The Buck? What Buck?

America needs you, Harry Truman. More specifically, customer service in America needs you. You with your funny single-letter middle name and all.

I am going to my college homecoming weekend at the end of the month and I was checking out the official alumni hotel on Expedia. As I drilled down further into the hotel details, I noticed something wasn't quite right. The "nearby attractions" and driving directions from the airport were for a completely different location. It was for the same hotel chain, just 20 miles away. Luckily I know the area well enough, and I didn't really need the directions or other information. I did, however, think that it would be a good thing to let Expedia know about this. Somebody might get confused. So I used their little online form and sent a brief note outlining the problem.

Here is the the gist of their response:

We apologize for the confusion. The hotel provides for any information on the site directly.

In other words: "Hey! Not our fault! Thank you, come again!"

And yes the website I was looking at for the hotel information said Expedia.com at the top. I don't care where the information comes from. Just fix it.

Here is the proper response "Thank you for letting us know of this error, we will contact the hotel to get the correct information and have it updated within three days."

A couple years ago, I had some kind of problem with the photo processing desk at the nearby Target store. I don't recall specifically what the issue was, but I was bothered enough to go to the Target website and lodge a complaint.

The response that time was "the photo kiosks are operated by a different company. Thank you for shopping at Target!"

Ummm, yeah, the photo kiosk is inside the Target. Various special offers for the photo kiosk are published in the Target weekly ad. There is no tape on the floor (a la Les Nessman) indicating "You are now leaving Target and entering some other company."

Damn, people. Take some responsibility.