Headline News: I Got Good Customer Service Today!

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You know, it's rather sad to say that. it is quite disheartening to think that we should be acting like Sir John Gielgud in Arthur ("I'll alert the media") when we have a good customer service experience. But, man oh man, did I get great customer service today. As I told you recently, I had to cancel my trip to the conference in Nashville because my dad averages two trips to the ER a month (and this is his "on" week, per the pattern he's established). The problem was that I booked my hotel on Priceline. It was one of those "special" deals that is non-refundable. This morning, I called to see how "non-refundable" the non-refundable reservation was. It turns out, very refundable. As in, they didn't even charge me a "processing" fee! Now, I'll qualify this happy blessing with a couple of things. First, I've never canceled a Priceline reservation before, in all the years I've been using them. That certainly worked in my favor. Secondly, I've stayed at the hotel in Nashville several times, which also probably worked in my favor. Most significantly, I'm a person of faith, and I still believe that God intervenes in His children's lives. I began by calling the hotel and explained what had happened about my dad falling. The gentleman I spoke with said no money had exchanged hands yet, so there was really "nothing" to cancel. He gave me permission to cancel, gave me his name, and assured me he'd tell Priceline that when they called. After that, I had an online chat through my Priceline app with a customer service representative. I told him that my dad has had several medical emergencies recently, told him that I'd already called the hotel, and gave him my confirmation number. About three minutes later he wrote, "Great news! Your reservation has been cancelled." I had plenty of evidence (I have a picture of my dad, with his scraped-up forehead and black eye, in the ER after he fell), but they didn't ask for it. Things like this happen in life. I'm sure that Priceline would have been more rigid in their "no refund" policy had this been my seventh or eighth attempt to cancel (the old "oh, I found a lower price, think I'll call Priceline and tell them my favorite uncle died" [like that episode of M*A*S*H where Klinger kept faking letters from home that a family member had died, prompting Henry to pull out the file that had all of the claims Klinger had made, including "half the family dying, other half pregnant" ] scheme). I also asked, I didn't tell them they had to cancel it. And, as I said, I'm an established customer. Thanks be to God for this great customer service that saved me nearly $400!!!! And thanks to Priceline for actually restoring my faith, however momentarily, in the term "customer service"! Here's that great "alert the media" line from Arthur (warning: not edited for TV):