Property management runaround

Welcome to the property management blog, PhoneSmart’s diary of the property business. Today’s blog was submitted by Kay, who is one of our key telesales reps at PhoneSmart. She wanted to share an experience she had with a vaction club she belongs to. In our mind, it is just another style of property management, yes?

“A little phone center experience from the dark side.”

I am an owner of a vacation condo at a vacation lodge near Branson, MO

There was a mix up in the billing of my maintenance fees. My reservation for my birthday week at the end of April was made in December.

We did not receive the bill for our maintenance fees in March and I forgot. I received a certified letter from the Maintenance Fees department telling me that “my reservation would be cancelled if payment was not received in 5 days. The 5 day deadline ended on April 10. I called to tell them that I could pay on April 15. They told me that it was “locked in and that once I passed the 10th my reservation for the last week in April could not be reinstated

I asked the rep if I could speak with a supervisor, someone who could handle this. He said “NO, in fact, I am ending this call as it is no longer profitable to keep talking with you” I called back and spoke with another person who read from the book that while this was the protocol, if the customer “called to make arrangements” the arrangements would be made if reasonable. I asked the new rep if 5 days seemed an unreasonable extension and he said that he “could not make that decision” I asked for someone who could and was told that he had “devoted all of the time he planned to to my call and he needed to take other calls”

I called Owner Services. He told me that it was not his department and there was nothing he could do. I asked for his supervisor and was told that he “would not trouble his supervisor with my complaint” I advised him that I was going to call other departments and complain about him and he replied “You are now getting personal and threatening and I am terminating this call”

I put $1200 down and pay $178 per month for this contract and I was getting upset!

I finally called Reservations. It seemed to have a “customer service” kind of sound to the title. That rep explained that it was not his department and there was nothing he could do for me but he would call his supervisor, explain my situation and see what she could do. She got on the line and told me that she would talk with the supervisor in the correct department. She gave me her direct line number and promised to call back by 10 AM. At 9:50 AM she called to let me know that she had not yet solved my problem but did not want to lose credibility with me by failing to call when promised.

She called this morning to tell me that I would receive both fax and e-mail by close of business today confirming that if I paid my fees ” 5 days prior to the reservation start date that everything would be fine” THIS IS THE STANDARD POLICY AS RECORDED IN THE CALL CENTER HANDBOOK. The certified letter is to make sure the customer “understands the serious need to pay the fees”

They did and now my Branson Vacation lodging was free, becasue the people in the call center cared enough to try and rectify the situation.

In a letter that I am composing to the president of this vacation club corporation I am stating “only the representative and supervisor in the Reservations department would last through the probationary period in the call center that I work in”

I am proud to be a part of a customer service staff that cares to actually help people.

Kay J.

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