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Old Jan 27, 2015, 3:10 am
  #1  
nrr
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phoning from hotel room "rip-off"

I'm staying in Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas. My cell phone battery "got ill". I made a 1 minute call to Florida; they were going to charge nearly $16.
Before I made the call, I inquired what the rate would be, the agent checked and said it would be $1.50 access charge + $0,75/min--the rate card (in the room) notes: $1.50 access + OPERATOR ASSISTED rate/min, even though it was a direct dialed call.
They removed the charge due to the mis-information I received.
It's bad enough they charge $1.50 for a 30 minute toll free call; but $16 is absurd.
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Old Jan 27, 2015, 5:43 am
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Originally Posted by nrr
I'm staying in Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas. My cell phone battery "got ill". I made a 1 minute call to Florida; they were going to charge nearly $16.
Before I made the call, I inquired what the rate would be, the agent checked and said it would be $1.50 access charge + $0,75/min--the rate card (in the room) notes: $1.50 access + OPERATOR ASSISTED rate/min, even though it was a direct dialed call.
They removed the charge due to the mis-information I received.
It's bad enough they charge $1.50 for a 30 minute toll free call; but $16 is absurd.
It is usually known that hotel phone rates are quite 'expensive' regardless of what the rate card says. I most likely would have waited for my battery to get 'well' before using the hotel phone. But then again, it could have been an emergency for you and could not wait.

But, you were reimbursed so it is a mute point at this juncture.
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Old Jan 27, 2015, 7:52 am
  #3  
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But this isn't new, right? Almost all charges in-room are more expensive than standard - that's the price for convenience. You don't HAVE to buy the $8 Bud Light in the fridge or $6 pack of M&Ms from the snackbar, or pay $5 to have them launder a pair of boxers, or pay $12 for them to bring you a glass of milk and bowl of cereal.

(Now in your case, you received mis-information - that's a little different. But I'm still not surprised by how inflated the rate was.)
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Old Jan 27, 2015, 8:09 am
  #4  
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Originally Posted by nrr
I'm staying in Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas. My cell phone battery "got ill". I made a 1 minute call to Florida; they were going to charge nearly $16.
Before I made the call, I inquired what the rate would be, the agent checked and said it would be $1.50 access charge + $0,75/min--the rate card (in the room) notes: $1.50 access + OPERATOR ASSISTED rate/min, even though it was a direct dialed call.
They removed the charge due to the mis-information I received.
It's bad enough they charge $1.50 for a 30 minute toll free call; but $16 is absurd.
Phone charges at hotels have always been ridiculously high, but in this case, you got bad information from a hotel employee, which overrules everything else.

Mike
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Old Jan 27, 2015, 8:52 am
  #5  
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phoning from hotel room "rip-off"

Isn't 1 hour of phone calls included in the rip off resort fee? I've always considered calling Sri Lanka or Uganda for an hour a day when the hotel includes this as part of the "convenient" resort fee.
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Old Jan 27, 2015, 8:55 am
  #6  
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Phone charges from hotels have almost always been an outright scam.

The difference is that the $8 Bud Light usually says very clearly that it's eight bucks.

I would never expect a hotel employee to actually know the algorithm behind the phone scam. Most people probably have no idea that the "operator assisted" concept even exists anymore. You're lucky that the hotel employee actually said anything, thus giving you somewhat of an "out" to contest the charge.
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Old Jan 27, 2015, 9:00 am
  #7  
 
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Originally Posted by pinniped
Phone charges from hotels have almost always been an outright scam.

The difference is that the $8 Bud Light usually says very clearly that it's eight bucks.

I would never expect a hotel employee to actually know the algorithm behind the phone scam. Most people probably have no idea that the "operator assisted" concept even exists anymore. You're lucky that the hotel employee actually said anything, thus giving you somewhat of an "out" to contest the charge.
Yep. He's very lucky it was only $16. Hotel phones are just decoration for me unless I need to get ahold of room service, reception, or something similar within the hotel itself.
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Old Jan 27, 2015, 10:38 am
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$16 a minute? If you were going to make several calls it would've been cheaper to hire a prostitute and ask to borrow her (or his) phone!
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Old Jan 27, 2015, 10:41 am
  #9  
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My employer dodged these somewhat inadvertently by having a toll free dial in number that answered with a dial tone from which you could dial the 5 digit extension of anyone in the company, or the modem bank back in modem days. Since it picked up with a dial tone, it apparently fooled hotel systems into thinking it wasn't picked up. With universal cell phones and wireless I don't even know if they still have it.
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Old Jan 27, 2015, 10:52 am
  #10  
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Hotel calls have always been expensive. Largely used by people who simply don't care.

This one is different because the employee made a mistake, but the property fixed it.
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Old Jan 27, 2015, 11:48 am
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Originally Posted by darthbimmer
$16 a minute? If you were going to make several calls it would've been cheaper to hire a prostitute and ask to borrow her (or his) phone!
Difficult to expense though.
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Old Jan 27, 2015, 12:14 pm
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Its the $20 a day internet fee that pisses me off.
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Old Jan 27, 2015, 5:30 pm
  #13  
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Originally Posted by nrr
I'm staying in Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas. My cell phone battery "got ill". I made a 1 minute call to Florida; they were going to charge nearly $16.
Before I made the call, I inquired what the rate would be, the agent checked and said it would be $1.50 access charge + $0,75/min--the rate card (in the room) notes: $1.50 access + OPERATOR ASSISTED rate/min, even though it was a direct dialed call.
They removed the charge due to the mis-information I received.
It's bad enough they charge $1.50 for a 30 minute toll free call; but $16 is absurd.
Which is why I have Skype on my cell phone, lap top and tablet. It's all free.
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Old Jan 27, 2015, 6:28 pm
  #14  
nrr
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Originally Posted by travelinmanS
Isn't 1 hour of phone calls included in the rip off resort fee? I've always considered calling Sri Lanka or Uganda for an hour a day when the hotel includes this as part of the "convenient" resort fee.
I'm 7* in the Caesars system: (1)I don't pay resort fees, (2)I get free internet and movies, (3)I DO have to pay phone charges.
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Old Jan 27, 2015, 8:32 pm
  #15  
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"...in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes (and phone charges)."

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