Being yelled at, then hung up on

Some friends are spending a night stopover in Taiwan in late July and I was helping them book a hotel last night.

They found one they liked on the internet and so I helped them ring and make a reservation.

This was 9pm, my time, 8pm, Taiwan time. Here’s how it went down:

Her: hello, blahblah hotel
Me: Hello, I would like to reserve a room
Her: Call back tomorrow
Me: Excuse me, I would like to reserve a room
Her: I said, call back tomorrow. We are booked out tomorrow anyway
Me: I’m sorry but this is an international call, and I’d like to book a room for late July
Her: I SAID, CALL BACK TOMORROW… THOSE PEOPLE HAVE ALREADY FINISHED WORK
Me: Oh… what ti…
before I can finsh my sentence, she hangs up on me

I was just going to ask what time they took reservations between

Needless to say, my friends have decided they won’t be staying there.

I spoke in Mandarin too but I guess I probably would have had better luck speaking in English instead.

Normally it is Western customer service atitude which SUCKS! Taiwan usually has wonderful attitude, but poor policies. The for example, US has amazing policies, like you can return a month later after you have broke it and get your money back, etc. Wear the suit for the interview and return the next day. No problem. In Taiwan, you can’t do that, but then you normally, don’t get people who are rude.

First, were you calling a really cheap hotel? Don’t expect them to be polite for the piddly money you are paying for your room. Just deal with it, or pay more. No service 10% service charge at cheap hotels either, so no worries.

What time of day were you calling? Maybe it was small family run hotel and they were sleeping, or at night there is o nly some old man or old lady that never is supposed to deal with customers, only make sure no one runs away in the middle of the night without paying, etc.

Finally, this is big a city, about 8 million if you include the suburbs. In New York you often get crap unfreindly service too. Get use it, you ain’t in Japan. Japan people are super polite, but then I have heard they can be racist. For politeness, maybe you should live outside of Taipei. In Ilan or one of the outlying islands, or down south in Taichong and especially Kaohsiung, the people are much nicer. Kind of like the difference between NYC and say, Charleston, or Atlanta.

Don’t worry about it, and don’t read too much into it. Of course, don’t say there, if there are other places.

Sounds like a really crappy hotel

Shit happens everywhere, rude people appear all over the world too.
I had been mis-charged by wireless phone company in US, and they threaten me to pay that incorrect bill or to be reported to credit bureau. The other time, I was signing a contract for some kind of utility service, the agent left in the middle because it was 5 and she said she is only paid to work till 5.

On the other hand, the person at the counter of the Motel 6 close to Las Vegas was polite, but the room I got has a television that didn’t work, several broken lights and quite a few holes on the blanket. And it cost me about 60 dollars.

I had some bad experience about terrible services in Europe too, for example, taking train in England….I paid 80 ponds for a round trip ticket from London airport to a town 150km away. For the returning train, after they changing delay information on display board two times, the train just “disappeared” and made me almost miss my flight to Chicago.

In your case, you can either simply go find another hotel, or, you can call back to say F** and hang up the phone, and go find another hotel. Either way, you have nothing to loss….

I spent the first 27 years of my life in Taiwan, and then went aboard for education and working. I can agree that buildings are ugly and politics are shit there. But everything else is better than just fine.

That’s strange: usually it goes like this:

Me: Hello?
Them: Hello? We have your grandmother! Pay us 6.7 brazillion dollars for her release!
Me: Uhm, not only is she not in Taiwan, she’d kind of…dead.
Them: …
Me: So you can see how I might doubt-
Them: …we have her body! Pay us 3 brazillion dollars! It’s a good deal!
Me: hangs up

She,

This would definitely not be the kind of place your friends would want to stay at! What’s the name and number, I’d like to prank call them and report them to the Taiwan BBB.

Surprised to see people coming to the defence of such a shit attitude, but anyway, the explanation is that you probably called a knocking shop.

The hotel I rang was the Taoyuan Holiday Hotel 桃園假日大飯店… supposedly a 4-star hotel

holidayhotel.com.tw/h.htm

The lady I spoke to sounded like she was in her 20s… and judging by the way she treated me… she was either really unhappy with her job, her life, everything perhaps?

[quote=“She”]The hotel I rang was the Taoyuan Holiday Hotel 桃園假日大飯店… supposedly a 4-star hotel

holidayhotel.com.tw/h.htm [/quote]

So, you called this place:

Wow… that’s a fancy logo. Seems somewhat familiar. I wonder how they came up with the idea for that horse head logo?

Oh, now I remember why it seems familiar… There is a very famous hotel group with properties all over the world… they use this mark:

That Taiwan hotel is very creative… :unamused:

no loss - you really don’t want to stay there. it’s a “top” hotel alright, or was 20 years ago …

have to admit that it is full every weekend, although this has more to do with a deal with the airport than any great offers/features of the hotel itself. vastly overpriced for what you get.

(i live two blocks away, if you’re wondering.)

Try to call the Regent in Taroko Gorge at 9pm trying to make a reservation. I have and ws told mor politely to call back the morning after.

That hotel is supposed to be a 5 star one.

I can tell you about that place, as I was forced to stay there once when the other hotel I was at got over booked, and my company hadn’t reserved my room more than a day in advance :fume:

Anyway, the Taoyuan Holiday Hotel has free internet in each room. That about where the good comments end, it’s a dump.

It is probably 30 years old, not 20, and looks like it inside and out. I kept an open mind however, and was looking forward to the ‘free breakfast’

Cold fried rice, seaweed, some tea jelly…as I scanned the buffet. AH HA, some bread and marmalade.
Bread, that’s right, no toaster, no butter…but seemed appropriate to go with the most digusting 200% over watered down orange drink on the planet.

It didn’t strike me as a happy place to stay or work. The sooner it get bulldozed the better.

If you want a decent hotel in Taoyuan, go to the Monarch Plaza. It is one of the nicest hotels in Taiwan, let alone Taoyuan.

Pricing is also similar.

Monarch plaza is where the president eats when in Taoyuan.

I have booked overseas customers into it before, and they overall liked it.