Thread: Am I a lousy customer?

Not much ice or snow in Jax but they do have some cold. I remember as a kid waiting at the bus stop and it being really cold.

Weather in the summer is hot but what really got to me was the 5:15 afternoon shower every day. It soaked everything down and dropped the temperature. Only problem was that the humidity went sky high.

Back to the original topic: Considering the thread title is, "Am I a lousy customer?" I think we should discuss what makes someone a lousy customer - and a lousy travel agent, of course.

A lousy customer is one who has no loyalty or respect for the salesperson. Period. I think it is criminal to have one salesperson do a ton of legwork for you and then to go to a different salesperson just because the price is a few dollars cheaper.

We have a realtor who is worth his weight in gold. He is around to answer our questions and has helped us focus on what we really want. But we like to go our house looking on our own. Whenever we go to a new development we tell the people there immediately that we already have an agent. If they tell us we can save several thousand by having them represent us, we walk away.

Same with my travel agent. She has done a lot of work for several false starts. She is not the cheapest BUT she checks the prices regularly to see if our price has dropped, she has moved cruises around for us. Customer service is a thing we respect and we show our loyalty by sticking with these individuals.

Originally Posted by Smart Traveler

I have been thinking about hiring Pete as my travel agent because it is impossible to want to fire a message board buddy, but I live in Ohio and can't get to his office in Washington.

When I read the subject title, I thought the OP would complain about the cruise line not satisfying a laundry list of requests. Maybe the thread title should be, "Should I fire my TA?" or something like that.

Smart Traveler I live in OHIO also and I did hire Pete. Best TA I've ever had. He let's you know everything. If any changes happen he let's you know. I could go on, but I'll stop there.

All I'll say is if anyone needs a TA Pete is the MAN. Thanks Pete.

Originally Posted by Baldwincruising

Smart Traveler I live in OHIO also and I did hire Pete. Best TA I've ever had. He let's you know everything. If any changes happen he let's you know. I could go on, but I'll stop there.

All I'll say is if anyone needs a TA Pete is the MAN. Thanks Pete.

OK, that's awesome. I always thought I needed a local TA so I could go to the company's office because when my mom plans vacations, shs always goes to the AAA office nearby.

Yeah, I can tell Pete is a good man, not just a good agent. He is one of my favorite posters.

Thanks to CLF for allowing him to advertise his business and add a link to his website to his signature. At Cruise Critic, that is not allowed. I guess it is a blessing in disguise I had to run away from meanies over there.

Thanks, Paul, for the accolades!

Sorry I have been around here to post much lately - we just got back from 3 weeks in Hawaii. Tell you all about it in another post and I'll be putting a review in as soon as I'm done.

But while I wasn't posting here, I had my laptop with me and kept in touch with my clients as well as having my cell phone with me the entire time - which was nice since we were in port every day and had cell service the entire 3 weeks.

Like Neal, we moved around alot - I always say we have a 'national family'. Nancy was born in Washington, DC and I was born in Maryland. Before we had kids, we lived in Pennsylvania and Oklahoma. Our oldest son was conceived in Maryland and born in DC. Our youngest son was conceived and born in Portland, Oregon. Our daughter was conceived in Denver and born in Spokane. We raised them for 9 years in Albuquerque. Our oldest son graduated high school in Wisconsin and our other two graduated high school in Virginia. Our daughter now lives in Florida, where our first grandson was born.

So, as you can see, we've been around the country alot. Our kids can honestly say they were in Canada and Mexico within 2 weeks of each other and they've swam in the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean within 3 weeks of each other.

We always did alot of traveling no matter where we lived, making sure we saw as much as possible wherever we were so the kids could appreciate this wonderful land of ours.

And I can honestly say I have stepped foot in all 50 States. What a magnificent country from sea to shining sea!!

Pete