Now that I’m back at home and at work, I’m working to get my sea legs back under me. As an adult I don’t think that you typically get two months away from your job. My first few days back in the saddle (three sentences in and I’m already mixing metaphors like a pro!) were a little odd. I still have to dig through my desk drawers to find things because I’ve been gone so long that I’m unsure of where stuff is. It was funny to me that the first morning I was here I rolled open a drawer, grabbed my Chapstick, used it and put it back and then later that day couldn’t find it because it was in the same place. I think that boils down to it being a bad idea for me to concentrate. So, yeah. Stay off the road during my commute.
Another thing that I’ve been doing is looking at my bills instead of just paying them. While I’d been in Bismarck I would just look at the bill, pay the specified amount and cry “Next!” so that I could get through them. Now that I have a little more free time I actually looked at my bills and boy, am I glad that I did. My credit card bill was a little higher than I anticipated. Yes, that’s somewhat normal because don’t things just sneak on there and then disappear from your radar? Isn’t that what the credit card companies hope and pray for when they give you that piece of plastic in the first place? I mean, maybe they hope that we enter a Zen state and don’t remember using the card EVER and set it on auto pay so that when we finally do notice all the crud we’ve purchased it’s too late and they have funded a new banking center with gold-plated toilets.
The culprit on my particular statement was a charge for $109. The Mister and I had taken respite at a hotel for a night in Bismarck. The Mister had suggested that I might need a change of scenery during the hospice care and he was right, per his usual. So I booked a room with some travel site and we stayed. Now I saw that the travel site AND the hotel had billed me for the room. If we had felt a little extravagant paying for a hotel room we were definitely going to feel ludicrous if we paid for it twice. And I’m using “ludicrous” here in a negative way because I’m all for it, typically.
So I called up the people from the deal site and everything was fine with them. They decided to check with the hotel while I was on the call. That’s when the hotel told them that they hadn’t charged for a stay. Oh, no. These people charged me for having an animal in the room. I told the site person that this was wrong. Wronger than wrong. She enthusiastically explained that I must have forgotten my animal but that’s what the charge was for. And this is when my temper started to work. The site person then did a conference call with the hotel and the hotel lady said that the assistant manager had seen me with an animal and had added the charge. Really? Because the last time I checked The Mister does not look remotely like a canine. The hotel lady then tried to pass me on to her manager but he didn’t want to talk to me before he researched the charge. The hotel lady read off a phone number and asked me to confirm it with her but it was the wrong phone number completely. Not even the same area code. Suspicious much?
I was so ticked that I was shaking. Typically when I get this angry the emotion is too much and it all comes out with tears. Crying may seem like a good strategy to some of you but it’s just doesn’t work for me. It was good that the manager had to call me back because it gave me time to talk to The Mister and to have him reassure me that I was in the right, that he supported me and gave me some good zingers should the manager put up too much resistance. When I finally did have my little powwow with the manager (three turns of phone tag later) he basically spilled gas on my anger fire.
He explained to me that two rooms – one below and one directly next to our room – had come to the front desk in the morning and complained that they couldn’t sleep the night before due to our dog. So his story was different than the hotel lady. Now we went from visual identification of an imaginary dog to auditory confirmation. Which means either these people heard an awful lot about our imaginary dog or they were lying. We all know which horse I’m backing. And that’s when the guy goes into his rationalization for $109 in bogus charges. He tells me that his hotel takes their pet rule very seriously because people have allergies. And I told him that I seriously do not have a dog. He then countered by saying that I had not stopped at the front desk on my way out to verify the charges to our room. I told him that we had a card on file for any incentals but as we had not utilized any of them then we had enjoyed the convenience of walking out the door without checking for fake dog fines. Then I went on to tell him why The Mister and I were in Bismarck on the night in question and why his charge struck me as truly reprehensible. I didn’t want to use the hospice card but I was emotional and this guy wanted to charge me for Spot the Inviso-Dog so I pulled no punches.
That’s when the guy works around again to the seriousness of their no pet policy and the deep cleaning that breaking this rule might involve. And I said I understood that and he said thank you and then he told me he would credit the charge. And I think that I was supposed to start being a nice guy then but I don’t let my face get beet red for nothing. No, I asked this guy to give me an apology. And you know what he said? He said “I apologize that you weren’t aware of this charge”. And I realized that this guy had many, many more problems than me and since he would give me my money back I would hopefully never have to hear his voice again. That something in the way he completely missed the point with me told me that obviously he’d lost that loving feeling. I was still mad. It actually took about 30 more minutes to calm the heck down but I felt better about everything because this guy hadn’t won. He still had to manage that hotel with, what I’m guessing, was a rotting soul. I may not have a dog but I do know that this guy does not know how to wag his tail.
As long as I see a credit sometime in the near future we’ll call this a win for Karli. If not, I think I might actually enjoy calling this guy back and letting him hear some more of my strongly-worded insight on his hotel’s fee structure. In other words, GAME ON.
you had every right to give them the business Karli. kick a$$
**this message approved by the Princess Sophia**
hahha ^ you were still logged into my computer! <3
Don’t talk to the manager again, talk with the manager’s manager. Get the name by calling the corp headquarters.
They have more influence on him and will call him to task.
Good luck.