Some sites travel poorly
I usually don't book things online because I don't trust the security of sites when dealing with bank details, but my non-love affair with the Internet as a consumer has hit a new high.
Trying to enquire about a holiday booking with a locally reputed travel agency, I went to their website and entered the destination I'm interested in. I got a 'page cannot be displayed' message so I called the number of the company and was asked if I worked there. 'No' was my answer. 'In that case, Madam, you will have to come down to our offices because we don't handle personal enquiries on the phone'.
How, then, did this agency come to win an award for "best travel site in the Middle East"? Click on the ticker advertising this on the website, and it says "Internal Server Error"!
12 comments:
How, then, did this agency come to win an award for "best travel site in the Middle East"?
Maybe, like the Burj Al Arab's 7 stars, the award is self-appointed?
Or maybe it has something to do with the mega-wasta name of the owner!
(Hope that you saw my links to the TimTam info on the UAE Community Blog post about the blog stats? And thanks for the compliments re the layout of my post on Sh. Mohammed's poetry!)
In the past 12 years I have booked every holiday, every flight, every hotel and every house/cottage/gite I have hired online.
It's been fun researching things and I have never, ever once been let down in any way.
Disintermediation. That's the best thing you can do to 'em!!!!
:)
I do the same as Alexander - but not with companies in Dubai. We're light-years behind the rest of the world in the use of websites, we're still in the old days of telephones, 'call in personally' and - I can't believe it - faxes.
hello...just found ur blog while browsing dubai pages..erm..online booking currently has been widely used around the world but there are pros and cons. i've tried to book online too but sometimes the info given is not sufficient but no harm trying at all...it is just my humble point of view..
by the way, u r currently live in dubai rite? i am going to be in dubai soon...if u dont mind, can i know where is the replacement place for the naif souq, which was in teribble blaze last month?..
tqvm.
*nzm - lol! I can therefore name my blog 8 * blog of the ME. Fan f*ing tastic!!!
I saw ur links and will click on them when my host non-service provider can enable me to view youtube proply. Thx.
*alexander, I have booked online in other countries, echoing seabee's comment. Have used opodo.co.uk and ryanair.com (cheapskate, me) - no probs too. We need one company in the UAE like ryanair - then we'd be celebrating.
*seabee, fax is totally useless. I only need it when companies say they wanna fax their directions. I ask why they don't email 'em? I sound like a 10th world grad when I ask this Q.
Paperless is my strategy, and it's worked well for me so far.
*Hallo greenery - yes I live in dxb. I have used online sites abroad but not in the UAE. Too many bad reviews for me to consider it.
check out the link to seabee's blog - click on his link on this thread - there was some info on the naif souq blaze. From what I've heard the souq will be rebuilt in no time. Don't worry, but make sure you don't pay more than Dhs. 100 for an abra ride to Deira haha check out alexander's latest post!
We've booked online hols before. One disaster was a 'special' on Olympic airlines - a package type thingy with flights & hotel accommodation. The 4 star hotel (I had to slum it in those days) treated us like lepers, made us eat in a separate section of the restaurant & tried to tell us that a twin bedded room offering cheap pine beds & plastic curtains (complete with burn mark from an iron!) were 'luxury'. The hotel website offered sea views, whereas in the real world, it was bloody miles from the sea & you had to be seriously double jointed in order to catch a glimpse of it from the rooftop!
Other trips have been fine though, compared to the Nick The Greek Special :-)
I clicked on the 'luxury & leisure' thing on the travel agent link in your post & got the page cannot be displayed crap. If they can't organise their 'award winning' stuff on the internet then they don't deserve to attract customers.
LOL
What was it Jarvis Cocker tells us? "Everybody hates a tourist, 'specially when they think it's all a laff..."
hmmm....perhaps its better just booking with the airlines directly....
*jayne, wt heck is Olympic? Heard of it but where's it based? Hey that exp. sounds like a nitemare. I shared a hostel once with some old lady who was attending a concert and she asked me if I wanted to come. I had to decline due to her 'perfume'. Hehe. This was in 'East' Germany, mind you.
P.S. don't take this personally but am v scared to go to C.T. now, having spoken to couple of ppl. I love the idea of SA - totally - though maybe not good if I go alone. I hate to say this on my blog.
*mars, r u the lady who travels free? luv u for that :P
AHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Need to call ETI-did-not-have-HAD
02 6321500
04 343 4443
Nobody picking up the phone...
Then I call the travel agency I usually use and complain about an () radio station belting out their bollox when I'm put on hold - if my translation skills still in order, some love story going on --- and I want to book a ticket. Professionalism @ an all-time high - and I am paying to listen to a facked-up radio station in return. A**hulls.
Hey Imaginate...
We've just had the same WEBSITE / PHONE issue with Etihad....
We ended up booking our flights to Thailand over the phone (15 mins to get through) as the website showed flights were over subscribed....!
As you know we're fans of the internet but the phone saved the day...
Oh the joys!
Olympic is the national airline of all the bleddy Greek peeps innit! (sed in a Greek accent mind you)
As for going to SA, or CT, I wouldn't advise you to go alone, definitely not. BUT, SA is still a wonderful country & well worth seeing. Don't be scared to piss people off about the place hon.....I love it, it's my home country etc etc, but it's also got a shitload of thieving mongrels who know no better.......same as many other countries come to think of it :-)
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