Difficult Phone Calls aka Stupid Questions

I know I have done an entry on here about phone calls where people mumble or don’t really pay attention during the phone call. But seeing as I just got out of an hour long training session on dealing with difficult clients, I thought I would share with you some of my favorite calls I have received from clients in my duration here:

1) I once got yelled at for not being a mind reader. No joke. The lady asked me why I never mentioned the option of visiting a certain city in Thailand. I replied that I didn’t even think of it since it would be adding another three days onto their tour. Her answer: Well you should have. I thought your company anticipated what I might consider doing while traveling.
2) Having to explain to people why they “lose” a day flying from Los Angeles to Sydney. See, you cross the International Date Line and just lose that day. So, if your tour starts on the 24th, you need to actually leave LAX on the 22nd. The 23rd goes bye bye. This makes people ask really dumb questions like:
- Are you charging me for that lost day? Because I don’t think I should pay for something that doesn’t exist.
- Does that mean it is a 48 hour flight?
- Where does the day go? Do they actually have Thursdays in Australia?
And so on and so on.
3) People who complain about the food that was on their tour. My personal fav was the comment about how while on a tour of China, there was “too much Chinese food”.
4) A client once accused me of trying to ruin their trip because I couldn’t get the make or model of Rolls Royce they requested in Italy to pick them up.
5) Quite a few clients don’t understand why I need their passport numbers, even though we are the ones booking their tour, hotels, air, and processing their visa. I, personally, would give as much information to the people that I was entrusting with my life while I spent two weeks in a foreign land.
6) The clients who don’t understand why we don’t have tours to Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, or Sudan. But when I point out we do have one that goes to North Korea, they say “Why on earth would anyone want to go there?”

I guess this is just part of dealing with people in any industry. Anyone else have any fun stories about phone calls?

The Office Scribe