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Phyllis Stoller has a BA from Tufts University, an MA from New York University and a Finance Degree from the University of the South Bank, London England. Phyllis Stoller founded and managed for 16 years, the largest tour operator for women in North America. She was voted top in women’s travel by Travel & Leisure Magazine,the first to receive this honor. Phyllis has appeared on The Today Show, CNN, Lifetime TV for Women and others. She is a consultant on marketing to women.
Phyllis now resides in New York City and London, England and is affiliated with ECPS Consulting Corporation in New York. She prides herself on her family: husband, Eric, a ‘keeper’, sons Nick (comedy writer and director of Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and Matt , a progressive political strategist who works with liberal Democratic candidates.
For more information:
@toursforwomen in Twitter
Past Articles
TRAVEL TIPS FOR TOMATOES
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Ways to Complain with Your Pen, Cell Phone and Camera.
-- Phyllis Stoller
The busy holiday season is here and travel activity can overwhelm the travel industry. Inevitably there will be someone complaining about something. Here are the right ways to get your way!
If you have a valid travel complaint, you must be professional when registering it or your issue will be trashed. One way to prove your complaint is to take accurate notes, get names and titles and photograph the problem if possible. An organized frame of mind has to overcome your hysteria.
You must be totally factual about the background of the complaint. This might mean looking up telephone records to get the day and time and length of a phone call or fax. Do not say you were on hold for an hour when the phone bill indicates 15 minutes! Even if you do not usually print records for outgoing faxes, do print out any relevant fax logs. If you are really on hold for an hour, include your phone bill with your complaint letter.
It is illegal to tape phone calls, but take notes: Who is it? What is the ticket number of the call? Where are they located? Did a phone number register on yours when they called back, if they did? Combine that information with your phone bill . Sometimes asking if you may email them details for accuracy, you might get an actual individual email. If you have a speaker phone, you might consider using it for effect. Finally taking notes about the conversation and repeating them to the next level of personnel shows you are on it.
If you book something on the net, say an upgrade request on your ticket, print the web page, filled out by you. The airline check in personnel do not have access to information from an airline booking page. They only see what is in the computer. Bringing the upgrade request is one step towards getting their attention. Still not on the upgrade list? Take a picture of the list as it appears on the overhead monitor in the departure lounge. You have proved you requested the upgrade, and you have proved you were not on their list. Now if the airline personnel get nasty, which unfortunately ‘hospitality’ staff may do during busy stressful times, take their photo with their name tag in it!!!!! Now certify mail it all to your airline’s customer complaint department with a cc to the CEO. Heh, why not the CEO. His staff will definitely open a certified letter.
While you are building your case, you are smiling and being as nice as an angry person can be.
Here is something that happened to me:
I was booked into a deluxe hotel in Chicago and had called ahead of time to alert them I was arriving at midnight. When I arrived, the hotel was overbooked and they transferred me to another hotel at 1AM. I had to work the next day but then went back to hotel number one and asked for the Manager. Usually you will get the Asst Manager or Manager on call. Do not settle for anyone lower even if you have to stand at the reception desk for a while. .
When the Asst Manager came down, I asked him to sit away from his hiding place behind the desk. You must either get them to sit down or invite you to their office. I told him what happened. He was unreceptive. I asked him cordially if he was married. Yes. “So if your wife arrived at a fine hotel at midnight, and actually told the hotel she would be late, AND they turned her away, put her in a strange taxi to a new hotel, AND no one in her family knew where she was staying???? Would you feel good about that hotel? Now we were on touchy territory. Of course not is what he said.
At this stage, all travel service personnel think you want a refund. Without my asking, he said we will comp your night. Thank you, but I want a letter of apology from the General Manager to show that this hotel cares about women. With his card and the name of the GM, I left happily. Post Script: never got the letter, so I mailed a certified letter to the CEO of the hotel chain detailing everything with a photocopy of the Asst. Manager’s card. Get that card. A lot of work? Yes, but I did get a letter from the hotel manager which one hopes made him think twice about our needs.
Photographs and Other Proof:
You may photograph problems:
---A bad meal on a tour? Take a picture of the food. Video and tape record with their permission, others saying yech to it. Vendors always say you are the only complainer.
---An empty airplane where you were squished in between others and could not move? Make a list of every empty seat, row and seat number.
---Worse: carry-on luggage in the aisle or hidden under someone’s blanket? First say something to staff, get both the purser and captain’s proper names, then photograph it when you can safely.
---Construction near your hotel room? Photo time!
---Poster announcing great new gym, which turns out to be a hole in the wall? Picture!
---Concierge too close to other guests who can hear you room number? Or desk clerk says it too loudly? Say something on the spot, and photograph the concierge desk later on.
--A list of your tour’s passengers along with their room numbers? And yes I have seen this! Snap and Click.
---When using a credit card, tell the vendor to prove that you signed the draft or in some way agreed to the purchase.
Complaining is not fun, but if you really feel done over, you have to say something or the customer service will get worse. Google has just agreed to lower ratings for companies with bad service. This significant change was prompted by a New York Times article and a furious female consumer.
First double check that you really did not get what was printed and offered, then suit up and go to battle.
Feel free to email me problems you have experienced with travel and I am happy to try to help with battle plans. Happy Holidays to all,
