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Thank you for the bedtime story, Graziella. LOL!!!
It may not sound like it, but, basically, I agree with milltown. What I mean is that, IMHO, in this case, the agency is not LEGALLY liable for anything, so it would be a waste of time to make any kind of official complaint. I most emphatically agree with milltown's "As far as customer service in general in Buenos Aires, I will take it anyday over the gum chewing backward baseball cap wearing young adults that are pandemic in the United States." LOL!! I'm pretty sure the agency will NOT answer here and I believe melisscal will probably remain a one-time poster. Time will tell. |
I take my hat to you, avrooster no word from either party. Melisscal has apparently erased the bad memory of dealing with Let us go Argentina and this company is not interested in explaining anything. Not good.
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I most emphatically agree with milltown's "As far as customer service in general in Buenos Aires, I will take it anyday over the gum chewing backward baseball cap wearing young adults that are pandemic in the United States." LOL!!
What does this have to do with Let's Go Argentina.... |
Since you are quoting me, should I assume you are talking to me, weekender?
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And, weekender, if you are quoting me, my response was in reference to Melisscal writing: "I am a well traveled woman. I’ve been to over 50 countries, and many non-western or third world ones. I only say this because I am well aware that sometimes when you travel you just have to say, wow, this sucks, but hey, this is Argentina, or Africa or wherever – the culture is different here and it’s acceptable to do this. This is part of traveling."
I do not consider Argentina a third world country and to somehow say that poor service is to be expected in third world countries like Argentina or Africa is just not true. I have had much worse service in the 25 years living in the US than I have had as an American living for years in Latin America. For expample, being a waiter in Buenos Aires is a profession, not a pit stop on the way to finding a real job. The response to the original poster experience's was overwhelmingly positive, and almost all are in agreement that is was handled poorly, but not because it happened in Argentina where it is acceptable, but because the rental agency opted for the easy way out. And my original statement stands regarding customer service in the US, but I digress. Suffice it to say, my worst experience in Buenos Aires was with the "Rolls Royce of Apartment Agencies", and it is run by an American with a glossy image. As someone working in the hospitality industry, my favorite book is by Danny Meyers, a New York restauranteur, called "Setting the Table" in which he says that the customer is NOT always right and does NOT always come first. Your employees do. If you have well trained, competent, well compensated employees, it stands to reason that the customer will be satisfied. And had that been the case with the agency that worked with Melisscal, they would have had a contingency plan, simply because those are the people that you hire to work for you if you are running a succesful business. They would not have shut the door and gone home knowing that they had a client with no place to stay. AV,dinner is on us, sin cocodrilo en el bolsillo. LOL! |
Thank you for answering, milltown!!!
You put it much better than I would have! About that dinner, any time is good. There's only one condition: you must allow me to reciprocate with a barbecue at my home! When should we expect you in BA? |
I really dislike posts where the OP gets blasted, but in this case, I have to ask - if you are such a well experienced traveler, how did you wind up having to pay $450 for a hotel night in a town where there are lots of cheaper alternatives?
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If the OP says things which are obviously offensive to the locals in general, such as "particularly in a foreign country where you can never expect the service to be like your own" and "hey, this is Argentina, or Africa or wherever – the culture is different here and it’s acceptable to do this.", I feel the OP is liable to get blasted.
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Hi Seamus!
When the OP wrote <i> "Usually I wouldn’t bother doing this for just bad service, particularly in a foreign country where you can never expect the service to be like your own.."</i> I felt it sort of told us what kind of person/"traveler" was posting this..but on the other hand..if everything posted is true..it is good that this was posted to help anyone else using this company avoid the same problem. If it happened to me and I was going to spend $450 for a night in a hotel, you would find me at the Hyatt :D |
I know it was a remark out of place ,besides on the whole service in Argentina is pretty good.
But as Scarlet says it is good that it was posted here so other people know how this company Let us go Argentina handled this situation which we have to believe it is true unless Let us us Go Argentina posts an explanation, which so far they have not done. I have to tell Seamus that a couple of porteños, that is of real people that live in Buenos Aires, coming back from Europe in British AIrways some years ago, were terribly delayed as melisscal. For them it was a bad situation because their son's graduation party from San Andres Unversity was taking place that night at an important downtown hotel, which I do not remember the name. So my friends who live in Belgrano, as you know a little far from downtown , went directly to the hotel to save time and asked for a room. Although it was late at night the hotel gave them the only option of very expensive room, very expensive.... and on top of that my friend told me it was a tiny horrible room. ( It happens in the best families). My friends had no choice and took it. But the good end of the story is that later they had the good idea to complain to British Airways and they responded positively. Kudos to British Airways... I am telling this true story because in a way, in my mind at least, shows melisscal is not alone and that anyone might wind up paying such a high rate... |
During part of the 90's and early 2000's, I worked in the hospitality industry, so I'll try to explain what happened to Graziella's friends and probably to melisscal.
First, as in most of the travel industry, hotels have different rate levels. It stands to reason that they have a lower, negotiated rate level for a corporate customer whose employees stay at the hotel for hundreds of nights a year. It's a matter of volume. In ANY business, a regular customer, who buys large amounts of whatever every year, is going to get a lower than retail price. This is quite reasonable and I consider it a fair business practice. However, at the other end of the scale, we have what the hotels call their "rack rate", which is just about the equivalent of the "suggested retail" price we find in other businesses. The hotels call someone who arrives without a reservation a "walk-in". That is what Graziella's friends and melisscal were, from the point of view of the front desk staff doing the night shift. Anyone doing the night shift, particularly on Christmas Eve, is probably in the lower part of the hotel's totem pole. So, any "walk-in" is going to pay the "rack rate" and the night shift front desk staff member is going to brag to his boss in the morning that he sold the worst room in the hotel at that rate. I feel this is NOT a good business practice, but it IS the way the system works and, sometimes, it's frustrating to try to change it. I hope this helps. |
melisscal has chosen not to post here anymore, 6 days and over 30 answers after her OP, but she HAS posted almost exactly the same text on tripadvisor.com on Monday:
http://tinyurl.com/2679rg So far, she has received 4 replies. The most recent one is a rather harsh reply from the world-famous drdawggy, the widely acknowledged TOP Internet expert on Argentina. |
I just noticed that OP has never come back to this thread, and has now posted another first-time report copying this on TA. I've become quite suspicious of this one!
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AV I took offense to the language in the first paragraph. I did not address it here because the event had just occured and I thought the OP probably needed to vent a bit....but a week later the same post showed up on TA....with the offensive language still in place...Call me defensive on behalf of my "adopted" home country but I was offended by the language implying that Argentina is a third world country and that one "can never expect the service to be like your own (country)." If Melisscal had focused soley on the agency and not resorted to this type of generalization...I would not have said anything.
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Yes, Doc, that's just about what I said in my post of 01/08/2008 at 3:14 pm
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Yes, I know. I always follow your lead :)
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Thank you for admitting that, world-famous TOP Internet expert on Argentina!! LOL!!!
Anyway, the "action" on this matter has now moved to the tripadvisor.com Argentina thread I mentioned earlier. At least 3 frequent posters, including drdawggy, have declared themselves non-sympathetic with the OP. My "great friend" saintba has come up with what could be a good idea, which is that rental agencies should not commit to doing check-ins on such critical dates. |
This is specific to drdawggy's post of 1/4/08. Could you email me some further info about the upscale apartment you have stayed at using shortstayinba. Much appreciated.
[email protected] |
I agree with your sentiments. Sounds like a terrible experience.
Before I bought a home In Buenos Aires I used different apartment rental services in Buenos Aires (perhaps a total of 3 or 4 times and a different one each time). I switched around depending on the availability and location of the apartments. One of the ones I used was LetsGoArgentina. All of the agencies were aceptable. I especially rememeber LetsGo Argentina because they seemed to be the easiest to deal with. Until now I have always recommended them to friends looking for short term apartments because I was so satisfied with their service (no hassles, not even a whisper about witholding the damage deposit and I guess I liked the apartment a lot). Don´t know what to think now. |
I said it before and I am saying it now, it is such a pity this rental angency does not tells its part of the story.
If things happended the way melisscal told us it is terribly that they could not have done any better, if their business depends a lot on tourists as I imagine it would it is amazing they can be so cruel. I would never recommend them however if I could listen to their point of view....who knows... |
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