Unable To Connect The Dots......

[Bruce]

There was another post made about a suicide at a hotel in Makati. That hotel is diagional from the hotel I stay at when traveling through Manila. I do not like to leave things to chance, so while I never had PAL cancel my flight out of the country, or my connecting flight into Manila, I can see that day coming. So I do the medical missions work out on Samar and then fly back to Manila a few days before I am due to fly back to the US. If the flight to Manila is canceled, then i still have a few days to get to Manila for my scheduled flight out. I think it is good practice to follow. I have stayed at the same hotel for 5 trips now. Whenever I fly somewhere and need a hotel, I check the discount websites for hotels, get the prices and then contact the hotel directly to see if they will match the price. I pay the same and the hotel does not have to pay any booking fees to the discount websites. Worked well for the past 4 trips but no so this last trip The same woman in reservations I had dealt with in the past said she was unable to match the discount rate and I should book through the web services. So I did. Got my confirmation and forgot about it. Of course I booked well in advance and THEN Philippine Air decided to have the strikes and other issues..... So I was stuck. Got delayed 12 hrs in Manila on the way in but managed to get to Tacloban at about 9pm. Stayed 16 + days on Samar and then my return flight to Manila was rescheduled to a much later time, but PAL did post the changes a week before so I contacted the reservation woman at the hotel by email and asked her to change me arrival date to the following day which she did. And THAT is where the problem started..... When I went check out, the bill was for 4008p a night, not the 3000p I was quoted or expecting to pay. I tried to explain to the very pretty front desk girl who was unable to even grasp the concept that the computer was in error. Since I had a flight to catch, I paid the bill. When I got back to the US I contaced the hotel's reservation woman who knew me and explained it all to her. She said she would look into it and get back to me. She didn't. I contacted her after a few days and got the usual run around and she was going to send the problem to the assistand front desk manager! Few days more and no contact. I decided to start climbing the food chain. After some internet research I found the hotel was managed by a company owned by (1) man in Hawaii. Now that I have his name, I email back the hotel woman and told her that if I did not get an answer in 24 hrs, I would be contacting the man in Hawaii. Like magic, she contacted me back a few hrs later and assured me that the assistant front desk manager was on the case! Sure enought he emails me blaming some computer glitch as to why I did not get his email from days before. He explains to me that their computer was right and that the amount I was charged included the vat tax and a 10% service charge and the exchange rate was 45.33p that day (WHAT!) and when you add z back into y and carry the 4 and multiply by pye it all proves that I was not over charged. Further annoying me was that I had told the reservation employee I was returning in March for a few days, and I was offered as a peace offering, the SAME price I was quoted originally, per night and the offer was good up to 12-31-11. Hehehehehe I know it rains a lot in Phils, but these people must think I was born with yesterday's rain. So now I am interested. Have not played chess in 30 years but now I have a guy who is doing creative math trying to prove his point, rather than look into the computer for the original booking to see what I was quoted when the reservation was made way back when.... It is not the money so much as it is the hotel staff trying to get over on me. I wrote back and told him that I was not wrong I was over charged, the exchange rate for the day I checked out was 42.22 not 45.44 and that now, based on his last email I was being charged 2 times for a 10% service charge if there is a 10% built into the room rate and I also was charged 10% as a line item on the final bill.. But no, he was convinced i was wrong... so I contacted the 'big guy' in Hawaii sent him the email copies and a time line and that in my opinion, when his reservation employee had changed my arrival date by 1 day, she had actually wiped out the reservation, did it again at a higher rate. But that did not explain the 'creative math' as used by the assistant front desk manager. The next email I recieved was from the actual hotel manager saying I was right all along, I was charged too much and yes, the reservation employee had removed the entire reservation and then rebooked it at a higher rate when she tried to change my arrival date. Further that she would address the other issues about the way the asistant manager and reservation employee had handled the matter with some retraining. (Well Phils is not a capital punishment country.....) I wrote back about how they did not seem to be able to 'connect the dots' and they should have seen I was climbing the food chain to the big guy in Hawaii and that all of this could have been avoided if at each level, the employee just looked at the issue instead of assuming the computer was right and the Kano was wrong and then trying to MAKE the math work to prove their point. I have been assured that a refund is in the works...... Which reminds me of the 1990's TV show Married with Children and the daughter Kelly Bundy's famous line.... 'Yeah, right, and the check is in my mouth!"

[sjp52]

There was another post made about a suicide at a hotel in Makati. That hotel is diagional from the hotel I stay at when traveling through Manila. I do not like to leave things to chance, so while I never had PAL cancel my flight out of the country, or my connecting flight into Manila, I can see that day coming. So I do the medical missions work out on Samar and then fly back to Manila a few days before I am due to fly back to the US. If the flight to Manila is canceled, then i still have a few days to get to Manila for my scheduled flight out. I think it is good practice to follow. I have stayed at the same hotel for 5 trips now. Whenever I fly somewhere and need a hotel, I check the discount websites for hotels, get the prices and then contact the hotel directly to see if they will match the price. I pay the same and the hotel does not have to pay any booking fees to the discount websites. Worked well for the past 4 trips but no so this last trip The same woman in reservations I had dealt with in the past said she was unable to match the discount rate and I should book through the web services. So I did. Got my confirmation and forgot about it. Of course I booked well in advance and THEN Philippine Air decided to have the strikes and other issues..... So I was stuck. Got delayed 12 hrs in Manila on the way in but managed to get to Tacloban at about 9pm. Stayed 16 + days on Samar and then my return flight to Manila was rescheduled to a much later time, but PAL did post the changes a week before so I contacted the reservation woman at the hotel by email and asked her to change me arrival date to the following day which she did. And THAT is where the problem started..... When I went check out, the bill was for 4008p a night, not the 3000p I was quoted or expecting to pay. I tried to explain to the very pretty front desk girl who was unable to even grasp the concept that the computer was in error. Since I had a flight to catch, I paid the bill. When I got back to the US I contaced the hotel's reservation woman who knew me and explained it all to her. She said she would look into it and get back to me. She didn't. I contacted her after a few days and got the usual run around and she was going to send the problem to the assistand front desk manager! Few days more and no contact. I decided to start climbing the food chain. After some internet research I found the hotel was managed by a company owned by (1) man in Hawaii. Now that I have his name, I email back the hotel woman and told her that if I did not get an answer in 24 hrs, I would be contacting the man in Hawaii. Like magic, she contacted me back a few hrs later and assured me that the assistant front desk manager was on the case! Sure enought he emails me blaming some computer glitch as to why I did not get his email from days before. He explains to me that their computer was right and that the amount I was charged included the vat tax and a 10% service charge and the exchange rate was 45.33p that day (WHAT!) and when you add z back into y and carry the 4 and multiply by pye it all proves that I was not over charged. Further annoying me was that I had told the reservation employee I was returning in March for a few days, and I was offered as a peace offering, the SAME price I was quoted originally, per night and the offer was good up to 12-31-11. Hehehehehe I know it rains a lot in Phils, but these people must think I was born with yesterday's rain. So now I am interested. Have not played chess in 30 years but now I have a guy who is doing creative math trying to prove his point, rather than look into the computer for the original booking to see what I was quoted when the reservation was made way back when.... It is not the money so much as it is the hotel staff trying to get over on me. I wrote back and told him that I was not wrong I was over charged, the exchange rate for the day I checked out was 42.22 not 45.44 and that now, based on his last email I was being charged 2 times for a 10% service charge if there is a 10% built into the room rate and I also was charged 10% as a line item on the final bill.. But no, he was convinced i was wrong... so I contacted the 'big guy' in Hawaii sent him the email copies and a time line and that in my opinion, when his reservation employee had changed my arrival date by 1 day, she had actually wiped out the reservation, did it again at a higher rate. But that did not explain the 'creative math' as used by the assistant front desk manager. The next email I recieved was from the actual hotel manager saying I was right all along, I was charged too much and yes, the reservation employee had removed the entire reservation and then rebooked it at a higher rate when she tried to change my arrival date. Further that she would address the other issues about the way the asistant manager and reservation employee had handled the matter with some retraining. (Well Phils is not a capital punishment country.....) I wrote back about how they did not seem to be able to 'connect the dots' and they should have seen I was climbing the food chain to the big guy in Hawaii and that all of this could have been avoided if at each level, the employee just looked at the issue instead of assuming the computer was right and the Kano was wrong and then trying to MAKE the math work to prove their point. I have been assured that a refund is in the works...... Which reminds me of the 1990's TV show Married with Children and the daughter Kelly Bundy's famous line.... 'Yeah, right, and the check is in my mouth!"

If you get a refund my hats off to you ( but don,t hold your breath ). I have found in the past that they will do what ever it takes to make sure there is no refund. There is no logic to the way a lot of them do business here but I find that is an Asian thing. I don,t think they know the importance of a return customer.

[Garpo]

This reminds me of my first visit to the Bataan area and I stayed at a motel in Balanga. I had made reservations for four nights. After the first night the A/C started leaking water all over the floor so they asked us to move to a new room. After one night there they then told us we had to move to a different room because of remodeling but that they were gong to move us to a suite. When we went to check out after the forth night, the desk clerk told us we had to pay more money because we moved rooms and were in a suite. Did not sit well with me and I demanded to talk with the manager, we were told that there was no manager on duty at the time and that there was nothing that could be done or changed and we would just have to pay the extra money. My wife asked me not to get upset and that she would handle it. The next thing I knew, my wife had dragged a chain over directly in front of the check in-out counter and sat down and told the clerk that she would just wait for the manager and was not about move until she did. Five minutes later the manager came out of a back room and proceeded to tell us that it was all a big mistake and we did not have to pay the extra cost. My wife was still upset and actually got the manager to refund us 1000 peso for all of our troubles.

[gapotwo]

There was another post made about a suicide at a hotel in Makati. That hotel is diagional from the hotel I stay at when traveling through Manila. I do not like to leave things to chance, so while I never had PAL cancel my flight out of the country, or my connecting flight into Manila, I can see that day coming. So I do the medical missions work out on Samar and then fly back to Manila a few days before I am due to fly back to the US. If the flight to Manila is canceled, then i still have a few days to get to Manila for my scheduled flight out. I think it is good practice to follow. I have stayed at the same hotel for 5 trips now. Whenever I fly somewhere and need a hotel, I check the discount websites for hotels, get the prices and then contact the hotel directly to see if they will match the price. I pay the same and the hotel does not have to pay any booking fees to the discount websites. Worked well for the past 4 trips but no so this last trip The same woman in reservations I had dealt with in the past said she was unable to match the discount rate and I should book through the web services. So I did. Got my confirmation and forgot about it. Of course I booked well in advance and THEN Philippine Air decided to have the strikes and other issues..... So I was stuck. Got delayed 12 hrs in Manila on the way in but managed to get to Tacloban at about 9pm. Stayed 16 + days on Samar and then my return flight to Manila was rescheduled to a much later time, but PAL did post the changes a week before so I contacted the reservation woman at the hotel by email and asked her to change me arrival date to the following day which she did. And THAT is where the problem started..... When I went check out, the bill was for 4008p a night, not the 3000p I was quoted or expecting to pay. I tried to explain to the very pretty front desk girl who was unable to even grasp the concept that the computer was in error. Since I had a flight to catch, I paid the bill. When I got back to the US I contaced the hotel's reservation woman who knew me and explained it all to her. She said she would look into it and get back to me. She didn't. I contacted her after a few days and got the usual run around and she was going to send the problem to the assistand front desk manager! Few days more and no contact. I decided to start climbing the food chain. After some internet research I found the hotel was managed by a company owned by (1) man in Hawaii. Now that I have his name, I email back the hotel woman and told her that if I did not get an answer in 24 hrs, I would be contacting the man in Hawaii. Like magic, she contacted me back a few hrs later and assured me that the assistant front desk manager was on the case! Sure enought he emails me blaming some computer glitch as to why I did not get his email from days before. He explains to me that their computer was right and that the amount I was charged included the vat tax and a 10% service charge and the exchange rate was 45.33p that day (WHAT!) and when you add z back into y and carry the 4 and multiply by pye it all proves that I was not over charged. Further annoying me was that I had told the reservation employee I was returning in March for a few days, and I was offered as a peace offering, the SAME price I was quoted originally, per night and the offer was good up to 12-31-11. Hehehehehe I know it rains a lot in Phils, but these people must think I was born with yesterday's rain. So now I am interested. Have not played chess in 30 years but now I have a guy who is doing creative math trying to prove his point, rather than look into the computer for the original booking to see what I was quoted when the reservation was made way back when.... It is not the money so much as it is the hotel staff trying to get over on me. I wrote back and told him that I was not wrong I was over charged, the exchange rate for the day I checked out was 42.22 not 45.44 and that now, based on his last email I was being charged 2 times for a 10% service charge if there is a 10% built into the room rate and I also was charged 10% as a line item on the final bill.. But no, he was convinced i was wrong... so I contacted the 'big guy' in Hawaii sent him the email copies and a time line and that in my opinion, when his reservation employee had changed my arrival date by 1 day, she had actually wiped out the reservation, did it again at a higher rate. But that did not explain the 'creative math' as used by the assistant front desk manager. The next email I recieved was from the actual hotel manager saying I was right all along, I was charged too much and yes, the reservation employee had removed the entire reservation and then rebooked it at a higher rate when she tried to change my arrival date. Further that she would address the other issues about the way the asistant manager and reservation employee had handled the matter with some retraining. (Well Phils is not a capital punishment country.....) I wrote back about how they did not seem to be able to 'connect the dots' and they should have seen I was climbing the food chain to the big guy in Hawaii and that all of this could have been avoided if at each level, the employee just looked at the issue instead of assuming the computer was right and the Kano was wrong and then trying to MAKE the math work to prove their point. I have been assured that a refund is in the works...... Which reminds me of the 1990's TV show Married with Children and the daughter Kelly Bundy's famous line.... 'Yeah, right, and the check is in my mouth!"

If you get a refund my hats off to you ( but don,t hold your breath ). I have found in the past that they will do what ever it takes to make sure there is no refund. There is no logic to the way a lot of them do business here but I find that is an Asian thing. I don,t think they know the importance of a return customer.

N O REFUND and OUT OF STOCK sir. are the two most famous bailout words in the pinas. welcome to the wild wild east. :) tanks EJ.