<p>Really weird–we just got billed for a hotel reservation we NEVER made. We called the hotel and asked when it was made & they claim it was made by H on a date when we were together 24/7 and KNOW he neither called nor used internet to make ANY reservations. They said they’ll have their billing department call us in the morning. They also NEVER sent him an email confirmation of the reservation and we were ALREADY STAYING AT A DIFFERENT HOTEL; the hotel we stayed at was closer to where we wanted to be and had dates which included the date they say we called the other hotel to make a reservation for which we never showed up!</p>
<p>We also plan to contest this with the credit card company. This is the first weird charge we’ve gotten on this credit card. The hotel desk clerk kept insisting we MUST have made the reservation ad not shown up or how would they have our info–they have our info because H is in their frequent rewards program. I think they have a glitch in their system or their computer system burped or there is someone trying to increase their revenues on unsuspecting people?</p>
<p>Anyone have similar issues? I was also disappointed the credit card company didn’t have anyone to talk to about a disputed charge 24/7; some of our other credit cards do, but this BofA card doesn’t. Perhaps we’ll cancel this card–it seems like it may be compromised somehow.</p>
<p>We had that happen once. The explanation was that the hotel had a guest with the same name as H in the frequent traveller program and someone messed it up from there. It was fixed pretty easily but H’s name is almost as common as John Doe. His card was a corporate AmEx, no experience with BofA.</p>
<p>The best thing is to try to work it out wuth the billing departnent as they see these things from the perspective of fixing them and have the tools to see the bigger picture. We had cleaning and minibar charges running to $300 from a stay a few months ago. It is a no-smokng hotel so they billed us for deep-cleaning and stuff taken from the minibar. My wife complained that the room smelled of smoke while she was there which was annoying to her. It appears that someone with access to the room had a little party there before she arrived. They took off the charges with no questions.</p>
<p>The billing department would see if this thing happened before.</p>
<p>It definitely sounds like an issue at the hotel level.</p>
<p>No experience with a hotel reservation, but just wanted to mention that S recently had a charge show up on his BoA credit card bill that he had never made. It also included a foreign transaction fee as it was from Europe somewhere. S called as soon as he noticed it and their toll free number touted 24/7 availability, which he had. </p>
<p>He protested the charges, they did whatever they do, and the charges were taken off. We had no problem with them. It took about 2 months all together.</p>
<p>Hope you get it straightened out. How frustrating!</p>
<p>I have had charges for hotels reversed by the credit card company but I prefer to get the problem resolved at the source if possible. The credit card company basically ate the charges for the hotel - I would have preferred that the hotel take the hit for their mistake.</p>
<p>Getting it fixed at the source may help the hotel fix the cause of the particular problem so that it doesn’t happen to other patrons.</p>
<p>We had a similar issue…it was credit card fraud. Someone else had used OUR credit card to make purchases. It is very possible that someone within the hotel organization hacked your account and made the reservation for themselves thinking no one would notice the bill.</p>
<p>We’re on the phone with billing at the hotel right now. OK, they are removing the charge and have no explanation as to how or why it was made. Am now on the phone removing this credit card from our rewards program profile. Next, I will call the credit card company and ask that they put a fraud alert and reissure us a new credit card.</p>
<p>Am counting my blessings that having a fraudulent charge is rare (but upsetting) for us.</p>
<p>We received a $2600 New Years Eve dinner and bar bill 9 months after our March visit. Took some convincing, but they reversed the charges. </p>
<p>I think it is fortunate that you are dealing with a large hotel chain, but I still think you should have your credit card company issue you a new number.</p>
<p>Actually, we’re asking that the account be closed as soon as we get back our check for $25 of our cash rewards. We will have to call them and double-check that we were properly re-credited and get back a very small credit we still have on that account and then will be totally done with that account. We never meant to even open that account with BofA; they inherited the accounts from Charles Schwab but didn’t give the 2% cash back, so we’re really not interested in them anyway.</p>
<p>Be sure to save the info from your account before wiping out the card - some credit card companies revoke access to all of your old records when you wipe a card.</p>
<p>What do you mean – save info from the account before wiping out the card? What info? We have not used this card since January. We have the paper statements, including the one with the fraudulent charge that we are disputing & they are re-crediting.</p>
<p>That happened to us once. I just handed it over to the credit card company. Since we were staying at another hotel nearby at the same time as the charge…on the same card…it was very obvious there was a screw up. American Express took care of it all.</p>
<p>Personally, not a fan of paperless–to many weird things can happen with computer, as H’s 4 decades in the field has seen MANY odd things. Heck, he doesn’t even trust ATMs!</p>
<p>I agree on paperless but we were more or less forced to for banking - either that or pay fees - even though we maintain a $30+K balance there. The idea is that you either print statements yourself or save PDFs to your hard drive.</p>
<p>Good news–have been re-credited, sent a new card and alerted the fraud department. Still a mystery as to where the person got that old credit card number, which hasn’t been used in probably two years!</p>
Generally, the credit card company doesn’t eat the charge-back, they ding the merchant’s bank account for it.</p>
<p>It is still better to try to resolve it with the merchant first - there are financial incentives for the merchant to avoid charge-backs, if they get too many it can make their ability to accent credit cards much more expensive, or they can even lose the ability to take a credit card.</p>