Some
people just can’t decide whether they want to hire me or not until they’re
finally here in Rome They call me at the last minute knowing
that the possibilities that I would available are rather scarce. It’s
worth trying anyway and it’s perfectly all right with me. If I’m free I have
no problem taking short notice calls, and if I can‘t make myself available to
them, I can always find a colleague to go with them on my behalf. |
But
someone who called me after arriving here has been mislead!
|
I have come to know that some potential
clients who delegated the hotel concierge or someone else to call me, have been mislead.
This is what happened in most cases: |
-
I
was never called by the person who was put in charge on doing it and he (or she)
instead called someone else. Someone who paid a commission, and was told to
introduce himself to the clients as “Paolo”. So the they spent the day
touring Rome with somebody they thought was me but wasn’t
and he did not
fulfil their expectations. In some cases they had awful experiences and my
reputation ended up been compromised by John Doe’s lack of knowledge and
behaviour!
-
I
was never called by the person who was put in charge on doing it, but he
reported he did and that I said to him I was busy and couldn’t take the call.
Than he suggested to use someone else he knew and he would get a commission fee
from. My reputation was not hurt in that case but still…
-
The
person actually called me, but wanted to charge me a commission for doing it.
|
So,
please, call directly! Do not delegate! |
|
My
cellular phone is always on, 24 hrs a day! I never, ever, turn it off! When I’m in an area that has poor coverage you get a
recorded message, first in Italian than in English, that says:
“The number you have dialled is not available at the moment, please try
later.” Please do so!
Any
recorded
message will come in Italian first and than in English, so please do not hang up right
away when you hear something you don’t understand, please wait for the English
version of the message!
This
is the number you dial for my cell phone from your hotel room or any other phone
in Italy:
3358437636
|
The
number you need to dial for my home phone is
0697040010
|
this
is exactly what you
dial from any phone in Italy. My wife spends a lot of time at
home and she knows enough English to take your message, but it’s always
better to call me on my cellular phone!
I
do not use an answering machine! |
To
call from your hotel room you first need to dial a number to get the line, most
hotels use “9” but it’s not universal. Check it out!
The
signal sounds from Italian phones:
When
you have the line you hear of a short “toot” sound followed by a longer
“toot” sound in a sequence.
When
the phone you dialled rings, you hear a long “toot” sound for each ring.
The
“busy” signal is a sequence of a short “toot” sounds.
|