I am Shankarraman living at Mohali, Punjab. On February 22nd, myself and my wife decided to visit Jaipur for a short holiday trip of two days (February 23rd and 24th). We browsed the websites and contacted Hotel Sarang Palace, A-40, Subhash Nagar
Jaipur, Rajasthan 302016 on phone numbers provided in Website to inquire rental details and also booking formalities for Hotel reservation on the above said days. We inquired the hotel room rentals and corporate discounts, if any available with Sarang Palace. They asked us about the itinerary and we told them about our plan. They requested for the following information to proceed for sending a booking order
1. Full Name and address of the all the occupants
2. Email address of the contact person
3. Telephone number of the contact person
4. Credit Card Number
5. Credit Card Expiry date
They insisted that above details are requested only for preparing a booking order and that they would send a mail to us for confirmation. We hesitated in providing our Credit Card number but we were time and again assured that without any type of authentication from our end, no amount can be deducted. We also enquired to confirm if any debit to our CC can be made without our signature or card swiping or CVV number (which is generally required for all online transactions). The assurance we received from them was the same that nothing is payable without any authentication from our end. We hung the phone stating that we would confirm details. They called up twice again and pestered us to provide details. We also offered to get the booking on arrival at Jaipur but they discouraged stating that rooms are already not available and this online blocking would help us retain the room for us. We were time and again assured that this confirmation is just blocking of the room and payment to be made only after our authentication on arrival.
Ultimately at 1:00 PM, with such false assurances, we provided the Credit Card number and expiry date apart from other details. A lady representative of the hotel who took the details informed us that she would be sending a mail to us on which we could confirm arrival and that mail was to be produced while occupying the room blocked.
However due to sudden death of my Grandfather on the same evening at 4:00PM, we were unable to proceed for the trip. We were in shocked state and in the meantime, we received a call at 5:30PM from the hotel asking for mail confirmation. We informed them about this mishap but the hotel staff was inconsiderate about the entire issue. She kept asking us to provide either confirmation or cancellation on mail. At this point of time, she informed us that a retention charge of one day rental would be charged to us and we need to send the cancellation on mail. We again asked her how they can debit without any authentication from our end but she just said that “That is why we need confirmation from our end on mail” but even at that point we were not informed that this hotel had special rights from Citibank to debit customer account with only Card number and expiry date. We informed that hotel lady staff that since the call from our end to the hotel was only for inquiring and that we had only informed them about our trip plan and that there was no booking confirmation from our end, we would not be able to pay the retention charges and we would not reply on mail also.
However, in spite of all this I sent my wife to check the mail box but no mail was received from Hotel Sarang Palace. We carried on performing last rites of my Grandfather and forgot the entire issue thinking that we had not sent any confirmation and no amount can be deducted.
I checked my Credit Card statement only on 27th February and was shocked to see that my credit card had a debit of Rs.1980/- by Sarang Palace on 24-2-09.I called up Citibank immediately to check how one could debit account without any form of authentication by customer. We were informed by Citibank Call Centre that they will lodge an inquiry to check what form of authentication was used to pass the transaction and we would be charged Rs.200/- for the same. We were asked to send a fax copy of the complaint with details to them.
I then called up Hotel Sarang Palace on 28-02-09 to check the details of debit and they were very rude in behaviour to us. They kept telling the same thing that we were asked to check mail even at that time. They rebuked us that we have called up after one week and that they had to deduct two days rental but as a special case they favoured us by deducting only one day rental. When we asked them how our account was debited without any confirmation of occupancy from our end, she informed that we had provided bus details and all other information based on which it was presumed that this was a confirmation. We argued that this was just inquiry and we were also informed at that stage that booking will be confirmed only after intimation from our end. The hotel staff was very rude to me.
The next day my wife called up the Hotel to inquire and they spoke very rudely to my wife. The lady staff who had taken our booking inquiry informed at that point to my wife that had powers to debit customer account based on card number and card expiry date. My wife stated that we had never been intimated of this while inquiring and in turn the lady staff rudely asked my wife “ Who asked you to provide Card details? ”. She said that every household has some problem or other and the hotel were not bothered about it.
My wife informed the lady staff that we would be approaching the Consumer Court complaining about this fraudulent debit from the account and she in turn replied that this complaint would mean trouble for us as a customer. These type of threats by the hotel staff resulted in wife’s BP shooting up and we had to take her to the doctor.
We also called up Citibank again on 1-3-09 to check if anything can be done and at this point of time, Citibank informed us that they had provided special rights to certain special hotels.
Both Hotel Sarang Palace and Citibank have cheated me. Hotel Sarang Palace gave false promises and debited my account without my consent. Citibank has provided such illegal rights to hotels to debit the customer account. This is prone to frauds as customers are not aware of any such options available to merchants.
1. Loss of Rs1980/- retention charges without consent/ intimation;
2.Harrasment by hotel reservation staff in case we approached consumer forum;
3. Mental tension on being cheated and harrassed;
4. Debit of Rs200/- by Citibank for inquiry;
5. STD charges of more than 10 times to the hotel. No senior person except the reservation desk was willing to talk to us.
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