| So true, so true. It's not just for game store people either. I had this conversation more often than I'd like to believe when I did hotel reservations sales,
Me: Thank you for calling (hotel chain). This is Danielle, how can I help you?
Customer: Yeah, I'd like a room for (date) in (city)
Me: Just a moment I'll see what we've got available.
Checking of computer follows. With or without time filling chatter. The computer displays no vacancies.
Me: I'm sorry, I'm afraid we're sold out there on that date. May I---
Customer: Interrupting mid-sentence, No you're not.
Me: No, I'm sorry, it really does look like we're sold out.
Customer: How can you be sold out?
(This was often asked by someone calling for reservations in New Orleans for Mardi Gras a week before the event, or Christmas shopping season in New York at the beginning of December--if you don't know, both are times and ocassions where hotel rooms are in high demand. In the case of this hotel chain's location in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, people often booked a year in advance, essentially, before they left the hotel they booked for the same time next year).
Me: (with one of the following)Well, it is a pretty busy time of year/ I guess there must be something big going on/ we have a lot of conventions in town then/ some other reason why we might not have rooms. You know, I could check some other dates, or another one of our hotels in the area if you'd like. (I know, sometimes you need that hotel on those dates and nothing else works, but it's only polite to be accommodating)
Customer: That's impossible.
The conversation would continue like this. Some customers arguing longer than others. Some wanted my supervisor. Some just hung up on me, some threatened to take their business elsewhere and assured me that no member of their familly, neightborhood, organization, or state would ever patronize our hotels again. Some finally accepted it and were moderately polite about.
At any rate, I always wanted to say. Of course, I'm lying. We have plenty of rooms. It's just I knew it was you and I want to mess with you. After all, jt's not like I'm getting paid to sell hotel rooms here.
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One cat leads to another--Ernest Hemingway.
Writing is very easy. All you do is sit in front of a typewriter (or computer)keyboard and wait until little drops of blood appear on your forehead."
-- Walter W. "Ked" Smith
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