Feb 5 - never give up on anything !

I don't know if I've written about this before.  When we traveled north in December we stayed at a Country Inn and Suites in Kingsland GA.  Shortly afterwards, I noticed on my Amex that they'd charged us not only the room rate, but an extra $100.  I called the hotel and they claimed that they found that we'd smoked in the room.  Of course we hadn't smoked and I told the front desk clerk that and she said that the Manager would have to call us back; she wasn't in at that point.

So we waited, called back, waited, called back ... no result.  Finally, approaching the end of the year, I gave up and called the CI&S main number, not the hotel.  They opened up a case and said that the hotel would get back to me within 48 hours.  Well, we never heard.  Finally I called the hotel, spoke to the manager and she claimed that she'd called but the number was "out of service".  No, the number wasn't out of service, they got the "Welcome to your thermostat" message !

She also claimed that whenever they suspect smoking in the room she, the manager, and another staff check it out.  They document what they've found.  I said that no, we are not smokers and didn't smoke in the room.  We were at an impasse.  I called Amex and disputed the bill.

Time passes.  The hotel deals with Amex.  Amex gets back to me by email and says that the dispute is resolved, the $100 is being added back into my bill !   That takes us to yesterday.  I called Amex and said no, we aren't smokers and neither is our dog !  I have no control over what happens in our room after we check out, but who knows.  There's obviously a time gap between when we check out at 6:30-7:00 a.m. and the housecleaning staff arrives.

Sheryl suggests that perhaps they saw the coffee grounds in our garbage can or perhaps they smell so much that they though that it was tobacco ?  I don't care.  We don't smoke.  At this point it's not the $100, it's the principal.  I'll happily submit both of us to blood tests that can determine whether we've smoked.  We don't smoke.

There's a lesson to be learned out of all of this -- if you stay in a hotel where the policy is to charge you for smoking in the room, which is quite common these days, drag the hotel clerk into the room to sign the bill saying that there was no smoke as you checked out.

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So ... what else did we do yesterday other than get the blood pressure up ?  Well, I was trimming the trees, which in this case were the mangroves out front.  It's a messy job, rubber boots, forcing your way through, climbing up at times, but it has to be done.  We don't want them to get so high that we'll need a permit to do any cutting.

I took Abby for a walk.  I returned the calipers and parking brake shoes to Advance Auto Parts, getting a nice $300+ refund to the aforementioned Amex.

Sandy was out a chunk of the day touring around with Patti Himes.  They had lunch, stopped at BMW, looked at stools for Patti's condo etc.  It was good for Patti.  The two of them yakked all day.  I can see them spending a lot of time together.

Sandy picked up a new rotor alignment screw.  All the blogs mentioned that it was a 98 cent screw.  Of course Fields charged over $4 for that screw.  Why do I have a problem with Fields ?

When Sandy got home, it took 5 minutes to pull the wheel and put in the screw.  Now I can get Sandy's new tires installed. 

We had triggerfish again for supper.  Delicious.  Rice and cauliflower completed the picture.

Onward !