Gary H.

Last week I was driving down the Oregon Coast with my wife to celebrate her birthday. Vacancies were looking a little tight so we decided to splurge and book two nights at a nice home on the beach the night before our arrival.

The reservation was made online. My bank can sometimes be finicky with large charges when they are made out of state so we used my wife's credit card. I was entering her information in on either my iPhone or iPad and may have unknowingly misspelled her last name "Biggs" instead of "Briggs". Either way, the charge went through and we received a email confirming the reservation.

The next morning at 9am (our check in day) I called Meredith Lodging and asked to switch the charge over to my credit card (it was a birthday gift for my wife after all). The agent took my credit card number and my name. I spelled my name to her over the phone. Note that the spelling of my last name has been misspelled my whole life, no matter how many F as in Franks, D as in Davids I use. But the agent put the charge through and said we were good. She also said that for last minute bookings Meredith Lodging required us to send in a photo ID and asked for us text in images of the front and back of both of our drivers licenses. No problem, by 11am the pictures were sent and we were good to go for our 4pm check in.

Or so I thought. At 3:58, two minutes before check in, without the courtesy of even a call, I received the following text:

"Thank you for reaching out. We do apologize but due to information not matching up between your CC, ID not matching up we are unable to accommodate this stay."

Wow! They were polite enough to follow with:

"We will of course provide you a full refund".

I was blown away, upset and angry. I was shocked that not only did we not receive the courtesy of a call, but also that they waited until TWO minutes before our check in to notify us.

But of course I presumed a call could resolve whatever issue there was.

I called, explained that I had received a text that our reservation had been cancelled and was transferred to someone who could "help" me. I then spent the next 40 minutes on the phone having one of the most frustrating calls of my life. The woman cryptically explained that there were discrepancies with the names and credit card numbers they had on file for us and the drivers license images we provided. She would not tell us anything else (what was mismatched?) or give us any way to correct it. She only repeatedly insisted that their policy was to not accommodate last minute reservations if any information did not align. Around and around we went but she refused to entertain that there might be a understandable reason for the discrepancies or a way to correct it. Nor would she give us any insight into what the "discrepancies" were. We felt like we were being accused of fraud!

At about 30 minutes into the call we said we would re-photograph my wife's credit card and drivers license and text them so the woman could see they matched. The woman said OK, and we sent them in. I felt like we made the first tiny step toward progress. The woman then said to please hold. This is where if I had not been so upset I would have found things funny. The woman then put the phone down, or muted us instead of herself. We could then hear the conversation she was having with another woman in the office but she could not hear us. Bizarre. We then learned:

1. My wife's last name had been mis-spelled "Biggs" instead of "Briggs" on the online reservation.
2. My wife looked to young in her drivers license photo! And, the woman seriously thought this was grounds for cancelation!
3. One of the security features in the drivers license was not showing up in the photo—again fraud was implied.
4. The spelling of my last name had been mangled.
5. If my wife were willing to sign a contract she might consider allowing us to rent the home.

The woman returned to the line and I informed her we had heard her conversation. I then (excitedly, angrily) walked her through how each item could reasonably be explained (except my wife appearance, she is beautiful and does look really young for her age! I cant explain it!)

The woman had had enough of me (understandably) and asked to speak to my wife, whom she had been alternately speaking with throughout the conversation. Miraculously my wife convinced the woman to cancel the existing reservation and let us re-book it. No "I am sorry" no "I could see how this could happen". More of "I think this is fraud of some sort but if you sign the contract I can reasonably cover my $#*!".

My wife remained amazingly calm as the woman made her recite back all the information we had just sent her— name, address, credit card number etc. Finally, 40 minutes later, the reservation the woman had repeatedly insisted could not be "accommodated" was rebooked and we were on our way to check in.

The home was great and the location and view were beautiful. Unfortunately our experience with the Meredith Lodging agent unquestionably affected our ability to relax and truly enjoy ourself. Neither one of us could forget or escape the frustration of the experience.

I hope Meredith Lodging can take a seriously look at how they train their employees and what first class customer service looks like. In our case, the enjoyment of our two night stay was seriously effected by a Meredith Lodging agent who refused to entertain that typos might be a more reasonable explanation than fraud.