Latest Rincon customer service disaster: "You can't talk to the front desk!"
Another incident occurred tonight that has left me speechless.
It all started when I noticed that I had not yet been credited back the $81 that was charged for checking in after midnight on Saturday. This is standard practice at the Rincon, where they auto-charge you for no-showing once midnight hits, but will refund the full $81 if you do check in after that.
My credit card is fast at posting these credits online, so I was surprised not to see it yet, as it's been 5 days. I decided to call the front desk, ask if it had been credited back. If they said yes, I planned to give it another few days before inquiring again.
Simple stuff, right?
Apparently not.
At 9:30pm tonight, I called the Rincon, and an operator named Mary answered the phone.
I asked for the front desk.
She asked what I was calling about, so I briefly explained it.
"That's a billing matter. The front desk does not handle that. You will need to speak to billing, but they are closed. Call back tomorrow."
This was nonsense. The front desk definitely handles these $81 charges and credits.
Again I asked Mary to connect me to the front desk. She refused. We argued back and forth for 5 minutes. She absolutely refused to connect me there. I told her I was a Seven Stars member and high limit player. She didn’t care. She refused to connect me to the front desk. She said she could connect me to her manager, Gretchen. I agreed, but Gretchen refused to speak with me, and just told Mary to come back and tell me that I could leave her a voice mail, but not to connect me to the front desk under any circumstances. I argued some more. Eventually she hung up on me.
I called back and again asked for the front desk, acting as if I was a different person. Mary recognized my voice and again refused to do so, eventually connecting me to the 1-800 reservations number without my permission.
A few minutes later, I called up using a fake British accent and asked for the front desk, claiming there were bedbugs in my room. This "got by" Mary and she connected me. At that point, the front desk helped me and told me the $81 had been credited, and just to wait a bit longer. Why did I have to do phony accents to get this information? Can you believe this story?! It sounds like an episode out of Seinfeld!
As a final kick in the rear, I called back and asked to speak to that supervisor Gretchen. After several long calls on hold, Gretchen finally got on to talk to me. She told me that Mary was correct in what she did, and that they have the option to deny Seven Stars speaking to the front desk 'if it's a billing matter'. I asked if they ever have a right to refuse Seven Stars to speak to the front desk, and she said, "It depends on the circumstances". She admitted to instructing Mary not to connect me under any circumstances. Eventually she also hung up on me.
I can't believe the way I was treated tonight. Something so simple -- inquiring about this $81 refund -- turned into a nightmare where employees were trying their best to frustrate me and prevent me from speaking to those that can answer my questions. In my almost 42 years on this earth, I have never before encountered a hotel that acts as a "gatekeeper" and refuses its customers to speak to the front desk if the operator doesn't like their reasons. They also wasted well over 45 minutes fighting with me over this mess.
