'Won't fix your buggy software? Fine, pay our bills': Company scrambles after realizing they're being constantly overbooked by an app

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Aug 1, 2024 3:00 PM EDT

Seems like there's an app for everything these days. Like, literally everything! This morning I wanted to book a haircut at a local spot. It turns out the options are to 1) call the place and book or B) download an app and book that way. I couldn't call since I was on a noisy bus while researching this, and also, why would I want to download an app for getting a haircut? It's something I do maybe four times per year, so why would I want to have that app on my phone if I use it for maybe 10 minutes annually? 

Still, booking apps are actually a good way to schedule some important things, especially if you're the kind of person who dislikes making phone calls. This person u/SadowSon, was a supervisor at an events company with tons of clients. Their job was keeping an eye on the projects, allowing their clients to get the tools needed for each gig, like speakers, microphones, and a crew to help with the setup. This manager relies on an app to help people book the specific items they need for each day… but the app has some glaring issues that are driving this worker crazy. 

Up next, this person is dealing with "two crows [who] have extorted me into providing them boiled eggs." 

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  • 01
    Won't fix your buggy software that costs us thousands of dollars per year? Fine, pay our bills then!
    via u/SadowSon
  • 02
    I am the AV supervisor for a large company that hosts events. Specifically, I look after quotes for the technical side of corporate events - giving clients access to projectors, microphones, speakers, etc etc for their large corporate presentations, meetings and whatnot. I also manage and brief the floor crew who actively run the events.
    via u/SadowSon
  • 03
    We use a program to book our equipment which, while powerful, is a bit laggy on the average computer and is also *extremely* expensive per year (About $2000 per user per year and there's about 30 of us in the company that use it) Relative to how much our company makes per year, it's a pretty hefty cost. It's a good program when leveraged properly, but sometimes it can drive you mad with it's weird way of doing. things.
    via u/SadowSon
  • 04
    One important feature of the program is that it tracks the booking of all equipment everywhere, including time for packing it into a room and packing it out of the room. This is useful because it prevents our team from overbooking equipment. If it's not available, the system won't let you book it -
    via u/SadowSon
  • 05
    there's no way around that. If I am short on equipment, I can book extra equipment from another rental company and on- charge that to the client - when I know in advance that I need to do that.
    via u/SadowSon
  • 06
    Anyway, cue big presentation from the booking company showing their latest version of the booking software. "It's great, it's faster! It's better than ever!"
    via u/SadowSon
  • 07
    We have a busy week come up and I am flat out floored with paperwork, pulling a 60 hour week (Our company is fantastic with overtime. We don't get overtime pay but we do get time in lieu. Our bosses are totally cool about it. So if I work 1hr overtime, I get 1hr off the following week. Do a 60 hr week and you get 20hrs off later)
    via u/SadowSon
  • 08
    Anyway, one of my floor crew comes to me... Floor Crew: Hey OP? This equipment isn't available... We've already got it out on another event. Me: What? It should be available.
    via u/SadowSon
  • 09
    Floor Crew: No, it's definitely not. I just set it up for another event two hours ago and that event is running for three days.
    via u/SadowSon
  • 10
    Cue me running back to me desk and rechecking all my paperwork. FYI, equipment lists. going out for events is often over one hundred lines long - hence why we don't do manual checks for over-bookings. The system should do it. As it turns out, all our equipment was overbooked multiple times - in many cases, overbooked on three events or more.
    via u/SadowSon
  • 11
    I make multiple phone calls to rental companies and bring in rental equipment on short notice. That's expensive - and I can't charge it to the client on such short notice. If you took our expected profits for that week, you could add a negative symbol onto the front and that'd be our new profit.
    via u/SadowSon
  • 12
    I log a job with the company that makes our booking software and then proceed to double check all our upcoming events. Hooo boy... alotta overbooked equipment. (Note: These events are often independently created by multiple people at different times of the year, there's no way they'd themselves check if the equipment was available, it's just not feasible. Hence why we rely on the system that up until now, worked)
    via u/SadowSon
  • 13
    The booking software company is extremely dismissive, saying that its a rare glitch and that they'd "look into it".
    via u/SadowSon
  • 14
    Cue one month later and still no fix. I'm now spending significantly more time double checking all our events for overbooking. The booking software company still doesn't care about a small-ish company like us.
    via u/SadowSon
  • 15
    Frustrated, I ask my boss for a copy of our service agreement with the company. He's as annoyed with the situation as I am so we go through it together. Turns out, there's a clause in there saying that the booking company would provide compensation in the event of total system failure (In the event that the system can't even be accessed).
    via u/SadowSon
  • 16
    Well... we'd definitely call this a system failure... of sorts. It's failure is costing us a lot of money. So we send the bills of all our rentals that cover over- bookings to the booking software company. That gets their attention quickly when the total bill amounts to more than triple how much they make off us each year.
    via u/SadowSon
  • 17
    Booking Software Company: Hey OP, what's with these bills? Me: Here's the job reference you still haven't responded to after two months now, and here's the link between each rental and each event that's overbooked.
    via u/SadowSon
  • 18
    Booking Software Company: Uhh... there's no way the system is letting you overbook equipment. And you can't send the bills to us for every event that's overbooked. Me: *Shares screen* Alright... let's test it.
    via u/SadowSon
  • 19
    The Booking Software Company shares their screen as well, logging into our version of the booking system. They proceed to book some equipment that should 100% not be available. True to their word, the system doesn't let them do it. I then book the exact same equipment on the exact same event but from
    via u/SadowSon
  • 20
    my computer. My boss as witness, the system lets me do it without any alarm. This surprises them and they start talking about potential fixes. They also say they're willing to pay for the rentals up until now.
    via u/SadowSon
  • 21
    Two months later, we're still billing them for every rented equipment, they're still paying without questioning and we still don't have a fix. I've changed the procedures to check for overbooked equipment though, so we aren't running around like madmen trying to fix things last minute anymore.
    via u/SadowSon
  • 22
    TLDR: Booking Software Company releases a software update, letting us unintentionally overbook equipment. They ignore our requests for a software patch and we leverage their service agreement for "compensation" in system failure.
    via u/SadowSon
  • 23
    poignantMrEcho Software patch-changing the language in future service agreements Lol
    via u/poignantMrEcho
  • 24
    coppit The amount of software out there that people charge $$$ for is amazing to me. We saw something similar with data center asset management software. Big promises, and lots of consulting and training. I feel like they
    via u/coppit
  • 25
    target VPs, and hope they will be too embarrassed to admit a mistake. (Or move on before the fallout happens.)
    via u/coppit
  • 26
    Ron_F __Swanson Why didn't they just roll you back to an older version of the software?
    via u/Ron_F******__Swanson
  • 27
    RED 'Floor crew: Hey this equipment isn't available... We've already got it out on another event. Me: What?'
    via Jakob Owens on Unsplash

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