This whole thing sounds odd, and I have to disagree with those that say the issue of whether it was a refundable reservation is not important. That is the real issue. You can cancel any hotel reservation, and having a cancelation confirmation does not address what the penalties for cancelation are, which would be addressed based on the hotel's cancelation policy and the type of reservation.
At first I was thinking OP might have paid for a prepaid reservation, but then OP would have already had the charge at the time of booking, instead of seeing the charge appear after the trip. When was the change made? Perhaps you made the change too close to the time of reservation, such that you still get charged. If you explained to the agent what you were doing, then the agent should have explained any fees involved. And for that reason, I think you should really continue to take this up with the hotel. Which isn't to say Amex might not take your side, so I would explore that. But if it was a non-refundable room, or even a refundable room where you called too close to the reservation to make your change such that penalties were involved, I don't see how Amex can rewrite the hotel's cancelation policy and give you a refund. They might, but it really seems more like an issue with the hotel.
I'd be interested in how far out the reservation was when you made the change. Most hotel bookings are 24 hours, but I've booked rooms where you have to give 72 hours or a week's notice.
Again, I think the agent should have mentioned this to you, and I think the hotel should fix it. I'd be surprised if they didn't if you talked to the right person. You stayed at the hotel. There's a point to be made on their side of it that when you book a room that has a cancelation policy, especially if it's a discounted rate, you're getting a discount in exchange for locking in a certain price. You can't get out of that because the price lowers. Alternatively, if the issue was that it was refundable, but with a 72 hour cancellation, and you made the change inside of 72 hours, they might argue that they were reducing rates to sell rooms that they wouldn't otherwise sell. That's one of the reasons they have those policies. In addition to their being a price for holding the room for you, they also need to be able to try to unload inventory without giving discounts to everyone who already has a room. But it sounds like you made an honest mistake and weren't trying to game the system. I think the hotel would work with you. It's really stupid not to. It doesn't take too many times of you staying elsewhere before they start losing money because they wante to stick it to you this time around.
Starting Score: ~500 (12/01/2008)
@steve23111 wrote:
@Walt_K wrote:
This whole thing sounds odd, and I have to disagree with those that say the issue of whether it was a refundable reservation is not important. That is the real issue. You can cancel any hotel reservation, and having a cancelation confirmation does not address what the penalties for cancelation are, which would be addressed based on the hotel's cancelation policy and the type of reservation.
At first I was thinking OP might have paid for a prepaid reservation, but then OP would have already had the charge at the time of booking, instead of seeing the charge appear after the trip. When was the change made? Perhaps you made the change too close to the time of reservation, such that you still get charged. If you explained to the agent what you were doing, then the agent should have explained any fees involved. And for that reason, I think you should really continue to take this up with the hotel. Which isn't to say Amex might not take your side, so I would explore that. But if it was a non-refundable room, or even a refundable room where you called too close to the reservation to make your change such that penalties were involved, I don't see how Amex can rewrite the hotel's cancelation policy and give you a refund. They might, but it really seems more like an issue with the hotel.
I understand what you're saying, but consider this: we wouldn't be having this discussion if the hotel had not issued a refund and then gone back and charged the card again without authorization to do so. If the hotel sends an e-mail confirming that they are canceling the reservation and a refund for such cancellation appears on the customer's credit card statement, then that should be the end of it.
I work in retail, in the business of selling wireless phones. Our return policy allows for the return of an item, subject to various stipulations, within 14 days of the date of purchase. Let's say a customer comes in on day 15 and pleads a case for a refund. I decide to bend the rules, take back the merchandise, and refund his card. That afternoon, the boss notices and determines the refund was against the rules. Okay, too bad. We can't run the customer's card back through the system and bill them for the cost of the phone again. I can pretty much guarantee you, even if we somehow managed to get the merchandise back into the customer's hands, American Express, Visa, Mastercard, Discover, any credit card company would side with the customer in that the subsequent re-billing for the merchandise would be an unauthorized charge.
The fact that we're dealing in a purchase of an intangible product in no way changes this.
The hotel agreed to refund the customer, and did so.
They can refuse to book the trip at the lower rate. They can refuse to do any further business with the customer. They can take internal measures to ensure their employees enforce established cancellation policies. That's all fine and dandy. They cannot, however, go all willy nilly submitting unauthorized charges onto customers' credit cards to undo their mistakes.
I don't know where you're getting that from. I don't read anywhere that the OP said the charges were refunded and reapplied. The OP says a charge appeared after the trip, which is consistent with my experience in receiving charges for business trips that had to be canceled last minute. My apologies if I missed something.