Chapter 8: The Best Things in Life are Free?

You ever heard the saying, "the customer is always right"? For those of you who work in customer services, you would probably think this is wrong when in actual fact, it is very true. I've mentioned before how I can come across as quite shy and when it comes to confrontation - especially with sales assistants - I am VERY sheepish. However, I have also mentioned how Luke has encouraged me to always raise questions when it concerns getting my moneys worth, e.g. my car insurance last month. After many phone calls and talking to different sales assistants, I finally got the desired insurance I was looking for.
Last weekend myself and Luke went to Liverpool for my friend, Amy's 21st. When we booked this over the phone, the conversation went like this:

Luke: Hi, just wondering how much a room is for this Saturday please?
Receptionist: Okay, a room with a window is (X amount) and a room without is (X amount)

(without a window was more, don't ask me why).

Luke: Okay well I have found them for these prices online and your website said you could beat it by 10%?
Receptionist: Ahh yes, this is only valid with certain websites.
Luke: But your website said you could beat it by 10%??
Receptionist: I'm afraid we can't do anything about that as you have gone on one of the websites that isn't on that list.
Luke: But your website said you could beat it by 10%???

Turns out, being super persistent gets you what you want.

We arrived at the hotel and checked in as normal. I don't know about you, but the most daunting thing after checking into any hotel whether it is at home or abroad, is whether the room meets your standards. WELL, as soon as we walked in (barely) the room was far too small. We knew the room would be smaller than usual because the woman we booked it with mentioned this...but we didn't think it would be fitting for a few Guinea Pigs. Other than the size, the room itself was quite nice, clean and we had a fantastic view of the City. Nevertheless, we decided to mention this to the Receptionist. I left all the talking to Luke (as per). This is how the conversation went:

Luke: Hi, we have just checked in and our room is extremely small. Is there any chance you could move us to a bigger room?
Manager: Let me just check what room you are in... Ahh yes. Well we could upgrade you to a Queen size room for an extra £20?
Luke: Right okay... All I want to know is if you have any bigger rooms for the same price? I paid (X amount) for this room at additional 10% discount as your website said you could do this with any internet price we found for your hotel?
Manager: Yes, but this is a different day and most hotels are going for £120+ today.
Luke: But I booked this a few days ago and have already paid, which in my eyes, is FAR to much for the standard of the room you have given us.

I won't go into the entire conversation, but let's just say, it didn't end well! We didn't get an upgrade and when my friend arrived, her room was much bigger for the same priced double room we booked over the phone. Luke even threatened to write a bad review (the first bad review for this hotel) on Trip Advisor; this didn't phase them.
So as soon as we arrived home, Luke was on it like a car bonnet. He wrote a letter to HR and it sounded really professional, until this:
"Nowhere did it state on your website that your rooms cater for characters out of the Lord Of The Rings Trilogy."
A man of many words... He also wrote a bad review on Trip Advisor. But needless to say, we had a speedy response. The woman apologised for the inconvenience and offered us a free Queen size room for the night if we deleted the Trip Advisor review. Low and behold, we are now planning our next trip to Liverpool, ha! But this just goes to show, that if you have had a bad experience or you feel something did not meet your standards, you should ALWAYS follow through with it and take it further. But please ladies, don't EVER do this:

I don't know HOW she got a refund, but this certainly wouldn't happen in England, haha!
I hope this has encouraged all of you to complain about, well, everything! In the end, you will come to an agreement, if not, something better than you hoped for! Worst case scenario, this could happen...

Buenos dias mi amigos!
T.