Getting charged for a "complimentary" hotel room

[thesauce]

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My credit card was charged $90 for a hotel room that was supposed to be complimentary for an interview. I called the hotel and they acknowledge the mistake but haven't reimbursed me s/p 2 phone calls.

How would you handle this? Would you contact the program you interviewed with? I really liked the program and will probably rank it highly, so I don't want to "rock the boat." Should I contact my cc company (not sure if this qualifies as fraud). Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[LucidSplash]

I would call once more and let the hotel know, in no uncertain terms, that you will contest the charge with your card company if they do not refund your card. Give them a deadline and then follow through as appropriate. If your phonecall to the hotel and their admission of mistake hasn't gotten you reimbursed, its unlikely the program will be able to do much more. When you contest the charge, fill in the details regarding the fact that the hotel was covered under another account and that your card was provided only for incidentals, of which you had none.

My credit card was charged $90 for a hotel room that was supposed to be complimentary for an interview. I called the hotel and they acknowledge the mistake but haven't reimbursed me s/p 2 phone calls.

How would you handle this? Would you contact the program you interviewed with? I really liked the program and will probably rank it highly, so I don't want to "rock the boat." Should I contact my cc company (not sure if this qualifies as fraud). Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

I would call once more and let the hotel know, in no uncertain terms, that you will contest the charge with your card company if they do not refund your card. Give them a deadline and then follow through as appropriate. If your phonecall to the hotel and their admission of mistake hasn't gotten you reimbursed, its unlikely the program will be able to do much more. When you contest the charge, fill in the details regarding the fact that the hotel was covered under another account and that your card was provided only for incidentals, of which you had none.

Agree with all this. This is the hotel's issue, not the programs. I see no reason to involve them in the hassle. Make sure you are speaking with a manager when you call the hotel.

 

[JackADeli]

...This is the hotel's issue, not the programs. ...Make sure you are speaking with a manager when you call the hotel.

I have run into this under similar type circumstances....
The long and short of it is that your next step should be to phone your credit card company. Tell them the charge is innapropriate. Tell them you want the charges contested. Tell them of the conversations you have had with the hotel.... their acknowledgement of their error, etc... This will solve the problem.

JAD

 

[littlbluepengui]

just to play devil's advocate, i interviewed at a program where there was a "complimentary" hotel room. their policy was to have you pay for the room, and then if you remembered to submit the original bill to the secretary, they would mail you a check in three weeks. the secretary at that program admits to forgetting to remind applicants of the policy and i am sure many applicants have gone un-reimbursed due to this convoluted procedure.

might be worth emailing the secretary making sure you didn't forget to submit something for reimbursement.

 

[mcl]

From the program's point of view, we want to know if you have any problems of this sort. Area hotels want our business, and we need for them to treat our applicants well as we know a negative experience such as an unexpected credit card charge could affect someone's perception of the program. The PC undoubtedly has contacts with the hotel who would be able to ensure the correction was made and an apology issued.

 

[thesauce]

just to play devil's advocate, i interviewed at a program where there was a "complimentary" hotel room. their policy was to have you pay for the room, and then if you remembered to submit the original bill to the secretary, they would mail you a check in three weeks. the secretary at that program admits to forgetting to remind applicants of the policy and i am sure many applicants have gone un-reimbursed due to this convoluted procedure.

might be worth emailing the secretary making sure you didn't forget to submit something for reimbursement.

Yeah, that's not the case here. The email says that your cc will hold the room and that the bill will go directly to the program.

So I did a combination of the above suggestions. I called the hotel and asked to speak with the manager. He wasn't there so I left a message explaining the issue. Then I called my cc company. They said that the hotel has 30 days to reimburse me from the time I called them. They told me to call again in January and formally contest the charges after 30 days.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

From the program's point of view, we want to know if you have any problems of this sort. Area hotels want our business, and we need for them to treat our applicants well as we know a negative experience such as an unexpected credit card charge could affect someone's perception of the program. The PC undoubtedly has contacts with the hotel who would be able to ensure the correction was made and an apology issued.

That's what I was thinking. If I'm putting people up, I want to make sure they have a good experience, so I think telling the PC about this problem is OK. Just be nice about it.

 

[Law2Doc]

From the program's point of view, we want to know if you have any problems of this sort. Area hotels want our business, and we need for them to treat our applicants well as we know a negative experience such as an unexpected credit card charge could affect someone's perception of the program. The PC undoubtedly has contacts with the hotel who would be able to ensure the correction was made and an apology issued.

While I don't disagree with this, I still think if the OP can make this all go away without ever having to contact the program about it, that's still better. You want to limit your interaction with the program to be program related, and not risk being that person who's remembered because s/he caused the coordinator to have to have a fight with the Marriott.

 

[dragonfly99]

Do what your credit card company says. I would send a formal letter to the hotel manager, and keep a copy, c/o what the problem is and what you want done. If it is a chain hotel, would go online and see if there is some national number you can call and complain to "customer service" department or something. The cool thing about charging stuff on credit cards is that you can contest the charges if they do something shady like this...the hotel has no right to double charge you, as presumably they've already been paid. I wouldn't waste a lot more time on this though...wait 30 days, then contest the charge.