Thursday, July 21, 2011

Another Telephone Pet Peeve

Answering the telephone at work yields an endless realm of possibilities. Sometimes it's an enjoyable experience - you help people change reservations, choose rooms, correct mistakes. Other times, less so.

Me: Good morning, thank you for calling -----. This is ----- speaking, how may I assist you?
Caller: Yeah, I wanted to know how far you are from [insert random small town that I've never heard of here].
Me: Umm...I'm not really sure, to be honest. Where's that located? (caller gives more detail, I still don't know) I'm not familiar with that town, sorry. (I wouldn't mind looking it up, but the computers at work are incredibly slow)
Caller: Oh, okay. I'll just look it up on the computer.

End call. And the reason they didn't just look it up to begin with? Unknown.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Dumb Question of the Day

This week has been busy. My hotel is a business hotel, but with this week being considered a "holiday" week and all, we have a lot of leisure travelers. Leisure travelers who miss breakfast (no, you cannot lounge in your room until 11 and then get upset breakfast isn't still being served), call down repeatedly to ask for things, need directions to get everywhere, need suggestions for entertainment...busy times.

So today, I was fairly busy at the desk. A guest approaches the side of it and I walk over to him. I wasn't able to pay attention to the entire lobby at that point and there had no idea where he came from. He was holding two Kit-Kats.

Him: Are these for sale?
I was momentarily stumped by this question. I mean, if he got them from the market, of course they're for sale - they're not free. But I would assume someone would know that and not ask such an asinine question.
Me: Excuse me? (at this point, I was hoping he would expand on his question. Alas, he did not.)
Him: Are these for sale?
Me: Did you get them from the market?
Him: (looking at me like I'm an idiot) Yes.
Me; Then yes, they're for sale. That will be three dollars.

Seriously?