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It may be that their rescheduling methods changed partly as a result of my Hanoi disaster! It was some years ago. But Air Asia had both my phone and email. They told me they had phoned when the schdule changed about two months before the flights bur they could never get an answer. They then sent me their so-called proof of phoning, but they had stupidly got one digit wrong! So I asked why, since i had paid for my tickets, they had not simply emailed me. No answer other than "we always tell customers by phone"! In complaining i had also sent by courier three letters to Tony Fernandez in KL, the CEO. Not one was acknowledged let alone answered. 

That experience doesn’t surprise me at all. As an Italian-American, I can honestly say that I believe Italians set out in the world to make things as difficult as possible. As I was taking my shower this morning in this beautifully redone and stylish bathroom, I was trying to figure out how to say this - something like Italy is a developing country that has dressed itself up in a very stylish exterior. Things just don’t work here. And the people are not particularly friendly. Yet, it is stunning to look at. And the food. And the men. But, it seems that if we visit, we need to prepare ourselves for one aggravation after another, like my beautiful “fast” train that was 50 minutes late. This Airbnb was the most difficult for me so far. The host immediately wanted to communicate off the Airbnb platform, which we are not supposed to do. That got me worried. He wanted my email address and WhatsApp.  He sent me an electronic check in which I had to complete and send him front and back photos of my ID (what exactly is the back of a passport?) and a photo of me holding my ID. Once I did that, he sent me another email with a link to something called ViKey, which is how I was to open the door. When I arrived at my metro stop (he told me to take Linea 2, but Chat GPT told me Linea 1 - Chat GPT was right, of course), I clicked on “get directions” in Airbnb and it showed me nearby hotels. It did not give me directions. I messaged my host on WhatsApp and asked him to send me the address. He read my message but didn’t respond. Then he tried to call me, but I didn’t see that. I copied the address from Airbnb and entered it into Google maps and eventually found my way here. I used ViKey to enter both doors. The door to the building was easy. The door to the apartment was more difficult, but eventually I got in. Usually on Airbnb, there is the WiFi information and often there is a way to simply connect from there. Not here. There was nothing. I messaged the host. He didn’t respond. I called him. He told me to use the QR code on the door. I tried that and it took me back to ViKey and the buttons to open the doors. He finally sent me a screen shot from ViKey. There was another page you could get to if you clicked on “more information”. Of course, no one told me that, I was just supposed to know. There was the WiFi network and the password, which was very long, but I could not just copy and paste it. I had to write it down (fortunately there is a chalkboard and chalk) and then enter it. Mammamia!  This morning, I tried to make coffee with the moka pot that is here, but it wouldn’t work. I messaged the host and he said it doesn’t work with the “hob”. I guess the hob is the induction stove. I ran into this problem in Reggio. Induction stoves only work with stainless, and not aluminum. So then why is there a moka pot here if it doesn’t work? I think the worst is over, but I hope he doesn’t change the code on me in the middle of my stay. Other issues that I have had is they only give you one towel. I had to buy a knife in Reggio. When I stayed in Bari I asked him to provide one (I’ve learned it’s easier just to buy things for long stays). But the nice thing is they say nothing about guests. Even in Philly, I was told I wasn’t allowed to have guests. That didn’t stop me. But here, there are no security guards, or cameras, and nothing written about a no guest policy. I intend to have quite a few visitors if these guys come through. Ah, Italy.

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Has anyone had a recent experience with Summer?  Asking for a friend…

Thanks. This is really the first time I’ve experienced this. It’s pretty much what I ended up doing.