AAFrequentFlyer

Just a thought,<BR>Maybe this is different, but it sure looks the same.<BR>Last January, my girlfriend and I checked in to the London Sheraton Park Lane, for few days, using my Visa card. After returning home I found messages from the security dept. of the CC company, asking me to call ASAP. They informed me that there were mutliple charges from the hotel on a daily basis. So, just like BTilke, I had any charges not paid put on hold and called the hotel. The first day I called, I really did not get any concrete answers either. But, finally I found out what really happened. Being used to our system here, I found that it is not a fraud, just a different procedure for the charges. Every time we had a drink at the hotel bar, food at the hotel restaurant, room service, or whatever, that particular dept. ran an authorization, just so they block the amount, so they would be guaranteed the money. Once you check-out, all the charges get consolidated and charged as one big package. Unfortuantely, unless you ask the hotel to release all the other daily charges, they stay there for about a week till the CC company releases them automatically after not receiving a follow up from the original company. So basically, it looked like we were getting charged twice for everything with the exception of the actual room charge, but at the end it turned out just right.<BR>As far as the question about the $3.50 charge from Vienna while not being there, we have to realize that since most of western Europe joined the European Union, it's a good possibilty that the company headquartes from which the charges come may be in a different country then the company outlet store or restaurant, bar, etc... It happens in this country all the time. I could make a purchase in Chicago, but on my statement it will say Miami, Florida.<BR>Again, it's just my opinion and it may not apply to these situations.

Andre

Calgirlsusan: I'm saying that if a business makes a mistake WHICH LEADS TO &quot;COLLATERAL DAMAGE&quot; on my end (i.e. I need to get a new CC nr. and go through the trouble of informing all my business partners of this change), I definitely expect some sort of compensation. The IC in Vienna appears to have offered none at all, therefore I would avoid them.<BR><BR>Just because I haven't run into problems there in the past doesn't mean it couldn't happen on a future stay.<BR><BR>AAFrequentflyer: that's interesting, but I doubt it's what happened to BTilke, since she spoke of charges amounting to $2500... unless she was staying in the presidential suite ;-)<BR><BR>Andre

Patrick

I guess I'm just different from you Andre, and perhaps from BTilke also. No, I wouldn't be happy with that bug problem from the grocery, but I doubt that I'd storm back there or refuse to go back, or threated to sue them or even make them pay for the damages. Nor would I post on a website telling people to avoid that store because of what happened.<BR><BR>S--T happens, as they say.<BR>The phone number I had for five years was once mistakenly printed in tons of information as the number for the local red cross. I was getting dozens of calls daily. The red cross apologized for their mistake in their printing (transposing two numbers), and I actually had to change my number which was a huge inconvenience -- changing all kinds of things, including business cards, invoices, and letterheads that had that number on it. But I didn't threaten them, or try to make them pay for my expenses. As I said, S--T happens. But again, guess I'm different from many people.<BR><BR>

HowardR

Sorry, Patrick, I don't mean to start a dispute, but I think you're a hypocrite, considering the big stink you wrote about on the US forum when a restaurant dared to post a sign on your table with a time limit. Yes, I know it's not the same thing, but there is a similarity in that in the restaurant problem, you vowed never to go back to that establishment! If this hotel problem happened to you, I bet you'd react strongly!<BR>Again, I say that the hotel's mark for customer service after the fact is a bad one!

AAFrequentFlyer

Well, Andre, the total charge for the 4 day stay ended up at about $1400, plus the 'double' charges, and we were almost at $2000, so no, you don't have to stay at a presidential suite to spend that kind of money, especially if they did a lot of 'charging' on the hotel charge.

lynlor

Why stay anywhere....where they give you aggravation. Too many other wonderful places that are eager for your business.<BR><BR>This could have been a wonderful opportunity for the hotel to go the extra mile for a customer. It would have been the cheapest and best kind of advertising.

BTilke

Patrick, I guess I find an attempt to defraud me of $2500 while traveling in another country a little more serious than getting a carton of bad milk at the local grocery store. But to each his own. Also, where did I say I had to have the employee's name and home address? I don't see that in any of my posts.<BR>To answer some of the issues here:<BR>I was attending a conference and the meeting registration process meant the hotel room was PREPAID--you presented a voucher for the room and breakfast and the credit card authorization taken at check-in was only for &quot;incidental charges.&quot; In my case, the *total* charges were a whopping $4.77 (one cup of hot chocolate and a couple of 10 second phone calls). I would have had to be &quot;double billed&quot; 525 times for that amount to equal more than $2500. <BR><BR>I found the manager's &quot;computer error&quot; excuse glib and superficial for the following reasons:<BR>1. I had to call three times to find out if they were looking into the matter at all. An email detailing the attempted charges was received, but never replied to (the manager later said she received it when I asked her about it). <BR>2. The &quot;computer error&quot; excuse was given because the system upgrades at 2 am and three of the &quot;errors&quot; occurred late at night (3:16 am, for example). NO explanation for the other four charges was given--I was told to take that up with my bank myself and then get back to them with the information. In other words, if I do the legwork, they might look into it. Maybe.<BR><BR>3. None of the amounts correlated to the room rates or incidental charges (which were almost nothing). The amounts ranged from $80 to $850. If someone had done it intentionally, that is a CRIME--not an *error*--and should be investigated by the police, not brushed under the carpet by hotel management. I will be filing a police report, so perhaps that will get the hotel to take it more seriously.<BR><BR>What did I want? I wanted the manager to apologize SINCERELY and to undertake a SERIOUS (rather than cursory) investigation into the incident. I also wanted the corporate guest relations department to offer more than &quot;if the hotel says it's computer error, that's what we accept.&quot; <BR><BR>As I look back on my stay, there were some other service problems that I didn't think were worth noting here, but now wonder. For example, the first night, I had no cold water in the bathroom (not a big deal) but when I called to report it, was asked &quot;do we *have* to send somebody up to check it?&quot; I wrote that off to language differences, but...<BR><BR>In the hotel lobby, when I ordered the hot chocolate, I got the bill immediately, but had to ask two different waiter for the drink itself, which arrived about 20 minutes later (they weren't particularly busy). Again, small beer, but in retrospect, I think service is not a top priority.<BR><BR>Finally, when I asked at the desk to arrange for a shuttle, not a taxi, to take me back to the airport, I was told abruptly that &quot;there are no shuttles that will come to the hotel. Only a taxi or limousine service.&quot; Funny, I arrived at the hotel via a shuttle van. I dug out the receipt with the shuttle's number and was able to make a reservation with them for a hotel pick-up. <BR><BR>In 2002, I stayed at the (ANA) Grand, a luxury palace hotel for only about $15 more per night than the Interconti rate and had a wonderful stay. Next year, I'm going back to the Grand!<BR>

Sue_xx_yy

BTilke, sorry to hear about your experience - losing access to a credit card while traveling is a considerable inconvenience. However, two thoughts: first, possibly the manager didn't offer an explanation because at the time, he didn't know what had actually occurred. Second, I wonder if the computer error was initially as simple as a clerk consistently putting your room number into the computer in conjunction with a number of charges belonging to a room with just a slightly different number, or in other words, you were erroneously billed with someone else's charges. It could have been the night desk clerk who made the error, which would account for the late hour at which some of the charges were made.(?) <BR><BR>Or perhaps you are a secret hot-chocolate-oholic, and drank 525 cups in 4 days....: - )

Christina

I've had a few problems with being charged for things in hotels which I didn't order, but those were mistakes which I pointed out to them on checkout when going over the bill before signing. Also, I have had a few companies double-charge me for purchases. Those were some kind of computer error which happens when they don't think the first time has taken or something, I guess, and put it through twice. My CC company took them off with no problem. <BR><BR>I can understand being a little annoyed about these things, but there are some things I don't understand about this event. First, you have to verify charges upon checkout before you sign the bill. It sounds like some charges were being made during the stay but had never been signed for. This sort of sounds like when rental car companies or hotels put charges on your card as a deposit, kind of. Maybe it was something like that, as someone else above mentioned some temporary charges on a bill that weren't final. But what I really don't understand is why you'd think this was some employee being a crook. If the charges were from the hotel, the employee wouldn't get anything out of that, they wouldn't get the money--or am I missing something here. That is a very big international hotel, I'm sure they don't instruct the employees to commit fraud with customer's cards so that the Intercontinental company can get erroneous payments. That surely wouldn't last very long, if they did. It does sound like a computer error to me, in the broad sense, and a hotel that has a badly functioning charge system. I probably wouldn't want to stay in such a hotel again, myself, with those kind of problems, but it doesn't sound like a reasonable scenario for a crime.

Patrick

The bottom line is this. The mistake was made. It's been corrected. I'd get over it. You can't. That's fine. We arent' all alike. Just take your medication and maybe you won't stress out. Life is too short for me to spend the rest of my life obsessing about such things. No problem. If this problem has you so worried and so upset, then by all means pursue it and never stay at this place again. We are all different. If I liked the place, I'd probably go back, but that doesn't mean I'm right and you're wrong. You are upset about what happens and you are totally justified to do as you see fit. Just that I don't obsess about things that are taken care of. Whether it could have been done better or whether people have properly apologized or not.

mendota98

It is very upsetting to receive a credit card statement which indicates that you have been charged incorrectly over a thousand dollars. December, 2001 my family stayed at a hotel in Paris and they billed me for breakfast everyday and upon checkout double billed me for the entire stay. I called their US headquarters and was treated poorly. It took three months and numerous phone calls on my part to obtain a credit. They kept saying they called me and I was not available ( I work in the same office about 230 days a year). They never provided me with copies of the breakfast receipts or the room charges. After awhile you get tired of fighting and have to move on to another problem. I do try to avoid staying at a Holiday Inn.

Holly_uncasdewar

Patrick: You seem to be obsessing about THIS THREAD. Get over it.

Patrick

I guarantee you that I am over this thread long before BTilke is over the treatment he received at the hotel. If explaining myself is considered obsessing, then yes, I guess you are right.

icithecat

mendota98.<BR><BR>Was the hotel an Ibis?<BR>We stayed at a couple in France that year and they both tried to include breakfast even though we had not partaken.<BR><BR>Both times a denial of eating brought embarassed looks to the faces of the staff.<BR><BR>We left with the impression that they are instructed to do this.

andy

Christina-- Have to let you know that YES an employee can charge your card for all sorts of items- and it will show up on your card-but the way he/she steals is by taking that amount of cash out of the till....SO it does show up on a charge card (yours) and the person who really gets nailed is the restaurant,hotel or shop keeper--<BR><BR>Reason I know this works--- it happened to us in a restaurant...and we never even knew it was done until the end of the month when our cc statement came in.....The restaurant couldn't have been nicer and told us they found out who the employee was and he was fired....Needless to say, it left a bad taste in my mouth....no pun intended......

BTilke

I just received a phone call from the Managing Director from the Intercontinental Vienna hotel. We had a 30 minute conversation and he clearly said that there was no criminal activity and the problem was somewhere in the banking chain between Ciiticorp.

BTilke

Or rather, between Citicorp and my bank.