Hurricane in Seattle?

[jlnprt]

I called my travel agent today to ask about adding travel insurance to our upcoming January cruise. She said she had to call HAL and asked me to wait on hold while she called. She came back on the line to say that she was having trouble getting through. The message was that "because of a hurricane" phone lines were not being answered! Anyone heard of a hurricane hitting Seattle? 😜

 

[AV8rix]

😄😄Now that's funny 😄😄!  I was raised in South Florida, so I really KNOW hurricanes!  However, I now live in the Seattle metro area and would be truly amazed if anything like that EVER approached here.  No, I don't know what your TA was talking about.  Perhaps someone else does?

[jlnprt]

She was rather floored by the recording and tried a few more times. We got a good laugh about it, especially since she is also in Seattle! Crazy!

[HAL4NOW]

Many of the new hires do not live in Seattle area because they are working remotely. I have no idea if this applies to the phone message. Wonder if 'Sam' is interfering with any HAL employees?

[rkacruiser]

51 minutes ago, jlnprt said:

The message was that "because of a hurricane" phone lines were not being answered! Anyone heard of a hurricane hitting Seattle? 😜

 

This is absolutely stupid!  

2 minutes ago, HAL4NOW said:

if 'Sam' is interfering with any HAL employees?

 

Sam is no where near Seattle or any of its employees that would be answering phone calls.  

 

53 minutes ago, jlnprt said:

I called my travel agent today to ask about adding travel insurance

 

I question your travel agent's competence because of such a lame excuse.  

[jlnprt]

I'm not questioning the TA's competence ... at least not yet. She tried calling HAL several times. She came back on the line the first time she got the message and said, "you're not going to believe the message I just got!" When it happened a few more times, we just figured the system had some temporary gremlins! We'll see what happens tomorrow!

[TiogaCruiser]

3 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

This is absolutely stupid!  

 

Sam is no where near Seattle or any of its employees that would be answering phone calls.  

 

 

I question your travel agent's competence because of such a lame excuse.  

Do you know for sure that all HAL employees who would be answering calls are in the Seattle area?

[aliaschief]

Just walked back from Elliot’s Seafood to Waterfront Marriott. In the 50’s and weather fine. Seth Wayne, Hal’s Brand Ambassador lives and works out of Las Vegas so I would presume all employees do not necessarily live in Seattle during this work from home pandemic.

[mcrcruiser]

Hals phone people can live any where USA ;because I talked with those that  worked from their homes on the phone East  coast states 

[zgscl]

I live in Seattle and while I spent most of the day inside I can definitely confirm we did not have a hurricane! 

[ontheweb]

Must be due to climate change.🤣🤣

[Daniel A]

Sometimes, a toll free number gets routed through a single computer center and re-routed through the internet to the final destination where the call is actually answered.  The hurricane could have been anywhere in the world.

 

Even before Covid, when I would call the same toll free number on different days, I would get different people working out of different states.  Often they would like to find out what the weather was like where I was.

Edited October 2, 2021 by Daniel A

[Dunmore2]

Quite often, I will ask the person where they’re located, just yesterday the answer was “New Jersey”.

[*Miss G*]

9 hours ago, TiogaCruiser said:

Do you know for sure that all HAL employees who would be answering calls are in the Seattle area?

 

One thing we know for sure is that no one is answering calls from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. 

[jimgev]

While it is true that the phone might be answered from someone in any part of the country, yesterday there were no hurricanes.. The only hurricane anywhere near a land mass was outside of Bermuda.

[Daniel A]

2 minutes ago, jimgev said:

While it is true that the phone might be answered from someone in any part of the country, yesterday there were no hurricanes.. The only hurricane anywhere near a land mass was outside of Bermuda.

It could also be an issue of infrastructure damage caused by a previous hurricane.  My street is being closed next week because of storm damage repairs from a hurricane that went through the area more than a month ago.

[Breezinontheocean]

I've lived in the burbs of Seattle since I was a kid and while yes, we do get rain and windstorms, I've never experienced a hurricane here 🙃

[nocl]

or it might be to call volume creating a problem with their system due to a storm in the Atlantic that might impact some cruises.

[HAL4NOW]

4 hours ago, Breezinontheocean said:

I've lived in the burbs of Seattle since I was a kid and while yes, we do get rain and windstorms, I've never experienced a hurricane here 🙃

You are still pretty young 🙂 While technically it was not a hurricane, the Columbus Day storm of 1962 would have been classified as a hurricane if had been in a different location in the world. Because of where the storm developed, it was classified as a typhoon.

Columbus Day Storm of 1962 - Wikipedia

[jlnprt]

An update: I called my TA today (big box TA). Rather than the usual long wait time for the call to be answered, I only waited a minute or two! She called HAL without incident and I got all my questions answered/taken care of ... apparently the gremlins are out of the system today. Woo hoo!! 

[rkacruiser]

2 hours ago, jlnprt said:

An update: I called my TA today (big box TA). Rather than the usual long wait time for the call to be answered, I only waited a minute or two! She called HAL without incident and I got all my questions answered/taken care of ... apparently the gremlins are out of the system today. Woo hoo!! 

 

That's good to know.  Thank you for the update.  

 

19 hours ago, aliaschief said:

Just walked back from Elliot’s Seafood to Waterfront Marriott. In the 50’s and weather fine.

 

Excellent choices for dinner as well as where to stay in Seattle!  

[SusieKIslandGirl]

There was a tornado in southwest Washington a few days ago--but I don't think the winds made it to Seattle. 😊

[Breezinontheocean]

On 10/2/2021 at 12:01 PM, HAL4NOW said:

You are still pretty young 🙂 While technically it was not a hurricane, the Columbus Day storm of 1962 would have been classified as a hurricane if had been in a different location in the world. Because of where the storm developed, it was classified as a typhoon.

Columbus Day Storm of 1962 - Wikipedia

You’re right I’m young enough that I wasn’t alive for the 1962 Columbus Day storm. Been around for some others though but never one classified as a hurricane since living in the PNW since 1975 when I was going into 2nd grade. 👍🏻