rev:text
| - I just wasted an hour getting shifted around to 5 different employees on the phone, trying to explain to them how false advertising works, and apparently failing miserably.
They placed an ad on google maps saying that if you book through the Travelodge Las Vegas "Official Site" it is $62/night for a particular weekend. I clicked through and purchased the room, only to see after confirmation that they booked me for the wrong hotel, one in Albany New York.
Had to call and cancel, then got quoted a higher price (more than double) for the room in Las Vegas. Textbook "bait and switch" false advertising.
I explained this to them, asked nicely for them to simply honor the advertised price, and got sent in circles trying to find someone who can help.
I finally got directed to Jennifer at the hotel itself. She initially tried to send me back to the people who sent me to her. Once I got past that, she then tried to lecture me on how this is not false advertising because
(1) it says "ad" on the ad (I thought that's what we were talking about?),
(2) when you click through, it states that it is for a room in New York (why doesn't it take me to the location I clicked on?),
(3) the website posting the advertisement is a third party that Travelodge cannot price match (it is in fact a Wyndham site, the operater of the official website for Travelodge, and a related company).
She was so stuck in her position that when I asked to speak to her boss, she literally told me that she doesn't report to anyone right now. It took 5 more minutes for her to admit that she even had a boss, she just wasn't working today. (Why are they making even the trivial things so difficult?!?)
Nobody, including her, seemed at all surprised that there was false information on the website, nobody thought "Hey, that's strange, I need to notify someone so they fix it."
Few companies hit the trifecta for false advertising and customer service fails, but Travelodge Las Vegas and Wyndham did. (1) Make no effort to fix the false advertisement being displayed to the public. (2) Make no effort to make it right for the customer they are speaking with (namely, honoring the price they advertised). (3) My favorite, deny that there is anything wrong, even though they are looking right at it.
Thanks Travelodge and Wyndham :/
|