So upset and lost my temper!

I rarely, rarely lose my temper to the point of yelling, but I did today. Here's the backstory:

I went to Washington state to see Kevin graduate this past weekend. Back on March 8th I made a reservation through TravelNow.com (AKA Hotels.com) for a hotel room for the two nights I was there.

The hotel could not find my reservation. They called "corporate" and still couldn't come up with anything.

I didn't want to sleep in the back of my (tiny) rental car, so I asked if they had any rooms left. They did, at a cost of about $55 more that I had already paid back in March. I reluctantly took the room.

When I got home I called Hotels.com to find out what happened and to get a refund of the higher amount I had to pay at the last minute. Eventually the agent figured out they had sent the reservation off in the name on my email account, which is not the same as my own name, i.e. JaneDoe@yahoo.com became a reservation at the hotel for Jane Doe. Not an obvious error to make, but I'm sure someone just made a mistake. Since it was Sunday night there was no billing person at the hotel and they asked me to call Hotels.com back during the week.

Today I called back and talked to Sasha. Wow. My older ds is a customer service representative and I have sympathy for CSRs. BUT. This gal basically called me a liar, saying I called in the reservation and gave them the wrong name. Ummm . . . no, I didn't. I did it online and put in my proper name, which appeared on my confirmation email. The "wrong name" didn't appear anywhere on the reservation email I printed out or I would have (obviously) given them that name at the hotel when we were trying to solve the mystery of the disappearing reservation.

She said she could refund my lower amount paid and since it was "my fault" that was all she would do. She went on and on and on and wouldn't stop to listen to my questions. She talked rapid-fire. I finally banged the phone on the desk, hoping that would get her to stop and see what I had to say. It didn't. When she did that for the THIRD time, I finally yelled, "SHUT UP!!!!!" So very unlike me! I was determined that I was not going to hang up and drop the subject because then they would get what they wanted, which was my money. She kept saying, "You know, this phone call is being recorded," and I told her each time I sincerely hoped so and that it would actually be listened to by a supervisor. Don't try that one on me.

Since I had gotten nowhere with Hotels.com, I called the hotel directly and the gal was friendly. After various bits of checking, she said all she could refund was the lower amount, but her manner was pleasant, and I asked what else she could do for me. All she could offer was a AAA discount which would save me about $20 of the extra $55 I had to pay. I really don't know why she couldn't match the original price I paid. Anyway, I said thank you and called Hotels.com back.

I talked to Sylvia this time. Much better experience. She read through the notes on my account, then seemed to genuinely want to solve the problem. In the end I will get the original (lower) amount refunded, plus a $100 gift code to be used in the next year for my inconvenience and my additional out-of-pocket cost. I'm wary about using Hotels.com again, but was happy they offered SOMEthing for their mistake.

I hope my children didn't hear me yelling.