Talk like an Egyptian
Somak’s sales and marketing manager Mark Haughton called in to update us on the company’s brochures and to tell us about educationals currently available to counter staff.
Based in Middlesex, Mark had trespassed far beyond the city limits to find himself here in Gillingham. What, we wondered, was he doing in these foreign parts? He explained he was fulfiling two functions: first, he was visiting agents during the day but the evening would see him promoting Somak at the TIPTO promotional evening in Bournemouth.
Somak’s travel programmes are diverse and far reaching and I asked Mark whether, because of this, they receive any unusual complaints. He replied that two stood out in his memory. The first was a letter from a client who wanted to complain at Somak’s audacity in using a photograph of him without his permission.
The client went on to cite page 130 as the home of the offending image. The picture was of Tutankhamen and the client claimed to be the Egyptian king’s reincarnation. How the complaint was resolved I forgot to ask – maybe mum’s the word!
The second, less eerie complaint came from a client who had lost a bag in Goa. Apparently the client was being driven in a taxi which he asked to stop while he popped out to buy something. Instead the taxi driver had driven off with the client’s bag on the back seat.
If he thought he’d got away with something of value, however, he was sorely mistaken; the bag contained ice cubes. The worthless booty did not prevent the client from filing a cool claim for compensation though! We thanked Mark for his time and directed him to Bournemouth. We warned him that the drive is tedious at the best of times but it would undoubtedly be worse as the rush hour approached.
He looked a little perturbed and revealed he had only just passed his driving test and the journey to us had been his first long trip. We can only hope he won’t have been put off returning to see us another time!
Technology blues
It has taken me some time to reconcile myself to the proliferation of automated telephone services employed by most operators. With a poor memory, I never remember which number I need to press once I’ve heard the menu but to hear that the written word is also very nearly extinct in the trade worries me greatly.
Keith at Mayflower Travel in Essex brought this new development to my attention recently when he received a call from Fred Olsen Cruises advising him that a cabin had been overbooked.
He was informed that the client he had booked onto the cruise three months ago would have to change. Keith was puzzled. Why had the overbooking taken so long to come to light? Technology had failed in this case.
In the old days of manual booking, such a problem would have been spotted immediately, instead of which Keith now had the unpleasant task of approaching the clients with the disappointing news.
To ensure that the clients were in no doubt as to why they weren’t getting what they had booked and how the problem had arisen, Keith asked for something in writing from the operator. The reply to this reasonable request was that ‘We don’t write letters any more’.
Upon Keith’s insistence a supervisor was summoned who told him that he’d be sent a new invoice but there would be no written explanation. Once again he was told ‘we don’t write letters any more.’
All of which calls to mind the old Fats Waller track – ‘I’m gonna sit right down and write myself a letter and make believe it came from you’. Maybe he’d been dealing with Fred Olsen Cruises too.
Bed creates double trouble
It was worth the 2hrs 30mins journey to London to attend the glittering Canada Travel Awards 11th annual gala dinner at the Dorchester Hotel. My invitation had come from Travelpack and I was pleased to accept.
Once in London, I made my way to the Millennium Brittanic Hotel in Grosvenor Square where I had arranged to meet Debbie from Tauck Tours with whom I was to share a room. The room was well appointed, overlooking the square but contained a double bed rather than the twin singles we expected. Debbie, who had arrived first, alerted the staff who efficiently sent up a chamber maid to separate the double into its single components.
While Debbie and I changed for our big night out, the chambermaid set about her task. It soon proved rather more difficult than she’d anticipated and the services of a handyman with a screwdriver were quickly enlisted. Before long a supervisor appeared on the scene to make sure the whole operation had gone smoothly and that we were happy. No one could accuse this hotel of not paying attention to detail!
Eventually we made it to the Dorchester where we were greeted by a Canadian mountie who set the scene for the evening ahead.
At dinner I realised it would be a fun time when I found myself sitting between Dino Toouli, Travelpack general sales manager, and Nigel Ham, ARTAC commercial manager, while Travelpack managing director John Standley sat opposite. The meal was delicious and the wine flowed, thanks in part to Dino’s fine waiting skills.
Arthur Kent, a Canadian journalist and film-maker now based in London, proved to be an extremely entertaining MC for the evening. He said that wherever one travels in the world there will always be a poster of Canada on a wall nearby so he was not surprised to find one staring at him from the brickwork of the Chinese police station he was taken to for questioning following his recording of the Tianamen Square massacre. His diverting anecdotes were followed by the presentation of awards and I add my hearty congratulations to the recipients.