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Avoid WooGo Group and Expedia.com -- Worst Travel Story Ever.

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Avoid WooGo Group and Expedia.com -- Worst Travel Story Ever.

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Old May 4th, 2006, 11:31 AM
  #61  
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"channel 9 news at 10:15 p.m. or so, not Fox 5 news" -- yes that is a bit confusing. The reporters from that story all have @foxtv.com emails. Turns out UPN 9 is owned by FOX. It is a bit confusing.
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Old May 6th, 2006, 08:50 AM
  #62  
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Lastest WooGo News and Review:

I thought I'd update you on my lastest hobby.

1. Registered and mirrored the domain name WooGone.com to ease the telling of the story without having to say the word "sucks".
2. Updated and organized the website please check it out and let me know.
3. Reported the consumer fraud to the NYC Attorney General. http://www.woogone.com/WooGoAttnGeneralLetter.htm (my cover letter)
4. Received 2nd legal threat from WooGo's http://www.woogosucks.com/threatResponse.html -- A very active discussion on these threats is here http://tinyurl.com/p4tfy
5. Wrote an open letter to Orbitz and published a new website at www.ShameOnOrbtiz.com -- Orbitz still lists this as an available three-star hotel.
6. Reported WooGo.com to their Internet Service Provider for violation of RackSpaces's Acceptable Use Policy against using websites for illegal activity - http://www.woogosucks.com/RackSpaceAbuseComplaint.html
7. I continue to run my "Save 100%" Google campaing for the keyword "WooGo"
8. The story ran on UPN 9, Mon May 1st, and I promoted and discussed here http://tinyurl.com/ncdus and here http://tinyurl.com/pla2g . (Many people, including myself, would like a copy of the NYC UPN 9 segment available to view, I've been told it will happen.)
9. Expedia has offered our family more travel vouchers and gifts. I've offered these vouchers to tenants at Lincoln Center. (Expedia does nothing.)
10. Continue to encourage others to protest these crimes as part of a building grass-roots effort to bring some integrity back to the travel industry.

It's your turn. What are you doing to help improve your most-loved industry?

Your help is greatly appreciated by many.


(mca, I'll try to add your story to our new 'Victims' section. )
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Old May 6th, 2006, 09:14 PM
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Tenants of West 63rd Realty:
As many of you are aware - your rent stabilized New York apartment complex is being ILLEGALLY converted to a make shift hotel know as "WooGo Lincoln Center". The illegal conversion began November 2005 but was well planned between WooGo and West 63rd Realty in advance. It is illegal to convert a residential building in NY City or NY State without going through the proper channels - which includes a very expensive and lengthy application with the NYC Department of Buildings. West 63rd Realty has not filed a change in it's certificate of occupancy. Tenants have been receiving notifications of "non-renewals of their leases". This is illegal under NY State law and NYC law. In rent stabilized or rent controlled residential housing - the TENANT has the legal right to extend a lease or cancel it - not the landlord. management has told tenants nothing of this conversion and reassurances that your apartment lease will be extended are not truthful. Many of you have noticed declining safety issues within the complex which spans the following addresses:
233-247 West 63rd St and 236 - 240 and 244 - 248 West 64th St
1. Apartment concierge service is difficult to contact. WooGo officials answer most of the calls directed to the apartment concierge and can rarely help you with security, maintenance, or other issues.
2. Howard Silverman - Manager of West 63rd Realty is virtually impossible to access since November 2005.
3. Because this is an "illegal hotel" you will find that fire code violations predominate. There are no fire exit postings on doors or elevators for the tourists or tenants. No smoking rules posted. A fire broke out in the complex March 26 if you were not aware.
4. No security in the building as there is no control of who comes and goes. The WooGo people and the apartment concierge does not know who is a tourist, tenant, or a criminal.
5. Despite telling tenants that the WooGo folks do NOT have access to the tenant's apartments - hotel employees have entered tenants apartments!
6. The WooGo officials have been renting "hotel" rooms at increasingly discounted rates as a day progresses and certain clientele have been renting rooms for illegal activity lasting a few hours.
7. The illegal activity was the focus of a Channel 9 WWOR television news story May 1 (10pm News) by Barbara Nevins Taylor. The overall crisis in New York City was also part of a NY Times story.
Know your rights! Here are some helpful links for the tenants:
NEW YORK STATE RENT STABILIZATION LAWS:
http://www.dhcr.state.ny.us/ora/prog...gs.htm#underrs
Like rent control, rent stabilization also provides other protections to tenants besides limitations on the amount of rent. Tenants are entitled to receive required services, to have their leases renewed, and may not be evicted except on grounds allowed by law. Leases may be renewed for a term of one or two years, at the tenant's choice. If a tenant's rights are violated, DHCR can reduce rents and levy civil penalties against the owner. Rents may be reduced if services are not maintained. In cases of overcharge, DHCR may assess penalties of interest or treble damages payable to the tenant.
NEW YORK CITY RENT STABILIZATION LAWS:
Like rent control, stabilization provides other protections to tenants besides limitations on rents. Tenants are entitled to receive required services and to have their leases renewed, and may not be evicted except on grounds allowed by law. Leases must be entered into and renewed for one- or two-year terms, at the tenant's choice. If the tenant's rights are violated, DHCR may reduce rents and impose civil penalties on the owner. Rents may be reduced if services are not maintained. In cases of overcharges, DHCR may assess penalties of interest or, in the case of willful overcharges, treble damages, payable to the tenant.
http://www.housingnyc.com/html/resou...hcr/dhcr1.html
NEW YORK STATE Division of Housing and Community Renewal, Office of Rent Administration
DHCR Rent Infoline: 718-739-6400
Upper Manhattan: Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Office Bldg.,DHCR
163 W. 125th Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10027, Tel: 212-961-8930
Lower Manhattan: 25 Beaver Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10004, Tel: 212-480-6238
CITYWIDE TASK FORCE ON HOUSING COURT
The Citywide Task Force on Housing Court, Inc. staffs information tables in each of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens Housing Courts, Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. In Staten Island the Information Table is open Wednesday and Thursday mornings from 9:00-12:00. The information is free and is available to all unrepresented litigants. Referrals will be made to neighborhood groups, legal service providers and other eviction prevention services. Each afternoon (from 2:00-4:00), you may get answers to brief questions at (212) 982-5512.
DEPARTMENT OF BUILDINGS / NEW YORK CITY
It is important that tenants continue to report this illegal activity to the Department of Buildings. You can file a report anonymously or by name - they will respect your confidentiality. The more specific information you can give them - the better luck the DOB investigators can fine WooGo / 63rd West Realty.
„h Give them the specific address and apartment number(s) of the unit you know is being used as a "hotel room". Reports of a general nature are harder to find ("My apartment building is being turned into a hotel" - not as helpful because the inspector will only see an empty hallway.
You can report anonymously in two ways:
„h call 311
„h via the web - http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/maildob.html
DEPARTMENT OF BUILDING CITATIONS FOR WEST 63rd REALTY
You can follow the progress of your complaints and others by logging into:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/html/home/home.shtml
You have to enter look up each individual address of our entire complex to watch the status of your complaints:
http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/Pr...6BD08866A7430E
Examples of successful complaints:
A) 233 West 63rd Complaint:
http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/EC...cbin=34512032P
B) 239 West 63rd Complaint:
http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/EC...cbin=34505199L
C) 243 West 63rd Complaint:
http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/Ov...6BD08866A7430E
D) 236 West 64th Complaint:
http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/EC...cbin=34513069N
E) 244 West 64th Complaint:
http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/EC...cbin=34519000M
F) Sample of a current Certificate of Occupancy for 239 W 63rd showing it is still an residential apartment building and not a commercial hotel. All the buildings in the complex have a similar certificate of occupancy.
http://a810-cofo.nyc.gov/cofo/M/000/...M000110802.PDF
YOUR DISTRICT COUNCIL MEMBER - GALE BREWER
563 Columbus Av (@ 87th St)
New York, NY 10024
[email protected]
NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/ny...er=rssuserland
TELEVISION CRIME INVESTIGATORS / NEW YORK:
Want to file a complaint? FOX TV has already been here! Barbara Nevins Taylor did a very nice story on May 1, 2006.
A) WWOR Channel 9 - Barbara Nevins Taylor
[email protected]
B) CBS Channel 2 New York - Shame On You
[email protected]
C) ABC NEWS Channel 7 - Seven On your Side
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?se...res&id=3395630
D) NBC Channel 4 New York
[email protected]
You can also feel free to post your questions, concerns, and comments on the forum available at this site soon:
WOOGOSUCKS.com
For obvious reasons - although I am a tenant of this building I have to keep anonymous to prevent repercussions. We have all been through a lot this year. Our rent stabilized apartment building gave us all a liitle space that was at least safe and affordable. We made the most of what we had. The voices of the tenants - whether they are business professionals, students from Juliard practicing their cellos, students from Fordham or John Jay Law Schools studying, musicians from Lincoln Center, cast members from the Broadway theater have all lived here - and they are disappearing rapidly - for greed and corruption. The West 63rd Realty (LLC) and Howard Silverman are only half of the story. The WooGo people and the unsuspecting tourists are the other half of the scam - and can be found on the WooGosucks.com website. You are not alone!
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Old May 6th, 2006, 09:35 PM
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ibdk, keep up the fight. Most people sit on their ass here talking dribble but you, are something else. you are a brother.
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Old May 8th, 2006, 04:00 PM
  #65  
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I called the NYC District Council Member, Gale Brewer's office today to introduce myself. She was the one on the Fox/UPN news segment saying "It is Wrong! It should be stopped!".

I wanted to get an update. One of her staff informed me that they are putting together a special task force on this project, and hoping to get the major involved. It's an apparent growing problem, and there remains difficulting coordinating with the necessary agencies to get involved.
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Old May 8th, 2006, 04:03 PM
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Oh, she said this subject was a "high priority" for their office... Let's hope.
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Old May 8th, 2006, 04:07 PM
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>>>Funny, if you go to the WooGo website, Lincoln Centre is their "Hotel of the Month!"<<<

Flagrant is more like it! After all this... they ~still~ front the property on their home page.

WooGone.com
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Old May 11th, 2006, 06:35 PM
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I am a tenant here at West 63rd Realty Apartments - which is being passed off as WooGo Lincoln Center Hotel. I received a letter today from our NYC councilwoman Gale Brewer. She gathered 16 other NYC politicos and has formed a new ILLEGAL HOTELS WORKING GROUP! The letter is addressed to Mayor Bloomberg of NYC asking for increased funding for the Office of Midtown Enforcement which apparently has the juristiction of puuting the WooGo Companies of the world out of business - something the NYC Dept of Buildings has little teeth in combating. It's a small glimmer in a long while. The Illegal Hotel Working Group has an new office address if you need there help - 563 Columbus Avenue NY, NY 10024.

In other news - our original apartment's web site is back up:

http://www.nycaptsonline.com/html/home_page.html

Note the address? No look at the same stats and pics on the WooGo Lincoln Center web site:

http://www.woogo.com/preview/newyork...tre/index.html

Why is it so hard for the authorities to put two and two together and end this mess once and for all?

Also the first hearing to actually take place against WooGo / West 63rd Realty appears to have taken place with the final penalty still TBA. One positive note is that the level of infraction of this illegal conversion of an apartment to a hotel was upgraded from a B (moderate infraction) to A (severe infraction).
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Old May 11th, 2006, 06:53 PM
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That's excellent news. Thanks for posting cgny!
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Old May 12th, 2006, 04:40 AM
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More good news: The FOX newscast aired in Atlanta last night. This segment was mainly about not putting your trust in one travel site... which probably most people here are saavy enough to know better -- also, WooGo is further exposed.

The piece is very good, and furthers the efforts to restore integrity to the many circumstances being negatively impacted by this.

There is a copy of this Atlanta newscast on the WooGone.com site under News and Resources. Have fun!
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Old May 12th, 2006, 04:46 AM
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I'm sure you are the most sincere person in the world but the last place I would ever go for "news" is Fox...inflammatory "journalism" yes, news, no!
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Old May 12th, 2006, 05:14 AM
  #72  
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Intrepid, I think it aired on the local Fox affiliate not the Fox network with Bill O'Reilly et al.
 
Old May 12th, 2006, 08:10 PM
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cgny, your two reports have been added to our News and Resources section, thanks.

1) NYC Councilwoman Gale Brewer announces Illegal Hotel Task Force on May 11, 2006.

2) A local WooGo Resident's "Know Your Rights!" letter to his neighbors -- includes many media and government contacts.
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Old May 13th, 2006, 12:09 AM
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Hi Intrepid

I am a die hard liberal living in NYC- and a tenat at the faux hotel. Trust me - FOX may not have been my first choice - but our situation had us looking for help anywhere we could find it. yes - FOX doesnt usually equal equal - but this was truly a "human" story over politics. Rare I know.
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Old May 16th, 2006, 05:57 AM
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Updates:
Yesterday, WooGone.com sent a summary of this story to about a dozen travel/hotel industry publications.

We followed up with Councilwoman Gale Brewer's Task Force Announcement offering her our resources and assistances if need, including some ideas on how to counter this online.

We used pressuring ISP's to enforce their Acceptable Use Policies upon their clients as an example one one possible tactic.

We continue to apply and increase pressure to rackspace.com to stop this ourselves. As a special to Fodor's forum only -- here is the behind the scene rackspace correspondence:
http://www.woogone.com/rackspaceraw.html

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Old May 17th, 2006, 05:02 AM
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I love that--"legal council" and "Jellousy" and all the other gaffes. This guy has taken a page out of the "Write Like a Lawyer" playbook, only he forgot to check his spelling!

Good luck with your continued full-body assault on WooGo and Expedia. They are guilty by virtue of being the agent for this fraudulent property advertisement.

We're trying to arrange a Georgia GTG in June (24th, it looks like). Hope you can come--
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Old May 17th, 2006, 11:25 AM
  #77  
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kswl, thanks for the invite, sounds fun!

And yes, those letters were hillarious -- if I get obsessed enough, I'll turn this into a musical tragi-comedy.
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Old May 18th, 2006, 03:21 PM
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** NYC Newscast is now available! **

It is in the "News and Resources" at WooGone.com. If you missed the live NYC UPN 9 airing on the 1st, you will find this segment is far more scathing than the Atlanta piece.
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Old May 18th, 2006, 04:43 PM
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Good news - May 11: New York City Department of Buildings held first of a eight hearings against West 63rd Realty / WooGo Lincoln Center. The first hearing was for the first of eight buildings within the complex to be cited. Verdict: GUILTY of illegal conversion of residential apartments into commercial business (hotel). Fine $2500 (and will convert to daily fine if conversion not reversed). Next hearing on next building in complex is May 25. Small victory but a victory nonetheless!
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Old May 18th, 2006, 05:54 PM
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$2500! That'll teach 'em!

Thanks for the link to the NYC news program, Kelly.

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