Hey guys.
I am staying at a shocking hotel in Melbourne and still have two days in my stay. I want to know if I leave now and file a chargeback whether I will get my money back?
There is hot water coming out of the cold water taps making it impossible to bathe. The tv keeps blacking out every 30 seconds and I got an electric shock when I tried to fix it. There are way more issues too.
The hotel says that they can't fix the issues and that I just have to deal with it.
Thank you very much for the reply. I don't know much about this kind of stuff.
Once when I tried to do a charge back due to service not delivered after I paid for it my bank told me that you can only dispute a transaction if it was unauthorised. Given that I had authorised the transaction they couldn't do anything - they didn't care about whether the service was delivered or not, only whether I had authorised the transaction. Banks do not do dispute resolution like Paypal or ebay.
not the case with all banks, i filed a chargeback with citibank who was very helpful
http://www.citibank.com.au/global_docs/CDF_Citi_VisaMaster_2…
seems like you could have applied for the chargeback under "services not rendered"
I have filed a chargeback before for an authorised purchase that never arrived. Got my money back.
Have you tried to speak to the manager? Sometimes they can be oblivious to their own staff's attitude and may sort things out?
Is it part of a chain of hotels? Call the head office?
It took me three days of emailing head office before the hotel manager contacted me. The hotel manager was not helpful at all and harassed me continually until I unplugged the phone.
After five days of emailing head office and posting on their facebook page I finally got the area manager to contact me. I will notify him of the issues by writing and let you guys know how I go.
What is the name of hotel?
Vibe Hotel Carlton Melbourne. I would advise Ozbargainers to stay away from this place.
If you google the hotel you'll see plenty of booking sites giving it 3.5 to 4.5 stars out of 5.
I wonder if you can add your own rating to those sites?
The hotel is supposed to be four star. It is a 3 star IMO.
Some of the booking sites are really dodgy. I don't like the ones that try to pressure you into buying by saying things like "only one room left, book now!"
I am sure they make up their own ratings.
It feels like the last 10-15 years 4 star has turned into 3 star. It feels hotels in general have learned to game the system to get that rating.
I generally aim for 4.5 stars. I've been in 5star, not crash hot, except when its a recognised name that has a reputation to keep.
I gave a hotel a very critical review through an online hotel booking site and they refused to publish it. No such problem with doing a Tripadvisor review.
Generally, banks request that you attempt to resolve your dispute with the merchant first.
If you cannot reach an agreement, they will help in limited circumstances. The ones where you won't have much issues with chargebacks are:
- unauthorised transactions
- fraud
- duplicate transactions.
In your case, I think the best approach would to be not authorise a transaction (e.g. sign or enter your PIN into an EFTPOS machine), document that you have complained and the hotel management isn't doing anything about it. This would probably be your best bet with a successful chargeback.
Keep in mind that banks provide you the safety of ensuring transactions on your accounts are legitimate, and chargebacks are one of the mechanisms that can be used. The dispute you have with the hotel is another matter, and banks cannot arbitrate the outcome - ie determine who is right and who is wrong under whatever contract of agreement you have, and if you are entitled to a refund or not. This is for the legal system.