Part of my jobs as a Travel Agent is to chase things for clients e.g. refund, travel documents and hot off the press, trying to get their tour confirmed when they want to travel within 4 days! My Italian clients met up with me last Wednesday 4th October to have a chat about their trip to NT and Cairns. That afternoon I sent them the proposal which they have chosen to do a 4 days tour in Darwin with a well known company on Wednesday 11th October(Not going to name and shame). They confirmed and paid in full on Friday 6th October at 7pm which was after hour so I had to chat with the tour online to see if we can confirm this first thing on Monday or not which they said they can try to rush it for my clients. They need to call the local operator to check if the accommodations for the tour is available or not.
Monday 9th October I sent the payment through and called the tour company at 11am and was told that this normally take 2-4 business days so they will try their best to rush this but can't guarantee. I called again at 3pm to see if there is an update and nothing was confirm so I asked again if they can make an exception based on the urgency if someone can call out the local operator and guess what the girl said?
Tour Girl: "With sort of last minute departure, we'd close the booking 3-4 days prior so we have time to check with our local op"
Sekha: " Well when I held the tour last Friday and spoke to someone on Saturday as well, no one has mentioned this until you so if the tour couldn't even be confirmed then why no one said anything otherwise I could have gone with Plan B for my clients where I get them to based in Darwin and do multiple day trips?"
Tour Girl: "I'm really sorry that you weren't advised about this"
Sekha: "So are you or anyone in your team can call your local op to check now since my clients are flying out tomorrow and the tour starts in 2 days"
Tour Girl: "Our normal procedure is 2-4 business days. I have already notified the team and they will do the best they can"
Sekha: "Is there nothing you can do at all due to the fact that this is very urgent?"
Tour Girl: "Let me speak to my manager about this and get back to you." 5 minutes after "Normally we don't do this but my manager said that we can authorise full refund for this booking if your clients don't want to wait around"
Sekha: "Ok let me find out from them to see what they want to do.
I spoke to the clients and explain the situation. I also mentioned that I will get in contact with the Tour Sales Rep to see if can help me out. The clients were willing to wait another day so I was like, okay.
I called the Tour Sales Rep and she said she will do her best but sadly it was 7pm and no one responded to her.
I didn't really have a good sleep cus of this but I knew that I had to do everything in my power to get this sorted out for my clients.
Next morning the clients left Sydney for Darwin and I called the tour company at 10am just to give them time. When I called I got someone different and explain to him the situation and this was our conversation:
Tour Guy: "Yeah I'm happy to give our local op a call if you don't mind waiting on the phone or I can give you a call back?"
Sekha: "Oh you can call them now really?"
Tour Guy: "Yeah for sure"
Sekha: "OMG yes please and happy to wait over the phone"
After 20 minutes the line got cut off so I rang back and got another girl.
Sekha: "Hey I was on the phone with this guy who was helping me with this booking, would you mind connecting me to him please?"
Tour Girl #2: " All good let me check if he's available but also let me check what's happening with this booking for you...... After checking the note 5 minutes " Well I'm happy to help. The tour has actually been confirmed 😎"
Sekha: "Really?"
Tour Girl #2: "Yeah all confirmed and I just need a few details about the clients in order for me to issue their tour voucher"
I gave her all the details and everything was done within 10 minutes. OMG you don't know how relieved I was afterward.
I then called the clients with the good news and they were so happy and thankful for our effort.
After all of these dramas, going back and forth for 4 days I thought, if the 1st Tour Girl actually offered to help out on Monday when I spoke to her then both my clients and my team wouldn't have to stress out nor spent so much time worrying whether the tour would go ahead or not.
If she didn't want to help out or simply just too lazy to do her job then say it.
I will find someone else who can help us out. I would have stopped sell this tour company or don't recommend to any of my clients if it wasn't the guy who helped me out.
This is just another story that I want to share with everyone that when you book your trip with myself and my team, we will go the extra mile and do our best to make sure you are taken care of. See we care about you boo🙃
Hassle free holiday with us.
0425328050
sekha@itravel-au.com
