"[Motel name], how can I help you?"
"Yeah, I called the other day to make some reservations for next week, and unfortunately I gotta cancel em."
"That's no problem, I can take care of that for you. What's your name and what date did we have you coming in?"
"Yeah, we were supposed to come in next week."
"What is your name, and what date did we have you coming in?"
"Your full name, and the date, please. When were you scheduled? How many rooms? How many people?"
"You should already have that on file!"
"I need to know whose reservation I'm canceling."
"Just use my phone number!"
"Okay. What's your phone number?"
"I'm calling you on it right now!"
"Sir, this is a landline, it tells me the number when I pick up, but right now all it's saying is the duration of the call. I can hang up and look up your number, but I can't do that while you're on the line."
*I look up his number, check the following week's reservations, none of them match. I check every reservation to the end of the month, none of them match. I check October because maybe he meant to say next month instead of next week, but I still don't find any reservations under Mike from this phone number. I call him back, he doesn't answer, and his voicemail is full. I call him back an hour later, still nothing. I make a note for my boss to be on the lookout for a no-show next week, and forget about it. Another hour later, he finally calls back*
"[Motel name], how can I help you?"
"I got a buncha missed calls from this number."
"You called to cancel a reservation this morning, but I was unable to find it. We have three Michaels and one Mike coming in over the next month, but they all have different last names and different phone numbers, and none of them are even in the same area code as you, so I didn't know which one was yours."
"This is my business phone. Why are you calling me here? Why would I make the reservation under my business number?!?"
"Sir, this is the number you called me on. I can not cancel your reservation until you give me the full name it was made under, the check-in and check-out dates it was made for, and the phone number you used when you made it."
"It wasn't for me, it was for my girlfriend so it's under her name, and it's for Thanksgiving weekend."
"You told me it was next week."
"No I didn't. I told you it was for November."
"Okay. What is her name?"
"And what is Susan Hardy's telephone number?"
"I gave this information to some woman named Rhonda last week, it's not my fault if you lost my reservation."
"Rhonda? We don't have anybody named Rhonda here."
"Is this [expensive resort in a completely different city whose name sounds nothing like ours]?"
"No. This is [motel name, for the third time]."
"You're the wrong place!"
*he hangs up, no apology, no "I called the wrong number," just the accusatory "you're the wrong place," as if it's somehow my fault and I'm the one pestering him*
This is the norm, not the exception.
