In Wednesday’s blog I mentioned that, whilst in New York, we use the New York Pass for all our activities.
Because we used it three to four times a day, we probably spent a third of what we could have done on the things that we did.
Which was great.
Outside of saving money though our experience with the New York Pass was, shall we say, mixed.
The app was just a list of things that you could use the pass on.
With a downloadable PDF with booking instructions.
An interactive map and ability to book on their app would have been helped a lot.
But our biggest issue with them came on the Friday.
We turned up to do the New York Highlights boat tour.
And were told that our pass had expired.
We very quickly realised what had happened.
When we landed on the Saturday, I immediately rang one of the things that we had planned for the next day to book in, as we hadn’t been able to before this.
An interactive bus tour called The RIDE.
I rang at 4.39pm and asked to book in for 1.20 the next day.
When we turned up the following day, I gave my details and was told “You’re a day late”.
We quickly figured out that whoever I had spoken to had booked me in for 1.20 the day before.
In the past at that point.
No biggie though, they got us on the next tour.
And I thought nothing more of it.
Until I realised on the Friday that that meant the pass was activated on the Saturday and the 6th day had been the Thursday.
Again, no biggie.
Easy to sort out I thought.
I was wrong.
What followed was 90 minutes of phone calls to both New York Pass and The RIDE.
Getting nowhere with each person in turn and repeatedly asking for it to be escalated to a superior.
With no one making any effort whatsoever to sort this problem.
In fact, it felt like they were doing the exact opposite.
We weren’t asking for a refund or any compensation.
We just wanted the start date changing to the correct date so that the pass was still valid.
And we had categoric proof that the mistake had been with The RIDE.
I emailed over a screen grab of when I made the call and proof that we were flying over the Atlantic Ocean at the time they booked us in for.
The people we spoke to at The RIDE eventually admitted that the mistake was at their end when I made them check their own call logs.
But, even then, were unwilling to fix it.
“It’s unfortunate” the guy on the phone kept saying.
Which absolutely flabbergasted us.
They were admitting their mistake but were unwilling to do something really quick and simple to fix it.
Even though I explained that we had four young children sat on a pavement in the baking sun with no sunscreen and water (we did have sunscreen and water, I just felt it made a stronger point).
We eventually got there after rephrasing it many different ways.
What finally got through to them was I asked him for the specifics of their policy for booking activities in the past and how I could do that.
When he explained that you could not book activities for the past, the penny finally seemed to drop and the dates were changed and we were on.
Needless to say, the wife and I were not in the best mood after these conversations.
In fact, I’d probably say I’ve never seen her so angry (all relative – she’s a very chilled out person).
Particularly galling was the fact that, despite being considerably more intelligent, successful and charming than me, she had not been listened to at all and “it took a man taking over for them to eventually do anything”.
And the kids weren’t feeling great either.
So as we approached the pier, I informed them of a tactic that I sometimes use and teach people.
It’s to choose a physical marker that, when we pass it, we make the decision to make a mental shift.
In this case it was the doorway onto the pier.
When we walk through it, we are leaving behind the frustration of the last 90 minutes and switching into happy tourists who are going to enjoy the rest of the day.
But we can use this method for all sorts of switches.
A particular corner that we turn on the way home from work where we make the decision that we’ve switched off from “work us” and are switching onto “family us”.
Or vice versa.
When we walk through the door at RISE and choose to switch off to work and concentrate on the coming workout.
Some other physical marker that we use to “let go” what’s happened in the past minutes or hours.
You get the idea.
It’s just a little technique that you might find beneficial.
Decide on the marker and decide on the mental switch you will make when you pass it.
Much love,
Jon ‘I built a secret room with a bookcase door for my eldest son but he’s too old now and never uses it’ Hall
P.S. If you’d like to work with real people who’ve coaches many to amazing, life changing results, rather than the faceless and inflexible, then you’ll find that here —> www.myrise.co.uk/apply
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RISE in Macclesfield was established in 2012 and specialise in Group Personal Training weight loss programmes for those that don’t like the gym and find diets boring and restrictive!
