My Worst 24 Hours

31 August 2018


Hello.

To start with, I'm not going to name the company who are at fault, mostly because at the point of writing this blog post, I'm still dealing with them and due a full refund. But I will say that when I booked with them, it was through a website offering the best deal, and they begin and end with an A. It's also not a common website, because I hadn't heard of it before that time. But upon further research (which I should have done before booking) they have a lot of bad reviews for fucking people over. I took a risk, and it wasn't worth it.


Monday 20th August
Okay. So, Tuesday 21st August 2018, I was booked in for a job interview down in London Luton. I took a flight down, and I had a hotel booked through this website (the one beginning and ending with 'a'). My plan was to stay two nights (Monday and Tuesday) and leave on an early flight on the Wednesday morning. This means I'd get some rest the night before my interview, and then be able to chill afterwards, and not drag my suitcase with me everywhere. It was a good plan. But I had a niggling bad feeling, even before I actually booked anything, which I tried to ignore.

I took the train, and then the tram, to Edinburgh airport, where my flight was due to depart at 2055. Unfortunately, it was delayed and we actually departed at 2220, where I arrived into Luton at 1115. I brought hand baggage only, thankfully, so I made my way straight to the hotel. Well, what I thought was my hotel.

My hotel voucher told me that I was booked into the Ibis London Luton hotel, but Google told me that it was the Ibis Budget one, which was a 5 minute walk away from the Ibis. I thought that I'd booked myself into the Budget so I walked there first, and I arrived at 1140.  There was one member of staff on and they did have someone with a reservation under my name, but the cards didn't match. We tried my card twice and both times it rejected. After that, the staff member looked at my hotel voucher again and saw that it was for the other hotel and so after I thanked him for his help and apologised for causing confusion, I made my way to the Ibis.

I arrived at the other hotel at around 12am, but they didn't have me at all. So, I showed them my banking app and my voucher, and they called the company that I booked through who confirmed that I was meant to be staying there. During this time, they allowed me to sit in the waiting area and offered me a drink, which I turned down as I still had my water from my flight. It was at this point that my phone decided to switch itself off, and I pulled out my suitcases contents to find my portable charger when they came over to me and gave me a room. At this point, it was 1220am. When I got into my room, I got my things sorted for my interview the next again day, and went to sleep at 1250am.

Tuesday 21st August
The next morning, I got up, got myself sorted, had some breakfast and got a taxi to the place where I was to have my interview, when I received two missed calls from Switzerland. I don't tend to answer phone calls from other countries unless I'm expecting them, or if I know somebody in that area, so I thought nothing of it and I got on with my day. (Turns out that it was the company.) All the stress, my nerves and my tiredness added up and I didn't get the job, but on my lunch I did read my email from the company, and I emailed them back telling them I was free for them to call back.

They were going to give me a full refund because of what had happened, and I had to check in again at the hotel and pay there because the Ibis couldn't find the money that I'd initially payed, but they added that any extra that I had to pay, I was to send an invoice (from Ibis to me) to them and they would refund me that, too. Which is currently in process. So, I talked to front desk, and then I had a few baths, watched some tv listened to my audiobook (I'm listening to the Matched series by Ally Condie), then went for dinner and went to sleep at 1110, I had an early flight the next again day

Wednesday 22nd August
Things mostly went smoothly, I had my final passport and boarding pass check and I was through the gate waiting to board. Everything at that point was going to schedule... Until we were 30 minutes delayed before we were able to board. Turns out that the plane beside my one on the stand was on fire. But other than that, I got home safely and I had a really good flight.

It was a really difficult time, and I'm not going to pretend to be okay right now, because I'm still dealing with the stress caused to me. I'm still exhausted and I'm not going to lie, I'm a little depressed. I'm not sad about losing out on the job, because I'd had a feeling I wouldn't get it but I still wanted to try, even if I know I didn't give it my all. Travelling down and being by myself for something like that was a huge thing for me to manage, and I'm proud of myself. I'm still searching for something that I really want to do, but until then, I currently work in an amazing team, who I wish I could take with me everywhere I go, because I really don't know where I'd be without them and their support.

I just want to add as well that nothing that happened was the fault of Ibis, they aren't the company that I made my booking through, and they're not at fault. However, every member of staff that I dealt with during my stay were all extremely helpful, lovely and friendly and they really made a difference to my stay. I would 100% stay with them again. As for the company that I booked for? As soon as my second part of my refund is in my bank account, I'm done with them. I'll never book with them again and I think it might be the first time I've told my friends and family not to book with them, as well. They did make it pretty difficult for me to get my second part of my refund, but I did everything they asked and it should take <12 days for me to get it. I won't fault the customer service team, because I'm grateful for the constant communications but I really will not book with them ever again.

I know that I'm getting really bad at uploading, I'm trying to get some posts planned out along the themes I've talked about, but I am dealing with a lot on my mind as well. Though, I should have a guest post going up on my blog within the next week or so, so keep an eye out for that! It should follow a similar topic to this one.

Until next time, be excellent to each other.

3 comments :

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