As like the river flowing, the time runs quickly. I, William, have been working at the Concierge Desk of the Portman Ritz-Carlton Hotel for nineteen years already; guests come to visit & leave my desk same as quick sands. How many of them left my desk with satisfied smile? It is unaccountable. How many unique & unforgettable experience me and my colleague made for our guests? I do not remember too much. But, the case I made for "Pat" not too long ago, when I think back and still feel it's challenging with fun.
Before starting the story, let me introduce to you the Lady, named Mrs. Patrick Szfier. She was the repeat guest of our hotel, who often visited our desk. She came to stay in the hotel every month. Each time she stayed was about 5-7 days. People around call her Ms Pat. She always give people close & friendly feeling. Every time Ms Pat came to my desk, asking for some "regular" help, something like, loading minutes into her cell phone, sending express service or check the city exhibition for her. Every time when service was completed, Ms Pat would stay at my desk chatting with me for a while. We often talk about each family, city life or city performance… obviously she really enjoyed the life time in Shanghai.
Challenges are normally following the simple tasks. One day, Ms Pat came to my desk. "William I need your favor" she opened the topic straightly. "What's that?" I asked her. "Actually, my daughter and I are the stamps collectors. At home we spend nearly 3-4 hours every DAY to access the internet for stamps all over the world, especially; we are interested in Chinese Stamps." "Aha, it's good for you." I said. "This time we found there were two sets of Chinese stamps are very beautiful." When she said this, she took out her Black Berry, getting on the internet quickly and there were two beautiful Chinese stamps' pictures came into my sight: they are the "Lotus under Moon Light (He Tang Yue Se)" & "Huang He Lou Building", which I can recognized immediately.
"Do you know those pictures?" Ms Pat asked me. "Yes, I do. Those are the famous view of China." Then, I explained their history. "Good!" Ms Pat said, "Me and my daughter want to collect those two sets. And we found we can purchase those stamps through the web site, which is the Stamp Collection General Office in Beijing. However, we do not speak Chinese. So could you help us?" "Certainly, I can. And, would please give me the address of the website?" I answered her. "That's great!" Ms Pat gave me the address. When I accessed the web site, I saw there were a lot of stamps displayed for sale. I found out those two sets easily. Then, quickly, I realized any of the stamps has to be purchased through the membership. I immediately told Ms Pat I would sign in the website myself to purchase those stamp with my personal credit guarantee and I would personally chase the case till I got those two sets.
"Excellent! I've never expected somebody would help me this by his own credit!" Ms Pat nearly screamed. "Never mind Ms Pat, you are our friend." I said. Ms Pat told me she would leave hotel next day and she would be back in next month, so I need no rush to go through those process and I can hand over those stamps to her upon next stay. "I could hardly wait for my lovely stamps!" Ms Pat was so cheerful!
On next day, I worked on the internet. However, I found what ever I put my personal details into there system, it won't allow me sign in. Eventually, after one hour I signed in the system and became the member of the company. Then, the following problem is after I selected those two sets of stamps, I could not complete the purchase case. Every time, the internet showed the case was failed.
I checked every instruction of the steps closely and tried many times, but, still not succeed. So I decided to call the general office.
Finally, after 20 minutes ringing, a girl one the other side picked up my phone. "Ni Hao! I am calling from Shanghai, my name is Chen" Then I explained my problem. "Okay, I understand Mr. Chen, please try the following steps…" the girl explained the steps to me, which is exactly same as the ones on the net. "Yes, I tried those, but…" "Please try again. I am sure you missed something. " the girl interrupted me softly.
After trying several times, I still failed; I had to call the company again. It was the same girl answered my phone. "See, I am calling you again for the same problem. I followed every step you explained to me, but, still could not order those stamps." I said. "Yes, I can see your order and I could not help make it done for there is something wrong with our IT system." The girl answered with soft voice.
"Then, what shall I do?" Till now I still do not understand why the girl did not tell me the system had been down at first time. The girl answered me slowly: "Sir, this time you can use remittance through the post office. Please, rewrite your order and your personal address & contact number on the website, so that, when we get the remittance, we will send your stamps by express mail." "All right," It seemed I had no other choice. I asked the girl "Normally, how many days you can receive the remittance?" "It's about 3-5 days. By the way, this is Ms. Li speaking."
