OT. Guys who travel, how would you handle this?

[Booger Bill]

My wife and I paid two nights cash in advance, at the "Sleep Inn" at Thornton, Colorado night before last. The wife couldnt sleep at all due to a hard bed and extreem past back trouble in the past. (Wheelchair to walker a few years ago). Yesterday morning she complained to the desk man, he had her check out another rooms bed. It was just as hard. No problem, just give us our money back that we pre paid for this comeing night and we will go to a different motel. This was right at 11 a.m. yesterday morning. Problem. The clerk wouldnt refund our money for the upcomeing night, (last night).
The clerk also tried to lie saying the maids had already left etc. Right then I spotted one cleaning another room.
What I wanted to do and what I did are two different things. I of course wanted to throttle the guy and shake my money out of him. What I did do was to get the corporate number from him. He claimed the manager wasnt there and he refused to call him. I called the corporate office, made my complaint and they are suppose to call me within 72 hours. Of course we will be on the road by then. I now feel that I should have called the police. What should I have done, or still do in your experiance? In other unrelated ways this incident has already ruined our trip and has caused family problems. (We are now at a different motel)

[piller]

The Dallas Morning News has a column on troubles like this and other travel related problems. The fellow who writes it seems to be able to get theings done to help people. Probably due to being in a large city newspaper, he may have leverage that most of us don't. I would check with the nearest big city newspaper when you get home and see if they have a similar column.

[madman4570]

Did he provide you a copy of the Hotels written policy/contract? If so what was written ?
Did you or did He not meet those obligations?


Now, after all that is said----------sounds like your wife has a medical disability and they really should have no matter what the policy stated worked with you. Just a bad Management situation in my view.

Recall again and tell them you want to talk to the Upper Mgt. of that Corp. now or--------

1)you will contact the BBB
2)you will obtain the Corp. listing of all Executives/Board Members and send them all a unfavorable email of how your disabled wife was treated.(I believe they call it a Executive Email Carpet Bomb) )
3)also tell them you are going to consult with your Attorney.
JMO

[kimwcook]

BB, you entered into a civil agreement for the room and hence it would take civil recourse to get your money as they wouldn't refund it to you. Law enforcement generally enforces criminal issues, not civil. Sorry you had a problem. Just went through something similar.

[madman4570]

I believe this is who owns that place.

http://media.choicehotels.com/phoenix.z ... l-overview

Then click on Management Biogarphies

How would all these people view having a note e-mailed to them stating how that Manager representing them treated your disabled wife??????

[FWiedner]

I'd suggest you try going the "patient" route.

On the one hand you reserved the room. Depending on how busy the place was, could the guy replace the business that you obliged yourself to give him by tying up that asset? How much would it cost him to clean the room after occupation?

On the other hand, you discovered that you could not use the accomodation because of a legitimate medical exception. This is neither your fault nor is it a fault of the business in question, just something discovered upon arrival. The desk pogue was likely not high enough in the food chain to make a refund decision, but his refusal to accomodate your demand to escalate to higher authority is inexcusable.

It's my opinion that a civil conversation with, or a letter to, the actual manager (or maybe the corporate folks) explaining the situation could get a pro-rated refund minus time spent and cleaning cost, and if you explain the situation sufficently, i.e., medical concerns and not necessarily dissatisfaction, perhaps even a full refund.

Had to get off a train for medical reasons last summer and a call to Amtrak explaining the situation got the bulk of my money for travel, accomodations, and meals (minus those services already used) refunded.

If the manager says no to the refund, just post the address of the place and we can all write letters explaining why he's lost our business. Nothing says "Doh!" like a barrage of hate mail from lost customers.

[Pete44ru]

[paid two nights cash in advance -The clerk wouldnt refund our money for the upcomeing night ]

"Plastic protects" - all others are usually on their own.

Sad, but what I've generally found to be true.

.

[Booger Bill]

Let me try again, I evidently didnt explain the situation right. We checked in, paid cold cash for two nights. After the first night the wife found the bed too hard. We never asked for a refund for that night. We simply didnt want to stay the 2nd night and that morning told them early enough that we wanted a refund as we were going elsewhere as the bed was too hard for her bad back. They then showed her another bed and that was just as hard. I said just give us back the money for that 2nd night and we are going elsewhere. The clerk wouldnt give the money back. He said the maids were all gone. Just then a maid came out from cleaning a room nearby. He still wouldnt concede when I caught him in the lie, (not that the maid would have any valid bearing on his argument anyway), I asked to see the manager or owner. He told me he wasnt there, and refused to call him. This all took place at 11 a.m., and the parking lot was almost empty.
To me, the incident is about a shade away from him pulling a gun and robbing me. This guy was visibly mentaly slow, also deformed from birth. I do belive I would have beat him half to death had he been a "normal" type person that tried that.
I will let you all know how this works out.

[madman4570]

Let me put it this way!
Few years back, lets just call it (a ceratin large name corporation which manufactures Laptop Computers) gave me the run around because of my daughters hard drive crashing (the last day of the extended warranty) I know what is the chances.
She had not used it for several days prior and went to log on and it just died)it was charged and battery was good.I called them and explained and asked for directions(was instructed to take the laptop to a approved service center.I did.(Hard Drive Bad)
Called Rep back and told them(kinda hard to converse with em,not very good English)
He said--------Sir,that date was the date you took possession of the laptop(received from UPS) and NOT the date you placed the order(which is what we go by) it took them a week to ship it and me to receive it.

I said,no,no,no. you cant do that, its when I receive it---he said nope/his boss said nope/all the way up.

So, off went a eecb to them all.
Next hour,I get a phone call from the PRESIDENT/OWNER of the COMPANY while he was on vacation at Cape May. I explained---he said---What can I do???? I said replace the hard drive. DONE.
He also said from now on,any future issues/problems/purchases/etc. I have a special direct go to person thats assigned a be the private go to person that will satisfy any needs!

[Chas.]

Peter44ru is EXACTLY right. Never, NEVER, give a motel cash. No matter what the reason, you wouldn't have gotten any cash back.

[BwanaDave]

Was it an AMERICAN owned and managed motel? Did it smell like curry?

[Rusty]

Yep, plastic all the way and that does not mean Debit card. ONLY CREDIT CARD! With a debit card once the money leaves the account you can pretty much consider it gone. With a credit card there is always more ways to dispute the charge.

Sorry you had a problem.

[iceman]

Credit card is the only way to protect yourself in a situation like this. Once they have your money hard to get it back. With a credit card you can always dispute charges etc.