We were planning for our vacation and a friend mentioned that she gets insane discount prices for hotels and that she'd send me the link. Great I thought, this will help so much -- and it did!! The prices were so wonderful!! $39 for one room at a Choice Hotel! Not bad... So after figuring out the driving times and places we wanted to stop I made reservations, via online through the friends and family link that was given to me. After wards I saw an ad on the page (same page, hadn't closed it yet) that stated I could "stay 2 nights and earn 1 night free". "Wow", I thought, this would be fun to use at random, so I signed up. I read over the page as closely as I could, read every Astrix (*) and followed every additional link -just to make sure it was on the up-n-up. I printed out the information that was needed and made sure to bring along my new Member Number so the clerk could add it to my reservation upon check-in.
This was a complete bust! Tuesday I finally get around to checking the website/account to see if my "free" room is listed yet, which it was not, so I sent an email -still haven't heard back from anyone (and its not FRIDAY!!!).
As it's now the end of the week, and I still haven't heard back re: my email, I called today and have spoken with 2 different ppl about this... The first lady said I couldn't redeem points for the free room because I used the Friends and Family program pricing and it wasn't qualified. I accepted her answer and we hung up. I mean after all we did get great rates to begin with but then I got to thinking about it --No, I really looked over that site (page) pretty good and I never read anything along those lines, so I called back again.
The second lady went on to essential say the say thing, but this time I wanted proof!! She pointed me to the originally page where it stated that it must be "qualified rates". I stated to her that there is no indication that this was not a "qualified rate" and I wanted proof of what qualifies as this "qualified rate".... we've been on the phone now 38.21 min. After several attempts by her to prove this, only to be show further down that it did not apply to this situation, she finally found a place that sates programs rates with a discount of more than 20% off the room rate is non qualifying... dang it!! So upset. Not really, I suppose. I mean I did get this awesome rate for hotels -- that is enough, right?!?!
Anyway, I am now holding to place a complaint. Yes, I said I am placing a complaint. It's not right that this big company can't explain their self better. Even putting a simple little astrix next to the word "qualified rate" would have helped in this situation...
Did I mention that these ppl, at Choice Hotels 800#, are beyond slow!! In fact, slow is an understatement!!
However I am now talking with a nice "grandma type" lady who listens well and is typing my complaint up as we speak! I suppose they have her answering the "complaint" line because no one wants to yell at grandma -but I wasn't yelling either, so it worked out for me. Hopefully something good will come of this.... Kim at Choice Hotels -please read your email and get back with me.
57.07 min. total phone time!
