How May I Help You? NO!
To pay the bills and support my writing dream while I’ve been here in Canada, I’ve had to do a few shitty jobs. My last one was as a travel agent. Now, to clarify, before people get offended, I classify a shitty job as any job that doesn’t have you following your passion. So, save the complaint letters please.
Anyhoo, for me, this job was particularly shitty because you HAVE to give a crap about it. You can’t just show up, breeze through the days and collect your pay cheque. If you mess up on this job, you’re messing up someone’s holiday and that’s kind of a big deal.
Anyone who knows me or reads this blog regularly has probably picked up on my low tolerance for bullshit, so a job in the customer service arena, while I’ve had many of them through the years, is probably not best suited to me.
The clientele in a travel agency however are among the more annoying type of customer. Here are the top few types of encounter that made me want to stab myself in the neck with a pencil (so, in case you wander into a travel agency, you know not to do this):
“I want to go away somewhere…anywhere!”
Yeah, that’s nice doll, but let’s face facts, you don’t. If I suggest Outer Mongolia, odds are, you’re gonna turn it down. “Well, can you narrow it down a little? Whereabouts would you like to go?” “Anywhere!” This was usually greeted with extensive eye rolling by me. Listen, it’s a commission based job and I simply did not get paid enough to spend an entire day going through a frikkin’ atlas with these fools only to have them do a one week all inclusive in Cuba. Kiss my ass.
“I want to go to Africa/Thailand/Australia/Any far away country but I don’t want to spend over $500.”
Yeah, good luck with that homie. Tell me how it works out, because I surely can’t help you. There are more people than you could ever imagine who, after you tell them this little escapade is not logistically possible, will argue the point with you til the cows come home. Never mind that the flight alone to these places will cost more than double their budget. My suggestion to them was usually to start swimming.
“But I saw it cheaper online.”
Then I suggest you book it online asswipe. You know why the price is never usually the same? Because travel websites don’t update in real time (it’s virtually impossible for them to do so, because the prices are based on availability of seats, which changes every nano second). So when you see that flight to L.A for $500, in the time it takes you to make it to the travel agent, someone else has bought that flight and the price of the next available seat has gone up. You see how it works? Good, so don’t sit in front of me for an hour debating online prices. I’m not online, I’m right here in your face telling you to shut the hell up.
“But it was $20 less online/at this other travel agent.”
If you’re quibbling about $20, you can’t afford to go on vacation. Plain and simple.
There are many other scenarios which drove me to distraction, but luckily I worked with awesome people who could talk me off the ledge when I was about to roundhouse kick someone. So, spare a thought for the person you’re dealing with, in any customer service environment and know that they really don’t get paid enough to tolerate your bull.
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Tags: annoying people, customer service or lack thereof, travel agents
