How much would you pay for a service that only exists out of your fault?
Monday 2nd November, 2009I went with my wife for a two nights trip to Milan (Italy) to celebrate my Birthday. We booked the Westin Palace, which we liked very much.
Unfortunately I have forgot my glasses that I put on in the evening when i get out of the contact lenses, in the bathroom. They are in a hard-shelled case, so it should be no problem for a hotel to send it after me, I thought.
Today my wife has called up the hotel, and they told her, that they would charge 60 Euro for sending my glasses after me. (= 88USD)
I need my glasses, and buying a new one would be more expensive, since i need a very expensive glass (-9 diopters)
Now the question - what would you do? pay the lesson and pay the charge? Complain? (to whom?) stop whining and be happy that they do not want to charge me 1000 euro? Have you been in such situation, that you had to ask a hotel to send something after you, and how much where you charged? I am kinda confused.
Unfortunately I have forgot my glasses that I put on in the evening when i get out of the contact lenses, in the bathroom. They are in a hard-shelled case, so it should be no problem for a hotel to send it after me, I thought.
Today my wife has called up the hotel, and they told her, that they would charge 60 Euro for sending my glasses after me. (= 88USD)
I need my glasses, and buying a new one would be more expensive, since i need a very expensive glass (-9 diopters)
Now the question - what would you do? pay the lesson and pay the charge? Complain? (to whom?) stop whining and be happy that they do not want to charge me 1000 euro? Have you been in such situation, that you had to ask a hotel to send something after you, and how much where you charged? I am kinda confused.
Discussion for this entry is now closed.
email:Warren Elsmore | website: http://www.elsmore.net
Gregory,
I'd pay the money (to get the glasses back, like you I can't live without them!). Then complain to Starwood. Asking you to pay the postage charge is one thing, but that sounds way over the top.
Warren
email:Scott Petricig | website:
Without knowing how much it would actually cost them to ship it, that does sound pretty ridiculous. I left a laptop power cord in a hotel room a few years ago and they shipped it to me with no problem, and charged me nothing. And this wasn't some really upscale place, either, just a pretty much average hotel. This was within the U.S.
email:Patrick Picard | website:
Having you pay this much is the worst customer service an hotel can give you. Especially that an hotel room is already overpriced to start with!
Do some complaining and im sure they'll ship it for free
email:Ben Langhinrichs | website: http://www.geniisoft.com/showcase.nsf/GeniiBlog
I agree with others that this is terrible customer service. I have twice left things behind in hotels, and both times it has been shipped back at no charge.
I will note that I have also stayed in each hotel again, and it is not entirely coincidental.
email:Keith Brooks | website: http://www.vanessabrooks.com
We have IBM BP's and employees in Milan, just ask one. My old partner is ttech manager and Roberto Boccadoro could also get them for you probably.
Also a friend of mine was just there and may be back soon if you can wait.
Silly man, one big happy lotus family can easily fix this.
email:Maria Helm | website: http://www.mariahelm.com
Ask to speak to a manager. I used to work at a resort (in the US) and we returned all kinds of things. I pretty sure we never charged, and if we did it would have been whatever the shipping was - no more than that. But chances are your regular front desk person doesn't have the authority to wave whatever default 'handling' charge crap they are trying to give you. A manager will realize the service issue here and likely wave the charges to make you a happy and hopefully returning customer.
Another idea is if yoiu know someone nearby, to ask them to pick it up (should be free) and have them ship it to you. Then you'll owe them a favor, but it still might cost you less than those bogus shipping charges.
email:potter | website: http://www.fx-exchange.com
I agree with Maria,you should speak to a manager who can help solve the problem and you can feed back your think.