Why does it take so much to get a company to act reasonably?

[Mr Hero]

Oh please. Hotels overbook all the time. It's called 'walking' the guest. Doesn't make it right, but if everyone who this happened to threw a hissy fit and demanded a full refund, they'd be bankrupt.

I think she was entitled to something, but a full refund? No. - she was an entitlement whore.

Sorry - I know that wasn't the point of the post, but it just pisses me off. Probably because I'm in the business (emergency travel call center) of listening to people bitch who this happens to.

I'd just like to point out that my hotel does not practice this policy. And on sold out nights it's kinda amusing to hear about our competitors scrambling to find places for guests. I personally think it's asinine to overbook, but that's probably a subject for a whole new thread.

[Peppergirl]

I'd just like to point out that my hotel does not practice this policy. And on sold out nights it's kinda amusing to hear about our competitors scrambling to find places for guests. I personally think it's asinine to overbook, but that's probably a subject for a whole new thread.

I'm actually glad to hear that. Makes my job easier, too.

It's fairly common for most large US based hotels, though, right?

[gremcint]

I'll just say this, when I've prepaid for a room for my trip, my trip that I've spent weeks planning, looking up local restaurants, sites and bus trips. There better be a fucking room when I get there. you know the one I paid for.

[smileyeagle1021]

It was her fucking wedding.
You don't overbook and walk a wedding party. That has got to be the stupidest idea in the history of stupid ideas.

This. I have never worked at a hotel that practiced overbooking (we would overbook room types, but we never sold more reservations than there were rooms in the hotel, we could always upgrade to suites if needed), but if we were to overbook, trust me, the wedding party would be the LAST people I would walk. That is an invitation for a lot of bad PR... we walk a priceline guest, we get a bad priceline review, and life goes on (seriously, no one takes priceline reviews that seriously)... we walk a member of the wedding party and EVERY SINGLE WEDDING GUEST is going to write bad reviews, even the ones who weren't walked, and they aren't just going to Priceline, they're going to facebook, tripadvisor, telling all their friends... like I said, PR nightmare.

How many people really open everything they buy right there in the store to make sure it is what it says it is? How many stories about holding up the line would there be on CS if this became common?

you don't have to do it in line. My policy is that I walk up to the customer service area, not necessarily in the line, just making sure I'm in an area visible by the cameras and open the packaging to make sure that it is all there. Then if there is a problem, I can with a straight face tell them that if they don't believe me they can feel free to have LP check their cameras to verify what I'm saying.

[siead_lietrathua]

you don't have to do it in line. My policy is that I walk up to the customer service area, not necessarily in the line, just making sure I'm in an area visible by the cameras and open the packaging to make sure that it is all there. Then if there is a problem, I can with a straight face tell them that if they don't believe me they can feel free to have LP check their cameras to verify what I'm saying.

it might be a geographical thing, but every place i go to has a seperate area and register for high-priced, lockup electronics with the resident employee being the keyholder. even in the walmarts. so this person opens the case, and usually carries the items for you to their till, talks over the product and tried to upsell you (exemptions on black friday i'm sure, but i dont go out then).
so an extra minute of opening things to make sure it's all there is nothing to this method.

[HYHYBT]

That they're kept locked up would logically be a reason *not* to have to check, the boxes being away from other customers' tampering hands. Of course, again, that would depend on the store doing its job of verifying returns. Also, I agreed that it would be a good idea for big-ticket items, and was only disagreeing with your statement that people should do it for everything, and also with the notion that people who have never run into or heard of this problem before should just KNOW to do this.

[smileyeagle1021]

That they're kept locked up would logically be a reason *not* to have to check, the boxes being away from other customers' tampering hands.

Of course the problem with this is that it is not away from employees tampering hands. Just because it's in a locked case doesn't mean that there wasn't a dishonest stocker who swapped it out, or a dishonest factory employee who swapped it out, or even a dishonest cashier doing bogus returns. It also doesn't protect from mistakes. Way back in the days of Nintendo 64 I was at WalMart for one of the first copies of Goldeneye 007, the electronics guy opened up the case, got out the box for me, took it to his register, rang me up, I paid, we stopped at the Wendy's in the store (God I miss WalMart having Wendys in them sorry for the OT), I decided to open the box to read the manual (I know, who does that) and discovered it was full of nothing but crumpled paper. What happened was that the WalMart I had gone to had recently changed from having a display case out in the open with the actual games behind the counter to having all the games in the locked display case and the ordering manager out of habit still ordered a dummy case to put on display, which is the box I happened to grab, an honest mistake, but not one I want to risk having me lose money on.

[Andara Bledin]

Just because it's in a locked case doesn't mean that there wasn't a dishonest stocker who swapped it out, or a dishonest factory employee who swapped it out, or even a dishonest cashier doing bogus returns. It also doesn't protect from mistakes.

All of that. Plus, it does nothing to protect against the issue that was the case in the OP; where a scammer buys an item, swaps it out for something of similar heft, then re-seals the item and returns the junk for the refund. Scammer walks out with all of their money, plus the item, and some poor sap ends up with a box of junk. It's to the point where sealed returns can't be trusted, and stores are going to have to adjust their policies to reflect that fact.

^-.-^

[lordlundar]

I will go on record here and say that the people just plain aren't checking the sealing work. I have seen dozens of "home sealed" attempts, caught every one because it's nowhere near the appearance or quality of industrial ones.

[Mr Hero]

I'm actually glad to hear that. Makes my job easier, too.

It's fairly common for most large US based hotels, though, right?

I think so. Long before I joined CS, the first hotel I worked at practiced this policy. Most of the time it wasn't a problem. We would just walk them over to the nearest hotel franchised by hotel. Oddly enough, it's the hotel I work at now, but even when I was interviewed, those two hotels were no longer franchised by that same group.

[wolfie]

My understanding is that hotels (and airlines) overbook because a certain percentage of people will never show up, resulting in spoilage of a perishable commodity. If they guess too high on that percentage, it results in "bumping", and dissatisfied customers. If they guess too low, it means empty rooms/seats that they could otherwise have sold.

What I don't understand is why they don't offer the option of "prepaid non-cancellable non-refundable", in other words, "you agree to pay for the room/seat whether you use it or not, and in exchange we agree to not bump you". If they get the money whether or not the person shows up, there's no need to overbook in order to be sure their entire inventory for the day gets sold. Person shows up for their week-long reservation at 3 in the morning on Saturday rather than by 6 PM Friday? Room is waiting for them, because with the room already paid for, hotel doesn't need to rent it to someone else in order to get value for it that night.. Person doesn't show up until mid-afternoon Saturday? They still pay for Friday night, since it was their "insurance" to keep the room available in case they showed up at 3 in the morning.

[Mr Hero]

^
My hotel works like that. There's a no show charge of 1 night's rent if you don't claim the reservation.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Oh please. Hotels overbook all the time. It's called 'walking' the guest. Doesn't make it right, but if everyone who this happened to threw a hissy fit and demanded a full refund, they'd be bankrupt.

But there are people who have real cases against the companies. I reserved a room at an Ocean City Maryland hotel for a New Year's Eve "Cuddle and Bubble" package with ocean front view. Paid for it months in advance. In full.

New Year's Eve comes around and they want to walk me to another hotel in their chain. One in Salisbury 30 miles away from the ocean.

I took umbrage at this for several reasons.

1. The hotel I was being walked to didn't have ocean front rooms.
2. Didn't offer in-room jacuzzi (hence the name "Cuddle and Bubble")
3. Was half the price of the room I had paid for (and no refund was offered)
4. Was one mile from my residence.

Yes, I lived in Salisbury at the time.

Since they were unable to offer me any of the amenities that I paid for at the alternate hotel, there was no need to stay anywhere other than my own house that NYE. I demanded a full refund. Never got it. Never got an apology, never got Corporate to acknowledge that anything wrong was done on their part.

Was I being an entitled whore for demanding my money back for services that they could/would not provide?

[Panacea]

Was I being an entitled whore for demanding my money back for services that they could/would not provide?

Hell, no! That's theft; you paid for a service you did not receive and were entitled to a FULL refund.

I would have done one of two things, if an insistent conversation with the manager did not cough up the dough:

1) Called the local media. They like those kind of customer gets bent over stories.
2) Sued.

[s_stabeler]

But there are people who have real cases against the companies. I reserved a room at an Ocean City Maryland hotel for a New Year's Eve "Cuddle and Bubble" package with ocean front view. Paid for it months in advance. In full.

New Year's Eve comes around and they want to walk me to another hotel in their chain. One in Salisbury 30 miles away from the ocean.

I took umbrage at this for several reasons.

1. The hotel I was being walked to didn't have ocean front rooms.
2. Didn't offer in-room jacuzzi (hence the name "Cuddle and Bubble")
3. Was half the price of the room I had paid for (and no refund was offered)
4. Was one mile from my residence.

Yes, I lived in Salisbury at the time.

Since they were unable to offer me any of the amenities that I paid for at the alternate hotel, there was no need to stay anywhere other than my own house that NYE. I demanded a full refund. Never got it. Never got an apology, never got Corporate to acknowledge that anything wrong was done on their part.

Was I being an entitled whore for demanding my money back for services that they could/would not provide?

No. EW would have been to demand they kick someone out.