So I work in a hotel right? And I like to bitch about the management right? Well this post is me bitching about the hotel, but it’s not about management (to a certain degree it is). No this post is about Multi-Systems, Inc and their product WinPM. Now WinPM is what they call a Property Management System. This is a program that handles every aspect of a hotels daily business.

Now I wrote about these guys way back in July of 2003 and it was a cheerful happy post about how great the system was. Now here I am sitting waiting for their tech support (and I use that term very loosely) to call me back. I’ve been having some problems tonight and with all the sitting on hold I figured this would be a good thing to write about.

Here’s a recap of where I am with them right now. I called earlier about their system being bogged down. So I call and get through to someone. I tell the lady on the other end of the phone my problem. Lag bitch! And then a guy comes in and wants a room. Now I had asked her to restart the server for me. I put her on hold and go about the timely process of checking this one guy in. Something that should take 30 seconds took 5 minutes. And while this chick was on hold she decided to reboot the server right then and there. She didn’t call back to ask if that was a good time to do it. But no biggie. For a little while it seemed like that fixed my problem.

But then I get to doing the end of day stuff in this WinPM and hit a roadblock. The whole thing froze. And I waited a good 20 minutes to call tech support. And heres what happened next. I ended up on hold for 55 goddamn minutes. I called on a second line and got an answer in 3 minutes. Which is just a really fucking great way to run a tech support call in place I imagine. While on hold I memorized the stupid recording that plays in two minute intervals:

All of our technicians are currently assisting customers with the same high level of service that you will soon be receiving. We apologize for any inconvenience. Your call is important to us. Thank you for your patience while holding.

And when the stupid recording wasn’t playing they had the radio station KYOT 95.5 playing in the background. Smooth Jazz! Now I’m just about ready to go fucking insane. It’s really sick and twisted to play Smooth Jazz while someone is suffering on hold. It got to the point that I began day dreaming about how I could go back in time just like John Connor to help kill the installers of this fucking stupid system. It’s a silly notion I admit. But that’s what I was thinking with the Smooth Jazz and that recored message playing for 55 fucking minutes! I’m sure in my sick and twisted Smooth Jazz inflected mind these fucks at MSI are the equivalent to the guys at Cyberdyne Systems Corporation who probably setup Skynet.

Since I don’t have access to a time machine I sit here waiting for them to call me back. And I go on waiting because I know that soon I will be receiving a high level of service. Because I know that I am important to them. God I wish I had a time machine!