Some of you know that Lori and I have been in Detroit since Tuesday. My mom is having more and more difficulty dealing with her dementia, so I came to see what I have to do and can do. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we sent with my mom in Dearborn and talking to numerous people discussing what to do. The worst part was explain to my mom why she had to move and could no longer the independent person she has for the last 50 years after divorcing my dad.
When we got back to our hotel room yesterday afternoon around 5:00 PM, I found the door open. The maid had pushed the latch over to keep the door open while she went in and out when cleaning. Fortunately nothing was missing.
Last night we went to the MGM Grand for dinner and a little gambling with my son's money. Just like in Las Vegas I bet $100 on black and just like in Las Vegas I won.
We called for the hotel shuttle and due to someone's incompetence, we waited for 1 1/4 hours for a ride of about 1/4 mile. It was snowing, so we waited.
This afternoon was our only free day this week and we were planning to take a dive to Canada. It's only about 1 1/2 miles from the hotel. The problem was that the valet service lost the keys to my rental car. At least it was just the keys. They originally thought the car was missing, because they couldn’t find it.
I spoke to the rental car company, but they can't find anyone to make a duplicate key, so they are having another car delivered. That will take about 1 1/2 hours.
So here we sit in our hotel room waiting for the car.
Fortunately, the printer I was using to print out my boarding passes for our flight tomorrow ran out for paper. The Director of Sales and Marketing of the hotel was right there, so he got more paper. He asked me how I was and I told him everything that went wrong. He was mortified. He spoke to the reservations manager and they took all the charges off my hotel bill; room service, restaurant charges, valet charges and anything else we want for the rest of my stay. That will probably just be dinner tonight, since we are leaving in the morning, but at least they are trying.
The rental car company is charging me $100 for the lost key and $140 to deliver me a new car, plus whatever it costs to get a new key for the car from a locksmith. The hotel promises to reimburse me.
Lori and I are driving to Ypsilanti tonight to get together with some Blogger friends. To make sure I have my car keys in the morning and not miss my flight, I will make the valet service give me back my car keys tonight when I drop it back off at the hotel.
9 comments:
good luck, you two! & best wishes for your mom, tony! that's a sad part of life for anyone. but, see? detroit isn't ALL bad!
I spent last weekend in a hospital with my 93 yr old mom who got confused out of the blue, so I can sympathize with you on that one! Regarding the rest of all the snafu's, maybe they used to work "on the line" in auto industry and only know one part??
My best to you in regards to your mom. You're lucky to still have her. Not many at your age (sorry) can say that.
And goodness about Murphy hitting your vacation! I sure hope nothing else happens! The part that stuck out to me was that you hadn't complained to the hotel in the first place for some sort of compensation. I know I would have. Perhaps that says something about you more than anything else :)
My best to your and yours Liz. We can feel each other's pain as we deal with this.
Thanks guys. The worst part was having to be blunt with my mom and her real problem. It just kills her to know she can handle things alone.
Tug - I read the riot act to the van driver. I barely let him even speak. If like he says, he never got the first calls, then he can deal with it and point the blame were it belongs. Things is, what he told us and told management didn't really agree, so who knows where the blame lies?
As a retired Quality Manager, I've learned how to talk to people to get them to do what is best for the company and their customers. It is self defeating to just yell at everyone. Only a few people were at fault, so being professional was much more effective.
No one I talked to had a clue how to solve the problems I had. The hotel Director of Sales and Marketing finally asked me for suggestions on what I, as a retired Quality Manger, would do to make sure these things don't happen again.
I gave him my input and he took notes the entire time. BTW, he's the one that got us comped to everything we charge before and after this. Last night we hit them up for a $110 dinner.
Good GOD! I am glad the Hotel is trying their best to "make it better".
So sorry about your Mom. I know that cannot be easy.
wow bad and good news. My sister and I are dealing with the same thing with our dad all except he is here in MN. This is the reason why we moved back here from SD. Although Mr Gab and I thought it would only be about a year we've been here since 2004. Our house in SD is now falling apart! When we do get back we are gonna need to do work on it. Same as with this house While we were in SD we rented this house and in May of 04 while we were living with my dad the renters wreaked this house. So we need to refix this one in order to get enough money to even Cover what we now owe. (long long story). I'm glad that for the most part you had a good trip.
O HELL NO!WAlking up to the reservation desk with my face smothered in VAseline, I would have given you and Lori my gold earrings to hold and had a fist-to-cuffs with ye ole managerial staff, they are so lucky I was not there! OMG! You were flat out ROBBED the whole trip! I am glad they are going to take the charges off. I am so sorry....
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