Driving East with my family this past July, to visit relatives and see the USA, a loyal customer of Hilton chain discovers serious roadwork being done on the road ahead which requires a routing change. Wife makes reservation change via Hilton’s telephone reservation center and pre-pays for the changed reservation. E-mail confirms room type and cost. Family arrives at new destination after 18 HOURS OF DRIVING in very hot areas of USA. Family checks in, and the hotel manager says, “Sorry, sir. We don’t have a room like this reserved for you. We DO have a 1 King bed room for your family of 4, though.” To this we say, “Not acceptable.”, and proceed to show our PRE-PAID confirmation from earlier in the day, for a 2 Queen bed room. Manager then says, “Well, I CAN sell you a second 1 King bed room for ½ price.” What can we do? The family needs a place to sleep comfortably, and it is 10 PM. We asked if he could comp us with the second room; he says, “No can do.” Meanwhile, we see other customers arrive after us receive other rooms which would have worked for our family. Our deduction: We have been ‘Bait-And-Switched’ by the Hilton chain.
Now, I figure that a simple e-mail memo to the Hilton Customer Care office, requesting a refund for the room cost, will suffice. Send the first e-mail request immediately sent a follow-up snail mail letter, wait 2 weeks, no response. Not yet agitated, but…So, fire off a second letter to Customer Care, with the same results. Now I am getting aggravated; isn’t Customer Care supposed to do JUST THAT? CARE FOR THE CUSTOMER??!!??!!
I wait 3 more weeks, still no response from ANYONE IN THE HILTON CHAIN! Now I am beginning to lose my patience, as I have spent over 6 hours on my own (research, copying, thinking of how to address the situation, and writing/mailing.) with this issue. So, next I send a Certified Letter to the CEO of Hilton International. Does this receive any attention? Absolutely not a single call, letter or e-mail!!! can you blame me if i am pissed off???!!!??? As of the time of this writing, 3 months have elapsed since my botched hotel stay. I have written a second Certified Letter to the CEO, and received the same results. Thus, i am reporting that the hilton hotel chain doesn’t give a f@#$ing hoot about their best customers! I certainly hope that the better business bureau, and the attorney generals of my state and the state where my hotel stay was can help me deal with this problem!!!
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