'I can't do ANYTHING if you're both YELLING AT ME': Karen hotel guests messed up their own payment, accuse front desk agent of fraud, she claps back

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Nov 17, 2023 2:00 PM EST

Accusing a hotel front desk agent of fraud is probably not the best way to get them to help you. Remember: these are the people that can make your stay exponentially easier or exponentially more difficult. It's also worth noting that so much of this drama can be easily resolved if people remember to book their hotel stays directly on the hotel website rather than through a third-party site. The number of instances in which we have seen irate customers make this mistake through Internet stories almost makes us feel as if we are front desk agents ourselves.

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  • 01
    "What exactly do you think is fraudulent here?"
    via Random Institute

  • This thread was posted to Reddit's r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk by u/Other-Cantaloupe4765, who tried her best to explain to these Karen guests that she could not give them a refund or explain the extra $50 charge they received because it was all done through a third-party site. Clearly, she was dealing with a bunch of Internet-illiterate folks who were unable to grasp what the front desk agent was saying and who immediately resorted to accusing OP of fraud. Seriously? Is that kind of accusation really going to help resolve your issue? Eventually, OP decided to walk these Karens through the online booking process so that they were able to see their error. Unfortunately, OP did not receive a proper apology when the Karens figured out what they did wrong. 

    Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the best reactions in the comments section. When you're finished, feel free to take a look at this post about a Karen employee who threw a tantrum about her shift schedule.

  • 02
    "I put in ALL my payment information and then you charged me another $50 than I never agreed to pay!!! You're a FRAUD!!!" I'm not a fraud, you're just dumb. Medium
    via u/Other-Cantaloupe4765
  • 03
    When I started this job, I made it a point to familiarize myself with our website so I would know what's there and what's not, how to do things, and where things are located. It's much easier to debunk ridiculous claims when I know exactly how our website works. "But it didn't say that online!!" Yessir it did, right here.
    via u/Other-Cantaloupe4765
  • 04
    And let me just tell you, I get more than enough practice because people are dumb. So Joe gives me a call while he's on speakerphone. His wife is in the room. They're both at me. He starts his rant by saying, "I went on YOUR WEBSITE to book a room, I put in ALL MY PAYMENT INFORMATION, and then when I clicked the button to pay, YOUR SITE redirected me to a third party site and charged me an extra $50!!"
    via u/Other-Cantaloupe4765
  • 05
    sake. What would be Oh for the point of our website redirecting someone to another site that takes half the money for themselves and only gives the hotel a tiny bit of it. "Sir, our website doesn't redirect to any third party website. It doesn't even advertise or link to a third party website."
    via u/Other-Cantaloupe4765
  • 06
    "So what you're saying is that you're committing FRAUD?" "I- wha- fraud for WHAT? What exactly do you think is fraudulent here?" Yeah I was 1. He started this call by being me.! to
    via u/Other-Cantaloupe4765
  • 07
    "I told you I put in my payment information and it redirected me to a third party and charged me $50 more than I agreed to pay. And now you're lying telling me your site doesn't do that. That's fraud. So what, should I call the police now?" Oh please do. Call the police. Do it. I dare you.
    via u/Other-Cantaloupe4765
  • 08
    "And I told you that our site doesn't work like that. What's the name on your reservation." "This is FRAUD" "Hey! I asked what name the reservation was under. I can't tell you anything if I don't see your reservation."
    via u/Other-Cantaloupe4765
  • 09
    So he told me, and I looked it up. Sure enough, there it was. Prepaid, noncancelable. nonrefundable, Third party. Of course. I looked through the change log and routing history and told him it was booked through [OTA] from the start- not our site.
    via u/Other-Cantaloupe4765
  • 10
    He wanted me to cancel, I told him he needed to call [OTA] to cancel. "But we stay there ALL THE TIME! My wife and I have stayed there literally hundreds of times and we always book direct!!"
    via u/Other-Cantaloupe4765
  • 11
    And because I'm a petty later searched him in our system clear back to when the hotel first opened. Do you know how many times he's stayed at our hotel? Hm? Five times. Five times since it opened over six years ago. And three of those five reservations were booked through a third party.
    via u/Other-Cantaloupe4765
  • 12
    "Okay, well when you book through a third party, you're not our customer. You need to call OTA and ask them about this." "But it was YOUR site that did this!!!" Oh for- ugh. "Look, here, I'll go through the entire booking process on our website just to show that it doesn't redirect anywhere."
    via u/Other-Cantaloupe4765
  • 13
    So I started doing that, and he and his wife were both still at me at the same time. I lost it and said, "HEY, I told you I'd go through the process myself but I can't do ANYTHING if you're both YELLING AT ME." Mf really said, "sorry, take your time" and shut up.
    via u/Other-Cantaloupe4765
  • 14
    I went through the process. No redirects, no links to OTAS. I told him as much, but he still insisted he was using our website. I asked him what the URL was on the website he used. And then I had to explain what a URL was because apparently that's not common knowledge these days. So he told me, and I'm like, "yeah that's not our website. Our website's URL is [official website url]. You were probably looking at our [hotel name] page on a third party site.
    via u/Other-Cantaloupe4765
  • 15
    "So what am I supposed to do?" "Call the OTA. That's all I can tell you." "Can't you refund me?" "No, I don't have your money or your payment information. You didn't pay us, you paid the OTA. That's the bottom line. You need to call the company you booked it through because I can't do anything here." He grumbled and hung up.
    via u/Other-Cantaloupe4765
  • 16
    sweetnsalty24.6 hr. ago It's shocking how many people do not know how to use a browser. They think that when they type anything in it will direct them where to go when in fact it takes them to Bing or Google or some other search engine. Of course the algorithm is going to show OTA top results, or even some other hotel pricing aggregator. Let's just say I witness this with certain people at work all of the time and are clueless.
    via u/Other-Cantaloupe4765
  • 17
    RoyallyOakie 5 hr. ago Yes they underpay me, but give me so much power that committing fifty dollar fraud is my only joy in life.
    via u/Other-Cantaloupe4765
  • 18
    Rachel Silver 4 hr. ago My first thought was how weird the caller was. Then I realized he's the norm.
    via u/Other-Cantaloupe4765
  • 19
    ReceptionUnhappy2545. 3 hr. ago I get the "it's not on your website" all the time. My answer is always "yes it is, I wrote all the descriptions, rules, etc.etc.etc." that usually shuts them up.
    via u/Other-Cantaloupe4765
  • 20
    AfghaniMoon. 3 hr. ago Booking OTA just to save $13. I guess that's why the boomers have houses and we don't, guys. /s
    via u/Other-Cantaloupe4765

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Tags

customer service karens employee hotel toxic-workplace karen-customer work customers karens in the wild entitled reddit thread Reddit karen entitled people toxic-work-environment
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