Peatisback

After a recent one night stay at the Westin DTW, I received a folio that was much much higher than expected. It came by e-mail, in the morning, but not before the early morning flight out of DTW. Since I don't get a paper copy anymore, and almost never have any issues, it was a nice surprise in my inbox.

The folio had two charges for in room dining- very interesting because we did not have in room dining. I had the MOD e-mail the copy of the signed receipts. The first one looked right, with my wife's handwritten name/signature was on it as expected. The second receipt, though, was extremely suspect. The hand written name in print looked nothing like either of our writing, nor did the signature. It looked like someone tried to copy my wife's name/signature from the previous receipt. It wasn't even a close match. The name in print was laughably way off, and the signature was only slightly better. My wife's signature looks like a bunch of squiggles, but it makes out her initials. The signature on the second receipt barely got 1.5 out of the 3 initials (and a poor job at that).

The MOD agreed to remove the second charge, but I'm still concerned about the ethics of all this, as well as possible systematic/recurrent problems of this nature at the property. It was a busy night here with all the weather issues, so a tired bleary eye traveler might miss this type of thing.

At any rate, be sure to keep an eye on your folios, especially at this property.

andymell

I'm not sure I understand. You said that you didn't get in-room dining, but the first receipt has what looks like your wife's signature?

Anyway, if you believe someone actually forged your wife's signature you should call the police -- that's a serious crime.

MSPeconomist

To me, it seems more suspicious that the hotel should know where the room service was delivered. It sounds like an inside job.

Peatisback

Basically my wife signed for our dinner but it was rung up as in room dining. The second receipt was the fraudulent one that had her poorly forged signature and bad attempt at printing her name.

The place was packed last night with people in the restaurant and this morning looked like lots of room service based on number of trays in the hallway. I wonder how many other people they tried to rip off....

vandalby

Plus, you don't want to give the Le Parker Meridien any more revenue enhancement ideas...

MSPeconomist

If a restaurant meal was charged as in room dining, make sure that they didn't add a delivery charge and service fee to the bill. Also, some hotels have higher prices for the same items through room service.

Peatisback

You are correct- they did put these charges on. Having those removed has been surprisingly more difficult than having the fraudulent charges removed.

I am definitely going to contact the police when I am back at DTW later in the week, and also SPG Corporate Customer Service.

clublounger

The POLICE?

Peatisback

Yes of course- someone blatantly forged a signature. It might not amount to anything but will definitely get the attention of management to make sure this issue is actually investigated.

RogerD408

Of course you are presuming the local authorities will actually do anything... I'm sure they have better things to do than investigate a bogus hotel charge. Even trying to find an attorney to make a civil case out of this would be a bit tough.

OP's best bet is to dispute the charges with the CC and let them know what has been discovered so far. The charge-back will probably get more management attention than anything else!

clublounger

Of course?

Take a deep breath, please, before deciding to call the police.

jmastron

They don't necessarily have to do much to make it worth filing -- in many places (like my city), you can file a report online, get a case number, and it may or may not get much followup from a detective. If there is a pattern of fraud from this hotel, it just might. If not, not much effort lost. Either way, you have something for both the credit card company and hotel to take more seriously (since you're risking more serious penalties yourself if filing a false report). The hotel clearly has at least one criminal employee; next time will it just be a couple fraudulent charges or stealing actual credit card info from guest files? Or perhaps address and other identity information to sell?

Peatisback

Exactly my thought- one bad apple that needs to go. DTW has a police division through the county airport authority so I'm going to file the report with them, in person. It won't take too much time when I get back from my next trip.

The property has already credited back the charges; haven't heard back yet about more than that.

And thankfully, I'm breathing just fine...

JackE

Overcharging can be called an error or mistake or misunderstanding. Forging a signature is none of those -- it is a crime.

If a guest purloined a stay by forgery and deception, do you think the property should not call the police? Of course they should. A forgery by someone at the property is no less criminal.

The think to keep in mind is that IF there was a forgery as alleged here, then that forgery was not committed by the property; it was committed by SOMEONE. IF it happened, then that person should not be "serving" the public, to say the least.

pschafer

this post caught my eye because a couple of years ago we had a very strange attempt at fraud by an SPG property in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. After returning home and checking our AmEx statement there was an additional charge from the hotel for $550 USD - this was separate to the room (and F&B) charges we had charged on checkout. We queried the charged with AmEX and the upshot was it was deemed fraud by a hotel employee - AFTER we had checked out - someone had put through a cash advance from the hotel to us on Amex of $500 + 10% service fee - there was a docket with my husband's forged signature and the cc code even indicated it was a "card not present" transaction. It took a couple of months to resolve but we received a full credit with a comment from AmEx that the matter had been referred to the local police. We never had any contact from SPG with an apology or anything.