. If Disney was charging too much for their hotels, no one would be staying at them! Last time I checked, even in this horrible economy, Mickey Mouse is still smiling all the way to the bank. My family and I took a vacation there last year and didn’t feel cheated at all, despite the high cost. The customer service is unparalleled, the facilities clean, and almost everything in great condition. We had issues that required some resolution, and I did have to take one of them to the supervisory level, but I did it without Joe Farrell’s entitlement-fueled rage, and with an appropriate, realistic remedy in mind that I suggested since the first customer service person wasn’t on the ball.

Finally, think about this issue from a company’s point of view: would you rather take the chance of having Joe Farrell as one of your customers, knowing he would probably sue you eventually; or would you accept the loss of income by refusing to allow him in your hotel? Some companies choose the former and dole out vouchers, free nights, refunds, and upgrades like they were candy; others choose the latter and draw the line so that the customers who do come don’t have their vacations ruined by standing in line behind boorish, unreasonable patrons – whether they’re from America, Canada, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, or anywhere else.

Joe’s definitely the kind of guy you want on your side when a company truly screws up by doing things that rise to the level of actionable torts, and I don’t mean to calumniate his skills or effectiveness in any way. But the impression I get from his posts, and from others on this board who agree with him, is that $500 entitles him to perfection, and anything less makes him angry. That’ not a healthy way to live, especially since perfection is not possible when people are involved. You gotta let the small things slide or you’re gonna blow a gasket one of these days!

But customer service personnel have to also learn that EVERY customer complaint is the MOST IMPORTANT issue at the moment you receive that call. Don’t take it personally, resolve it in the customer’s favor if it’s within your power, and never belittle a paying customer unless you own the company and are willing to jeopardize your entire business over one customer’s bad day.

There are people that would treat the 800 line as if it was a sex service. I have a guy call in on my line and ask if it would embarass me if he were to whip out his genitals in a NYC restaurant. And hanging up on these type of calls, if not done right, could cost you your job. I am being completely honest here…

We had bomb threats called an a lot. They would either call in over the reservations lines, or even through the Center’s local number.

Don’t get me wrong, I had me share of complaint calls as a Support Desk Agent. More times than not, the customer was asking us to do something we had no access to. All we could do is e-mail the hotel and hope for the best… Seriously. A Call Center agent, more time than not is just there to do basic reservation work and that’s it. They do not have the tools to do anything but e-mail the issue to the hotel or escalate to the Customer (Corporate) services department.

Though I cannot tell you how many times I had to correct someone else’s mistakes. I had one caller looking for rooms in Boston. Because of the line she called in on, I was not allowed to book her at one of the managed properties, but I made a judgement call and did so anyway. Result: A Customer that was more than happy to add a commendation to my file unasked for.

So yeah, I can see the above situations happening. And yeah, I have seen how demanding guests could be.

I heard stories out of the DC luxury properties that would have jaws dropping about how celebrities act. Tabloid don’t make up some of the stuff they print. ;)