Another bad experience at O R Tambo
 

Arrived at our hotel in JNB to find money had gone missing from a carry-on Had gotten through the terminal without any problems as we are always very careful after previous bad experiences. It was at the car rental area we got accosted and couldn’t shake this guy off. No idea how he managed to get the money as I thought I was being very wary but it just shows you can never be too careful. Luckily I always split things up, just in case. Couple of other things went wrong but have sorted them out.
Anyway off to enjoy our holiday and not let these things put us off.

Sorry to hear of your bad experiences!

That's the spirit. Don't let the b@$tards grind you down!

rb211.

We are here to enjoy ourselves 😄👍

Speaking of bad experiences at O R Tambo, we booked an overnight stay at the Intercontinental, cancelled it a month before because of COVID preventing flights to Mauritius, and then discovered that our card had been charged in our absence. The wretched hotel doesn't respond to emails and we're back in the UK now, so a phone call to SA would be ridiculously expensive. Next stop, Twitter, etc.

Yet another good reason not to carry much cash. I rarely have more than a minimal amount.

Just initiate a chargeback with your credit card.

One of my favorite quotes from historical figures. In this case US Army General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell ... "Illigitimi non carborundum""

Rats?

Dog Latin.

Johan

Apparently it came into use by some English speaking people (in both the US and the UK but mostly in the US) around 1890-1900. By people people thinking it would be funny to pretend like 'carborundum' was actually a Latin word meaning 'needing to be worn down' or (making allowances for ignorance, which is surely part of it) 'to wear down'.

Or as johan rebel so succinctly put it, "Dog Latin".

Good idea, although I still want a response from the hotel.

I can't speak to the cost of calling South Africa from the UK. But I have used Google Voice for calling from the US to South Africa and found it very reasonable. Depending on the type of number/account you are calling the charges (from the US in USD) are anywhere from $0.11 to $0.17 per minute. If your charges are similar, a 10 minute call would be somewhere around 1 to 1.5 £.

Using a voip provider like Voipcheap it is €0.10/min from UK to SA landline. No one should be paying rip off rates to call internationally these days. It is also worth looking for WhatsApp voice calls for free if the hotel has a WhatsApp number.

Thanks. The hotel doesn't have WhatsApp. I'll try FB messaging first. And I've requested a chargeback. It's beyond belief that big hotel chains can't be bothered to respond to email.

Hotels generally don’t work well with emails, given that there are many people working in shifts. I know it seems counterintuitive, but a phone call is likely to produce better results.