Over the weekend I did a hotel shop for ACL. The shop required you to book 2 nights and then cancel the second night during the shop. The location refused to cancel the second night stating they needed 48 hours notice. I immediately emailed the scheduler and the info email to let them know what happened. I checked out as normal and was indeed charged for 2 nights. I completed the report and uploaded the receipt as normal.

Now they're asking me for a copy of my bank records to prove I was really charged for 2 nights. This is a shop for the hotel owner, not the chain. They can very easily verify how much I paid through their client. There is no need for my bank statement. I'll provide it to them, but that's a shitty way of doing business.

Is it possible that the money went into someone's pocket at the location? Just asking. Not sure how this would work, but could it be employee fraud that the owner would not be able to verify because his actual location only received payment for one night?

No. I received a receipt when I left and another again the next morning via email. ACL has both receipts (and now my bank records as well). Their reasoning was to "ensure I got reimbursed properly." They have no reason to think I got over charged, but they think the second night should have been cancelled. They don't believe that it wasn't.

Hmmmm. Annoying.

Don't they talk to their client? Shouldn't they know that cancellations are 48 hours minimum?

It does seem annoying but there may be lots of reasons they need this behind the scenes. Seems to me sending them your bank statement with much of it redacted (if you are a politician you will know how to do that) is a small price to pay for getting full reimbursement on this shop. But then how would they know if you actually had the second night reversed the next day on the next day's bank statement? A pain indeed and there should be a method set up in advance to handle this situation where they will not cancel the night. I have seen many a hotel that requires advance notice of some sort to cancel.

@bgriffin wrote:

Over the weekend I did a hotel shop for ACL. The shop required you to book 2 nights and then cancel the second night during the shop. The location refused to cancel the second night stating they needed 48 hours notice. I immediately emailed the scheduler and the info email to let them know what happened. I checked out as normal and was indeed charged for 2 nights. I completed the report and uploaded the receipt as normal.

Now they're asking me for a copy of my bank records to prove I was really charged for 2 nights. This is a shop for the hotel owner, not the chain. They can very easily verify how much I paid through their client. There is no need for my bank statement. I'll provide it to them, but that's a shitty way of doing business.

I did a shop and submitted a receipt. The receipt did not have the location's address. They insisted that I send them a copy of my credit card statement.

In 14 years I have done a ton of similar hotel shops that required canceling the second night and the hotel NEVER questioned it or charged me for it. I suspect that the employee who did that may be in for a dressing down from the manager. I would have no problem providing my cc statement AND, I would open a dispute report with the cc company if the charge is not removed. ACL just needs to know that it is not on the hook for the second night.

BTW, always good practice when departing a hotel to take a time/date stamped picture of the folio before departing the parking lot.

bg, I know you know this, but others may need to know this trick. It shows that you were checked out before the second day technically "began."

It sounds to me like the shop is set up to see if they charge you for the second night that was cancelled or not.

In other words, they are checking if their cancellation policy is being followed.

Yes. These are not the shops Wales is talking about. This client is a group that owns a bunch of hotels, it is not the hotel chain. This client is a long time client that just added the requirement this month. They added it to see how their locations handle it. It is not my fault that location didn't handle it well.

@walesmaven wrote:

ACL just needs to know that it is not on the hook for the second night.

That is not the reasoning I was given. I was told they needed to know how much I was charged so they could correctly reverse the charges for the second night. That information is on the folio that I uploaded (before the start of the second night). It is not on my bank statement. The only thing on my bank statement is the total.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2019 08:36PM by bgriffin.

@sandyf wrote:

It does seem annoying but there may be lots of reasons they need this behind the scenes. Seems to me sending them your bank statement with much of it redacted (if you are a politician you will know how to do that) is a small price to pay for getting full reimbursement on this shop. But then how would they know if you actually had the second night reversed the next day on the next day's bank statement? A pain indeed and there should be a method set up in advance to handle this situation where they will not cancel the night. I have seen many a hotel that requires advance notice of some sort to cancel.

If there is a reason they can give it to me. I've asked 3 times and crickets. The only reason I've been given is "to make sure you get reimbursed properly." Which is code for we don't want to pay you too much be we want it to sound like we're trying to make sure you don't get paid too little.

I agree, I provided them with what they wanted. I just shouldn't have had to.

Now they're saying the folio doesn't show how much I am charged. Uh. Yes it does you stupid morons!

That is so frustrating. Kinda shows why they don't need your bank statement. You have a final bill with all charges listed. If the client isn't certain, they need to sort it on their end.

What is the point of the shop if being charged isn't a possible result?

@1cent wrote:

What is the point of the shop if being charged isn't a possible result?

Exactly!!!

BAD on their part....someone isn't doing their job.

They are assuming you were charged and then refunded on the same card.

I am so sick of poor attitudes, and people responding crazily when they ask for help then when someone speaks about the subject they react negatively. I deleted my entire post. you are not worthy of my response or help. Good bye.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2019 02:11AM by F and L TeleComm.

There are a few of incorrect items in your post.

1. This was not a case of a receipt not printing or being damaged or unreadable. They had not 1 but 2 copies of the folio.

2. For this shop you had to book directly with the hotel. Not hotels.com.

3. This had nothing to do with a hold. Holds don't show up on receipts. Normally hotels put a hold on your card when you check in for the total plus $x per day of incidentals. When you check out they clear that hold and charge your card for the total amount. This is the amount that shows up on your receipt. Which I had. 2 of.

4. This is the client's hotel. They should know their own cancellation policies. This shop was not for the chain. Like in a fast food shop let's say it was a McDonald's location but the shop was done by the owner of the restaurant not McDonald's themselves.

5. The instructions did not say cancel the second night at check in. I don't have the guidelines in front of me but the instructions said to cancel the second night somewhere between 10pm the night of check in and 12 noon the following day.

What you are suggesting is when you do a Five Guys shop and they charge you for a cheeseburger instead of little cheeseburger so when you turn in your receipt they say oh they should have only charged you for a little burger, I know your receipt says a regular cheeseburger but we're gonna need your bank statement to make sure you were charged for a regular cheeseburger and not a little cheeseburger.

@ShoppersViewChristine wrote:

I respectfully disagree.

@bgriffin wrote:

You're too nice I disrespectfully disagree.

Schedulers seem quite nice on this forum.

B Griffin's comments in his ACL rant when calls the ACL schedulers 'stupid morons' sadly is how they viewed by a minority of shoppers.

Let's show everyone on this forum respect whether you agree or disagree with their views.

I'm not sure why you moved my quote to a different thread but a couple of things to point out. I did not call an ACL scheduler a stupid moron. I called an ACL account manager a stupid moron. I'm not saying that there aren't ACL schedulers who are stupid morons. There's a lot of ACL schedulers and by the laws of average..... But I have not dealt with any ACL schedulers who are stupid morons. And I certainly did not call any a moron.

But mostly.....I think you need to lighten up and perhaps read some things as the joke they are...…...

I think we know who doggy is. I think iShop123 was onto her charade already.

I am becoming very disillusioned with ACL myself. In the past they had reliable schedulers that you dealt with regularly. When you turned in reports, you got some sort of acceptance email or comments. I knew that most of the time, the only value was the meal or the event or the benefit I was being reimbursed for. But I see them nit picking on very tiny details to keep from paying for certain things. I had an item I bought on a brewery tour refused because the clerk was the same clerk who poured our beer (the only employee downstairs). I had a gas station shop declined because I did not get a photo of a clerk NOT giving me a bag or offering to. Now I apply for things and they don't close them or let you know they are assigned even. I just log in and see I got a shop and need to do it. 'I might get a text message if an editor has a question but that is about all. These shops will never pay the bills for me, only give a treat for free, maybe froyo or a nice meal. Then they got the client who pays in gift cards to their own restaurant. I still have one of those I need to use. Now, they advertise a great shop then say you need to take these other crap gas station shops to get that one. I used to see ACL as sort of a higher class of MSC, but now I will take a Sassie or a Prometrics or even a Prophet MSC any day over them. Give me self assign. Give me a few day or week window to get work done when my schedule permits. Treat me like an adult and add some pay to the shops and stop keeping all the profit in the fee you collect for overhead. The meal or the massage or the froyo or the awful 3/$10 gas station hamburgers don't justify being this demanding.

Yeah, I always had trouble doing a 5 page report over a cup of coffee. Geeze, it's coffee.

If you want a different date for your ACL shop, click on "Do a different date" when requesting the shop and follow the simple directions. Or, if you need a hang after self assigning with the original date, just email the scheduler. I do both, all the time, with the 4-5 schedulers there that I work with. I do enough of their hotel shops a year to earn 3-4 free hotel nights, at nice places, with my credit card rewards points.

Yes, there are some of their clients whose shops I do not find worth my while, but enough others are to keep me very active with them.

If they had the itemized folio, there should be no reason for them to ask for your bank account information! Did they think you altered the receipt?

Seems to me the staff member didn't understand policy? I've never, personally, heard of a hotel enforcing the 48- or 24-hour cancellation policy once a guest has arrived. We had an emergency come up once while on a two-night stay at a Hilton, and had to cancel the second night. They couldn't have been more accommodating and refunded the charge. We've also had a situation where we checked into a hotel for a two-night stay, and it was so awful we cancelled the second night and found someplace else. Didn't get charged for that second night.

I worked in hotels for years. The only time I ever saw a canceled second night be charged was if the person who canceled tried to cancel late in the same day as the second night. Some hotels have a two night minimum stay for certain weekends and they definitely will charge both nights even if the person checks out after one night.

I have to laugh every time I get one of their restaurant shops that involves a salad bar and self serve desserts. According to the instructions, they want a photo of the salad and dessert exactly as it was delivered to you. I take a picture of the salad plate and soft ice cream exactly as I served it to myself. Obviously the instructions are taken word for word from one of their full service restaurant shops. This has been going on for about a year when they first got this account.