denying the existance of a cancellation policy does not get you your money back

[katzklaw]

Big Yellow campgrounds has a nationwide cancellation policy, and as far as campgrounds go, it's actually a relatively lenient one. we need only 2 days notice before your arrival for a refund if in a site or tent, and 1 week if in a cabin. there's still a $10 cancellation fee, but that even gets waived if you're a VIP. if we have less than that 2 days or 1 week notice.. your one night deposit you made when you made the reservation is lost. easy, right?

also... every SINGLE email confirmation sent has this policy tacked on the bottom of it. yes the text is *slightly* smaller... but not like "hide it in the fine print" small. more like the difference between 12 point and 10 point.

AND... if you're going to reserve online, you need to check an "i agree to the policies" box at the bottom of the page, right next to the "proceed" button which doesn't light up till after you agree, and yup, you guessed it... cancellation policy is right there being agreed to when you check the box.

so. it's supposed to snow tomorrow. had a lady call yesterday wanting to cancel a cabin reservation she had for the 26th. hey guess what! that's within the 7 days! I inform her that if she canceled now she was within the 7 days and she would lose her deposit, and i started to ask if there was another date she could change it to. I can change a reservation without a fee, and without invoking the cancellation fee. she cut me off and says "what? but i gave you more than 2 days notice?" "I'm sorry ma'am, but that's for RV sites. for cabins we need 1 week notice." "No one TOLD me about that..." (technically true, no one physically held your hand and explained it in painstaking detail... because you made your reservation online. shoulda read those terms and policies before you clicked "Yes"! sucka!). i informed her that this was the cancellation policy nationwide at every Big Yellow campground, and there was nothing i could do for her (we can, on a case by case basis make exceptions, but if you start off with a snooty attitude about it your case just went in the crapper... plus i'm not the manager, i don't actually get to make that call). she said she'd talk to her husband and hung up. called back about 15 minutes later and this time says "it doesn't say that anywhere in my confirmation email." (B.S. it's all the way at the bottom. if you printed it, it's on page 4. b****). at this point i tell her that i can't make any decisions on it, and the manager would be back on the premises after 3pm, and asked politely if she would be willing to call back then.

when i told the manager about her... to give him a heads up.. he was like "nope. she ain't gettin no money back."

[Pixelated]

Well, maybe it shows up on YOUR printouts of reservations, but it didn't show up on HERS. So there.

[katzklaw]

too bad so sad sorry not sorry. she clicked "yes" to proceed. she agreed to the policy, whether she read it or not. XD

[wordgirl]

You can let your manager call her and say "Ma'am, I pulled some strings for you and here's what we're going to do .. now don't tell anyone because this deal is pretty Top Sekrut and I'd be fired if they found out. But I'm willing to go way out on a limb and do this for you because you are clearly such a good and kind and wonderful person. Now, I can't cancel that reservation without the computer taking the deposit, but here's the deal: There's a computer glitch that will let me MOVE your reservation to a time you can actually use! We better do this now, before they find the glitch and fix it, so tell me ... what weekend do you want to shift to?"

(In other words, the exact same deal you tried to offer her and that everyone else would get, but dressed up like a sparkly, sparkly unicorn.)

[UncleImpy]

Out of curiosity, what is to stop them from moving it to a month later, then calling back 2 days later and cancelling for a refund?

[eltf177]

Out of curiosity, what is to stop them from moving it to a month later, then calling back 2 days later and cancelling for a refund?

I would guess you get one move but no cancellation after that...

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

This thread reminds of one time a couple of months ago at <red checkmark> when a customer was denying they'd agreed to a certain portion of our terms and conditions. As with the OP's case, it was in regards to a fee.

He told me he could prove he never agreed to it, so, being curious, I asked him how he intended to do this, he said would email the proof. Okay, fine.

A few minutes later I get an email from him which shows our terms and conditions and his agreement to them at the bottom, BUT, the section at issue is completely whited out. Like "horrible eraser job in MS Paint" whited out!

I called him back and politely told him his "proof" wasn't valid but the fee still was.

[Food Lady]

I run into this allllll the time with leases. If you cancel early there's a fee. And there's a return fee on the equipment.
"I wasn't told about that." Everything I outlined is in the terms and conditions. "I didn't sign that. The person who did is no longer here." OK, but someone from your company did and the contract's been going for 3 years already.... "I didn't read what I signed." Well, at least she admits it.

[Seanette]

Let's just say I work for a lender.

At least half my calls in a given day are from people oh-so-shocked by the terms of the contract they had to sign off on at least twice to get the money. I've become convinced that having the sense to read a legal document such as a contract before signing is nearly obsolete.

[LadyAndreca]

Let's just say I work for a lender.

At least half my calls in a given day are from people oh-so-shocked by the terms of the contract they had to sign off on at least twice to get the money. I've become convinced that having the sense to read a legal document such as a contract before signing is nearly obsolete.

It probably is. Our mortgage broker was quite surprised when both my husband and I read every single page of the mortgage and asked questions about points we didn't understand. Our realtor less so, but then she'd been working with us for a year by the time we found a house in our price range that wasn't falling apart.

[RealUnimportant]

I blame the length & intricacy of internet/software Ts & Cs for making reading the small print less & less common. We've been conditioned to just click "I Agree" without checking what we agree to - but I'll still look through everything when there's money involved.

[Stormraven]

I've worked in the Mortgage industry myself. The one that always struck me as funniest was the actual lawyer who clearly hadn't read the contract (Note and Deed) before signing them.

[Seanette]

I've worked in the Mortgage industry myself. The one that always struck me as funniest was the actual lawyer who clearly hadn't read the contract (Note and Deed) before signing them.

That one's a bit scary. Hope s/he is more attentive with client matters.

[nutraxfornerves]

I've worked in the Mortgage industry myself. The one that always struck me as funniest was the actual lawyer who clearly hadn't read the contract (Note and Deed) before signing them.

I was on a jury once for a civil suit. Party A was suing Party B because "you promised to put me on the deed if I paid for all these other expenses." As part of proof that the expenses were paid, Party A actually presented 5-year old documents on which any literate person would notice that Party B was the only listed owner. Party A had not bothered to look at them at the time they were written. They settled out of court halfway through the trail.

Party A was an attorney--specializing in real estate law.

[katzklaw]

Out of curiosity, what is to stop them from moving it to a month later, then calling back 2 days later and cancelling for a refund?

we can look in the records to see if a reservation has been moved. some people call wanting to move their reservation... for them nbd.. anyone who i get the slightest feeling they're gonna try to pull a fast one (like they raise a big fuss about losing their deposit, then suddenly act happy about being able to change it for free to some random date in the future.. etc), i make notes along the lines of "reservation originally dated blahblah, moved to suchnsuch. if they call to cancel they lose their deposit"

some places i've worked allow unlimited moves (unless someone is just being obnoxious about it). some allow you to move once for free, additional moves are a charge. that particular aspect is up to the individual owner/manager.