July 28, 2024 • 34 mins
The recent CrowdStrike failure impacted a lot of industries. From hotels, airlines, banks, healthcare, banking and government, outages were everywhere. Fortunately, everyone was completely understanding and life moved ahead perfectly smoothly... who are we kidding, that didn't happen.
We took a break from our break (It makes sense to us...) to bring you a couple quick strories from throughout the outage.
We miss all of our listeners but we will be back with regularity in the coming weeks. But between now and then, we ask you to please help support our efforts with a few free and easy steps. We would love your support with a like, a subscription, a share, or a comment. While free to you, it is a huge help to us.
Thank you again! #TFTSI #TalesFromTheServiceIndustry #FrontDesk #Hotel #Hotels #FrontDesk #ServiceIndustry #Service #CustomerService #CrowdStrike #Outage #ComputerProblems #Podcast
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Can we just like give a shout out and like props to all of us that we've survived this last week
(00:04):
Do what do we want to do an intro and get this party started? Yeah, let's do it cues the music
All right, well welcome back to girls from the surface industry we said we were gonna take a month off we didn't make it
Almost a month we can attribute that to the world falling apart
(00:25):
Yeah
you know like normally we will sit here and like filter out company names and all that but
Strike and Microsoft. Oh my god
So annoying they burned the world this week
Yeah, lit a match and just walked away and said figure it out. We're booted a couple times. I you know
(00:47):
Hope for the best. Yeah, I don't even know how many times I rebooted
It's just ridiculous. I want to know how much that actually costs though
Like when all the receipts are tallied up for all the business that was lost. Can you imagine?
Like even our company I'm scared of all the amount of charge bucks
We're gonna get when the credit card machines weren't working as of today credit card machines just got up
(01:09):
How many days has it been? It's been over a week. Has it not?
Saturday midnight Thursday night. No, yep rolling into Friday morning. Yeah, that's when it all started. Yeah, it's only been five days
Only feels like it is a long time, but it feels like it's been two weeks
Yeah, we just started processing all of the charges this afternoon and we already had four declines. Oh, absolutely us, too
(01:30):
We literally just started this afternoon as well
They're just coming back as declined because my associates saying, you know, they're gonna turn off their credit cards, right? Yeah, apparently on Saturday
We had a guy during the check-in that made a joke. Oh, no about oh, well, gee
I really hope the cards not locked when you go try to charge it
I love the scratcher. So like, you know, like members of high tiers or even just on a tier
(01:51):
There's gonna be so many cases open for like outstanding balances for people haven't paid their bills
Because like we're just starting to charge today and one of the ones that declined was the first one we tried an associate
Yeah, I've got an associate decline
We're like mother
Like do they know you can email like who's ever contact is on the form if it's a legit form that I care
(02:15):
If it's not they don't
Okay, so how did I'm curious how did your problems start at your hotels? Oh you wanna that's a good question
Yeah, okay. Can I go first? Yeah, please?
This bees got the floor. So it is Thursday night. I
with the play-by-play
(02:36):
Thursday night, and by the way, it was 1130 p.m
I am two drinks in it chillin on the couch reading seven chapters deep
Reading my smutty novels and the phones ringing like were you were you reading our book that we're supposed to read together
Yes, okay. Thank you. Yeah, it's reading my smutty novel and I get a call and I answer it
(02:58):
My assistant front office manager is covering for overnight because we're having trouble finding an auditor shock shock
And I thought you just hired an honor. Uh-huh. Okay, they just no call. No show never came back. Oh, that's great
Yeah, we'll put a pin in that one, right?
And then so she's covering and she's like miss B. I think we've been hacked
(03:18):
We're being hacked and like smooth the amount you go. Is this the person I'm thinking of? Yeah, okay
Okay, we're being ha makes total sense. The world is ending aliens are upon us
I can see the UFO outside guys and I'm like, no, we're not and I said that without even looking like we're not being hacked
She's like, you don't understand all the computers went out at the same time
(03:39):
She's like they're all showing this message and she's based on show me she's like every single computer
She's like they're going to get her specifically so she thinks we've been hacked and I was like, okay
This is what you're gonna do. We're gonna call our companies IT support
and apparently we were the first ones to call because we call the support and
She's so neurotic. Of course. You were the first one to call we call our IT support and the IT guy. Love that guy. Mr. Green
(04:06):
Just made that up. Mr. Green. We can tell with a candle in the library
Mr. Green, oh I get it
Yeah, Liz had no clue for a moment
I really don't think about it. Oh my god. Okay. So mr. Green he's like show me the screen and they're on FaceTime
(04:29):
He she turns it around and shows him and then he starts panicking
He's like no that that looks like somebody clicked a spam link and that like he thought it was like legit
No
and he's like who was touching the computers at the time they all went down and everyone looks at
The one desk agent at the desk. He's the sweetest kid, but he's the brother
Like he's literally like the one boy at the desk. So he's everyone's little brother
(04:53):
So everyone looks at John and goes John. What did you do? I didn't do anything
I swear and everyone's like the computers work fine. You were the only one touching
And he's like getting all defensive and everyone's getting upset and then so they're like trying to figure out what's going on
But then another IT guy from a different company gets called in and he's like no no guys
(05:13):
This is a global thing turn on the news and you see all the shit is like going to hell
Okay, so bill how did your storm start?
The first that I had heard any of it was actually from B. Oh in the group chat
Yeah, cuz he's like all about it's fine. I was like must be nice
Yeah, pretty much cuz like I had all this in blue screen and you're like, oh
(05:36):
Received any calls but it's because my AGM received the calls. Mmm. Yeah, I'm texting you guys
Delegation right there
So we found out about the same time, but I was chatting with you
What ungodly hour was that anyway?
That was like one o'clock in the morning
Cuz I was up to like one two because we were figuring everything out like what to do and I had to go in straight
(05:58):
In the morning. I'm like, it's gonna be hell
Well, so I woke up to those texts but our IT issues actually started the day prior or like the morning of so you're saying
Thursday night our started Thursday morning and who knows if it was like truly an IT issue like before the start of the Microsoft
Stuff, but we couldn't access our shared network drives
(06:20):
So anything connected to like our network internet was failing
It's like we couldn't open like the system that operates the hotel and it's cloud-based now
But it's connected to the network internet so it didn't open and none of our shared drives
So as you guys know, I'm in the middle of summer and summer camp all of my spreadsheets on what vendors are booked
(06:42):
Who's registered for camp that day all of my schedule literally my life is in this like shared network drive
Oh, I have no idea boat rentals no clue, but it was intermittent like throughout the day
It's like some workstations could open stuff and some couldn't as far as like our operating systems go
No one could access any files
(07:03):
Yeah, but like the systems we use for like boat rentals and the hotel you had to be like on a workstation
That was feeling good that minute to like reboot and you were able to open it
I wonder if that was related to the crowdstruck
It's cuz I don't think the patch got sent to later, but that's really interesting and I don't believe in coincidences
So it's weird. So then I woke up to your text the following morning and I was like, oh is this what was happening?
(07:25):
Like all day yesterday. Yeah, it's not kind of weird. They're not being kind of tight-lipped. We're not getting many answers or more
Apology. No, I think
Apology
Yeah, I think didn't like the CEO or CFO of crowdstrike like go on and publicly apologize
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we did he did. I made a whole formal announcement. Yeah, did he resign? No
(07:49):
No, no, he literally watched the world burn my Friday morning started very similarly
I'm off on Fridays, but I woke up to a whole bunch of text messages
Yeah, yeah 6 a.m. My team's calling me and they're like we have this blue screen and we don't know how to log in and we
Don't know how to get a hold of support because they couldn't even log into their systems to get a hold of support
(08:11):
Yeah, and so they're like, hey, can you try your systems?
So I was able to log in got support got support for them and we got it all fixed within 20 minutes
But was really scary
Yeah corporate gets the attention first. They're like the tear like help them first before the rest of us
They're the acai berries
(08:33):
The brand
Franchises are the redheads five days later. We get help. Well, we have fewer
Systems. I don't we have we have different systems
But for them to literally allow one little tiny piece of script to impact our total global environment
Was really disturbing to me when I heard reports to that, you know
(08:55):
This kind of code and thing it should have been tested to other computers before launching it worldwide
Exactly. You launched something untested worldwide and crashed the world. The idea was that they did test it, but I don't
Think that they tested it in a large enough capacity
Exactly so that they literally took down our economy every industry
Like everyone's was been reeling except for spirit. Yeah. Yeah
(09:19):
Southwest southwest. Yeah
Southwest I think they were still like experiencing delays but nothing to
Only because it was the airports themselves not because of their systems. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah, I know we're talking like hospitality
Is specific but I do want to shine light on everyone traveling and everyone in hospitals
Yeah, that like we're waiting for pertinent tests to come back for surgery like life-saving surgeries to get done
(09:47):
Did you see that they like it was like a tick tock or real or whatever that went viral of the machines in like labor
And delivery weren't working
So nurses are sitting outside the door listening to fetal monitors and like so all the nurses are just in the hallway
Stationed outside doors
Going to go. Yeah, that's what I know. I'm sure going off
You literally have to go back to pen and paper or how they did it in the old days with yeah, they're listening
(10:12):
Well, let's not connected heart monitor
So for those of our listeners that are out there that really don't understand
They're like, okay Microsoft had an outage like so you can't open soft Microsoft Explorer because that's what my mom was
Confused about she's like so the Microsoft programs didn't work. I don't get it
Why did it impact you like that would one even like to shed light on exactly why because they think Microsoft Explorer?
(10:33):
Word word like no like I I'm not well enough versed but what I can say for our property
We couldn't make keys. I couldn't check you in I couldn't check you out because I can't read credit cards
You know, it's like everything was manual at that point
Yeah, and there's practices that we have to abide by now with security for credit cards
So, you know, you're not supposed to do X Y & Z
(10:56):
Yeah, and with the outage either do certain things that you shouldn't normally do and you secure the hell out of it
Because you don't normally do this. So you're locking things in safes and whatnot. It's not easy
It's clumsy as hell. Yeah, you know and like human error when you were thrown into it
You had no time to plan like okay, what is the best course of action? You're thinking on your feet
(11:19):
Yeah
and like I
Didn't understand the gravity of it all until I was in the car driving to work and I'm listening to the radio and they're talking
About what's going on and as I'm like literally every mile that I'm driving I'm like, oh god, this is worse than I thought
Oh god, it's worse than I thought even a mile back, but I got to work and the team was just like what do we do?
Well, you know all of us have a binder on the shelf that big red binder in case of emergency, right?
(11:42):
There's no plan in there. There's no plan in there for
Crowdstrike taking a crap on everything. Yeah, so it's like I walked in the door and the teams like well, what do we do?
It's like, okay. Well right now we're gonna talk about what we don't do. We are not checking people in right now
I know we held off till
4 p.m. Yeah, and then we couldn't hold off anymore and then we started doing manual CC auth forms
And it's funny that brand sent out a paper days later was like don't write down credit cards
(12:06):
Everyone's like has stacks of them like, okay
Well, I mean, what are you gonna do?
It's like if we have to if you don't then we are closing the hotel
Yep
And how's that going to impact the brand when a hundred and sixty some rooms are calling you because we're kicking them all out
Yeah, it's not gonna fly well in you're displacing people that could be stuck because they can't make a flight. So and you have a
(12:29):
So what are you supposed to do? Oh, good luck find another hotel
So our hotel was filled with a particular airline because their whole thing like went out
It was sad because like all these flight attendants all these crews they're saying we have no idea what's going on
Yeah, our shuttle didn't show up. We've tried calling the shuttle didn't show up
And apparently they're like we've tried calling our people and nobody's answering
(12:53):
Well, cuz the phones didn't work cuz internet didn't work either and like the airline just so inundated with all these flight crews
They're stuck around the world that we basically told them don't worry
My team was starting to be like well if you guys don't get a voucher, you're gonna have to pay like
I calmed everyone down. I was like, this is one of our biggest contracts. They're fine. We're going to see we're going to extend them
(13:14):
We will get it later. Yeah, everyone's obviously overwhelmed right now
And so they were actually here the guest. Uh-huh. They were actually our most understanding people
Well, yeah, cuz they didn't have a job to go to but also like one at one point. This was today
I was on my cell phone at the front desk the only one the desk my desk. I didn't kept walking away
(13:36):
I'm on my cell phone talking to IT because one of the computers it was still had the blue screen of death
So we're deleting it. So he's walking me through the code. I'm like, okay, and I told her I'm so sorry
I will be right with you. She's like, no, don't worry about it. And I'm like, okay, and it's the crowd strike file and she's like
Oh, yeah, we're deleting that file but it was so on Friday
(13:57):
We ran an arrivals list and I had the team start calling everybody so we divided up the list
I ended up talking about 14 or 15 guests that were coming in that day and
Every single one of them was so nice. Oh like super polite very understanding. Thank you for the call
We appreciate it
They gave us approximate arrival time so we could try and plan it out at the front desk the people that were the worst
(14:20):
Were the people that were already in-house the ones that had keys the ones that had their credit cards processed all of that
They were the worst. That's horrible. So I told one lady I said you have your phone
She's again, like Google the word outage
And hit send and then see what's going on and they're like, oh
Okay, they didn't get it and one lady's literally leaving and I am checking her out. I'm like, oh, yeah
(14:45):
Sorry, our systems are shut down. We'll send you a receipt when we're able to process credit cards
It's like oh why not? I'm like, you know the outage that's going on
She's like no and I explaining and she's like I'm supposed to go into the airport. Do you think that's gonna affect that?
I'm like, mmm
Going I would check on that. Oh
How have you not gotten like
Notifications that like light might be delayed flight might be can't they were in a day
(15:08):
They couldn't send notifications
you know what I had a lot of like thought on the past few days and a lot of empathy for and
I think we've touched on in previous episodes in the emergency keys. Yes, we have talked about that
I'm so grateful. I just made my so when Bill said the big red binder
I thought that was what you were gonna bring up. But that's the thing is my
My keys didn't crash
(15:31):
But let's think about right, but I don't know why how's where they did those keys only work X amount of times
Yeah, but at the same time it's not it sucks for hotels like his where it did like I might one of my agents was like
Well, they were able to run my credit card. I'm like, well, then they're on a different
I can't explain it some things work for others and others don't mm-hmm
I don't know
I just think about like those rooms that you try and turn over and then you don't have keys for the next person
(15:55):
I mean you are running literally on manual like one of my last convention hotels
It was psychotic one of our big outages
We ended up using Google spreadsheets and that was how housekeeping and January. Yeah. Yeah
That's literally how you manually figure out what rooms are vacant what rooms are clean, you know
And then you're checking people in and out but then you may or may not get your emergency keys back
(16:19):
And then how do you get keys for the new rooms except escort them in and out every single time?
That's why every single time this outage wasn't as bad for us and my agents didn't panic as much because what we went through in
January we're all like, oh we have phones this time. Okay? We can manage we have phones
We didn't have phones for two days. We were a solid out of all these things and we're like we're better off this time. That's great
(16:41):
Look at you with the silver lining. We had phones but no one could leave voicemails
Hmm
That sounds like an amazing glit
It was great. Can we keep that? Yeah, no red blinky light when you come back home
No, I haven't had a voicemail in a week. It's been great. It's so cool
Yeah, so I was sitting like with my GM in a meeting and her phone rings and she's like
(17:07):
Is it gonna go to a voicemail and we're sitting there?
It's ringing and ringing and we're both like zoning in on it staring at it for at least a minute, right?
Cuz these phones only ring like what four or five times
Mm-hmm. No it got to 20 and she goes I don't think the voicemail works. So
Luckily, it was an internal call and she just picked up and she was like, hey, you still there?
(17:30):
I don't think voicemail is working. I'll call you back
I'm just blatantly ignoring you and she hangs up and she goes oh
Voip it's like connected the internet. I was like, ah makes sense. I was like that's gonna be nice
Hmm. I mean except for your phone ringing 20 billion times. I just walk away
(17:50):
Have you ever done that?
I used to
There are sometimes I see it and I'm like, oh gotta go see I like I will enter the phone if my agent tells me
Like okay, this guest is calling regarding this and then I'm like, alright, I'll deal with it
But if you just call me and I just get a call
No, can I share with you an experience that I had within the past year? Yes
(18:13):
I attempted to call our last hotel that we worked at. Yeah, and it was still your voicemail
What the fork up and your voicemail blatantly said I will not be checking my voicemail. So please email me at
Did you change your voicemail when you quit? No, and I took her place and I never changed it either
(18:33):
And probably the three people after have not changed it and no one has told that person
It still says I'm working there
That's hilarious
In your voice message, you said you will not be checking your voicemail. I definitely say that uh-huh
Yeah, please email me at oh to try a voicemail. Okay to try and just get them to email you
(18:59):
Yeah, I don't I don't do voicemail like you can email me or it's not that important
It was great. That's hilarious. Oh, you know, it's been at least four years. Yeah, my kid. I was pregnant when I had that job
Yeah, I got laid off at like what six months pregnant it was impressive. That's all I was saying
I was like, oh, this is not who I was trying to get a hold of. I know the current front office manager
(19:25):
No, I don't care I want to call now
Should after hours so, you know, you get the voicemail. Yes. Hey, you could do it now
I said we did on the pod
Manager, please
We're doing that the ends we're doing at the end on Friday morning
so we're doing like a kind of a
(19:46):
Little triage meeting right trying to figure out what the plan is gonna be for the day what the process is
Who's responsible for what and I get one of the front desk agents saying hey
There's somebody on the phone that wants to talk to you. It sounds really important. I'm like well, I need more detail
We're like things are kind of busy right now. So can you take a message or send it to my voicemail?
They come back and they're like, no, he really wants to talk to you then it's something stupid and I'm thinking okay
(20:09):
This better be somebody from IT or something. I'm like send it to my office answer the phone
So we're an approved vendor for your company and I'm like no
Um, I need to stop you right there
I said, are you aware of what's going on with this outage? He goes? Oh, yeah. Yeah
I have stuff
(20:30):
Every hotel I'm calling is down right now. Are you guys affected too? I'm like
Yeah, yeah, bro. The whole world the whole world is affected. Oh, okay
Um, well, you know, we are an approved vendor
I'd hang up I would hang up like call me in two weeks when the world is back up and running or don't
(20:52):
You're probably not gonna take that business. Let's be real. No, so I'm trying to hit my quota
So on that note
Discretion time and place, please. Thank you very much. So on that note. Oh, yes miss B
Tell us again today. Did you have something to share? Yes, I do
(21:13):
So literally the same thing. So today was like my big day for getting back fix on one phone
I have our hotel brands it support they were on speaker on my desk phone and then on my cell phone
I have the it that we're paying arm and a leg to help fix this immediately
So i'm like dealing with so i'm talking to one and making them talk to each other
(21:34):
Literally, they're putting the phone on their cell phone literally the speaker of your desk phone
This is like my whole day
And then my agent comes in. Um miss B like there's somebody that wants to speak to a manager and normally I drop everything
I was like, this is more important. I have to get credit cards up and running
Tell them that I am in the middle of an it phone call trying to fix a critical system
(21:54):
Get their phone number and I will give them a call back
I even told them to say that much and they come back and they told her that and she's like well
I don't care. I want to speak to her now and the agent comes back. She's like she said she won't wait
I'm like that kind of sucks
Like yeah, you can just wait
I said she's more than welcome to wait on hold as long as this takes and they're like, okay
And so she waited and apparently it'd be hours. Mm-hmm. And so the apparently she kept calling back kept calling back
(22:18):
And they kept placing her on hold being like she's still on the phone. I'll place in a brief hold and then but they can see
Yeah, right. All right, i'll put you back on hold. She kept calling
So whenever she would place on hold she'd hang up and call again until like my agent was just like I need to place on hold
She goes no and then hold
So at one point they would just see her phone number calling put it on hold
(22:42):
Press seven for a callback number. That's what I would do. What does that do? Nothing. Nothing. That's the joke
Our brand's it says that if you'd like to save your place in line, it's seven
We'll call you back. You won't lose your place in line and then you never get a call back. Oh, really?
Yeah, this is our last five days
So they keep doing that and I didn't know this at the time
But she was calling them threatening them being very aggressive screaming at them saying i'm gonna have your job
(23:04):
If you put me on hold one more time, they're like there's no one for you to talk to
We've already told you our manager is busy
We can take your phone which you can call you back and she's like no
They're like then you have to wait on hold. There's not another option here again
I would walk away from the phone if I saw that number
That's why at some point the agents were just putting it on hold. They're like we're done
I'm not saying that was great
But this lady was nuts and then so finally I had to put my brand's it support on hold
(23:28):
Because he asked me to go check the credit card readers at the front desk to see if it works now
So then you know, they did something and then I went up to the front desk. I tried it didn't work
Went to the back. I went to pick up the hold call. Oh, no, you didn't
No, you got trapped
So I pick it i'm like hi it support and the lady's like no and
(23:49):
She starts going off and I was like ma'am. I'm sorry. Let me stop you right there. I was like I have to put you on hold
I said i'm on the phone right now with our critical it support. She's like i'm not being placed
And she's just yelling and then I other it's still on my phone. They can hear everything
And then they hear this crazy person on speaker who's beginning to threaten me
So then I mute that phone so she can't hear me talk and then I go to my it
(24:11):
I said can you guys wait a minute? I'm gonna mute me real quick because I gotta handle this and they're laughing
They're like, yeah, okay
So I mute me on that phone and then I unmute it on hers
Oh my gosh, and I said ma'am I need to stop you right there
So now we're gonna do a little background to the situation because I hadn't had a chance to dive into it yet
Because I was busy dealing with stuff. So I got the down low from her first
She's like my son was robbed at your hotel and you guys are doing nothing about it
(24:35):
And I'm like what did you call police department?
And I was like, yeah, I don't think that's accurate
But I haven't had time to look into your situation because as my agents have told you multiple times
I am in the middle of a call. She's like well you need to do something about it
How dare you not take this seriously? I'm gonna sue you for every dollar you're worth
You're not gonna have a job by tomorrow and I said, oh promise with what's going on right now
(24:59):
I will take you up don't threaten me. And I said ma'am
Are you threatening me and she's like well
And she keeps going and I said no, no, no ma'am. I heard a threat
So i'm going to be disconnecting this call now
I will not speak to anyone who speaks to me like that if you would like to talk in a rational manner
You can call back later or I can give you a call back when you've calmed down and I've resolved the situation
(25:20):
And then she's like don't you dare hang up on me click?
Don't you dare hang up with me? I'm gonna fucking call my lawyer right now
I said, yeah, you don't speak to me like that hung up and then I tell my agents
I'm like, I don't know what that was but if it calls back again put it on hold
Get back to my it call. We finished doing whatever we're doing and there's like with both phones on speaker
(25:41):
Flight crew in front of her
Right, so brand it sport ended up being absolutely zero help. They could do nothing
So we disconnect from them then my other it guys are like we're gonna look into some stuff
Can we give you a call back in a few? It was like great. I need to deal with this person
Anyways, so they're like, yeah phone with that. Let us know how it ends. You call their back
No, but I need to figure out what's going on because as soon as I came in this morning, I was on the phone
(26:03):
So I talked to my agents. I'm like, okay, somebody fill me in what's going on somebody got robbed. No, okay
What happened? They're like, well this guy like young guy came up to the front desk early this morning
I said, hey, did anyone turn in car keys from the bar last night? I was there last night
I think I might have left them behind and my agent says no
Nobody's turned anything in but you know, we can take out your phone give you a call if anybody finds anything
I'm like, okay leaves hours later
(26:25):
He comes back and says I think somebody broke into my room and stole my car keys and my air pods
And they're like, oh my gosh, i'm so sorry
Like we can have someone do a locking carrogation and see, you know who entered the room. He's like yeah, okay do that
I'll wait here. We're like, okay a couple of hours. So this is all while i'm on the phone
So chief engineer goes up does locking interrogation brings it down nobody's entered that room since the guest checked in they checked in the day
(26:48):
Before there hasn't been housekeeping service since then
So he goes and shows the guy nobody's entered your room
So unless you left the door ajar, which I would still say or unless he had a friend she snuck out. Oh
And took payment with her
Exactly, we don't know
So she told him he's like look unless you left the door jar or something happened
(27:10):
Nobody entered your room and he's like well something's wrong with the lock
It's not locking properly and he like goes up there shows the chief and he like doesn't open it 90 degrees
He opens it less and then like kind of releases it and it doesn't lock all the way and we're like, yeah
But you didn't shut your door and he's like, well, isn't that you're just supposed to shut i'm supposed to and he's like, yeah
It's not our responsibility if you don't check that your door shut you grew up in a barn
(27:33):
Yeah, but he said it really nice. He's like, well, you know if you're not closing it properly
It might not lock all the way and so they tell me all this and i'm like so that was his mother
And they're like, yeah, that was his mom. I'm like, but he's a grown adult and they're like, yeah
I'm like what though? So a short while later I get another call. They're like it's his mom again
And I was like, oh let's go
(27:55):
Let's go. I've already checked his bed. He's not even on that reservation
It's his boss's name on the reservation. His boss has three different reservations. So your name is supposed to talk to her anyway
No, so I answer and i'm like hi mrs. Karen. I believe I spoke with you earlier. She's like, yes, how dare you?
Oh, i'm like, no, i'm gonna stop you right there. You need to speak in a respectful tone
Or i'm not going to continue this conversation
And then she's like well my son was robbed at your hotel said i'm gonna stop you again
(28:18):
I'm not sure what your son said to you, but no such thing occurred at this hotel
But i'm also not going to discuss it with you any further because you're not a guest of this hotel
And i'm not at liberty to discuss this with you
But he said I could talk and I said absolutely not your son is a grown adult and I will not be continuing to have a conversation
With his mother regarding a situation she is not involved in and my boss walks in at this time like
(28:39):
Mouth agape listening to me tell this mom off and then she continues to tell me oh i'm going to fucking sue you
So then I hung up on her and I was like, nope
We're not doing this anymore and then I turn and tell my boss exactly what happened. She's like, oh hell no
She's like get him out if she's gonna treat everyone like that. You can kick her out
But I was like, well, this is what i'm gonna do i'm gonna call the son and tell him I spoke to mommy
(29:01):
And that she's not allowed to call the property anymore
She cannot threaten any of my agents and if she does then I will evict him
So I give him a call and I was like hi there. Um, you spoke with us early regarding your missing arms
Yeah, have you guys finally been getting like no not yet
But I did want to let you know that your mother has been calling the hotel making threats
Harassing the agents calls back every five minutes has told us that she's going to sue us among other things
(29:22):
But there's been a lot of threats and aggression and we're not going to condone that
So you need to reach out to your mother and tell her to stop or we will be asking you to leave the hotel
And he's like, well i'm working right now and I was like again, this is your problem. Not mine
You told your mother and now she's threatening my team
I'm more than happy to have your stuff removed out of the room unless she stops calling
(29:45):
But I can't control the actions of others
And I said sir, that's a you problem. You told your mother she's treating my staff this way
You're gone if this doesn't stop right now and he's like, okay. Okay. Okay. I'll call her. I said, okay
And then let me know if you have any questions regarding the matter
So then towards the end of the day, I think that's the end of it
The agent comes back that guy's back with his boss
(30:07):
And at that time we were doing pm pass on so the gm is right there the director of food and beverages right there. Everyone's like
Go get him. I'm like, let's fight go my boss is like kick him out. So I had her full support
So I went up to the front desk, but unfortunately and lucky the boss was very nice
Polite said I know this isn't your guys's fault
(30:27):
I I just appreciate you guys working with us seeing what you can do and I was like, okay
I'll be nice. So, you know if you don't fight me, I'm trying to fight you so I was like, okay
I'm like, no, we're doing everything we can but unfortunately, uh, I'm not sure how much he told you but we did a lock
And he's like you did a lock interrogation. I said we did and nobody ever entered the room other than him
So unless he left the door ajar then there's no way if somebody could have gotten into that room
(30:51):
He's like, okay and part of the reason the boss was so concerned, you know the car keys he lost until those were his boss's car keys
His mercy. No
That was his boss's mercedes car keys. Why did he have his boss's car keys? I don't know, but he told me about that
I'm like, oh, i'm so sorry. I was like look we are doing everything we can but your associate also said
(31:11):
You know, he wasn't sure if he'd left him in the bar last night
So we did make sure to double check the bar area
and my agents are like
And I was like, so don't worry. We're still checking everywhere
And then at the end he was like, okay. Thank you so much. Can I get my number?
I'm like, of course I take his number and he said can I have your card?
I was like, of course and I couldn't find it anywhere at the desk
So I go back to my office to get it. Everyone is standing there. Yeah, they're watching there's that with popcorn literally
(31:36):
And I was like, what are you all doing?
They're like, did you tell him about his mom yet?
And I was like I hadn't my boss is like throw in something about his mom and I was like, okay
Okay, I will so I go get my car and I go back out there and I'm like, okay
And this is my car feel free to reach out to me and I turned to that man and I was like and sir
I just want to let you know. Thank you for talking to your mother
Because she has stopped calling and threatening our staff and we really appreciate that and he's like, oh, yeah
(32:02):
Well, you know, she just wants to i'm like no
There's no there's no but and I said I appreciate that because my general manager gave me very strict orders
That if that continued you would have to leave how does boss take that? Oh, he didn't say anything
So you think it's done, right? No, it's over. No, where were the car keys? Oh, we still don't know. Oh, sorry
(32:23):
So you think it's all done and then i'm driving here tonight what and my sister
Standager calls me. It says oh my god, you're not gonna believe update on mommy boy and we're like what happened with mommy boy?
She's like his uncle just called uncle. Apparently he's a gm at a westin in la or something like that
(32:44):
And he is like how come you're threatening to evict my nephew because he his stuff was robbed
And my assistant was like, whoa, whoa, whoa back up
She's like first of all just want to let you know his story changes nearly every time it comes to the desk the first time
He had too many drinks and admitted he might have lost it in the bar
The second time suddenly more items appeared but they broke into his room
(33:06):
And third you're aware that his mother has been calling threatening our team members
How would you feel if somebody was doing that to your front desk agents?
And he's like, I understand and she's like no because he wanted the gm's phone number
She's like you're more than welcome to email rdm
But just so you know the gm is fully in support of him being evicted if our team continues to get harassed because he misplaced
His items and he's like, no, I understand and the disconnected so all of his family member have been bugging us all day
(33:30):
Supportive family. So that was my day mommy boys and it issues me
Me well on that note, do you want to take us out if I remember how to do this? It's been a month
It has been
Do we have to put the training wheels back on?
Okay team. Well, thank you so much for listening. Make sure to follow us on all of our socials
You can find us anywhere you listen to podcasts anywhere on social media
(33:54):
Just use that search button and search tales from the service industry if you have a story or just want to say hello
You can email us at og3 at tftsi.com. That is og3 at tftsi.com
Thanks for listening ladies. Thanks for joining. Of course happy to be here
And while this is kind of an out of sequence out of cycle
(34:17):
Unexpected episode we will be back in a few weeks. Yep a few weeks. Yeah
See you then kind of an arbitrary amount, but yeah
Yeah, happy summer. Bye team
Can we just like give a shout out and like props to all of us that we've survived this last week
(00:04):
Do what do we want to do an intro and get this party started? Yeah, let's do it cues the music
All right, well welcome back to girls from the surface industry we said we were gonna take a month off we didn't make it
Almost a month we can attribute that to the world falling apart
(00:25):
Yeah
you know like normally we will sit here and like filter out company names and all that but
Strike and Microsoft. Oh my god
So annoying they burned the world this week
Yeah, lit a match and just walked away and said figure it out. We're booted a couple times. I you know
(00:47):
Hope for the best. Yeah, I don't even know how many times I rebooted
It's just ridiculous. I want to know how much that actually costs though
Like when all the receipts are tallied up for all the business that was lost. Can you imagine?
Like even our company I'm scared of all the amount of charge bucks
We're gonna get when the credit card machines weren't working as of today credit card machines just got up
(01:09):
How many days has it been? It's been over a week. Has it not?
Saturday midnight Thursday night. No, yep rolling into Friday morning. Yeah, that's when it all started. Yeah, it's only been five days
Only feels like it is a long time, but it feels like it's been two weeks
Yeah, we just started processing all of the charges this afternoon and we already had four declines. Oh, absolutely us, too
(01:30):
We literally just started this afternoon as well
They're just coming back as declined because my associates saying, you know, they're gonna turn off their credit cards, right? Yeah, apparently on Saturday
We had a guy during the check-in that made a joke. Oh, no about oh, well, gee
I really hope the cards not locked when you go try to charge it
I love the scratcher. So like, you know, like members of high tiers or even just on a tier
(01:51):
There's gonna be so many cases open for like outstanding balances for people haven't paid their bills
Because like we're just starting to charge today and one of the ones that declined was the first one we tried an associate
Yeah, I've got an associate decline
We're like mother
Like do they know you can email like who's ever contact is on the form if it's a legit form that I care
(02:15):
If it's not they don't
Okay, so how did I'm curious how did your problems start at your hotels? Oh you wanna that's a good question
Yeah, okay. Can I go first? Yeah, please?
This bees got the floor. So it is Thursday night. I
with the play-by-play
(02:36):
Thursday night, and by the way, it was 1130 p.m
I am two drinks in it chillin on the couch reading seven chapters deep
Reading my smutty novels and the phones ringing like were you were you reading our book that we're supposed to read together
Yes, okay. Thank you. Yeah, it's reading my smutty novel and I get a call and I answer it
(02:58):
My assistant front office manager is covering for overnight because we're having trouble finding an auditor shock shock
And I thought you just hired an honor. Uh-huh. Okay, they just no call. No show never came back. Oh, that's great
Yeah, we'll put a pin in that one, right?
And then so she's covering and she's like miss B. I think we've been hacked
(03:18):
We're being hacked and like smooth the amount you go. Is this the person I'm thinking of? Yeah, okay
Okay, we're being ha makes total sense. The world is ending aliens are upon us
I can see the UFO outside guys and I'm like, no, we're not and I said that without even looking like we're not being hacked
She's like, you don't understand all the computers went out at the same time
(03:39):
She's like they're all showing this message and she's based on show me she's like every single computer
She's like they're going to get her specifically so she thinks we've been hacked and I was like, okay
This is what you're gonna do. We're gonna call our companies IT support
and apparently we were the first ones to call because we call the support and
She's so neurotic. Of course. You were the first one to call we call our IT support and the IT guy. Love that guy. Mr. Green
(04:06):
Just made that up. Mr. Green. We can tell with a candle in the library
Mr. Green, oh I get it
Yeah, Liz had no clue for a moment
I really don't think about it. Oh my god. Okay. So mr. Green he's like show me the screen and they're on FaceTime
(04:29):
He she turns it around and shows him and then he starts panicking
He's like no that that looks like somebody clicked a spam link and that like he thought it was like legit
No
and he's like who was touching the computers at the time they all went down and everyone looks at
The one desk agent at the desk. He's the sweetest kid, but he's the brother
Like he's literally like the one boy at the desk. So he's everyone's little brother
(04:53):
So everyone looks at John and goes John. What did you do? I didn't do anything
I swear and everyone's like the computers work fine. You were the only one touching
And he's like getting all defensive and everyone's getting upset and then so they're like trying to figure out what's going on
But then another IT guy from a different company gets called in and he's like no no guys
(05:13):
This is a global thing turn on the news and you see all the shit is like going to hell
Okay, so bill how did your storm start?
The first that I had heard any of it was actually from B. Oh in the group chat
Yeah, cuz he's like all about it's fine. I was like must be nice
Yeah, pretty much cuz like I had all this in blue screen and you're like, oh
(05:36):
Received any calls but it's because my AGM received the calls. Mmm. Yeah, I'm texting you guys
Delegation right there
So we found out about the same time, but I was chatting with you
What ungodly hour was that anyway?
That was like one o'clock in the morning
Cuz I was up to like one two because we were figuring everything out like what to do and I had to go in straight
(05:58):
In the morning. I'm like, it's gonna be hell
Well, so I woke up to those texts but our IT issues actually started the day prior or like the morning of so you're saying
Thursday night our started Thursday morning and who knows if it was like truly an IT issue like before the start of the Microsoft
Stuff, but we couldn't access our shared network drives
(06:20):
So anything connected to like our network internet was failing
It's like we couldn't open like the system that operates the hotel and it's cloud-based now
But it's connected to the network internet so it didn't open and none of our shared drives
So as you guys know, I'm in the middle of summer and summer camp all of my spreadsheets on what vendors are booked
(06:42):
Who's registered for camp that day all of my schedule literally my life is in this like shared network drive
Oh, I have no idea boat rentals no clue, but it was intermittent like throughout the day
It's like some workstations could open stuff and some couldn't as far as like our operating systems go
No one could access any files
(07:03):
Yeah, but like the systems we use for like boat rentals and the hotel you had to be like on a workstation
That was feeling good that minute to like reboot and you were able to open it
I wonder if that was related to the crowdstruck
It's cuz I don't think the patch got sent to later, but that's really interesting and I don't believe in coincidences
So it's weird. So then I woke up to your text the following morning and I was like, oh is this what was happening?
(07:25):
Like all day yesterday. Yeah, it's not kind of weird. They're not being kind of tight-lipped. We're not getting many answers or more
Apology. No, I think
Apology
Yeah, I think didn't like the CEO or CFO of crowdstrike like go on and publicly apologize
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we did he did. I made a whole formal announcement. Yeah, did he resign? No
(07:49):
No, no, he literally watched the world burn my Friday morning started very similarly
I'm off on Fridays, but I woke up to a whole bunch of text messages
Yeah, yeah 6 a.m. My team's calling me and they're like we have this blue screen and we don't know how to log in and we
Don't know how to get a hold of support because they couldn't even log into their systems to get a hold of support
(08:11):
Yeah, and so they're like, hey, can you try your systems?
So I was able to log in got support got support for them and we got it all fixed within 20 minutes
But was really scary
Yeah corporate gets the attention first. They're like the tear like help them first before the rest of us
They're the acai berries
(08:33):
The brand
Franchises are the redheads five days later. We get help. Well, we have fewer
Systems. I don't we have we have different systems
But for them to literally allow one little tiny piece of script to impact our total global environment
Was really disturbing to me when I heard reports to that, you know
(08:55):
This kind of code and thing it should have been tested to other computers before launching it worldwide
Exactly. You launched something untested worldwide and crashed the world. The idea was that they did test it, but I don't
Think that they tested it in a large enough capacity
Exactly so that they literally took down our economy every industry
Like everyone's was been reeling except for spirit. Yeah. Yeah
(09:19):
Southwest southwest. Yeah
Southwest I think they were still like experiencing delays but nothing to
Only because it was the airports themselves not because of their systems. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah, I know we're talking like hospitality
Is specific but I do want to shine light on everyone traveling and everyone in hospitals
Yeah, that like we're waiting for pertinent tests to come back for surgery like life-saving surgeries to get done
(09:47):
Did you see that they like it was like a tick tock or real or whatever that went viral of the machines in like labor
And delivery weren't working
So nurses are sitting outside the door listening to fetal monitors and like so all the nurses are just in the hallway
Stationed outside doors
Going to go. Yeah, that's what I know. I'm sure going off
You literally have to go back to pen and paper or how they did it in the old days with yeah, they're listening
(10:12):
Well, let's not connected heart monitor
So for those of our listeners that are out there that really don't understand
They're like, okay Microsoft had an outage like so you can't open soft Microsoft Explorer because that's what my mom was
Confused about she's like so the Microsoft programs didn't work. I don't get it
Why did it impact you like that would one even like to shed light on exactly why because they think Microsoft Explorer?
(10:33):
Word word like no like I I'm not well enough versed but what I can say for our property
We couldn't make keys. I couldn't check you in I couldn't check you out because I can't read credit cards
You know, it's like everything was manual at that point
Yeah, and there's practices that we have to abide by now with security for credit cards
So, you know, you're not supposed to do X Y & Z
(10:56):
Yeah, and with the outage either do certain things that you shouldn't normally do and you secure the hell out of it
Because you don't normally do this. So you're locking things in safes and whatnot. It's not easy
It's clumsy as hell. Yeah, you know and like human error when you were thrown into it
You had no time to plan like okay, what is the best course of action? You're thinking on your feet
(11:19):
Yeah
and like I
Didn't understand the gravity of it all until I was in the car driving to work and I'm listening to the radio and they're talking
About what's going on and as I'm like literally every mile that I'm driving I'm like, oh god, this is worse than I thought
Oh god, it's worse than I thought even a mile back, but I got to work and the team was just like what do we do?
Well, you know all of us have a binder on the shelf that big red binder in case of emergency, right?
(11:42):
There's no plan in there. There's no plan in there for
Crowdstrike taking a crap on everything. Yeah, so it's like I walked in the door and the teams like well, what do we do?
It's like, okay. Well right now we're gonna talk about what we don't do. We are not checking people in right now
I know we held off till
4 p.m. Yeah, and then we couldn't hold off anymore and then we started doing manual CC auth forms
And it's funny that brand sent out a paper days later was like don't write down credit cards
(12:06):
Everyone's like has stacks of them like, okay
Well, I mean, what are you gonna do?
It's like if we have to if you don't then we are closing the hotel
Yep
And how's that going to impact the brand when a hundred and sixty some rooms are calling you because we're kicking them all out
Yeah, it's not gonna fly well in you're displacing people that could be stuck because they can't make a flight. So and you have a
(12:29):
So what are you supposed to do? Oh, good luck find another hotel
So our hotel was filled with a particular airline because their whole thing like went out
It was sad because like all these flight attendants all these crews they're saying we have no idea what's going on
Yeah, our shuttle didn't show up. We've tried calling the shuttle didn't show up
And apparently they're like we've tried calling our people and nobody's answering
(12:53):
Well, cuz the phones didn't work cuz internet didn't work either and like the airline just so inundated with all these flight crews
They're stuck around the world that we basically told them don't worry
My team was starting to be like well if you guys don't get a voucher, you're gonna have to pay like
I calmed everyone down. I was like, this is one of our biggest contracts. They're fine. We're going to see we're going to extend them
(13:14):
We will get it later. Yeah, everyone's obviously overwhelmed right now
And so they were actually here the guest. Uh-huh. They were actually our most understanding people
Well, yeah, cuz they didn't have a job to go to but also like one at one point. This was today
I was on my cell phone at the front desk the only one the desk my desk. I didn't kept walking away
(13:36):
I'm on my cell phone talking to IT because one of the computers it was still had the blue screen of death
So we're deleting it. So he's walking me through the code. I'm like, okay, and I told her I'm so sorry
I will be right with you. She's like, no, don't worry about it. And I'm like, okay, and it's the crowd strike file and she's like
Oh, yeah, we're deleting that file but it was so on Friday
(13:57):
We ran an arrivals list and I had the team start calling everybody so we divided up the list
I ended up talking about 14 or 15 guests that were coming in that day and
Every single one of them was so nice. Oh like super polite very understanding. Thank you for the call
We appreciate it
They gave us approximate arrival time so we could try and plan it out at the front desk the people that were the worst
(14:20):
Were the people that were already in-house the ones that had keys the ones that had their credit cards processed all of that
They were the worst. That's horrible. So I told one lady I said you have your phone
She's again, like Google the word outage
And hit send and then see what's going on and they're like, oh
Okay, they didn't get it and one lady's literally leaving and I am checking her out. I'm like, oh, yeah
(14:45):
Sorry, our systems are shut down. We'll send you a receipt when we're able to process credit cards
It's like oh why not? I'm like, you know the outage that's going on
She's like no and I explaining and she's like I'm supposed to go into the airport. Do you think that's gonna affect that?
I'm like, mmm
Going I would check on that. Oh
How have you not gotten like
Notifications that like light might be delayed flight might be can't they were in a day
(15:08):
They couldn't send notifications
you know what I had a lot of like thought on the past few days and a lot of empathy for and
I think we've touched on in previous episodes in the emergency keys. Yes, we have talked about that
I'm so grateful. I just made my so when Bill said the big red binder
I thought that was what you were gonna bring up. But that's the thing is my
My keys didn't crash
(15:31):
But let's think about right, but I don't know why how's where they did those keys only work X amount of times
Yeah, but at the same time it's not it sucks for hotels like his where it did like I might one of my agents was like
Well, they were able to run my credit card. I'm like, well, then they're on a different
I can't explain it some things work for others and others don't mm-hmm
I don't know
I just think about like those rooms that you try and turn over and then you don't have keys for the next person
(15:55):
I mean you are running literally on manual like one of my last convention hotels
It was psychotic one of our big outages
We ended up using Google spreadsheets and that was how housekeeping and January. Yeah. Yeah
That's literally how you manually figure out what rooms are vacant what rooms are clean, you know
And then you're checking people in and out but then you may or may not get your emergency keys back
(16:19):
And then how do you get keys for the new rooms except escort them in and out every single time?
That's why every single time this outage wasn't as bad for us and my agents didn't panic as much because what we went through in
January we're all like, oh we have phones this time. Okay? We can manage we have phones
We didn't have phones for two days. We were a solid out of all these things and we're like we're better off this time. That's great
(16:41):
Look at you with the silver lining. We had phones but no one could leave voicemails
Hmm
That sounds like an amazing glit
It was great. Can we keep that? Yeah, no red blinky light when you come back home
No, I haven't had a voicemail in a week. It's been great. It's so cool
Yeah, so I was sitting like with my GM in a meeting and her phone rings and she's like
(17:07):
Is it gonna go to a voicemail and we're sitting there?
It's ringing and ringing and we're both like zoning in on it staring at it for at least a minute, right?
Cuz these phones only ring like what four or five times
Mm-hmm. No it got to 20 and she goes I don't think the voicemail works. So
Luckily, it was an internal call and she just picked up and she was like, hey, you still there?
(17:30):
I don't think voicemail is working. I'll call you back
I'm just blatantly ignoring you and she hangs up and she goes oh
Voip it's like connected the internet. I was like, ah makes sense. I was like that's gonna be nice
Hmm. I mean except for your phone ringing 20 billion times. I just walk away
(17:50):
Have you ever done that?
I used to
There are sometimes I see it and I'm like, oh gotta go see I like I will enter the phone if my agent tells me
Like okay, this guest is calling regarding this and then I'm like, alright, I'll deal with it
But if you just call me and I just get a call
No, can I share with you an experience that I had within the past year? Yes
(18:13):
I attempted to call our last hotel that we worked at. Yeah, and it was still your voicemail
What the fork up and your voicemail blatantly said I will not be checking my voicemail. So please email me at
Did you change your voicemail when you quit? No, and I took her place and I never changed it either
(18:33):
And probably the three people after have not changed it and no one has told that person
It still says I'm working there
That's hilarious
In your voice message, you said you will not be checking your voicemail. I definitely say that uh-huh
Yeah, please email me at oh to try a voicemail. Okay to try and just get them to email you
(18:59):
Yeah, I don't I don't do voicemail like you can email me or it's not that important
It was great. That's hilarious. Oh, you know, it's been at least four years. Yeah, my kid. I was pregnant when I had that job
Yeah, I got laid off at like what six months pregnant it was impressive. That's all I was saying
I was like, oh, this is not who I was trying to get a hold of. I know the current front office manager
(19:25):
No, I don't care I want to call now
Should after hours so, you know, you get the voicemail. Yes. Hey, you could do it now
I said we did on the pod
Manager, please
We're doing that the ends we're doing at the end on Friday morning
so we're doing like a kind of a
(19:46):
Little triage meeting right trying to figure out what the plan is gonna be for the day what the process is
Who's responsible for what and I get one of the front desk agents saying hey
There's somebody on the phone that wants to talk to you. It sounds really important. I'm like well, I need more detail
We're like things are kind of busy right now. So can you take a message or send it to my voicemail?
They come back and they're like, no, he really wants to talk to you then it's something stupid and I'm thinking okay
(20:09):
This better be somebody from IT or something. I'm like send it to my office answer the phone
So we're an approved vendor for your company and I'm like no
Um, I need to stop you right there
I said, are you aware of what's going on with this outage? He goes? Oh, yeah. Yeah
I have stuff
(20:30):
Every hotel I'm calling is down right now. Are you guys affected too? I'm like
Yeah, yeah, bro. The whole world the whole world is affected. Oh, okay
Um, well, you know, we are an approved vendor
I'd hang up I would hang up like call me in two weeks when the world is back up and running or don't
(20:52):
You're probably not gonna take that business. Let's be real. No, so I'm trying to hit my quota
So on that note
Discretion time and place, please. Thank you very much. So on that note. Oh, yes miss B
Tell us again today. Did you have something to share? Yes, I do
(21:13):
So literally the same thing. So today was like my big day for getting back fix on one phone
I have our hotel brands it support they were on speaker on my desk phone and then on my cell phone
I have the it that we're paying arm and a leg to help fix this immediately
So i'm like dealing with so i'm talking to one and making them talk to each other
(21:34):
Literally, they're putting the phone on their cell phone literally the speaker of your desk phone
This is like my whole day
And then my agent comes in. Um miss B like there's somebody that wants to speak to a manager and normally I drop everything
I was like, this is more important. I have to get credit cards up and running
Tell them that I am in the middle of an it phone call trying to fix a critical system
(21:54):
Get their phone number and I will give them a call back
I even told them to say that much and they come back and they told her that and she's like well
I don't care. I want to speak to her now and the agent comes back. She's like she said she won't wait
I'm like that kind of sucks
Like yeah, you can just wait
I said she's more than welcome to wait on hold as long as this takes and they're like, okay
And so she waited and apparently it'd be hours. Mm-hmm. And so the apparently she kept calling back kept calling back
(22:18):
And they kept placing her on hold being like she's still on the phone. I'll place in a brief hold and then but they can see
Yeah, right. All right, i'll put you back on hold. She kept calling
So whenever she would place on hold she'd hang up and call again until like my agent was just like I need to place on hold
She goes no and then hold
So at one point they would just see her phone number calling put it on hold
(22:42):
Press seven for a callback number. That's what I would do. What does that do? Nothing. Nothing. That's the joke
Our brand's it says that if you'd like to save your place in line, it's seven
We'll call you back. You won't lose your place in line and then you never get a call back. Oh, really?
Yeah, this is our last five days
So they keep doing that and I didn't know this at the time
But she was calling them threatening them being very aggressive screaming at them saying i'm gonna have your job
(23:04):
If you put me on hold one more time, they're like there's no one for you to talk to
We've already told you our manager is busy
We can take your phone which you can call you back and she's like no
They're like then you have to wait on hold. There's not another option here again
I would walk away from the phone if I saw that number
That's why at some point the agents were just putting it on hold. They're like we're done
I'm not saying that was great
But this lady was nuts and then so finally I had to put my brand's it support on hold
(23:28):
Because he asked me to go check the credit card readers at the front desk to see if it works now
So then you know, they did something and then I went up to the front desk. I tried it didn't work
Went to the back. I went to pick up the hold call. Oh, no, you didn't
No, you got trapped
So I pick it i'm like hi it support and the lady's like no and
(23:49):
She starts going off and I was like ma'am. I'm sorry. Let me stop you right there. I was like I have to put you on hold
I said i'm on the phone right now with our critical it support. She's like i'm not being placed
And she's just yelling and then I other it's still on my phone. They can hear everything
And then they hear this crazy person on speaker who's beginning to threaten me
So then I mute that phone so she can't hear me talk and then I go to my it
(24:11):
I said can you guys wait a minute? I'm gonna mute me real quick because I gotta handle this and they're laughing
They're like, yeah, okay
So I mute me on that phone and then I unmute it on hers
Oh my gosh, and I said ma'am I need to stop you right there
So now we're gonna do a little background to the situation because I hadn't had a chance to dive into it yet
Because I was busy dealing with stuff. So I got the down low from her first
She's like my son was robbed at your hotel and you guys are doing nothing about it
(24:35):
And I'm like what did you call police department?
And I was like, yeah, I don't think that's accurate
But I haven't had time to look into your situation because as my agents have told you multiple times
I am in the middle of a call. She's like well you need to do something about it
How dare you not take this seriously? I'm gonna sue you for every dollar you're worth
You're not gonna have a job by tomorrow and I said, oh promise with what's going on right now
(24:59):
I will take you up don't threaten me. And I said ma'am
Are you threatening me and she's like well
And she keeps going and I said no, no, no ma'am. I heard a threat
So i'm going to be disconnecting this call now
I will not speak to anyone who speaks to me like that if you would like to talk in a rational manner
You can call back later or I can give you a call back when you've calmed down and I've resolved the situation
(25:20):
And then she's like don't you dare hang up on me click?
Don't you dare hang up with me? I'm gonna fucking call my lawyer right now
I said, yeah, you don't speak to me like that hung up and then I tell my agents
I'm like, I don't know what that was but if it calls back again put it on hold
Get back to my it call. We finished doing whatever we're doing and there's like with both phones on speaker
(25:41):
Flight crew in front of her
Right, so brand it sport ended up being absolutely zero help. They could do nothing
So we disconnect from them then my other it guys are like we're gonna look into some stuff
Can we give you a call back in a few? It was like great. I need to deal with this person
Anyways, so they're like, yeah phone with that. Let us know how it ends. You call their back
No, but I need to figure out what's going on because as soon as I came in this morning, I was on the phone
(26:03):
So I talked to my agents. I'm like, okay, somebody fill me in what's going on somebody got robbed. No, okay
What happened? They're like, well this guy like young guy came up to the front desk early this morning
I said, hey, did anyone turn in car keys from the bar last night? I was there last night
I think I might have left them behind and my agent says no
Nobody's turned anything in but you know, we can take out your phone give you a call if anybody finds anything
I'm like, okay leaves hours later
(26:25):
He comes back and says I think somebody broke into my room and stole my car keys and my air pods
And they're like, oh my gosh, i'm so sorry
Like we can have someone do a locking carrogation and see, you know who entered the room. He's like yeah, okay do that
I'll wait here. We're like, okay a couple of hours. So this is all while i'm on the phone
So chief engineer goes up does locking interrogation brings it down nobody's entered that room since the guest checked in they checked in the day
(26:48):
Before there hasn't been housekeeping service since then
So he goes and shows the guy nobody's entered your room
So unless you left the door ajar, which I would still say or unless he had a friend she snuck out. Oh
And took payment with her
Exactly, we don't know
So she told him he's like look unless you left the door jar or something happened
(27:10):
Nobody entered your room and he's like well something's wrong with the lock
It's not locking properly and he like goes up there shows the chief and he like doesn't open it 90 degrees
He opens it less and then like kind of releases it and it doesn't lock all the way and we're like, yeah
But you didn't shut your door and he's like, well, isn't that you're just supposed to shut i'm supposed to and he's like, yeah
It's not our responsibility if you don't check that your door shut you grew up in a barn
(27:33):
Yeah, but he said it really nice. He's like, well, you know if you're not closing it properly
It might not lock all the way and so they tell me all this and i'm like so that was his mother
And they're like, yeah, that was his mom. I'm like, but he's a grown adult and they're like, yeah
I'm like what though? So a short while later I get another call. They're like it's his mom again
And I was like, oh let's go
(27:55):
Let's go. I've already checked his bed. He's not even on that reservation
It's his boss's name on the reservation. His boss has three different reservations. So your name is supposed to talk to her anyway
No, so I answer and i'm like hi mrs. Karen. I believe I spoke with you earlier. She's like, yes, how dare you?
Oh, i'm like, no, i'm gonna stop you right there. You need to speak in a respectful tone
Or i'm not going to continue this conversation
And then she's like well my son was robbed at your hotel said i'm gonna stop you again
(28:18):
I'm not sure what your son said to you, but no such thing occurred at this hotel
But i'm also not going to discuss it with you any further because you're not a guest of this hotel
And i'm not at liberty to discuss this with you
But he said I could talk and I said absolutely not your son is a grown adult and I will not be continuing to have a conversation
With his mother regarding a situation she is not involved in and my boss walks in at this time like
(28:39):
Mouth agape listening to me tell this mom off and then she continues to tell me oh i'm going to fucking sue you
So then I hung up on her and I was like, nope
We're not doing this anymore and then I turn and tell my boss exactly what happened. She's like, oh hell no
She's like get him out if she's gonna treat everyone like that. You can kick her out
But I was like, well, this is what i'm gonna do i'm gonna call the son and tell him I spoke to mommy
(29:01):
And that she's not allowed to call the property anymore
She cannot threaten any of my agents and if she does then I will evict him
So I give him a call and I was like hi there. Um, you spoke with us early regarding your missing arms
Yeah, have you guys finally been getting like no not yet
But I did want to let you know that your mother has been calling the hotel making threats
Harassing the agents calls back every five minutes has told us that she's going to sue us among other things
(29:22):
But there's been a lot of threats and aggression and we're not going to condone that
So you need to reach out to your mother and tell her to stop or we will be asking you to leave the hotel
And he's like, well i'm working right now and I was like again, this is your problem. Not mine
You told your mother and now she's threatening my team
I'm more than happy to have your stuff removed out of the room unless she stops calling
(29:45):
But I can't control the actions of others
And I said sir, that's a you problem. You told your mother she's treating my staff this way
You're gone if this doesn't stop right now and he's like, okay. Okay. Okay. I'll call her. I said, okay
And then let me know if you have any questions regarding the matter
So then towards the end of the day, I think that's the end of it
The agent comes back that guy's back with his boss
(30:07):
And at that time we were doing pm pass on so the gm is right there the director of food and beverages right there. Everyone's like
Go get him. I'm like, let's fight go my boss is like kick him out. So I had her full support
So I went up to the front desk, but unfortunately and lucky the boss was very nice
Polite said I know this isn't your guys's fault
(30:27):
I I just appreciate you guys working with us seeing what you can do and I was like, okay
I'll be nice. So, you know if you don't fight me, I'm trying to fight you so I was like, okay
I'm like, no, we're doing everything we can but unfortunately, uh, I'm not sure how much he told you but we did a lock
And he's like you did a lock interrogation. I said we did and nobody ever entered the room other than him
So unless he left the door ajar then there's no way if somebody could have gotten into that room
(30:51):
He's like, okay and part of the reason the boss was so concerned, you know the car keys he lost until those were his boss's car keys
His mercy. No
That was his boss's mercedes car keys. Why did he have his boss's car keys? I don't know, but he told me about that
I'm like, oh, i'm so sorry. I was like look we are doing everything we can but your associate also said
(31:11):
You know, he wasn't sure if he'd left him in the bar last night
So we did make sure to double check the bar area
and my agents are like
And I was like, so don't worry. We're still checking everywhere
And then at the end he was like, okay. Thank you so much. Can I get my number?
I'm like, of course I take his number and he said can I have your card?
I was like, of course and I couldn't find it anywhere at the desk
So I go back to my office to get it. Everyone is standing there. Yeah, they're watching there's that with popcorn literally
(31:36):
And I was like, what are you all doing?
They're like, did you tell him about his mom yet?
And I was like I hadn't my boss is like throw in something about his mom and I was like, okay
Okay, I will so I go get my car and I go back out there and I'm like, okay
And this is my car feel free to reach out to me and I turned to that man and I was like and sir
I just want to let you know. Thank you for talking to your mother
Because she has stopped calling and threatening our staff and we really appreciate that and he's like, oh, yeah
(32:02):
Well, you know, she just wants to i'm like no
There's no there's no but and I said I appreciate that because my general manager gave me very strict orders
That if that continued you would have to leave how does boss take that? Oh, he didn't say anything
So you think it's done, right? No, it's over. No, where were the car keys? Oh, we still don't know. Oh, sorry
(32:23):
So you think it's all done and then i'm driving here tonight what and my sister
Standager calls me. It says oh my god, you're not gonna believe update on mommy boy and we're like what happened with mommy boy?
She's like his uncle just called uncle. Apparently he's a gm at a westin in la or something like that
(32:44):
And he is like how come you're threatening to evict my nephew because he his stuff was robbed
And my assistant was like, whoa, whoa, whoa back up
She's like first of all just want to let you know his story changes nearly every time it comes to the desk the first time
He had too many drinks and admitted he might have lost it in the bar
The second time suddenly more items appeared but they broke into his room
(33:06):
And third you're aware that his mother has been calling threatening our team members
How would you feel if somebody was doing that to your front desk agents?
And he's like, I understand and she's like no because he wanted the gm's phone number
She's like you're more than welcome to email rdm
But just so you know the gm is fully in support of him being evicted if our team continues to get harassed because he misplaced
His items and he's like, no, I understand and the disconnected so all of his family member have been bugging us all day
(33:30):
Supportive family. So that was my day mommy boys and it issues me
Me well on that note, do you want to take us out if I remember how to do this? It's been a month
It has been
Do we have to put the training wheels back on?
Okay team. Well, thank you so much for listening. Make sure to follow us on all of our socials
You can find us anywhere you listen to podcasts anywhere on social media
(33:54):
Just use that search button and search tales from the service industry if you have a story or just want to say hello
You can email us at og3 at tftsi.com. That is og3 at tftsi.com
Thanks for listening ladies. Thanks for joining. Of course happy to be here
And while this is kind of an out of sequence out of cycle
(34:17):
Unexpected episode we will be back in a few weeks. Yep a few weeks. Yeah
See you then kind of an arbitrary amount, but yeah
Yeah, happy summer. Bye team
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