gwendolynaoife

i just got hit for a stay, looks like one night, at the Hilton Garden Inn in Windsor, Conn.

i called the hotel and they don't know what i'm talking about because there are no stays there, but it hit me for about $100 for no apparent reason. obviously, i'll challenge it , but this is pretty wacky.

i have checked my reservation records and made no such reservation. since i do all my planning myself online, this is especially mysterious. and yes, my previous stays this year have posted to my accounts, both HHonors and AmEx to pay for it...and they weren't this expensive.

any clues on what i should do since the hotel is being difficult or just doesn't know? this is a very unpleasant surprise to see, and they didn't even gimme my darn points. jeez, some people. i consider this more of Hilton's continuous effort to drive me to *wood.

Eugene

Call your credit card company and contest the charge. Request the details of the transaction.

And please, don't bring up this conspiracy theory. It's getting old pretty fast.

gwendolynaoife

i *was* being tongue-in-cheek. actually, if there were a conspiracy, hampton wouldn't be the property keeping me a semi-satisfied Hilton customer.

or are they...*eerie music*

it's amex, they won't do anything until the statement closes, though i did ask for more info and i'm sure in a few days they'll tell me something.

it's just annoying. i doubt any actual conspiracies.

IM4Travel

I thought it was Hilton Garden Inn.

Eugene

That's true, AmEx won't let you contest the charge until the statement closes, but they would provide you with some additional information you may need. If you suspect fraudulent activity (e.g., someone illegally using your card), you may want to request your existing card cancelled and have a new one sent to you ASAP.

JoeDoakes

ICUR from New Jersey and Connecticut, so you are probably within 100 miles of this hotel. If a credit card purchase is made in your home state (regardless of distance) or within 100 miles of your current billing address (regardless of state), you can make the credit card issuer "stand in the shoes" of the merchant if you are not satisfied with the quality of goods or services (as long as the amount is > $50). This means you can take the same legal action against the card issuer that you can against the seller (which would depend on state law), if you have made a "good faith effort" to resolve the dispute with the seller (which it sounds as if you have done).

So, if you can't resolve this as a billing error for some reason, you might try beating the credit card company over the head with this provision of the Fair Credit Billing Act. I would say that never having actually stayed at the place would render the service rather unsatisfactory. BTW, there is no requirement to wait for the statement if you go this route. I have had to resort to this twice and in both instances the credit card company put the charge back onto the merchant. Once that happens, the merchant has to sue YOU if they want to try to collect.

See www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/fcb.htm

However, based on my experience with Amex, it won't come to that.

BobSakamano

Good evening all. First time posting on FT.

Called the HHonors Diamond desk to inquire about some missing points. At the end of the phone call, the telephone rep agreed to credit my account 2,000 points versus a long, drawn out investigation and I accepted.

About an hour later, I logged back in to my account and noticed that it was missiong 90,000 points. Upon further investigation, noticed that a reservation had been made in my account for a 3 night stay beginning tomorrow in Orlando. Furthermore, there was a Discover card number on the reservation. I don't even carry Discover card.

I was shocked to see how easy it was for someone at the HHonors Diamond desk to place a fraudulent reservation on my account. When I called to investigate, the points were immediately credited back, fraudulent reservation canceled and my account was flagged for investigation by their fraud department.

Beware when calling the HHonors desk. When you give them the requested security verification information, it apparently gives the person you are speaking with the ability to make a fraudulent reservation. Not enough checks and balances in the HHonors system.

My advice, check your account frequently after speaking with HHonors via phone. Feeling violated by HHonors. Beware.

LA_FadeAway

Yikes, are you sure it was an inside thing and your password didn't just get hacked? I'm about to change my password right now after reading this and make it a bit stronger.

BobSakamano

Quite positive. It was confirmed that the reservation was made by a phone agent. I immediately changed my PIN and also removed stored credit card information. Trust level ZERO.

sethb

My guess is that the agent neglected to log out of your account, and when the next caller wanted a points reservation your account was logged in.

oenophilist

+1. I wouldn't automatically assume malfeasance. Could have been an honest mistake, one that was corrected right away.

We'll probably soon see a new thread from someone else saying that Hilton deleted a confirmed booking for Orlando without telling them.

flyingnomadic

X3. "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." - Hanlon's Razor

sbams

The HHonors Diamond desk and "a phone agent" are not necessarily the same entity. The possibility exists that somone with your password has made the reservation by phone, quoting your account. Also this possibility is speculation - don't jump to conclusions, there are more possibilities than the one which first springs to mind.

Glad you got your points back, all's well that ends well!

BobSakamano

Having been a fraud victim previously does make me acutely sensitive Additionally, my account being inadvertently left logged in by the agent is plausible. In all fairness, I will post the investigation results when Hhonors provides them by the end of this week.

smmrfld

OP's characterization of this as "fraudulent" is way over the top without clear indication that someone was trying to scam you. As noted above, it's likely a simple mistake. The dramatic language doesn't do much to solve the issue.