Notice of Civil Claim from CRS (on behalf of Travelodge) for damage to a wall!!

PZH

Hintza wrote: »

...The other 1% being those who were too smashed to know or care....

Or too intimidated, or elderly, or naive ???

Why people even entertain Travelodge these days is beyond me. They get rubbish reviews, don't guarantee rooms even though they say they do (Google it) and, according to a lot of reports, their rooms are dirty and smelly to start with.

I know this is a money savings website - but cheap doesn't always mean a bargain...

terra_ferma

it's incredible in this day and age, with the speed of communication they though they could get away with it.
Someone must have had a brilliant idea to recover cost of damages caused by guests. But do they have a PR person who explained to them that this kind of bad publicity, in this economic climate, could be enough to kill a company, when potential customers choose a competitor who does not try to scam them?

Someone posted a review on tripadvisor. A lot of people from all over the world rely on reviews from this site, and pictures taken by guests, to choose a hotel. Reviews like this will really hurt their business.....

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g186338-d193057-r122702650-Travelodge_London_Covent_Garden-London_England.html

DavidT

phoodless wrote: »

Or too intimidated, or elderly, or naive ???

Quite, or those who have jobs or occupations where they cannot risk any sort of court action showing up.

How would TL explain away when challenged saying it was in fact another room? They know who stays in what room so how do they justify writing to someone staying in a different room and blaming them? How do CRS get the details to write to, especially the ones in different rooms? Surely writing to random people demanding money isn't legal?

The fact TL turn around and say "sorry wrong room" shows they know full well they are trying it on. Shouldn't they also provide a full breakdown of the sum they are demanding?

Surely it can't be legal to write to multiple people requesting recompense for the same bit of damage (if there is any damage to start with). It just seems so wrong whatever way you look at it. By the way how on earth can you prove or disprove if a room smelt of smoke at a particular time?

vax2002

If you signed a checkout, the room has been inspected and found to be in order and the account paid in full.
Always demand a checkout receipt to be placed in to your hand before paying.
Even if they have to write one on the back of a napkin.
Now, the OP, a phone call saying sorry it was not you is not acceptable and the letter constitutes harassment as it has caused you Alarm and Distress.
write to travel lodge stating that agents they employ have caused you alarm and distress which falls within the protection of harassment act 1997.
That they are responsible for actions of their agents who have made unsolicited demands for money using threats.
that you now require compensation for the harassment suffered and i would suggest that you demand £750 and make it quite clear you will sue them in the court for harassment if they fail to do so.
A harassment claim has a flagrancy award attached in which a judge will decide if they acted deliberately and maliciously which in this case I would say is damned obvious.
Any offer you made them to settle is removed and the judge will set damages, which will be a damn sight more than £750, the legal costs alone would be in the thousands.
If they have any sense they will make a counter offer and pay you off.

You have a legal right not to be subjected to harassment by a company and if Travel lodge dont like it, they should get their act together !

Now get writing and hit them back!

Tagmeister

Vax, intestersing stuff, I was thinking of writing back to them but wasn't sure how to word it, where does the 750 figure you suggest come from, is it based on anything specific, or just what you think is a ball park figure for this type of thing?
Thanks

transient

Tagmeister what hotel was it then you stayed at?
Scream?Same question

scream85

Hi all, sorry it’s taken me so long to reply to this, I’ve not been online much in the last week.

Tara100 – Sorry to hear your daughter has had the same issue as myself. Please see update below.

Tagmeister – Again, sorry to hear you’ve received similar treatment. I stayed at the Norwich Central Riverside Travelodge. Can you confirm that this was the same hotel? The amount of the damage was for £400.73. Please see update below.

UPDATE ON SITUATION
I have now settled this issue directly with both CRS and Travelodge, with both companies withdrawing in full the accusation in writing. The correspondence / story leading to this point is fairly long but I have detailed it out in full below in case anyone else receives similar correspondence in the future, which may assist them in rejecting the claim. I hope this helps others.

THE FULL STORY......
From reading the comments and advice on this forum and other forums from some really kind people, I was able to put together a response and issue to CRS, as follows:


Letter to CRS

My Ref: XXXXXXXXX

UKCRS
PO Box 9877
Nottingham
NG1 9GB

For the attention of XXXXXXX

RE: Alleged Damage to a Travelodge Room

Your Reference: XXXXXX

Dear XXXXXX,

Further to your letter dated XXXXXX, outlining a Notice of Civil Claim against me relating to my stay at a Norwich Central Riverside Travelodge on XXXXXXX, I am writing to strenuously deny any such claim that I caused any damage of any kind to the room that I stayed in during my time with Travelodge.

I find your accusations unpalatable, without any rationale, and simply unacceptable to accuse a decent, law-abiding citizen of such misconduct.

I have received no contact from Travelodge on this matter but intend to take this up with them separately.

Should legal action be taken against me, then I intend to defend myself vigorously whilst seeking to recover the maximum costs in doing so, and would furthermore request that you provide the following information without delay:

1) A full and detailed description from an independent third party of the supposed damage, including an explanation of the probable cause of the alleged damage.
2) Photographs showing the full extent of the damage.
3) A full and comprehensive account of who discovered the alleged damage, and at what time, the room number and the exact location of the damage.
4) Competing independent quotations for any repairs, including a fully detailed breakdown of any materials used and workmanship carried out.
5) A fully detailed and substantiated breakdown of any losses which Travelodge claim as a result of this unsubstantiated accusation.

This is my final response on the matter. I will not be entering into any further correspondence with you and any legal action will be strongly defended.

Yours sincerely,


Letter to Travelodge
Having sent the above to CRS, I then wrote an additional letter to Travelodge. This letter I sent on their online ‘contact us’ page as there was no obviously e-mail address, and then I followed it up by e-mailing the Chief Executive directly on grant.hearn@travelodge.co.uk . The Letter I sent was as follows:

My Ref: XXXXXX

For the attention of Grant Hearn

RE: Alleged Damage to a Travelodge Room

Dear Mr. Hearn,

As a customer who has used and continues to regularly use your hotel chain I was quite despondent to receive a bullish and aggressive letter from a company called Civil Recovery Solutions (CRS) claiming to be employed by you in order to recover costs relating to alleged damage caused to one of your rooms at the Norwich Central Riverside Travelodge during my stay on XXXXXX.

I am writing, firstly, to strenuously deny any such claim that I caused any damage of any kind to the room that I stayed in during my time with Travelodge, and as such enclose a copy of a letter I have issued directly to CRS in response to the Notice of Civil Claim they have sent me (attached above in PDF).

Secondly, I am writing to tell you how appalled I was to receive such an unsubstantiated and defamatory letter, with no contact made by Travelodge before instructing CRS to issue such forceful correspondence. If damage was discovered in the room that I stayed in, why has no-one from Travelodge contacted me to discuss it? You have all of my contact details, including my phone number, on your records. In fact, I have since stayed at the very same hotel and no mention of it has been made to me by any member of your team at Travelodge. One would have thought that if I had caused such damage you would have thought to tell me when I revisited your establishment in Norwich, having failed to contact me directly by either letter, e-mail or telephone?!
I find it quite disturbing that a company of your size, and a brand as well recognised as yourselves find it acceptable to conduct your business affairs in this manner, by employing such bully tactics to innocent members of the public.

I can assure you that had I have caused any damage to your property, I would have owned up to it straight away. I have no idea where the suggestion of damage came from (if indeed there was any damage), but can only presume that if there was, it was either done after my departure, either by a member of your staff or another guest, or that the damage was already present to an obscured area of the room which I didn’t notice upon my arrival, or you have mistakenly linked me to the wrong room. In either instance, I can categorically confirm that as far as I could see, there was no damage to that room at all when I stayed, and furthermore you have provided no comprehensive details of what the alleged damage consists of.

I expect this letter of complaint to be taken to the highest level within your organisation, and that a full appreciation is given to the seriousness of the mistreatment I feel I have received as a result of CRS’s letter, and the unfounded allegations made against me. Furthermore, I demand a response as to why you have passed my details onto CRS without first contacting me at your earliest opportunity about the alleged offence!

I look forward to your response on this matter in the prompt and dignified way that I deserve as a long term customer of yours,

Yours sincerely,


1st Response from Travelodge
I received a response the very next day to my letter, which read as follows (note the poor spelling / grammar etc):

Dear Mr XXXXX

Thank you for your recent contact that has reached our Chief Executive Office.

Firstly I would like to apologise for an upset or inconvenience that has been caused to you as a result of the letter you have received from our debt collection company.

I would like to apologise if the tone of this letter was at all aggressive or unpleasant as this is not the approach we like to take with our customers.

I have investigated this matter further with our hotel and our internal departments and I can confirm that this claim against will now be withdrawn.

If our hotels discover evidence of room damage it is our policy for this to be reported directly to Civil Recovery Claims who will recover the costs on our behalf.

Following my investigations it appears that there is not sufficient information to uphold this claim.

I can confirm that the current procedures we have in place for this is at present under review and development.

Once again I am truly sorry for any distress or inconvenience we have have caused you as a result of this and I hope that we will be fortunate to receive your customer once more in the near future.

Thank you again for contacting us.

Kind regards

Travelodge Customer Services -C.E.O's Office

My Response to Travelodge’s Letter
Naturally I was pleased that the case had been dropped against me, however I didn’t feel it satisfied my original dispute, as the letter implied the case was only dropped against me due to insufficient information, as opposed to the clear fact that I had nothing to do with it. Furthermore I was concerned that somewhere on their computer system was a log of the damage I had supposed caused, with a note saying that they couldn’t prove it so they dropped the claim, which naturally I wanted removing. I therefore responded highlighting my concerns and requesting all information held on me under the Data Protection Act:


My Ref: XXXXXX

Your Ref: XXXXXX

Travelodge Head Office
Sleepy Hollow
Aylesbury Road
Thame
OX9 3AT

For the attention of XXXXX – Travelodge Customer Services (CEO’s Office)

RE: Alleged Damage to a Travelodge Room

Dear Madam,

Further to your recent correspondence dated XXXXXX, I welcome your decision not to pursue a claim against me for alleged damage to a room I stayed in, but note this is due to a lack of corroborative evidence only.

You will appreciate that your statement of “not sufficient information to uphold this claim” still concerns me that this has besmirched my good character. This therefore does not satisfy my original rebuttal of your accusation that I have caused damage, and I would wish for you to issue an unequivocal withdrawal of any blame or implied blame that can be attributed to me.

Furthermore, I request that you disclose to me all of the information you hold on me as an individual under the Data Protection Act 1998, within no more than 40 calendar days from receipt of this request.

In the meantime I look forward to your timely response,

Yours faithfully


2nd Response from Travelodge
This is what I received back from their CEO office:


Dear Mr XXXXX,

Thank you for your reply.

I can confirm that due to an administrative error this claim was incorrectly logged against your room.

We do have robust procedures and policies in place and we will ensure that this will not happen again in the future.

In light of the circumstances and in order to restore your good faith in us we would like to offer you compensation in the form of an evoucher to the value of £50.00. In order for me to issue this to you I would kindly ask that you create a MyTravelodge account via the following link and inform me once this is done - http://www.travelodge.co.uk/

I have asked my colleague to begin the process of the data request you have asked for. He will be in touch with you in due course regarding this.

I would like to thank you for bringing this matter to our attention and would like to offer my further apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Thank you again for contacting us.

Kind regards

Travelodge Customer Services -C.E.O's Office


Response from CRS
In addition to the above I received a short and sweet letter from CRS saying they were dropping the claim following instruction from Travelodge.

SUMMARY
I hope the above helps someone. I appreciate Travelodge’s final response was far from perfect, but obviously my main goal was to ensure the claim against me was dropped and no false statement was logged against my customer account, which I feel I have achieved, thanks in most part to advice on here.

It does seem particularly worrying that they are sending out lots of similar letters to other people. I have no idea if it’s fraud or what, but I’m just glad I was able to resolve the situation. Anyone that wishes to take it further has my backing and support, but due to the time factors and hassle involved I won’t be doing this myself. I hope people don’t think that’s a lazy approach on my part, it’s just I really do have a lot going on at the minute that is far more important, despite my feelings towards the unacceptable behaviour of both Travelodge and CRS.

Good luck to anyone that pursues this further.

Scream

terryw

Superb. Thank you Scream.

mrs_sparrow

Scream - I think you should report what happened to both Trading Standards and The Office of Fair Trading. As should anyone else who has been contacted by these goons - hopefully when enough people make complaints it will be looked into and this kind of thing stopped.

terra_ferma

mrs_sparrow wrote: »

Scream - I think you should report what happened to both Trading Standards and The Office of Fair Trading. As should anyone else who has been contacted by these goons - hopefully when enough people make complaints it will be looked into and this kind of thing stopped.

I would add the Information Commissioner, as they've been unlawfully sharing details with a third party. When they say it was the wrong room/date etc, it constitute a breach of the DPA, which they do knowingly as they are not doing anything to prevent mistakes.
http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/data_protection.aspx

They could get a fine, but even more importantly bad publicity (who would want to use them if they give your details to a debt collection agency type of company when you are innocent?).

(I can't say if it's a breach when they have good reasons to think you have caused the damage, perhaps it is, but it may be covered by the t&c?)