So the worst part of my job is not getting told things ever until the last minute, like today for instance, I came to work in the morning having booked 15 people for the trip knowing that we usually have a tour group of about 50 people on Fridays so that meant there was plenty of space on a boat that holds around 100. Once I got to work, I was told oh yeah, you need to take all the people you booked for today for the boat to a different smaller inferior boat cause we got another tour group and we have 105 people on the boat for the tour groups. So I get to be the bearer of bad news to these people, who are all on vacation and have their days all pretty much planned out, and tell them basically that even though yesterday or the day before, I talked to them and told them we never have more than about 70 people on the boat and not to expect much more than even 60 people on the boat for their trip. That not only would the boat now have more than 100 people on the boat, but the reservation that they made, didn’t even really matter because my bosses booked the boat like they didn’t even exist. So I have to try to deal with them calling me a liar and yelling at me for ruining their day while still trying to convince them to take this different crappier boat. It makes for a wonderful morning.
This is just one example of this, stuff like this happens at least once a week here. I mean as much as I like the guys that I work with, the Greeks in general way of doing business is absolutely ruthless they could care less about pleasing people or customer service if there is a bit of money to be made. They don’t care that they are ruining these peoples days, its all about their money. I mean I understand its business, but it’s the tourist industry as well which is all service, you would think that they would at least have some heart or compassion for the people who they are inconveniencing. But then again they don’t really care because they have their friendly American boy to smooth things over with the people. ARGH. Today I had a lady who was furious with me be like “You know, you’ve been here too long. We knew that Greeks and Turks are all liars and will say what ever you want to hear to make a dollar but we didn’t expect to get it from you, an American.” All I can say is the truth that I never get told anything and that if I had know that I would have been honest with them and told them that the boat was full. But it doesn’t usually help.
Oh well, I can just add it to my experiences here. I’m sure its helping me to build skills in customer service and dealing with upset people from all around the world. So I guess some good might come from this experience even though it sucks real bad when it happens. Don’t get me wrong, I still love it here, I like the guys I work for, I just hate the way that business is so heartless here. There is just no sense of integrity with anyone here in business.
I’ll keep stayin classy and putting on the charm for the angry tourists if you do!
Evan
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