I’ll tell you the story. It’s a list and a cop out because I’m too tired to write for real. Lists can sometimes get the job done too.
Friday 10:00 AM Drop the car off with Oasis Hand Car Wash which is located inside of the Sheraton Gateway Parking Lot at 6101 W. Century Blvd.
Explain to car wash that my flight will be in at 11:00 PM Saturday night, where would the keys be?
Javier points me to the office, where they will be in an envelope. Javier prints his cell phone number on the receipt.
11:15 Saturday night, completely exhausted I arrive at the car park and ask the man in the office to please give me my keys.
No keys. No joke.
He looks through two office and a safe but my keys are no where to be seen.
We find the supervisor, we look more, they break through the flimsy lock on the car wash building and find maggots, but still no keys.
1:00 AM Sunday morning. I am crying, not a little but I’m muttering, please get me a cab, I need to get home, my family needs me.
My friend at the parking company walks me through the alley, past the very drunken conventioneers to the front door of the Sheraton.
I think I’m mistaken when I see women drinking cheap liquor straight from the bottle and approaching every man they see. I think that can’t possibly be the Sheraton, but it is.
I walk into a giant cloud of smoke and I’m pinching myself becuase I’m startled that people are smoking indoors, then I realize I’m smelling weed. A blunt to be exact, the cigar wrap is enough to make me vomit.
The front desk man is giving a room key to a woman who is clearly a prostitute, she yells across the lobby, “Yo! You’re gonna hafta give me another thirty five dollars for this shit”. I try to give him a look, any look, like, “Dude, you’re wearing a suit and you work for a major corporation. How is this happening?” But he avoids my glance and hands me a filthy telephone to call a cab.
There was a young father with his son checking in, “Are you sure that’s the IBM rate?” I wanted to grab him by the arm and say, “Get your son out of here, it’s a $20 taxi ride to Century City. Lord only knows if you’ll survive in this third world filth.” But I certainly didn’t want to upset anyone there. I’m frightened.
Big surprise, the cabs aren’t waiting for customers there.
And, yes, the cab driver reeked of pot too. And, yes, to answer your next question I did have him drop me off a block from my house. I walked it in.
Sunday evening I used my spare key and retrieved my car but no one is returning my phone calls regarding the stolen lost key or the $80 taxi ride. If I don’t have my car keys back today I’ll need to have the entire car re-keyed. That will be expensive. Very expensive.
I can find phone numbers for a call center, but I doubt that Javier Benito would get the message.
Wow! Is the carwash part of the hotel? Aren’t they liable then?
Unbelievable! Especially as you seemed so relaxed and gracious when I saw you yesterday. They need to reimburse you for the extra expense and inconvenience. And I, for one, will steer clear of the Sheraton Gateway. (When I was a meeting planner, I held events there — now I’m totally grossed out.)
There is no customer service anymore. The limo company has yet to contact me about the total a-hole driver from last weekend and they owe us money, too.
What a horrible way to come home!
This is just God Awful and needs to be reported to corporate PRONTO. You muster SuperBitch from deep within your grieving soul and you take out your rage against the unfairness of what Life dealt Kasey and his family and channel it onto whoever has the unfortunate task of answering your phonecall.
Climb the ladder until you get to a VP of Customer Service and do not stop venting until you hear blood seeping from his/her ears. You give them every smarmy detail of your experience and allow yourself the pain of re-living this nightmare so that THEY experience it as well. Remember, you are speaking for the countless other customers who have been, no doubt, faced with dealing with their incompetence and shoddy service.
It won’t help with the pain of your loss, but it will be a conversation that they will not forget, and you will have made a very positive impact on a completely dreadful and inexcuseable situation.
You can do this. You simply must.
Jessica,
You write the letter and I’ll send it on my lawyer’s letterhead for you. Oftentimes, that can make a difference. Get addresses for all the corporate people you can and we’ll send it to all of them.
Make sure you are very clear about what you want the outcome to be – specify the exact terms, be logical and reasonable and you’ll likely get what you want.
With love,
Alexis
Oh man–this totally and completely sucks. I don’t know how you kept it together yesterday. I would have had a hard time keeping my anger under wraps. I hope you take Alexis up on her offer.
Well, sadly, I can believe what you experienced. Not only do we have a crisis in the financial, banking, mortgage and gas markets, but we have an unprecedented crisis in the customer service and product quality markets. I won’t get into it now, maybe I’ll write a post about it on SV Moms, but suffice it to say that the quality of products in this country has gone completely to hell and I, for one, am sick and tired of forking over the exhorbitant costs of products these days only to find out the product is a piece of s–t when I get it home! That is, if I can ever open the damned thing!
That should absolutely reimburse you for the extra expenses. If they’re smart, they’ll give you a little something extra for the inconvenience as well.
Cheryl, I agree that customer service has gone down the tubes. One side effect of a bad economy is that when white collar folks lose their jobs and wind up in the retail sector to maintain some level of income, customer service tends to improve.
Let us know how this gets resolved. Good luck!
What a horrible situation. It sounds as if people have some really great suggestions. I hope that it get resolved quickly.
Oh man, that is horrible… at least there are some lawyer folks who are able to help. My head would be about to explode!
Okay, seriously, how much do I love you all?
I got a phone call from the valet manager and he was deeply apologetic and contrite even. He is fedexing my keys (I’ll believe it when I see it).
He and I will talk tomorrow about the “activity” at the hotel. I’m not having this conversation in front of my children.
I’m making a list of what I need to say and if I’m not heard properly it will go to Alexis and her big bad lawyer letter.
Goodness, so glad this seems to be on its way to being resolved. And to think that you had us all over to your place even with all this drama going on!
What’s happened to good customer service? They should drive to your home or a meeting place to give you the keys – in your hands. FedEx? It’s not like they’re across the country for crying out loud!
Wow. I came over here ready to say, “I’ve worked hotels, and trust me, they’re all pretty gross no matter HOW much you pay.”
Then I read your post. I have no words. How could this be happening at what is supposed to be a respectable hotel? I mean sure, I rented rooms to women I’m sure were prostitutes, though I had no way to prove it because they didn’t flaunt it.
Smoking illegal substances, drinking, and prostitution going on in the hotel lobby for all the world to see? What a nightmare! I’m glad you got out of there without anything horrible happening to you.
I stayed at the Universal City Sheraton a few years ago while we were moving from one place to another. It was one of the few hotels in the greater Hollywood area that accepted pets and was reasonably priced. The room was fine but we were only there to sleep and I did not wander down to the lobby in the wee hours! Damn, quite the experience for you and I hope they are receptive and compensate you for your shitty experience.
The Sheraton Chicago fucked me over and then bent me backwards. I was furious. BEYOND furious. I won’t rattle off the corporate schpeal from The Mr. regarding the contract he has with Starwood. Just know this: it is big change.
The customer concierge was a piece of shit.
They suck. However, Starwood stepped up. We’ve reaped massive rewards as apologies since. Will never stay at a Sheraton again.