Thursday, July 17, 2008

by guest writer Glen Thomas

Glen Thomas, from Memphis Light, Gas, and Water, attended a workshop I taught in New York a few weeks back. He shared this tale by email and gave me permission to post it here.—Shel

I had reservations for Super Shuttle to pick me up. My flight had been delayed getting into La Guardia and I got in three hours later than expected. I called Super Shuttle at 9:30 and they said it would be about 25 minutes. About 35 minutes later, a Super Shuttle employee came in and said “Thomas” and moments later I was on my way. A few others were in the shuttle as well, so I didn’t think anything of it when the driver pulled up to an address in the 84th or 85th street. He then looked at me and said, “Thomas, Talia Thomas?” I told him no and proceeded to tell him at least four times that I was staying on 45th street. He called dispatch and gave them my name and they said they had no record of me. When I produced my confirmation number, they suddenly found my name but said I hadn’t called that night. They didn’t have much to say when I told them the dispatching employee’s name. At 11:30, two hours after I called, I finally got to my hotel, Club Quarters in Midtown.

The Club Quarters price is very good for a location that’s so close to Times Square. That’s all the positive comments I can provide. When I got there, the wi-fi that they advertised was not working. I
called the desk and was advised to “go out into the hall” to try it. I took this advice, and it still didn’t work. Over the course of the next five days, I asked the hotel staff six different times about
the internet access. Each time, they promised to check into it and get back to me. They never did. Luckily, our conference was at the Hilton, and I was able to take my laptop there and quickly get
online.

We requested that the hotel schedule a cab pickup for us the day of our departure. They instead called a pricier car service. We were 10 minutes late getting back, which was completely our fault, but then we waited for another 20 minutes for our luggage to be brought down. When we asked about the length of time it was taking, the indifferent concierge said, “It takes 15 minutes!”

When the employee kept coming down with partial or incorrect luggage, I asked if I could go up to help him identify our bags. They agreed and sent me to...get this...our room! That’s where they were keeping the luggage. Instead of 15 minutes, it was a short walk up the stars on the 2nd floor. The car service tacked on $25 for their wait, and the total cost was $75 to get to La Guardia. With little time to spare, we felt that we no choice but to pay the cost in order to make our flights. Terrible, terrible service.

Posted by Shel in • Hotels • Shuttles
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