To cap it all ... I made an advanced booking with a property with a clear agreement with the GM and the relevant staff that as it was so far forward it wouldn't be taken from the credit card before a clearly specific date - and on that date it would be firm and couldn't be cancelled or adjusted. All in writing - all confirmed - all very very clear - everyone understood - everything done to avoid disappointments and misunderstandings. 24 hours later - £3k taken from the credit card. Now - they have promised it back. But it won't be that simple will it .... exchange Amex fees etc etc.
As one would expect, having received a promise for an
immediate refund from the finance director of the hotel 5 days ago for the amount they had promised not to take .... but no immediate refund, today - instead of the refund - I received an email from their finance department asking me how much the refund should be for!
I asked them why there hadn't been a refund 5 days ago and they said because they were all on holiday.
This of course means that there is an increasing danger of the £3k now being included in next months credit card (over)payment. I'm just relieved it hasn't prematurely triggered an Amex 241 voucher.
The missing 5k voucher paid for in the original box I guess has now been put to the ICHG board as I've heard nothing more. I guess another email.
It feels that with some organisations you deal with little ever goes wrong with others very little seems to be straight-forward.