Unfiltered Story #246906

I work at a large event planning company that specializes in inviting the general public to special events around the country. In the past two weeks, EVENT A was cancelled and EVENT B moved location. For every event that this happens to, we send out at least two emails to everyone on the list, one on the day the event is cancelled/moved and one the day before the event was scheduled, letting the guests know what has happened, and to please not show up. I get this call two days after EVENT B.
Caller: I RSVP’d for an event and drove all the way out there only to be told by the location that it had been cancelled a long time ago. I’m very disappointed.
Me: (Assuming she’s talking about EVENT A because she said *cancelled* not moved.) I’m so sorry, we did send two cancellation emails to inform everyone on the list that the event had been cancelled.
Caller: I never got them.
Me: I’m sorry ma’am but we did send them.
Caller: I’m very disappointed. The woman at the location said it had been cancelled ages ago and I called on Thursday, I spoke to someone, why did they RSVP me if it was cancelled ages ago? I’m very disappointed.
Me: At that point the event hadn’t been cancelled, ma’am. We sent the cancellation email the next day and another one the day before the event.
Caller: Well I never got it. I’m very disappointed.
I swear she said this over 20 times during the call. At this point I’ve pulled up each email we sent, I tell her what time we sent them and begin to tell her exactly what it said, all while apologizing for the inconvenience.
Caller: (Interrupting) No, the event wasn’t EVENT A, it was EVENT B.
ME: (Facepalming, as we’d been going over this for over 4 minutes at this point and she’d never once mentioned this.) That event was actually not cancelled, just moved venues. We sent out three emails to let you know of the venue change, and if you called on Thursday the event had already been moved so the person you confirmed with would have given you the new location.
Caller: Well I never got the emails. Oh wait, I’m pulling up the confirmation you sent me on the day, it does say <new location.> I didn’t read that part. I’m still very disappointed, I drove all the way there.
Me: I do apologize for that ma’am but we had 500 people confirm for that event, we can’t call every single one of them, that’s why we sent three emails to let you know that it changed venues, and the confirmation email did give you the correct address.
Caller: But I drove all the way to <other location.>
At this point it’s been 7 minutes going around in circles and I’m realizing what she actually wants is for me to give her something for free to compensate for her trouble, something I’m absolutely not going to do, because it was her fault for not reading any of the emails we sent her. Finally she realizes this too and hangs up. The event she was going to was free in the first place.