Cranky Crow Bed and Breakfast/Puffin Vacation Rental

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: I have the sameexact receipt she has not sent me anything I did not already know Shehas not resolved our complaint of being charged for an extra night and beingcharged a cancellation fee/change fee See below for more explanation.We did not agree to a refund from July 4th to the 15th We asked for arefund of the entire stay from our check out date of July 3rd so this includesthe night of July 3rd She informed us of the credit card change fee/cancellation fee after she discussed refunding our money for the days that shecould re-rent to other people Per the text messages I sent in earlierthis fee changed from $to $129.We did not stay in her property for the night of July 3rd and did not receiveTLA from the military for this night We request this night back in theamount of $and we also request the change fee back in the amount of$since this was never agreed upon before staying in her property.I would like to reiterate that she has nothing in writing where we agreed upona rate, date of property rental, or anything regarding her cancellation policyor change fees regarding her billing procedures.Sincerely, [redacted] Sincerely, [redacted]

I hope this will answer any questions regarding the [redacted] request for refund Please refer to text message photographs asserting the [redacted] agreement of the following in our previous response: · [redacted] request to rent the property from June to July · Puffin Place offered to refund guests credit card from July to July · [redacted] acknowledgement of cancellation fee, aka fee levied by the credit card company to refund a charge that has already been made I have provided copies of the receipts sent to [redacted] I made an error when processing their refund by including July We did not agree to provide a refund for July 3, For this reason their credit card was charged for July 3, as our agreement was to allow them to cancel the balance of their reservation from July to July 15, less the credit card company’s fee to provide this refund ***SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS REDACTED BY Revdex.com***

We were sad to hear of the *** family’s disappointment with our business We thought we had gone over and above the call of duty in trying to accommodate the ***We are a military family who came to Kodiak in We are familiar with the difficulties of finding housing in Kodiak,
having moved times between different inns, lodges, and bed and breakfasts during the days we spent on the local economy between arrival on the island and closing on our houseAs a result we try to take extra care (and frequently bend many of the rules that we have learned from running this business) when we have the privilege of accommodating military personnel and familiesThe *** family presented several points of contention that we will do our best to respond toAnyone reading this will notice that most communication was done verbally over the phone because the *** family was in the process of transferring at the timeAs a result there is little documentation of agreements that were made between partiesThe best we can do is present a few screen shots of text messages between us and the *** along with our standard policies as presented on our website and on the contracts and confirmation emails that are usually sent to our clients
No quoted rate: The usual rate as stated on our website (www.crankycrowbandb.com) is $per night for the rooms in questionThe *** family told us that as long as we were “TLA Friendly” that they would do business with usWe repeatedly asked them to submit to us the current TLA rate so we could write up their receiptThey never did so we conducted an internet search for current TLA rates for KodiakOur search yielded a rate of $for a family with children (we did not charge them extra for the mother in law accompanying them), so that was the rate we presented them when they arrived at our property, despite its disparity from our regular rate and the fact that they were asking for it during our busy seasonThey then told us that the TLA rate was $(though no documentation was presented to that effect) and that they wouldn’t pay the rate we had presented themEnclosed are the rate calculators we usedOur usual policy is to not accept pets, and on the rare occasions that we make exceptions we charge a $pet fee, but because the *** are military we allowed their pet and waived the pet feeWe also did not charge our usual cleaning fee
Cancellation policy not presented: Every document sent by us has the cancellation policy immediately following the signature lineWe go as far as recommending Trip Insurance to everyone traveling to Kodiak because of the typical weather/airline/ferry problems that are common to KodiakThis is an issue that we are very sensitive to and ensure that everyone doing business with us understands our cancellation policyOur cancellation policy was reiterated verbally to the ***Enclosed is a sample confirmation email
No contract or rate guarantee: The *** verbally requested that we honor the TLA rateOur attempts to get them to present us with exactly what that rate was for their family didn’t yield results so at the last minute we looked it up ourselves and presented them with the TLA rate and honored our verbal commitment to them
Took photo of credit card: Our usual chetime is 4pmThe *** ferry arrived early on the morning of their cheand they asked us if we could let them check in earlyWe told them we’d do our best and proceeded to turn over their lodging as quickly as we could from the previous tenantsAs a result we were at the property when they drove up at Instead of bringing them to our office to process their credit card, we started to write down their credit card informationThey suggested we just take a photo with our phone as that would be easier
Credit card charged for full amount of stay: The full amount for the time they committed to is $Despite our cancellation policy, because they are a military family and we wanted to make their transition to Kodiak as easy as possible, when they managed to get into base housing early we offered to not charge them for their last nine days if we could find someone to take their reservationWe found someone to take five of those nine days but let them out of the full nine days
They were charged a change fee: We did not impose a fee for changing the length of their stay with usTheir credit card had been charged for the amount of time they had committed toWhen we let them out of their last nine days we had to cancel nine days worth of funds through the credit card companyTheir fee for cancelling a charge is around 3%, which amounted to We did not charge them a change feeThe credit card processing company charged them as a cancellation feeAs can be seen in the texts, they were made aware that there would be a cancellation fee levied, not by us, but by the processing company
We threatened to double the change fee if they cancelled or disputed the charge: Again, we did not impose a fee for changing the length of their stay and we certainly were not threatening the *** with additional chargesThe credit card processing company charges a percentage of the cancelled fundsSimple math dictates that if the *** decide to cancel the entire charge rather than half the charge, the cancellation fee will double
In closing, we feel that not only did the Cranky Crow NOT deal falsely with the ***, the Cranky Crow bent over backward and absorbed a fair amount of expense in dealing with the *** familyWe are grateful for the *** family’s decision to serve our country and we hope that this dialog will help our families live with mutual respect in this small community
Very Respectfully,
Stephanie W***
***SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS REDACTED BY Revdex.com***

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:  I have the sameexact receipt she has not sent me anything I did not already know.  Shehas not resolved our complaint of being charged for an extra night and beingcharged a cancellation fee/change fee.  See below for more explanation.We did not agree to a refund from July 4th to the 15th.  We asked for arefund of the entire stay from our check out date of July 3rd so this includesthe night of July 3rd.  She informed us of the credit card change fee/cancellation fee after she discussed refunding our money for the days that shecould re-rent to other people.  Per the text messages I sent in earlierthis fee changed from $123.49 to $129.We did not stay in her property for the night of July 3rd and did not receiveTLA from the military for this night.  We request this night back in theamount of $330.75 and we also request the change fee back in the amount of$129.00 since this was never agreed upon before staying in her property.I would like to reiterate that she has nothing in writing where we agreed upona rate, date of property rental, or anything regarding her cancellation policyor change fees regarding her billing procedures.Sincerely,[redacted]Sincerely,[redacted]

I hope this will answer any questions regarding the [redacted] request for refund.
 
Please refer to text message photographs asserting the [redacted] agreement of the following in our previous response:
 
·         [redacted] request to rent the property from June 20 to July 15
·         Puffin Place offered to refund guests credit card from July 4 to July 15
·         [redacted] acknowledgement of cancellation fee, aka fee levied by the credit card company to refund a charge that has already been made.
 
I have provided copies of the receipts sent to [redacted].  I made an error when processing their refund by including July 3.  We did not agree to provide a refund for July 3, 2015.  For this reason their credit card was charged for July 3, 2015 as our agreement was to allow them to cancel the balance of their reservation from July 4 to July 15, less the credit card company’s fee to provide this refund.
 
[redacted]SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS REDACTED BY Revdex.com[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
July 29, 2015
  
We never received an email from the owner about renting her property and we were never referred to a website for reference.  All we received were text messages and a verbal agreement via the telephone about renting the property for our allotted TLA amount and the dates of June 19-July 15.  We were upfront and told her that we had a dog and asked if she willing to accommodate us. We also told her that our mother in law would be traveling with us and well as 3 children and asked if her property could accommodate us all.  She said nothing about a cleaning fee or pet fee at the time of our agreement.  We agree, she was very accommodating to us about our stay when we unexpectedly ran into problems with the State Ferry System.  However, she never mentioned a trip insurance policy, her cancellation policy, or credit card change fee during any of our conversations via the telephone or text messages until our situation changed.  If we had known about her stringent policies we would have made other arrangements as flexibility is part of our normal routine.
 
We were not sure of the TLA amount as we had limited internet opportunities during our cross country travels. She was aware of this and had, several times, said that it was no big deal, she would look it up. When I showed up at the property for check in I was not able to tell her the amount because I was still waiting for my husband to let me know the correct amount as he was checking in for work at that time. Stephanie stated that our TLA amount was $315 as she had looked that morning. I replied I was waiting to find out from my husband the correct amount as I thought it would be around $250.  Stephanie then quoted a nightly charge to me of $350, above the TLA amount of $315 previously agreed upon. I asked about the difference and she stated it was because of the pet which she had known about from the beginning when she quoted us a price equal to our TLA. I asked if there was a weekly or monthly fee because I felt like $350 a night was a lot and I was not sure if we could afford it.  She agreed to $315 a night at this point and I ended up leaving the rental until I was able to verify our TLA amount with my husband. We checked in later that afternoon after 4 P.M. and Stephanie said she needed to get our credit card information.  As she had nothing to swipe or even write down the credit card number on I suggested that she take a picture of the card as she was en-route to another appointment. At this point, no electronic, hard copy, or verbal statements of policy regarding changes or cancellations had been made.    
 
On Monday, June 29th, 2015, when we terminated a real estate housing contract that she was in charge of she immediately charged our credit card for the entire stay and sent an email which stated her cancellation policy with the receipt as an attachment. We immediately called Stephanie and asked her why she charged us for the entire stay as we had only, at that point, been in the rental for three days. She stated that we had an agreement and that she had a firm no refunds or cancellation policy. As we had never seen this policy, been told of it upon check in, and we had most assuredly not signed anything with this policy we felt that this was a very poor business practice. She did offer that if she could find other renters she would only charge us for the un-rented portion of the time and that there would be a fee to refund our credit card. The name of this fee has changed back and forth several times from credit card refund fee to cancellation fee as it appears on the final receipt. At this point she was unaware what that fee would total. As our housing opened up early, we were able to vacate at any point from 02JULY15 forward. She stated that she had renters starting on J04JULY15. We stated we would be out of the rental by 03JULY15. She stated that was fine but she would still be charging us for the day of 03JULY15 as well as the cancellation/credit card refund fee she then quoted at $123.49. We vacated the rental at 09:36AM on 03JULY15 and received an email containing the first receipts reflecting the changed dates and cancellation fee on 10JULY15. On the receipt the cancellation fee is $129.00 in opposition to the original quote of $123.49 that she stated was what the credit card company would charge to refund the card. There was also an additional charge, outlined in the email but not shown on the receipt, for the day of 03JULY15 as she stated that she mistakenly refunded us for that day. There has not yet been a receipt given to us for that charge. It was stated that it was on the original receipt but was in fact a separate charge on our credit card statement.
 
The bottom line is the owner was not very professional in her dealings with us as they pertain to this matter. A document, required to be signed upon check-in or confirmed via email, stating her refund and cancellation policies would have prevented much of the heartache this situation has caused. Rates that change, cancellations fees, charge fees that change names, charges quoted at one price and charged at another, receipts taking over a week to process, and dealings conducted by phone and text have made us feel that we have been well and thoroughly taken advantage of.
 
During our transition to Kodiak we kept the owner abreast of our status and changing situation. She knew from the very first time we spoke to her about the possibility of renting her property that we had a dog and 6 people in our party. She was the very first person we called after finding that the Alaska State Ferry would be unable to get us to Kodiak until a week after originally scheduled. At that point she was accommodating and did not charge us anything as circumstances were out of our control. Had she maintained that customer service and professionalism throughout this transaction we would not be where we are today.
 [redacted]See attached text messages as proof of change fee/credit card refund fee being called two different things as well as two different amounts and for the  time and date that we vacated the rental.  Also, please refer to text messages at our attempts to communicate with the owner regarding business transactions.[redacted]
We would like a refund for the night of 03JULY2015 in the amount of $330.75 since we did not stay in the rental and were not made aware of the cancellation policy, as well as, a refund in the amount of $129 because we feel like this charge was unfair and not a good business practice since she kept changing what it was called (i.e. cancellation fee /credit card refund fee) and also changing the amount of this fee.  We were also were never made aware that we would incur this fee if we vacated her property earlier than expected.  So in total we continue to request a refund from the owner in the amount of $459.75.  We would also like a receipt for the extra charge in the amount of $330.75 she made to our credit card for the night of 03JULY2015 that was charged to our credit card on 13JULY2015 since it was never provided to us. 
If you need any other information or proof of our correspondence with the business owner please let us know.  It is our goal to reach an agreement pertaining to this situation and to prevent this from happening to anyone else in the future.
We thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.
 
 Sincerely,[redacted]