Comfort Inn Misnamed

Consumer service is such a delicate thing, so easily ruined. I've just come back from a trip to Canada. The travel part involved flying out of Oakland airport to New York city, staying overnight, then hoping Amtrak to Montreal.

For reasons beyond my control, I missed my original plane reservation, which would have had me landing in New York at 6 in the evening and staying at the Comfort Inn near JF Kennedy airport. While sitting in the airport waiting for my new flight, which would get me into JFK airport just 2 hours before the train departed for Canada, I realized I needed to cancel my Comfort Inn reservation. I quickly dialed the toll-free number and got a nice lady who told me I needed to call the hotel directly to cancel by talking to the General Manager.

While making the call and looking at the email from Comfort Inn confirming my reservation, I saw that reservations needed to be cancelled 24 hours in advance. As Michelle answered the hotel's phone, I realized why I needed to speak with the GM.

The ensuing conversation made my blood boil! I now knew that I was in the wrong, but since the original customer service rep I spoke to - and who had given me the direct number to the hotel - had told me I needed to speak with the GM to cancel my reservation, I thought I might have a chance of not being charged.

Ha! It was a downhill situation from the beginning. I explained I was stuck in an airport, it was out of my control, and that I wouldn't even be in New York to stay in a hotel, that I wasn't trying to stay at a competitors' hotel, etc.

Michelle answered the phone, and was rude and obstreperous from the beginning, She showed no empathy for a traveler's plight, said that I would not be speaking to the GM because he wasn't in and she didn't know when he would be (implying maybe never), and generally telling me to pay up and go away. When I pressed to find out when the GM would return, she proceeded to lie, saying she didn't know. When I asked her if she was willing to be held accountable for saying she didn't know when the GM would be in, she started waffling and wiffling, trying to back-pedal on her statement. I told her I understood that she did not have any control over this, and that I was simply asking to speak to her manager.

I got nowhere.

In the end, I asked that the GM call me, but figuring that she would not bother to pass the message onwards.

If Michelle had showed empathy (e.g., "I'm sorry, I hope the rest of your trip goes better") I would have been perfectly amenable and understood. (I am a former government employee and have respect for the place rules play in human getting along.) She could have had me off the phone in two minutes. But her rude behavior put my hackles up, and I dug my heels in, deciding I really wanted to try to get out of my reservation.

Did I get a call back? Nope: instead, in my mail box when I returned from a wonderful trip, I found a form letter - photocopied, with my first name written in ink in the appropriate space - that was a travesty of professionalism. All in all, a horrid experience - Comfort Inn at Jamaica Station near JFK Airport is missing a "dis" in their name.

Tags: customer service