A hotel chain has refused to reimburse a customer unauthorized credit card charges amounting to EUR 760 after much of it was proven to be fraudulent.
Jennifer Schibel, Manager of Customer Relations in Best Western's US office, has indicated they will not be re-imbursing the customer who had been staying in Best Western's Scala hotel in Frankfurt, Germany, even though another party had managed to fraudulently sign sales receipts to have unauthorized charges applied to the customer's credit card.
Investigators have found Best Western has failed to protect the private information of customers allowing them to be victims of fraud.inquiries have found there have been at least six specific occasions that have been documented in which customer relations staff at Best Western have failed to compensate customers for security lapses in their point of sale system.
Despite the complaints, Ms. Stephanie Poulson, a spokesperson for Customer Relations at the hotel chain claimed past customers had not been overcharged and ruled out paying re-imbursements to customers.
Consumer affairs experts have added that Best Western has risked a customer backlash after refusing to compensate victims of transactions being fraudulently generated from continuing security lapses in point of sale registries being used by many of the hotel's respective locations.
Travel expert Jim Brown added: There is little doubt that Best Western has been evading responsibility in customer complaints regarding unauthorized use of their credit cards. It is understandable if someone launches a complaint when they are being held responsible for credit card transactions they did not authorize.
David T. Kong, President and Chief Executive Officer for Best Western, could not be reached for comment.
I told them that since I did not authorize the transaction, it is my right to demand a reimbursement from the company, since these were security lapses on their part, the customer adds.
Anonymous
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
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