Days Inn - Don't Call Us. We'll Call You (NOT!)

We drove an extra hour to the Days Inn at Cleveland, MS, because it advertised gym/exercise facilities. After several days of relative inactivity due to visiting friends and long hours of car travel, we were looking forward to a bit of a workout. After checking in, I inquired about the gym and was told that it was out of order! Imagine our disappointment. Actually, we felt more than disappointed. We felt cheated!

Wanting to make sure that we had not been mistaken, we checked the website once more and saw that these facilities were still advertised as being available. Okay, I know we could get semantic here and make a distinction between the facilities being available (which technically speaking, they were) and functional or operational (which they were not). However, I believe that the average traveler would equate facilities that are listed as available as also being functional, and felt that if they were not functional, this should be clearly indicated on the website.

I phoned the Days Inn customer service number and was told that a fax would be sent to the hotel management immediately and someone from the motel would get in touch with me shortly, at most within a day or two.

The next morning, upon checking out, I inquired about this. The desk clerk knew nothing about the situation and the motel manager had not yet come in, despite the fact that it was already 11 o'clock in the morning. When I asked the clerk if she could give us a discount on the room rate or some other form of compensation, she said she couldn't. So I had no choice but to pay the bill and leave.

Two mornings later, we had still not heard anything, so I called customer service again. This time I got a representative that was definitely less sympathetic and helpful. She told me that according to Days Inn's agreement with its franchisees, the motel manager had up to 7 days to get back to me before they could do anything. SEVEN DAYS! Holy cow, which century are we living in?!!! We're not talking about creating the universe here! In today's high-speed world, customer service organizations have GOT to do a lot better than that! This issue should have been dealt with before we left the motel, because the only compensation that would have meant anything to us at that point is a financial discount of some sort. What is that particular motel going to be able to do after we're gone that will mean anything to us at all? We will probably never pass that way again.

In my humble opinion, any motel manager that doesn't deal with an issue before the customer leaves the premises just blew a great opportunity to turn a negative experience into some positive and very economical PR. For the cost of a 10% price discount, they could have had a far better return on advertising investment than most anything their marketing department could have come up with. I'd have told everyone about it!

And any motel chain that gives its franchise managers up to 7 days to respond to a complaint negates any claim to take customer service and satisfaction seriously. Days Inn offers decent facilities for decent rates. But our customer service experience at their Cleveland, MS, motel, and at the corporate level has us seriously reconsidering our plans to stay in any more of their facilities.

Sure, we could call ahead to verify things before we arrive, but we shouldn't have to. What we see on their website should be exactly what we get when we arrive there. However, I realize that screw ups can happen to anyone. That's okay, provided they are quickly and appropriately dealt with. But taking up to 7 days to do anything about a customer complaint merely adds insult to injury, and turns a simple molehill of customer dissatisfaction into a whole mountain of it. They're darn lucky I'm the type of person that just suffers quietly under injustice instead of whining and complaining to everyone about it! :P

Hooray for PayPass, I Think...

One of the things I loved about Starbucks when I first made the switch from Tim Hortons, besides the great coffee, was the fact that they took credit cards! No more having to worry if I had enough money with me to buy a coffee, or having to fumble around trying to get the right change out of my pocket. Just hand over the card, get it swiped, and get it back. At first I had to sign the receipt, but then they even did away with that. It was great! In fact, I would often say to the baristas, "I love the fact that you take credit cards! It's my second main reason for coming to Starbucks instead of going to Tim Hortons." But I had to laugh at the response I sometimes got: "So what's your first reason?" Ha! If they had to ask that question, maybe they were in the wrong job!

However, I'm not above going to a Tims when there's no Starbucks available. I was delighted when they began taking credit cards too. I was even more delighted when I saw that they had PayPass machines! I learned to love these little things at Zehrs where all you had to do was pull out your card, tap it on the machine, and presto! The transaction was done! No more handing over the card and standing there waiting for ages to get it back while the transaction was approved by the powers on high. Now it was quick and easy.

So it was with great anticipation that I went into Tim Hortons a few weeks ago. There was a line-up so it was several minutes before I could place my order. Once that was done, I prepared to pay for it the quick and easy way with PayPass, sure that the people waiting in line behind me would be impressed with such speed and efficiency, allowing them to move along a little faster than someone fumbling for change or waiting for credit card approval.

The young lady behind the counter just looked at me. "You want to do what? PayPass? Um, I don't think I know how to do that... Hang on a minute, I'll have to find someone..." I stood there, waiting... and waiting... and waiting... afraid to turn around and look at the people behind me for fear that they were thinking, "Who's this jerk making life complicated and holding up the whole darn line?!!!" Finally the young lady came back with another employee, and slowly, they went through the correct procedure that allowed me to access the PayPass machine. This little device was supposed to speed things up! But because the employees didn't know how to use it, it actually slowed things down significantly. Oh well, I thought, I helped the young lady learn it for the next guy that comes along.

A few days ago, I went into the same Tim Hortons and placed my order. The young lady behind the counter gave me the total, and I said "PayPass, please." She just looked at me. Sigh....

A Great New Business Idea!

You know what we really need when it comes to cars and garages? Independent diagnostics and inspection centres, places where they won’t do any of the actual repairs for you, just check over your car and let you know what’s wrong with it and what needs to be done to repair it. Unlike today’s garages, there will be no benefit for them to tell you that you need something done on your car that you really don’t. And they won’t lose any business if they tell you that all you really need is a shot of lubricant in your door lock rather than replacing the entire locking mechanism. Then if you actually want the work done, you’ll have to go to the garage of your choice for that.

This will eliminate what I believe to be a serious conflict of interest that currently exists at all car repair facilities. When they inspect or diagnose problems on your car, it’s in their best interest to recommend not just what really needs to be done, but everything that possibly needs to be done. The problem is that they don’t always distinguish between the two. If you know anything about cars, you can sometimes tell what really needs to be done and what’s optional when presented with a repair estimate. But if automobiles are rocket science to you, you're at the mercy of the mechanic or customer service agent. And they're not above making things sound far more serious than they actually are, sometimes frightening you into work that is optional rather than essential.

I don't care how much they talk about serving the customer and doing things in your best interest, human nature is human nature! My experience shows that in most cases, a repair facility’s interest in maximizing revenue takes priority over your interest in minimizing expenditures.

Independent diagnostics and inspection centres. A great, new business idea from Mike! Well, actually it was my wife’s idea… But I’m sharing it with you :P