Originally Posted by
fastair
Well, the "lecture" was prompted when the customer asked the supe for it "This time, I sensed underlying hostility, and I called the supervisor out on it. I asked him why the hostility, and whether it was affecting his willingness to help" My theory is if you don't want a question answered honestly, don't ask the question. Had this been a purely business call by the customer, the supe would have never "lectureed" him on it, as it were, the customer had numerous times asked multiple people, hung up on them all for not breaking the rules, when he ran across a supe who seemed to be irritated by such a waste of resources, the customer prompted the reply by asking the outisde of the transaction related question.
Fair enough; I shouldn't have asked about the hostility.
Originally Posted by
fastair
SHould the supe have volunteered the info? No, should the customer have repeatedly hung up on agents who were doing what they were supposed to do, and then escalate to a supervisor to break the rules, then ask the question as to why the supe seems irritated? No, most likely that shouldn't have been done to promt it either.
The whole "mileage run is bad" is a red herring here. The fact that the customer kept hangin up on agents doing their job, then when horizontal shifts from agent to agent didn't work, he then tried for vertical shifts to get rules to be broken on his behalf...well, few businesses have surplus resources dedicated to correctly answering the same question correctly to the same individual across multiple agents and multiple levels, hoping he can convince someoene into breaking the rules in his /against the companies financial interests.
The mileage run is fine, but one gets what one paid for. You buy restricitve tickets to maximize one's return on minimal investment in self interest. You want to change one where the clearly stated rules require a fee, one should expect to pay that price, and not initiate a 1 man campaign of monopolizing the res lines until one can convince someone to break the clearly stated and understood rules for your gain and the airlines loss. One must live with the consequences of one's actions.
I feel I should also be clear--- this was not monopolizing anything, it was in total, < 15 min of time on the phone. There was also no "hanging up on agents", or at least not as insinuated, I thanked each agent, and said please don't make any changes and I would have to call back later to complete any changes.
My final word on this: I posted this because I found the value judgment on why I am flying to be weird; I posted all the info in a spirit of transparency (no pun intended), and did not leave out anything. I'm a little dismayed at how far some posters took things in assuming behavior and even suggesting criminal actions. I realize I was asking for an exception (and I do not ask for exceptions often), I asked a few times to be sure nothing could be done (like I said, < 15 on the phone), and I was polite to each agent. Lastly, I must assume that those who are focusing on the exception part must never have asked for one... in that case, by all means, keep casting stones.