This Is A Seat-uation

A few years ago, I worked at a major National Park that has a TV show named after it (and a few spin-offs). I was in the reservations department, and I handled all things related to groups, such as camping, family reunions, wedding parties, etc. This included arranging for private tours of the park in one of our vehicles and with a driver trained by us. The vehicles were anything from a sedan that held three passengers to a full-sized bus that held fifty.

In the winter, we offered snow coaches that held fourteen people (fifteen with a driver). They were a minibus, and the price was per hour, not per passenger. About $1600 for eight hours.

During the first COVID winter, we installed plastic barriers between the driver and the rest of the bus. This meant the passenger seat up front was blocked off, and they now only accommodated thirteen passengers.

These snow coaches were very popular with photography groups, and we had one company in particular that had been coming for years, but their leader was always difficult. This first COVID winter she made a snow coach reservation for eight people, including herself. Upon arriving, she saw that the front passenger seat was not available to use and lost her mind. She called me, yelling about it and demanding to know why I didn’t tell her ahead of time. I told her that the vehicle still seats thirteen, and she only has eight in her group.

This conversation went on for too long, as she started demanding that we provide a second snow coach for FREE. At $1600 per day, that was absolutely not happening.

I don’t recall how I ended it, but I immediately wrote up a summary email to my manager letting her know what happened.

My calls were not recorded, but I knew I was probably a bit snippier than was professional. My manager had no issue with how I handled it, and due to other problems they’d given us, she blacklisted them.