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“I am jaw-droppingly amazed at the lack of customer service”

February 17, 2010

Here’s a common problem for travelers who book a hotel room online: Once they “confirm” their accommodations with a credit card, the hotel doesn’t assign a room, leaving them wondering if they’ll have a place to stay.

My standard advice to homeless guests is: Don’t worry, you’ll have a room. And they always do.

But Robin Ross needed more than verbal assurances for an upcoming stay at the Signature at MGM Grand, a condo-hotel she’d booked through a discount luxury booking service called Blue Chip Vegas. In an email to Ross, Blue Chip had promised a “PH level corner unit one-bedroom suite” at $199 a night, not including the extras that Vegas hotels like to throw in, like daily resort fees, and taxes.

But in subsequent messages, after Ross plunked down a $499 deposit, Blue Chip Vegas seemed to waver.

I am jaw-droppingly amazed at the lack of customer service at the Blue Chip Vegas hotel management company. I have been trying since January 5 to obtain a written confirmation of my reservation, to no avail. I’ve sent numerous emails and have received no responses. I called their toll-free number today at 12:03 p.m., left a message,
and so far no return call.

All I’ve been asking for is a confirmation of my schedule change and I don’t think I’m asking too much. I have no
assurance that I’ll ever receive the product that I paid for. Because of all this aggravation, I am now at the point where I no longer want to stay at their property and have asked for a refund of the $499 which was originally charged to my Visa card to secure the reservation.

I’m concerned that I’ll never see a credit.

I’ve handled a few requests like this in the past but haven’t really written about them. When a hotel is booked through a third party like Blue Chip, the property often waits until shortly before the guest arrives before confirming the reservation. Specific room requests are possible, but you have to ask the hotel directly, which becomes problematic when you aren’t even in its reservation system.

I contacted Blue Chip on Ross’ behalf to see if it could offer a more tangible assurance that she had the room she’d booked online. To its credit, the company contacted me quickly and agreed to send her a confirmation. It also sent the following explanation:

As you know there are always two sides to a story. Ms. Ross has rescheduled her stay numerous times, which is not an issue if the Signature were a typical hotel. The Signature at MGM Grand is a condo-hotel and every suite is privately-owned. These units are changing hands quite frequently in the current market environment and we have been forced to relocate existing reservations to other units upon any sale.

Ms. Ross’ stay is still months away and she has required a very specific suite making it difficult to ensure that the suite she has at the moment will be the same one she receives at the time of her arrival. In fact, the unit she had recently been assigned has now entered escrow so the confirmation she would have received would no longer be valid.

By comparison, had she booked her suite directly through the hotel she would receive only a generic confirmation with no guarantee of a specific suite. As you know, this is standard practice in the hotel industry.

That seems reasonable.

I think Blue Chip might have done itself a favor by offering more generic rooms on its site, to avoid raising Ross’ expectations about her accommodations. And I think Ross’ complaints about “jaw-droppingly” bad service were, in the end, unhelpful. Politeness and patience would have served her better in her efforts to get the confirmation she needed.

(Photo: ken mccown/Flickr Creative Commons)

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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14 comments

  • Chuck

    IMO doing business via a third party vendor in Vegas is not a good idea. I’ve done loads of research on it and have found that actual prices on the hotel’s website are usually decent (if not better). I would suggest if you want a package to use someplace like vegas.com but I can’t vouch for them personally.

    I have been going to Vegas for around 20 years and have found booking air and hotel separately usually gives me the best deal. I ALSO HIGHLY SUGGEST WATCHING OUT FOR RESORT FEES. This is the most STUPID thing that Vegas hotels can do with the downturn in the economy.

  • Chuck

    cheapovegas.com is one of the best websites I’ve found that really go into the establishment and give you the skinny on EVERYTHING. It’s also a site that’s done with a bit of humor.

    no i don’t work for them. they have additional information on Reno as well.

  • Becca

    Whether they could give her the specific details regarding her reservation or not, the least they could have done is respond to her, even just to explain to her what they explained to Chris. The thought that you can ignore someone until you have concrete details is a bad way to deal with customers. People want to know that their issue is being looked at, and their patronage is appreciated. If a company cannot convey that, they should not be in business (but just look at the airline/rental car industries – oh well).

  • Joan

    I thought the response you received, Chris, was superb, and agree that the company could have told the guest the same. My gut says that there is more to this than we know.
    And generally about assigning rooms ahead of time: it’s very rare even if one calls a hotel. They are dependent on check-outs and thus availability and do their best. I am sure your readers would not to be kicked out of a room if they extended their stay so an arriving guest would have the room “promised.”

  • Ed

    but you know…would it have been so hard for Blue Chip to send the customer the explanation that they sent to Chris? I mean, at the risk of alienating the customer, why keep that a secret? It doesn’t make sense that the customer attempted to contact Blue Chip as the customer states: “I’ve sent numerous emails and have received no responses. I called their toll-free number today at 12:03 p.m., left a message,
    and so far no return call.”
    Why wouldn’t Blue Chip return the call? What what their malfunction? Where was the breakdown? Why did it take a known travel ombudsman to intervene? These are the things that bother me… There’s something inherently wrong when you need a third party ombudsman to intervene in order to get something as simple as an explanation.
    If I were Blue Chip, I would take a step back and examine my customer interaction policies and find out where the breakdown occurred.
    Ed
    web/gadget guru

  • LeeAnne

    I’m with the majority here: Blue Chip’s policies surrounding room assignments are reasonable; it’s customer communications (or lack thereof) are not. While the term “jaw-droppingly” might have been a little bit of hyperbole (I’ve definitely heard of worse customer service!), I can certainly understand the OP’s irritation at being essentially completely ignored…if that is, in fact, what happened.

    As Blue Chip stated, there are always two sides to a story, and according to them, Ms. Ross had made numerous schedule changes to her reservation. How did she make them, if she had no communication with them? So I’m reluctant to fully accept that Blue Chip completely ignored her.

    I also believe that her expectation that she’d be assigned a specific room, rather than a “type” of room, is unreasonable. I don’t know any hotel that does that – and the condo-type hotel makes it even less likely that will happen. Blue Chip’s explanation made perfect sense to me…and they could have avoided her perception of bad service by sending it to her themselves.

    That being said, Ms. Ross might want to reserve such histrionics for a situation in which she is REALLY receiving bad customer service. If she travels enough, she’ll encounter one.

  • jen

    I disagree. Not related to travel but this happens in my business all the time. Some people pester you for information when there is no information to give. You try to give good customer service but after several communications sometimes you have to say enough. It seems like Blue Chip’s response to Chris still did not confirm that she would get the room she wanted, so they didn’t respond because they could not give her the information she was requesting. If I were Blue Chip I’d give the lady back her deposit and tell her to take her business elsewhere to save myself the frustration of her constant rescheduling and complaints.

  • EricR

    @jen – I completely agree with you. Having worked in customer service for most of the ’90s, I can attest that it’s always preferable to refund a deposit to a difficult customer rather than have to deal with h/her constant wasting of a company’s time. The customer can’t complain because s/he has received all of h/her money back, and the company is happy because it’s rid if said complainy customer.

    Blue Chip should just give Ms. Ross back her money, politely apologize for not being able to meet her expectations, and then revel in the knowledge that Ms. Ross will never see that corner room booking directly through the hotel.

  • LeeAnne

    @EricR – that’s a very un-customer-focused attitude. While I understand your point, some of those “complainy” customers are worth the extra efforts to keep them happy. Any business that is interested in earning long-term customer loyalty, and a reputation for providing superior customer service, is going to be willing to go the extra mile to win over even the difficult customers.

    Naturally any business has to watch out for the really over-the-top complainers – the ones that truly AREN’T worth the effort. There’s a great article about one of those types who got banned from Royal Caribbean here: http://www.tripso.com/columns/banned-from-royal-caribbean-for-complaing-too-much/

    But to torpedo a client just because they’re somewhat high-maintenance – especially a new one? That’s a quick way to torpedo your business. I don’t know too many companies in this economy that are flush enough to throw money away just because they have to work a little harder for it. Maybe in a bull market you might see more of that…but to do that today is just customer-service suicide. How would they know that Ms Ross isn’t a frequent Vegas visitor who might end up putting thousands in Blue Chips’s coffers over the next couple years? Is it really a good business decision to throw that possiblity away just because she’s not an “easy” sale?

    Personally, I don’t want to do business with a company that doesn’t want to work hard for me…or for my business. Sometimes I’m going to be needy…and sometimes I’m going to be easy. If they only want me when I’m easy, forget it – I’ll take my money to a company that actually values my business, and is willing to put in the effort for it.

  • http://www.discovernortherncalifornia.com Suzi

    “As you know there are always two sides to a story. Ms. Ross has rescheduled her stay numerous times … ”
    I think this is the most telling part of the story – Ms Ross doesn’t seem to have mentioned “numerous” reschedulings in her communications with you, which might be trying even for those with the best of intentions in terms of customer service. There truly are “always two sides to a story.”

  • http://http/aol.com barbie45

    There are two sides to every story. However this company is user unfriendly. True the customer did reschedule. so what? There was no stipulation that she could not. Considering the status of the property getting the accomodations you want is up in the air. Frankly the company should have responded to her. It seems if you choose the travel business you realize that customer service should be the the number one priority. I would never want to deal with this company now that I have read about this incident.

  • EricR

    @LeeAnne -

    I was referring to the over-the-top complainers you referenced, not a standard customer whose hand you need to hold to get their business. The amount of time some businesses waste on those types (who will never be happy and quite frequently turn other normally reliable customers against the company) can be spent on business development and outreach that more than makes up for the lost loser customer.

    Also, a well-trained customer service team will know how to refund a consistently complainy customer’s money while making the customer feel good about it, not even realizing that he or she has just been dropped. You just have to point out that they’ve been complaining so much, they must not truly like the service you provide, and perhaps they’d be happier at a competitor (which they won’t, but at least then it’s the competitor’s problem!)

    If you’ve worked in customer service for any stretch of time, you’ll understand that there is a percentage of customers who are NOT good for business, and the best you can hope to do is diplomatically dissuade them from doing business with you in the future. The article you linked demonstrates that in spades!

  • JohannesT

    @EricR and Jen
    I absolutely agree with you both. Customer-centric service is about creating winning partnerships. If service providers cannot set and deliver upon the reasonable expectations of the customers, then for their own sake and benefit, they may perhaps find that they are best served elsewhere.

    It is not the intention of a business that aims to be successful to throw away or give up any customers – absolutely not. But there are some customers whose demands may be unreasonable, or who may have justifiable but very time/work/effort consuming demands. Allowing the tough ones to go saves everyone time and angst.

    I agree the company should have responded after numerous calls – not getting requested feedback from a service provider is very frustrating. If the company couldn’t get the OP the info she wanted, the best option may have been to either explain the situation (yes, again) or allow her to go find another servicer for what she’s looking for. Less-than-ideal customers does not mean that a business has a free pass to provide less-than-reasonably-expected service.

  • JDR

    I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with using travel-booking websites. At LAX we landed with 2.5 hours to spare for our UNITED flight to Phoenix. The people at UNITED were so slow that we actually spent the 2.5 hours in the check-in line and missed our connection. I ended up forking out an additional $250.00 for seats on a SOUTHWEST flight to Phoenix. UNITED would do nothing for us claiming we needed to put in a claim with CHEAPTICKETS.COM and, CT.com said we needed to contact UNITED’s customer service. Same with EXPEDIA.COM on a hotel in Anaheim, CA. The place was a DUMP and when we asked for a refund so we could search for a better hotel we got the old “contact EXPEDIA” line from the hotel and a “well, it’s up to the hotel” crap from EXPEDIA. I do my own online research and booking now.

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