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• (January 12, 2023, 01:18:11 AM)

[12AX7]

Since the mobile phone has become ubiquitous why would anyone call a hotel room?

"I KNOW you're there."

[Wunderkind]

Thank you!

[xolik]

I'm the only guy here today and my back is all fucked up because I'm an idiot when it comes to squats. Here's hoping the rest of the day goes by without me having to leave my chair.

[Wunderkind]

Got another dumb one...

Me: What form of payment will you be using today?

Guest: I thought I didn't pay until I checked out?

Me: If you choose to place a credit or debit card on the account, you will not be charged until you check out. However, if you do not have a credit or debit card, we will need to see cash or personal check now.

Guest: Okay. *hands me a debit card*

Me: We place a hold on all credit and debit cards for the duration of your stay for the amount you have charged. The hold is released the moment you check out and we charge you. But with debit cards the bank may continue to hold your money for a minimum of ten days, do you still want to use your debit card?

Guest: Yeah *impatient tone

Two days later after guest has checked out...

- Jacked up e-mail from my boss, -

- Guest so-and-so was complaining that we were still holding money on his bank account. Explained policy blah blah blah. Essentially the guest said they'd never been told such a thing. -

Me: We place a hold on all credit and debit cards for the duration of your stay for the amount you have charged. The hold is released the moment you check out and we charge you. But with debit cards the bank may continue to hold your money for a minimum of ten days, do you still want to use your debit card?

What the fucking hell did I miss? Was the statement unclear in anyway?

[ydnamtnediserp]

sigh. i know what you mean. our cardmembers are just as stupid. in fact, i'd bet you a gazillion dollars every person that you deal with that fits your example also holds one of my company's credit cards.

but- a question. merchants can call us to release authorizations (we mostly see it with hotel and/or car rental companies); can you not do that on a debit card? or is it just the principle at that point?

[Wunderkind]

This is my understanding, consider that it's limited.

Our system sends an automated message to the bank informing them that we have charged the card no longer require the hold. But since it's a debit card, it's the banks decision when and where to release the money. If the banks thinks it's necessary they will continue to hold the money. (Your bank will almost always see it as necessary.) Once we charge your card, the only thing we can do on our end is call your bank and make sure they got the automated message. After that, it's your responsibility to bitch to your bank.

It has a lot to do with the fact that you're dealing with real money in real time, as opposed to credit, this I do know. Our system sends a message to the credit companies as well, but because the whole point of credit is to pay for it later, it goes on your card account, the companies releases the hold, everything is hunky dory. But with banks, they don't want to over draw your account, blah blah blah, I'm sure you're familar with their routine BS. We can call banks all day long talking about how the hold release is valid, but it's still the bank's decision whether or not they release it.

[ydnamtnediserp]

i can't say much for debit cards- other than my own personal experience- but for credit cards, a hotel transaction works like this (in an ideal world, of course- a lot of merchants don't follow procedures):

1. you (the merchant) obtain an authorization to bill an account. this is simply a hold on the funds so you can ensure you get paid. the amount of the authorization is taken from the cardholder's available credit line, but is not included as part of the balance.
b. when the cardholder checks out, the merchant- using the same 6-digit authorization given at the time of the hold in step 1- actually charges the card. the authorization is now gone- it is officially a charge.
III. the merchant batches out at the end of the day, and the transaction is submitted to the credit card issuer for payment.
4. the credit card company pays the merchant bank.
V. the merchant bank pays the merchant. everybody's happy.

now- again- this is how it's supposed to work. more often than not, a hotel (or car rental company, or whatever other company would hold funds and bill at a later time, once the charge amount is determined and the services are rendered) doesn't use the same authorization code that was given at the time of the hold being put on the cardholder's account. they simply run the card through again as if it were a brand new transaction (much like say, wal-mart would- a regular point-of-sale purchase where the authorization and purchase take place within seconds of each other).. which is fine, but what the merchant fails to realize is not only did they charge the cardmember (correctly) for the services rendered, they also have an additional hold on the account, which prevents the customer from utilizing their full credit line. granted, authorizations on a credit card drop off on their own after 30 days, but it's inconvenient. and poor customer service, in my opinion.


to reiterate: i don't know about debit cards. in my experience with my own bank, any time i stay at a hotel, the authorization tends to drop off within 48 hours. on its own? probably. i can't imagine my bank going out of their way to release it.

[Wunderkind]

I've never seen a bank go out of its way to release a hold on a debit card. You're bank probably has a standard 48 hour hold time. Some have ten day hold times. And I have seen them go out of their way to KEEP a hold on a person's card (which makes no sense me whatsoever, don't ask me). Which is why we warn, "the BANK may continue to hold the money for up to ten days" (I say 'a minimum' as standard CYA policy).
 
This tidbit should make you happy... According to our computer support, as long as new card isn't swiped and the card you used at check in is the card we charge, it automatically uses the same 6-digit auth. code... Then again... as long as there's humans involved...  I've seen my coworkers do some pretty moronic things in the past.

[ydnamtnediserp]

that makes me incredibly happy!

if more hotels operated that way, i wouldn't hate my jo..... nevermind. yes, i would. 

[pbsaurus]

Another reason not to have a visa debit card linked to your demand accounts.  I have old fashioned ATM cards for all of mine.  If a merchant doesn't accept ATM cards I just use a credit card.  For things like travel I almost always use a credit card anyway.

[ydnamtnediserp]

and you should. good luck finding any recourse outside of a credit card if something goes wrong.

speaking of, aloha airlines filed for bankruptcy today.. and apparently only notified their customers they wouldn't honor their flights via a message on their website. i probably had about 30 calls on this today; it's only going to get worse. 

[Wunderkind]

and you should. good luck finding any recourse outside of a credit card if something goes wrong.

speaking of, aloha airlines filed for bankruptcy today.. and apparently only notified their customers they wouldn't honor their flights via a message on their website. i probably had about 30 calls on this today; it's only going to get worse. 

I feel your pain.

[ydnamtnediserp]

I feel your pain.

thanks. we had 2 similar situations in recent memory- stormpay & sunrocket. both sucked. stormpay was worse because we had pretty much no recourse. they're pretty much like paypal. their job is to simply move funds from point A to point B. they were moving money for customers, but the money was frozen by whatever 3rd party was being paid and the cardholders never actually received whatever service they anticipated. but because the funds were transferred, we couldn't assist. sunrocket was a little more doable. they're a phone company that went belly up but re-opened shortly afterwards under a different name. incredibly shady, yes, but they at least acknowledged cardmembers were due refunds (although pro-rated, of course) and didn't object to the disputes.

fortunately, though the excessive calls are going to suck, this situation will probably go the sunrocket route where we are, for the most part, able to obtain refunds.

[MISTER MASSACRE]

I'm the only guy here today and my back is all fucked up because I'm an idiot when it comes to squats. Here's hoping the rest of the day goes by without me having to leave my chair.

What did you do? I want to know so I can't not do what you done did.

[dcrog]

What did you do? I want to know so I can't not do what you done did.

Duhhh.

Didn't you read his post?

He squatted.

[xolik]

What did you do? I want to know so I can't not do what you done did.

You're supposed to have your back at an angle when you do squats. I forgot that part and kept my back straight. Don't EVER do this. 

[Pyrenus]

After 10 years at my current job, I've come to a realization.

If you ever want to have any chance of promotion, you must be replaceable.

[ivan]

Talk about your double-edged sword.

[Demosthenes]

Definitely.  I made that realization at my last job.  No mobility, mostly because I was indispensible.

Whoops.

[pbsaurus]

Yep.

[ivan]

To employ this effectively, first make sure the guy above you is replaceable by you. Then start screwing up and blame everything on him.

[12AX7]

After 10 years at my current job, I've come to a realization.

If you ever want to have any chance of promotion, you must be replaceable.

Hopefully you don't subscribe to the old Employer/Employee "loyalty and compensation" model. The best way to get promoted is find another job.

[dcrog]

I've kept out of this for a long time, but:

Subject: Company based web email.

It started long ago that you typed in or bookmarked smtp.domainname.com

Someone changed something so for a while you typed in the ip address to get to the login page.

Then it changed to https//:mail.domainname.com/owa

For the last week and a half I've been trying to find out why mine won't work anymore.  I hate having to connect through VPN and then Remote desktop to check email that I can't even print on the jobsite, unless I forward it to an outside account.  I was told to not use my bookmark and try typing in the https//...  address back in.  No luck.  Monday the IT guy was supposed to be in and figure out what was up.  No luck.  I called back today to see if anyone had figured out the problem.  No luck.

Called another superintendent who has been on vacation to see how he had solved the problem and got his  working.  He said his bookmark stopped working so he tried typing in simply mail.domainname.com/owa and it went through.

I tried it.  Eureka, it worked.  But it is now simply an http:// url.  I called the admin to make sure he knew the mail was no longer on a secure server.  He tells me it is secure so no problem.

My main problem with all of this is that at no time when any of these changes were made was anyone notified.  Plus nobody ever seems to be sure how these changes take place, or why.

[ydnamtnediserp]

hello? airlines? could you please stop declaring bankruptcy and/or canceling flights? i'm sick of cleaning up your fucking messes at work every day. thank you.

[12AX7]

Holy shit I bet that DOES suck bad.