Chasing Rainbows
“Customer Service, how can I help you?”
“Oh hello, I wonder if you can. We have an existing booking with connecting flights in Lisbon, but we’re a little bit worried about the short connection time at Lisbon Airport. Is it possible to change just the first flight, the one from Heathrow to Lisbon?”
He asks for our booking reference, then goes quiet. Canned music messes with my ears for a while and then he’s back.
“I am just checking your flights, you should be OK. The connecting flight will be OK”.
“Yes but we’re worried. If we miss that second flight, there isn’t another one to that destination for three days, you see”.
“OK, well I can change your first flight for 598 euros”.
Stunned silence at my end. That amount would virtually double the entire cost of two return flights to our final destination. I find some words.
“I’m just worried that fifty five minutes isn’t enough to make a connecting flight”.
“It can’t be fifty five minutes”, he says, “the minimum our website allows is one hour”.
“But I booked it on your website”, I say, “and it only gives us fifty five minutes”.
Canned music again, for quite a bit longer this time. And then he returns, apologises for the glitch on the website, and books us a flight for the night before at no extra charge whatsoever. From 600 euros or an impossible challenge to an acceptable free of charge solution in the blink of an eye. Result! OK, so it’s a night in a Lisbon airport hotel, but at least we’re not sweating on a fifty five minute window, or indeed parting with a wad of cash.
Except of course we’re left wondering just how the website allows a booking which isn’t seemingly possible.
Incidentally, I never really got this glass half full/half empty thing. All I can say is that when there’s not much beer left in my glass I’m excited because it means it’s nearly time for another one. Where does that put me on the optimism pessimism scale?
Saturday, forecast to be one long miserable bucketful of rain, turns out to be sunshine all the way, just when we’ve committed to a full day of indoor jobs. Sunday, which we’ve reserved for a long coast path walk on what is forecast to be a sunny day, turns out to be windy and unpleasantly squally, forcing us into Beach Box at Harlyn for cappuccino and toasties before we even get going.
Our hike along this very familiar stretch of coastline is exhilarating, spectacular but ultimately too much of a battle with the elements to continue all the way around the exposed limits of Stepper Point. As yet another bout of horizontal rain hammers into our faces on the teeth of the wind and the stone walls offer only so much respite, we turn inland on a path which shortcuts the route back to the estuary.
Below us the Atlantic is still in a heavy mood, pounding cliffs and sending huge plumes of white surf over rocks – rocks which have long been shaped by the same relentless pounding over centuries. Today there’s no mistaking where the sometimes hidden sandbank of the Doom Bar lies, a line of churning white surf marking its form as clearly as any map.
The interchanging rainstorms and sunbursts create a regular supply of seaborne rainbows; over and over again a perfect spectral arc disappears beneath the surface of the raging sea, on one occasion settling precisely on an offshore rock, teasing us with an unreachable pot of gold out there in the heaving depths. By the time we turn inland we have probably broken our all time record for rainbows per mile.
Our issues with the energy supply company at home started a few months ago when, according to the “smart meter” (this is, incidentally, a definition of the word “smart” only previously used in the context of “smart motorways”), our empty house used more energy while we were away in Cambodia than while we were at home in the colder months. The energy company, E.On to name and shame, have consistently failed to properly answer our questions or accept that the meter might be faulty.
Then, in September, that same “smart” meter suddenly sends a negative reading, meaning that in E.On’s opinion we have somehow given them a load of electricity back. Their meter has gone backwards and we now, ridiculously, have a credit balance of £600. Incredibly, these dumbass, dim, faceless and feckless individuals at E.On still won’t accept that the meter is faulty. I fear that at some stage we will become one of those victims of a several thousand pound bill and will have a right old battle on our hands.
I despair at how bad things in the corporate world have become. I long to find a large company with a scrap of efficiency and a modicum of customer care.
Chasing rainbows indeed.
23 Comments
grandmisadventures
Glad you got your flight worked out with no short layover and no high prized fee to do it. But of course, now we’re all wondering where is that connecting flight taking you….???
Phil & Michaela
😊🤫😂
Lynette d'Arty-Cross
Sigh I think the commonality (including the weather report) is a corporate culture of over-reliance on technology.
Phil & Michaela
Absolutely right
Lookoom
You handled your flight change so well; I’m glad to see that your stay in Brazil is coming into shape. These customer services are less and less services and more pains. You are very lucky to have been able to talk to a Human, and not just a machine as it is becoming frequent.
Phil & Michaela
Ah well this one isn’t the Brazil trip, this is a short trip we’re going to make before Christmas. Yes, it wouldn’t have ended that way had it been auto responses, that’s for sure.
Alison
Spectacular photos of the coast and rainbows, exhilarating indeed. I feel for you with energy companies, you might as well be speaking to a robot. It brings to mind the sketch from Little Britain.. “the computer says no”.
Phil & Michaela
It’s so frustrating
Toonsarah
I fear these days ‘smart’ is becoming a euphemism for ‘we know a human could do this better but a machine is cheaper’ 😠 Glad you got the flights sorted anyway – always worth sticking to your guns in these situations!
Monkey's Tale
When we’re away we get messages from our utilities company praising us for being among the most energy efficient in the city. They must be really perplexed when we come home (even if it’s not an actual person) and start turning everything on. Have fun in Portugal!! Maggie
Mike and Kellye Hefner
Rainbows are the perfect remedy for frustration, if only for a few minutes. By the way, I agree with Sarah about a human being able to do it better, but a machine is cheaper.
Andrew Petcher
Are you really telling us that you trusted the weather forecast?
Where is the final destination?
Phil & Michaela
I’m afraid we did. Should’ve known better!
ourcrossings
I am glad you managed to sort out your flight connection especially as there isn’t an easy way of knowing if your layover will be long enough to make your connection
Helen Devries
Well done in managing customer services….I have a horrible feeling that the day will come when a Dalek will be answering queries with ‘if there is a discrepancy between what we promise and what we do then you’ll just have to put up with it.’
Phil & Michaela
And shout “exterminate” if we persist…
Tales of two travelers
Ahhh, customer service. Such fun!
Travels Through My Lens
Tight connections can be so stressed; good thing you were able to change it without the hefty fee. Sounds like you might need that cash for the electric bill. 😉
Phil & Michaela
Indeed so, if they ever get their act together!
WanderingCanadians
Glad to hear you were able to switch flights to allow a longer layover. Under an hour seems unrealistic, as does paying nearly 600 euros to change it!
Amanda
Loved this poetic reflections on your coastal walk. Sounds like dam Murphy was out there playing havoc with the weather.
I always worry about those tight connections between flights and how refreshing it was to read that it was easily sorted out and free accommodation to boot. Find out that employee’s name and send him down here to us. We need a good man to lead Qantas after that nutter left the nation’s airline in tatters. Selling tickets for flights already cancelled and cost cutting so savage the flying kangaroo now looks like a budget airline. But the executives assure the shareholders they know what they are doing and are on the right track!
Your energy company woes, however, are not so surprising. Customer service, where did it go? More executive salaries on high salaries that lie, cheat under the guise of business dealings that are completely amoral, leaving companies exposed to financial risk, zilch customer service and dodgy work practices. ….. Rant over. I do hope you get it sorted soon.
Phil & Michaela
I blame the computer age, it’s just got too easy to hide behind a crap system, even when the crap system and common sense are at opposite end of the spectrum. Oh, that and a crap education system which we’re all supposed to say is wonderful if we don’t want to be shouted at!
wetanddustyroads
It seems to me that Cornwall has reserved its best storms just for you 🙂. Well, I won’t complain with such lovely rainbows. The not-so-smart-meter is another story …