Conundrum. Sort of...

I’m having a problem processing something, so I thought I might sound it out here on the ol’ wedding blogaroo…

Jesse and I went downtown on Friday night to see a friend’s art show that had opened that day, and then to grab a bite of dinner and some drinks at the bar/restaurant in the Hotel Phillips called “12 Baltimore.” I’d been looking forward to checking things out there for a while, and it seemed like the perfect night for it. (Since our wedding reception will be ending at what I consider to be the kinda early hour of 11 p.m., we’ve been planning on gathering those troops that are still raring to drink, dance, and be merry and head on in to 12 Baltimore before retiring to the suite we will be staying in that night, which is one of the 2 suites they have at the Hotel Phillips.) So we had some yummy dinner and some very good beer, and split the tab at the end of it all, and then headed home for some well-deserved rest.

Last night, Jesse had planned on making us some chicken gyros for dinner. Before hitting the grocery store, he checked his account online to make sure everything was in order, and thank goodness he did! He called me and told me that his checking account was in the negative because he had several charges from the Chophouse, one charge from the Hotel Phillips, and then one charge from a Days Inn that were being deducted from his account as the bank processed the info from the merchants. All totaled, they had deducted over $170 more than the $32.55 they should have from his account. I checked my account, and they had done the same thing to me, however since I used my credit card to pay for my half of the bill, it wasn’t as detrimental to my account info. I told him I would call the hotel, and then let him know what was going on.

After about an hour had passed, the hotel controller called me to discuss what had occurred. Apparently when 12 Baltimore went to close out their tabs on Friday night, they thought that the charges weren’t being processed due to some error they were seeing on their credit card machine. So the hotel closed out the tabs as though we were guests, which made everything seem right in their books. On Monday, when they realized what had happened, they cancelled the charges to our accounts for all the transactions that reflected the Chophouse as the merchant, and charged us instead through the Hotel Phillips. For some reason, the hotel charge that occurred on Friday night shows as being processed through Days Inn Kansas City as the merchant. However, the controller for the hotel said that he can’t help us with that issue, as they are in no way affiliated or related to the Days Inn.

Wow. Ok, so both Jesse and I have several charges in the same amount over and over again to our separate accounts, and this Days Inn charge just HAPPENS to be in the same exact amount as the ones from the Chophouse and the Hotel Phillips, and on the same date as all the ones that came across from the Chophouse, but this guy is telling me that he can’t help me with that one?

Can we say “pissed?”

As this gentleman explained to me, we have to take care of it through our bank. (And I know what the bank will say when I try to tell them what he said, which is that we need to clear it up with the merchant! AUGH!) For now, the charges show as “pending” in my account, and I would assume they are reflecting the same way in Jesse’s account as well. 3 of the Chophouse charges have been refunded to me in my account, but one still remains as “pending” as well as the one from the Hotel Phillips, and of course the one from the Days Inn.

The problem is that I had just sent in the paperwork to reserve a block of rooms at the hotel for the wedding weekend. I was all excited to stay there the Thursday and Friday before the wedding, and then the night of the wedding after we were through hanging out in their bar at 12 Baltimore. And now? Now I don’t want to deal with them ever again.

I’m so very disappointed.

But then again, I’m sure glad I found out about this before something happened to 10 or more guests at our wedding!

For a 4 star hotel (which they were recently appointed by AAA’s travel department), they aren’t acting too 4 starish, in my opinion…