Advice needed from anyone who's worked in a hotel...

[CrazedClerk]

Ok so I stayed in a Marriott last weekend a few hours from where I live. A weekend getaway if you will my fiance.

Anyway I left my cell phone and winter hat in my room. So I call them on Monday (I checked out on sunday) and they tell me that yes they do have the hat and phone. I ask if they can send it to me. They say yes they can but it will come standard mail, no express or anything and it will take about a week. Fine, they ask if I have a credit card on file with them, I said yes. So they say ok then we'll send it back to you. Now I suppose I should've asked what the cost would be but I didn't, although I correctly assumed they'd charge me for the return service.

A few days later I am checking my banking info and I notice that the charges on my credit card seem to be a tad high. I call my credit card company and they tell me one of the pending charges is from the Marriott....for $50!

Ok some more backstory here. I booked the room off a popular travel website, not through Marriott directly. Also when I checked in, I took a look in the binder/folder thingy in the room that talks about their services and related costs, I did see something on the return service, but it said cost is dependent on distance (how far the item has to be sent) so they can't give a flat rate.

Anyway my major beef here is this: The Hotel apparently arbitrarily charged me $50 without my knowledge or consent. I KNEW they were going to charge me, but I did not know how much and IF I had known it was going to be that much.I might not have said "ok go ahead and send it back". My other issue is that $50 seems a tad steep to me.

I understand that someone has to take the time to pack the items and ship them, but I know that if I shipped the items myself they would cost around $10 to send regular post. Am I to believe that someone's time and a few packing materials are worth $40??? How long could it possibly have taken to pack those two small things?

I get the package tomorrow and I'll be curious to see if they sent along a bill too because I am really itching to fight this charge as I feel I was not treated fairly. However, instead of doing the SC thing and calling the hotel and complaining loudly to whomever answers, I wanted to ask someone who might know if I have any kind of leg to stand on here. Does the hotel not have to tell me exactly what will be charged to my account BEFORE they go ahead and do it or am I out of luck here??

[Chanlin]

Well, I can't say I've ever had to do something like this for a hotel, but from a logical standpoint if I were sending something like this that did not belong to me I would use some special shipping options. For one I would request a return reciept which last I checked in the post office, was around $1.50 to $2.00 Also I would deffinitely put shipping insurance on it just in case of any damages. Also you have to consider gas if they drove the package somewhere. Furthermore they could charge for the box/packing materials as well. Not to mention S+H charges are nuts, it also costs extra if they added special handling instructions such as handle with care etc.

On the flip side if they pay for a special package pick up where a postal worker comes to pick it up from the hotel instead of a hotel employee picking it up that can be quite costly as well.

In any case, $50 does seem a little high for such a light weight package. Mind you this was almost 7 years ago, but I used to handle almost all of the package shipping for a computer company I worked for and one 14 pound package cost about $25 to send with standard shipping via UPS

[CrazedClerk]

I suppose it could've been picked up by a postal worker, but surely mine couldn't have been the ONLY package they were sending out that day so that wouldn't justify the $50. I know it was sent Canada Post, not UPS or Purolator or Fedex (which cost more).

[digilight]

I personally think that rather high myself. Granted as Chanlin stated, you are paying for the handling, packaging, and the employe time to get it packaged up. I don't know what the Canadian rates are, but in the states to get something return/receipt is at most 4 or 5 bucks. A cell phone and a hat can't weigh much so its probably under 2 pounds or so for the box. figure shipping is less then 10 bucks including return receipt and insurance if they did that. Double the amount for handling so its probably around 20-25 bucks total cost for shipping the package. But then again hotels are the ones that have horrible mini bar rates (8 bucks for a beer, 40 bucks for a can of nuts, etc).

To put shipping prices in perspective, I just ordered about 2600 discs (2100 cds and 500 dvds) and a couple of ink cartridges for my cd printer, it came in 4 boxes, each weighing 20-30 pounds each. Total cost for shipping was around 60 bucks. Total distance shipped was under a 150 miles. And this was UPS. I think you got hosed.

$50 Can$ translates to $42.31 (us$) by the way.

[tollbaby]

Well, while I agree that the charge was exhorbitant, you didn't ask what it would be before agreeing to have them ship the items. Caveat emptor. Never agree to let someone charge your credit card unless you know EXACTLY what they're charging on it.

Besides which, they could have just told you to schlepp your a$$ back to the hotel to pick your stuff up. I've learned that with major hotel chains, "favors" don't come cheap. Sucky, but true.

[BookstoreEscapee]

That does sound awful steep, even considering that they probably put insurance and return receipt on it. Obviously you're not that far away and it's not a heavy package. I would wait until you get the package and see if there's a receipt saying exactly what the charges were for. If so and it seems unreasonable, or there is no receipt, I would call and ask for a breakdown. Then you can decide if it's something worth contesting.

I understand they might not be able to give you a price up front until they get it packed and weighed and all, but it seems they could call you back and let you know what they'll be charging you. I always did that if I had a customer order something over the phone to be shipped. If I couldn't finish the transaction while they were on the phone, I'd always call them back to let them know the total and that the transaction went through.

-ams-

[CrazedClerk]

Well, while I agree that the charge was exhorbitant, you didn't ask what it would be before agreeing to have them ship the items. Caveat emptor. Never agree to let someone charge your credit card unless you know EXACTLY what they're charging on it.

Besides which, they could have just told you to schlepp your a$$ back to the hotel to pick your stuff up. I've learned that with major hotel chains, "favors" don't come cheap. Sucky, but true.

I didn't ask because I knew they couldn't tell me because it was dependent on distance. I didn't expect the hotel employee to have all the postal rates memorized. If I figured she could've given me an answer, I would've asked.

HOWEVER, I probably should've asked if they have charge a flat rate for return on top of the base shipping cost.

[The Wanderer]

I used to work for Marriott at the front desk. I was never sure what we charged for these types of things but I do know that someone always had to actually go to the post office when it happened. The company was horribly equipped in terms of their business processes, so we didn't have a postage meter, shipping boxes, etc... This may explain the week long delay and the steep charge. The simple task of mailing a package from this company was always a huge pain in the butt because they never got a good process going for it.

I'm not making the argument that what they charged you is fair or reasonable, its not. I'm just trying to explain that they may have charged you that much because it may have been much more than just giving a box to the mail carrier, even if that is the most logical solution.

The company that I work for now simply uses fed-ex and they just come and pick it up. We generally don't charge any extra for mailing lost/left behind items.

[BookstoreEscapee]

You'd think any major hotel would have a procedure/supplies for mailing stuff. I'm sure people leave things behind all the time.

[The Wanderer]

Yeah, you'd think so. Imagine my surprise.

I was shocked by this chain's basic lack of business sense.

Actually, I found them to be a horrible company to work for, despite how many "best company to work for" awards they have won. I think that they take those polls from HR people, not actual employees.

[alogram]

I worked at a large hotel chain for over 7 years, and we didn't charge guests at all to send items back as long as we used regular mail.

If they wanted to get fancy, and use UPS or FedEx, or if they requested insurance, etc., basically anything other than regular mail, then we charged them whatever we were charged.

I now work for a different, smaller hotel chain, and I have not had as much experience with this there, but I know that they have a similar policy.

So, I would say that you definitely got ripped off. It doesn't seem like very good customer relations to me.

[CrazedClerk]

I worked at a large hotel chain for over 7 years, and we didn't charge guests at all to send items back as long as we used regular mail.

If they wanted to get fancy, and use UPS or FedEx, or if they requested insurance, etc., basically anything other than regular mail, then we charged them whatever we were charged.

I now work for a different, smaller hotel chain, and I have not had as much experience with this there, but I know that they have a similar policy.

So, I would say that you definitely got ripped off. It doesn't seem like very good customer relations to me.

Thank you for your insight.

I've been in constant contact with my credit card company the past couple of days and I've been carefully monitoring my account.

The $50 charge apparently disappeared because it is not showing on my account and when I asked the phone rep about any charges pending, he said the only thing that was showing was a $2.25 fee that I already knew about.

This after another phone rep told me there was a $50 charge! I was initially very pissed because the items were sent back in a bubble mailer and I'm like "no way I had to pay $50 for a bubble mailer!" but aparently the first phone rep I talked screwed up, which kind of bothers me because I can't see pending charges on my account (I can see only what's cleared), only reps can, so I kind of have to take them at their word when they tell me what charges are pending.

I think I'll have to change my approach.