I have heard that you never know how a company is until you have a problem with them, and let me confirm, that is indeed the case. I have used the Hotwire "Hot Deals" in the past and had no problems... I am assuming that is because I never had to deal with their "customer service".
Here is what happened: I am planning a vacation and was checking out some hotel deals online, I found a deal on Hotwire's website that I was ready to purchase. There is a button that says "BUY NOW", I clicked the button and proceeded to fill out the information, upon completion the system kicked me out and said there was a system error. I went through the same steps multiple times and kept having the same issue.
At this point I opened a chat window to chat with their online rep who walked me through the process again and seemed to have the same problem. He assured me that I could get the deal if I called their 1-800 number and worked with a rep there. I spent the next 20 min going over the deal (which was still showing both on the website and on the rep's computer). At that point the rep informed me that the deal was no longer available (although it still appeared on the website for the next 6 hours... false advertising??).
This rep was very friendly but I asked to speak to her supervisor feeling frustrated that I had been led on at that point for over two hours for a deal that was "non-existent". I was connected with a supervisor named Chris who was one of the most condescending people I have ever spoken with. He opened the conversation with "I see you aren't able to book a deal that isn't available, what is there to question about that". Impressive start Hotwire.
After asking him to listen to my experience, I explained that I had saved the chat log from my talk with their online rep where he stated that the deal was still in effect and I could "take my time". He asked me to read where it said the deal was guaranteed (why am I coming to your site if I can't trust the information that YOU post). I read that part three or four times but he didn't want anything to do with it.
Chris was very defensive and didn't offer ANY suggestions or ways to help which is what I would expect from somebody in customer service. I asked to speak with his supervisor and he stated that he didn't have a supervisor. After more conversation he stated he could have somebody call me back "but it will take about 48 hours".
Here is THE BEST PART. I was very interested in letting his manager know about the way he treated me. I had given them my work number and wasn't at my desk when the manager called. The manager left a voicemail that said "This is Susan, I am a manager at Hotwire.com, I see that you are trying to book a hotel with us, feel free to call any associate at 1-800-Hotwire and they can assist you with booking"......
UM, HELLO??!?!? I wanted to let you know about the poor customer service and have you work with me on how we can resolve the problem with your system that allowed me to waste hours of my day and then not have you honor the prices you are advertising. (6 hours later the same hotel was listed on the site for $40 more per night, yet the hotel was "unavailable" sounds like an illegal "bait and switch" type of scheme to me).
Hotwire doesn't seem to be a company you can trust to follow through with it's advertising. If the deal was "unavailable" why did it remain posted on the site for six hours at the same rate etc? I was told that it was unavailable at that rate but they could do it for an additional $40 per night... (Here is an idea, since you had an issue, take that $40 from your commission on the hotel).
Bottom line, be wary of Hotwire and don't support businesses that aren't willing to take care of their mistakes and treat people properly. HOTWIRE: TRAIN YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGERS!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment