My group was harassed and threatened with police action for refusing to leave function space for which we had a contract. I complained to the sales manager the next day, and she shrugged and said "Sorry." I then sent a letter of complaint to the general manager, who refused to respond, so I disputed the charges with my bank. As of today, over a month after the event, no one has responded to my complaints, but the hotel is trying to make unauthorized charges against my credit card.
The following is a copy of the letter of complaint I e-mailed the general manager after our event:
I am writing to follow up with you about the difficulty our group experienced Sunday night. I am concerned that despite our efforts to work within hotel policy, including renting extra space at nearly double expense, we still experienced threatening and hostile treatment. I need some assurance that if we return to your site, this will not happen again.
As you know, you received a call stating that our group was still in the Ballroom, and refusing to leave. I spoke with you on the phone and let you know that our group was doing cleanup in Sandpiper. The contract which I signed (and to my knowledge, you signed) clearly stated that we had Sandpiper until 5pm Monday, 23 February. At that point, the person who had been asking us to leave left us alone.
What you may not realize is that she was actively hostile to our group. She came to the Sandpiper room and very brusquely informed us that we were supposed to have been out of the space at 5pm. [Colleague] told her, equally brusquely, that she was incorrect and should check the contract. He then went to me to get a copy of the contract, which I had in my briefcase in case of just such a problem.
[Colleague] brought the contract downstairs. She refused to look at it, stating that she didn't have her good glasses with her. She also informed him that she had spoken to the person who signs the contracts, and that this person said we were supposed to be out of the function space by 5pm Sunday; she stated also that she answers to her, not to us. She threatened to call the police if we didn't leave the space. [Colleague] asked her to call the manager, which apparently she did. Of course, she told you that we were in the Ballroom, not the Sandpiper room.
When I came downstairs after speaking to you, the woman who had been harassing our group refused to come out from back and speak to us. When I spoke to Courtney yesterday morning, she had never received a call from the front desk about this issue. Courtney was unable to offer me any assurance that such problems wouldn't happen again.
I also do not believe that any of the staff were made aware that we had the Sandpiper Room through Monday. While I was speaking to Courtney, another member of the staff came in complaining of the trash in the room.in fact, there was no need for him to be in there cleaning, as we'd specifically reserved the space with enough time to do cleanup.
I lost at least an hour of time from each volunteer who was working with us to clean up the function space. All our corps of volunteers were distressed and shaken by the threats made by your front desk person. Because of this, Gordon and I were planning to do final cleanup personally yesterday morning.instead your staff did so, because apparently they hadn't been informed of the terms of our contract.
To avoid the problems we experienced in the past with the hotel's policy of closing function space at Midnight, we rented the Beach House for an additional $800 (plus tax). To avoid problems with cleanup, we rented the Sandpiper Room for an additional day at an additional $100. Even the grumpy security guard didn't have any problems with us, and was in fact friendly.
Despite this and many other efforts, we still experienced problems. A Front Desk Clerk (I assume, since we never got her name, and she hid in the office behind the front desk), threatened police action on us because she couldn't be bothered to look at the contract. It would appear that she lied to you about our actual location, and when caught in the lie, refused to apologize for her hostility. This is very poor customer service. It's even more distressing that I got little more than a shrug and a "sorry" the next day when I brought the matter to Courtney's attention.
Our group has consistently brought business to the Atlantic Sands during the off season. We would like to be able to do so again. I can't, however, set up another contract in good conscience if I know my guests are going to be threatened and harassed. Is there some way you can make this up to us, so I can go to my group and assure them that the Atlantic Sands actually wants our business?
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