Dealing With a

By Rusty Pickett, MCC, ECC

In spite of doing your best research, qualification and counseling, a client returns from a trip totally dissatisfied. After almost six years, it happened to me. If it hasn’t yet happened to you, perhaps you can benefit from my experience.
For a birthday present for his spouse and her traveling companion, a friend asked me to put together an air, rail and hotel package to Italy. He had traveled to Europe on several occasions but she had not and was new to independent travel.
My friend and his spouse were pretty adamant about not wanting a “structured” experience, and ruled out some great escorted land packages, although I had recommended them as a more efficient and economical way of seeing this great country during a lengthy conversation with both parties.
The spouse’s traveling companion was a pretty experienced European traveler, which made me feel better about sending the pair on an unstructured package. The companion, however, was not involved with the package decision-making process.
After considerable research, given the constraints of a reasonable budget, I found hotels, recommended by the supplier and others, near rail stations in the three cities they were interested in. I sent out a detailed package of the air schedule, rail schedule and hotel descriptions based on whatever information was available from a compilation of Web sites. I recommended that they head to the local bookstore to pick up one of the excellent travel guides about Italy and start studying.
And off the two women went. To put some context into the matter, they were visiting Rome during the death of one Pope and election of another — a difficult time for any tourist-oriented large city! During their trip the husband E-mailed me that the women had decided to leave Rome a day early because of some electrical problems in their hotel room that couldn’t be resolved. I E-mailed him some of the hotel reviews that I had used in deciding on that property, just to provide him with some assurance.
Then they returned and the post trip follow-up started. The spouse E-mailed me in some detail that they had had a wonderful time, but had to spend 140 euros of their own money because of their change in schedule, and could they get a refund of some sort?
I said I would be happy to see what I could do. I have always been successful in providing some compensation for this type of problem — not because I am that persuasive, but because the suppliers that I use are that reputable.
The traveling companion then E-mailed me, saying she would like to meet with me in person. Of course, I was happy to oblige. The meeting time came — and it wasn’t pretty. For 45 minutes, the woman forcefully lectured me about how there was no one to meet them at the airport to tell them how to get to the hotel, no one to tell them how to see the sights, no concierge services in the hotels, no structure, and on and on.
It was difficult to stay calm. I am more an argumentative type with some strong opinions (as those who know me can attest). But I listened and tried to explain as she accused me of doing absolutely nothing for the money she spent on her half of the trip, that I had housed them in hotels that I had never stayed at (can you imagine not having stayed in every hotel in Rome, Florence and Venice?) and depended on recommendations from top suppliers (within their price range) and well documented traveler reviews.
She continued that I should have been more forceful — insistent even — that they take an escorted tour in spite of what the other party wanted.
“It was a very difficult trip — not a vacation — and I paid a lot of money,” she said.
I was done listening and asked, “What will it take to make you happy?”
As this was my first experience dealing with such a situation, I had not decided what I would do. I just knew that some quick decisions had to be made.
“It’s not about the money, but I got nothing for what I paid. I feel I need a refund,” she said.
What to do — with seconds to decide? I thought of the principles of our business, exceptional service, doing the “right thing,” the cost, the threat to E&O insurance from a claim — and putting an end to it all. I made a decision.
“I’ll refund your half of the cost of your hotels. The airline got you there and back, the rail service was good, and your insurance was in place so there’s no refund required.”
It was done — a financially painful solution since the trip was almost two weeks long, but it felt as right as possible. She accepted. We agreed that she would not use me as her travel agent again. She would use a “good, hard-working” travel agent instead.

The follow-up:
The follow-up: I talked to my friend after this exchange to get an honest opinion of his spouse’s experience, knowing that he would give me one. I was once again reluctantly ready to “do what’s right” if necessary.
His response was surprising. “Given our budget, it was a wonderful trip in all ways in spite of the problem with the room in Rome. [The spouse] had a great time and we’ll book future trips with you. [The traveling companion] just wasn’t used to traveling that way.”
Oh, the supplier sent me a $100 coupon for each of the women for a future land booking as compensation for their room problem in Rome.

Russell (Rusty) Pickett is a retired career Naval officer. He has a BS from Yale University and an MBA from Charleston Southern University. As a home based agent, he founded Shellback Cruises, a cruise-oriented agency based in Charleston, SC, in 1999.