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A Customer Service Failure

By Patrick Lamb on February 26th, 2010 Posted in Client Service

I just concluded a stay at a Four Seasons Hotel. When checking out, I was stunned to see two $100 plus charges for phone calls. When I inquired about the charges, I was told that the first minute of each call is $8 and each subsequent minute was $3. The rates are not listed on the phone, and it seemed unconscionable that a quality hotel would charge so prohibitively for phone services without making the scale of the charge clear. I said something to the manager as I was leaving, and the phone charges were cut in half.

This was a fair outcome, but really disappointed me. Four Seasons takes tremendous pride in its customer service. It should know better.

Is there a moral of the story? If so, it is that when the bar is set high and you fall, it looks like a long way.

Jeff Carr

In this case, the marginal cost of phone service to Four Seasons is negligible so all the hotel was doing was reaping unconscionable profits from a good customer — not the best customer service to say the least. But to me there is a far deeper principle involved. This reminds me of law firms that charge for overhead — whether at inflated rates or costs, whenever a customer permits a service provider to uses pass through billing of things that are in fact overhead and should be including in pricing there is no incentive to use the lowest cost provider. It’s wrong from the customer service standpoint, and it’s wrong for the customer to permit it. Bravo Pat for calling them out over this practice.