L'Auberge de Sedona Deposit Deceit... Charged For A Reservation, After Being Told Their Would Be None, Internet
I called the L'Auberge Hotel in Sedona, Az to explore reservation opportunities as a part of a birthday celebration for my son, who is attending college at ASU.
I spoke with Mecca, who indicated rooms were booking fast and my best opportunity for 2 couples was a Cottage at about $1200 a night. I decided to reserve the Cottage and, as usual, was asked for my credit card.
With my Am Ex card down stairs, in my briefcase... but, my debit card on the desk I was calling from; I asked Mecca if there would be a charge placed on my card to hold the room. Mecca, clearly indicated there would not be a charge.
The next day, I discovered my son had a schedule conflict, so I called back and again speaking to Mecca, cancelled he reservation. Her parting comment was that my "deposit would be credited back to my account within 5 - 10 working days."
As you might imagine, I second-guessed whether I'd misheard her reply when I asked her about a potential charge when reserving the Cottage.
My wife, who had heard the call over my phone's speaker, while sitting only feet away... assured me that I had been told there would not be a charge to hold the room.
Moments later; I left a message in the voice mail box of Jesse Alexander, the hotel manager, recounting my experience and asking for immediate action.
He called back over 24 hours later, leaving me a message of apology and stating that policy is such that Mecca should have both indicated a charge would be made... but also, gotten my authorization for the specific dollar amount of $1458 that I was charged. Jesse further indicated he would work with accounting or my bank to expedite the refund, then call me with closure.
Still absent the $1458 they took from my account and no call back from Jesse, I called back 3 days after receiving Jesse's message and got the same commitment from Ryan, saying he would work directly with my bank to expedite the refund.
Do I think I'll be getting my money back, yes. But the issue here is being lied to by Mecca, getting an empty promise from Jesse and then have to wait for my own money to show up in my account. How do you measure customer service?
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Larry
Phoenix,Arizona,
U.S.A.
They are going to charge your card
#2Consumer Comment
Fri, April 13, 2012
You seem to be a cut above the usual complainers that post here but just what did you think would happen when you gave someone a credit card number to reserve a very expensive hotel room?
Technically, they most likely put a hold on the funds rather than an actual charge. The hold verifies that the card is valid and that the funds are there. This would not be a problem with your Amex card but puts a crimp in your life when they do that to your debit card.
A hold is worse than a charge as neither you nor the hotel can use that money until the hold is released. The hold will remain until either your bank receives an actual charge with the same authorization number or until the bank decides that the transaction is not going to be completed. In this case, if the hotel would have sent a transaction for zero dollars using the original authorization number the hold would go away. It sounds like the hotel manager is not familiar with removing holds from debit cards and is trying instead to get your bank to remove the hold on its own.
Next time, grab your Amex card before you call.