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

mckele_2

Today I received a letter from CRS claiming on behalf of travelodge B'ham Hilton Services alleging i smoked in my room.
I and my partner are non smokers so this is completely ridiculous!!
I have sent emails to both Travelodge (FAO Grant Hearn) and CRS vehemently denying the charge.
It will be very interesting to see if i am now given the "wrong room" excuse!!
Definitely sounds like a scam to me..:mad:

CKhalvashi

Tara100 wrote: »

I think that Watchdog should be informed of this operation....

How many people have coughed up £400 for a hole in the wall not caused by them, or had to pay £150 because they were told their room smelled of cigarette smoke after they had left? (everyone knows how cigarette smoke can linger for a very long time in a room, even if air freshener is used)

Proof of this is the taxi that I used to use before replacing it with another tatty car just for this purpose (it's still on our fleet).

I got my Mondeo in January, and the 406 still smells of smoke (I jumped in it this morning to get it serviced).

Yes, I smoked in it for about 18 months, but the smell's still there!

CK

scream85

Hi all…another quick update for you…

My letters have been passed to another department within Travelodge who are processing my data information request. To be fair to them, they have contacted me by e-mail expressing their full apology and admitted liability with regards to the incorrect claim. They’ve confirmed that they are collating all of my information in full and sending securely to me.

In addition to this e-mail I’ve received a phone call from a customer service rep, to again fully apologise and confirm that she will personally ensure that any defamatory notes on their system about me are removed without question to ensure my good name remains protected.

To be fair, the lady was unreservedly sorry for the treatment I received and went into great detail about how my letter had reached senior management level resulting in a full investigation being launched. She said they were reviewing their policy and process across the business with regards to reporting and claiming for damage to rooms and that the way they have previously conducted this process is unacceptable on a number of levels, including not only passing the details to CRS but also the tone of the correspondence etc etc. I highlighted the number of similar cases I found on google and she said they too were fully aware of the number of similar cases, which head office have found concerning, thus a full review of the policy is being undertaken.

I appreciate she could have just been palming me off, but she did seem very genuine, very apologetic and very sympathetic to my situation.

One Important Note
It’s a good job I further questioned the original withdrawal of liability, because as I correctly assumed, the reason the claim was dropped was due to insufficient information being recorded to prove that I did the damage, not that they had allocated the incorrect room. It was only when the CEO office received my second letter, requesting my name to be cleared in full, that they further investigated and found the wrong room number had be allocated.

By me raising the second letter it has firstly ensured that any defamatory notes held against me have been removed, and secondly that I will be receiving a full copy of the information held on my under the Data Protection Act.

Conclusion
Whilst I don’t agree with the way Travelodge have conducted themselves, rightly or wrongly, I do feel as an individual customer, that they have resolved my query in a prompt and professional manner. I’m not defending them on any level because clearly they have some serious internal issues which need resolving, but throughout the whole process they have been very apologetic and fully appreciated my concerns about the whole process.

I’ll leave others to make their own judgement on whether they would use them again, but at least as a minimum if someone else receives a similar claim in the future, I would hope that there is now enough information on this forum to adequately defend themselves.

I hope others have the same success as me…………

Thanks once again,

Best regards

molerat

Pay peanuts, get monkeys

terra_ferma

scream85 wrote: »

Hi all…another quick update for you…

My letters have been passed to another department within Travelodge who are processing my data information request. To be fair to them, they have contacted me by e-mail expressing their full apology and admitted liability with regards to the incorrect claim. They’ve confirmed that they are collating all of my information in full and sending securely to me.

................etc, etc

I've experienced first hand how things can move quickly once the pr people of a company realise that they are been talked about on MSE

VSynth

Maybe we should be taking photographs of our hotel rooms before leaving them...just in case we need some evidence in the future

Eydon

VSynth wrote: »

Maybe we should be taking photographs of our hotel rooms before leaving them...just in case we need some evidence in the future

I did just that after staying in the Hilton near Legoland.

There were burn marks on the wallpaper where someone had previously left the desk lamp on for too long too near the wall. I reported it to reception immediately but their attitude was pretty much "what do you want us to do about it - we can't redecorate". I tried to explain that I just wanted someone to make a note of it, but I may as well have been trying to explain the Higgs Boson to them.

So I took photos and made sure they were date/time stamped.