Monday, February 5, 2007

Sorry sir, you cannot do that?

I was so excited about the MATF that I actually stayed up until the midnight on the day it was launched just to be one of the first to grab the air tickets, never mind that I was put on hold for more than half an hour -> I finally got the booking number, but here comes the twist, the holiday package is not confirmed as I need to make the payment.

I requested to make the payment via my credit card, but the answer I got is “No sir -> you cannot do that because you need to make your way down to either KL Sentral or HQ (@ Jln. Sultan Ismail) to do that because we need to issue all the vouchers and tickets. Gee whiz, when I was put on hold for half an hour the lady in IVR said to me repeatedly “You can now make your payment using credit cards over the phone, just check with our agents.” .. wat-te-verrrrrrrrrrrrr..

Here comes more, “Sir, please also remember to call in again on 4th Feb 2007, to make sure the hotel booking is confirmed.” I thought with all the advanced booking system now it could have been confirmed on the spot, obviously I was wrong. When I questioned them the answer given to me was 1st Feb 2007 is a public holiday, thus no one will be working, so they need more time to confirm??!!? I was then given a deadline of 4th Feb 2007 2.00pm to make the payment or my booking will be cancelled. So can I make a payment prior to 4th Feb? No sir because your hotel is not confirmed yet?!!?!

Frustrated and getting no help from the agent (whom even told me that they’re doing their best as this is a travel fair and everyone of them is working very hard and late). I just told him to cancel my booking.

Later in the morning, I booked and paid for the air tickets ONLINE and booked myself into the same hotel ONLINE at a cheaper bargain!

Moral of the story : Book your flight and Hotel ONLINE because it is FASTER and CHEAPER and not to mention that you don’t need to waste the time with some operator over the phone telling you that they’re doing wat-te-ver they could to assist you!

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