This is not turning related but it is Symposium related.

IF YOU BOOKED THE GALT HOTEL THROUGH TRAVELOCITY, READ ON.

I admit to being a procrastinator. So, when it came time to get a
reservation for the Symposium, the only avenue open was via Travelocity
-- somebody posted to this forum that they had rooms. So, I booked
through them and their confirmation said that my credit card had been
charged and this was a PREPAID reservation. I assume others did the same.

My wife did the check in duties and gave them our credit card for
incidental charges -- restaurant, parking, etc.

On the morning of check out, there was a copy of the bill which had been
put under the door of the room and it showed that they had charged us
for the room and all associated taxes -- remember that I had already
paid Travelocity.

It was pretty clear there was a mistake -- the first line on the bill
was my name and the second line was "Travelocity.com". On the way to
the trade show area (I was there as a vendor), I stopped at the front
desk and pointed out the error. I was told that it would be corrected.
A week or so later I received a bill from the hotel in the mail and
the charges were still there.

I called the Travelocity VIP Priority Service (yep, that's what they
call it) and told them what had happened. I was told that this was
normal and that the hotel would automatically refund the money to my
credit card. I knew that was a lie since I've done this before but let
it ride.

When I received my credit card statement and there was no refund, I
called the Travelocity VIP Priority Service again. This time I was told
that what had happened was not normal and that I would need to fax or
snail-mail proof that I had been double charged, etc. I offered to send
the documents as attachments to an email but was told that they cannot
do it that way (I thought fax was dead!). I told them that it seemed a
lot faster and easier for me just to dispute the charge on my credit
card and let them sort it out without me. They hoped that I wouldn't do
that. So much for Travelocity's guarantee of great customer service and
swift problem resolution.

Then I called the hotel. It took four tries, 2 extended hold times and
three hang-ups before I got through to the right person -- explaining
the problem each time.

The hotel acknowledged the error and agreed to refund not only the hotel
charges but also the parking and several small restaurant charges --
about $40.00 total. I was told that their computers were down the
morning we were checking out and that was the reason for the confusion.

So, if you booked through Travelocity, make sure that you take a good
look at your credit card statements -- I bet I'm not the only one
affected by this problem.

Now, some interesting stuff -- at least to me... I got to see what
Travelocity was charged so I could compare it with what they charged me.

I was charged $111.09/day for the room. They were charged $87.20.

Additionally..

I was charged $19.58/day in taxes and fees. They were charged $13.07/day.

Bill Rubenstein
Stubby Lathe USA