Updated every Monday!   Subscribe to free weekly newsletter.

Nonsmoking Hotel Guests Charged Erroneous $500 Smoking Fee

Complaints are beginning to pile up about hotels that has been assessing some guests a $500 smoking fee when they check out. The fee comes as a complete surprise to them because they claim they don’t smoke.

Travel writer Zach Griff had just such an experience at The Pell by Hyatt hotel near Newport, Rhode Island this summer over the July 4th holiday. He writes:

During checkout, I reviewed the hotel folio (which I always recommend doing!) and noticed a $500 smoking charge on the bill.

The thing is, I’ve never smoked, and certainly wasn’t planning to start during the holiday weekend with my [eight-month-old] daughter in tow!

He raised the issue with the front desk, but got a hostile response and no immediate resolution. So he posted a video online and discovered that others had been wrongfully charged a huge smoking fee too at that hotel and others.

The hotel warns on its website that there is a fine for smoking in the room:

*MOUSE PRINT:

No Smoking

We checked some review sites, like Trip Advisor and Yelp, and sure enough others found themselves in the same predicament.

At the center of the controversy is a product called Rest Sensor which is a smoke detector that sends a timestamped notice to the hotel billing system whenever it detects smoke in a guest room. The manufacturer’s pitch to hoteliers to adopt their system stresses the financial benefit to the hotel and the accuracy of the system:

*MOUSE PRINT:

Rest Sensor income

Rest Sensor accuracy

After learning of the writer’s social media video, the hotel general manager reached out to tell him he would make sure his credit card is not charged. And the hotel said he would be getting a refund. As a travel writer, he worried about all the other guests he read about who were fighting for their money back from this and other hotels.

We asked Hyatt corporate management to comment on this issue, but a spokesperson for The Pell responded instead:

A top priority is always to create a comfortable environment for all guests and colleagues. The Pell is a non-smoking property (including cigarettes, vapes and e-cigarettes) and uses sensor technology to help maintain a smoke-free atmosphere and high air quality standards within the hotel. This policy is communicated throughout the hotel and in the guestrooms. At this time, we are looking into this situation further and working to extend assistance to guests who have expressed prior related concerns.

Your comments on this issue are welcome below.

====================================
SIDEBAR: Connie Francis and MrConsumer
====================================

Connie Francis passed away last week at age 87.

Four decades ago when MrConsumer was a consumer reporter at Channel 7 in Boston, he had the opportunity to meet Connie Francis who was being interviewed on the daily talk show of which he was a part. Whenever a celebrity visited, I would always ask if they would be willing to do a “consumer” interview about their purchasing habits, etc.

She said she didn’t think she would be a good candidate. So I gave her an example of a question I might ask. “Let’s say you had a relatively new toaster and it went on the blink… what would you do?” She responded: “I’d have someone get me a new one!”

I smiled but we didn’t do the interview.

Share this story:

 

ADV
Updated every Monday!   Subscribe to free weekly newsletter.

Does CVS Have a New “Scan Right Guarantee?”

MrConsumer was shocked to see a counter sign at each register at his local CVS in Massachusetts a few weeks ago that proclaimed:

cvs scan right guarantee

Under the CVS Scan Right Guarantee, if an item scans higher than the shelf price sign or price in their ad, you get the item free up to $4 or you get $4 off if the item was more expensive.

I asked the both the cashier and the manager about it, and they acted like this was the first time they were seeing it.

Checking with the PR folks at CVS, they discovered that the signs were only meant to be posted in California and somehow they had erroneously shown up in Massachusetts. Good thing, in a certain sense, because our price accuracy guarantee (which MrConsumer authored almost 40 years ago) calls for getting up to a $10 grocery item free (or $10 off a higher-priced item) if it scans wrong. Some states like Michigan have their own bounty law for scanning errors. And some other chains have a similar guarantee.

But what’s this California only CVS price guarantee? There is no reference to it all on the CVS website. In 2011, CVS agreed to settle a case brought by the Los Angeles, Riverside, and Ventura county District Attorney’s offices for almost two million dollars. The company also had to establish a price guarantee. Then in 2015 and again in 2018, the same California DAs settled with CVS for another $2.4-million for scanner errors in each of those years.

This all goes to show that we as shoppers need to be vigilant at the checkout to ensure we are charged the price that was represented to us at the shelf.

======================================
UPDATE: San Diego Digital Coupon Ordinance
======================================

Back in April, San Diego passed a city ordinance requiring supermarkets to provide printed versions of digital coupons in-store for the many people who either don’t have or can’t use the internet or smartphones. Then, a few weeks ago, after lobbying by supermarkets, they were about to amend the ordinance in such a way as to make it completely meaningless because it would not apply to any digital coupons offered via the store’s loyalty card program. Councilors did not understand that all digital coupons only work through such programs.

The day before the vote was to take place, MrConsumer wrote to each city councilor explaining that they were about to make a huge mistake. To his surprise, they listened and deleted the exclusion that swallowed up the rule. And they made compliance easier for stores by allowing them to choose one of several methods by which they could offer equivalent in-store savings to those shoppers who don’t use digital coupons. Whewwww!

The San Diego ordinance gets a second reading soon and is slated to go into effect in October.

Share this story:

 

ADV
Updated every Monday!   Subscribe to free weekly newsletter.

SSA Email Misleads on Elimination of Tax on Social Security

The day after the federal “Big, Beautiful Bill” was passed by Congress, the Social Security Administration sent out this email to recipients:

Email from the Social Security Administration

Besides sounding somewhat political for a federal agency, it gave the false impression that the bill eliminated federal income tax on social security benefits:

The new law includes a provision that eliminates federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most beneficiaries, providing relief to individuals and couples.

Before the bill passed, the Senate parliamentarian ruled that changes to social security could not be made in this type of bill and the provision to not tax social security benefits was completely removed from it.

*MOUSE PRINT:

So how can the Social Security Administration claim the new law includes such a provision? They point to another measure in the law — a new $6,000 senior deduction — that would supposedly offset the income taxes that would otherwise be due on social security earnings for most people. The deduction is applied against other income too, however. And as their income rises, the deduction decreases to zero and is completely phased out after 2028.

Many major media outlets over the weekend reported on the misrepresentation in the email from the Social Security Administration. (See stories from NBC, Washington Post, the New York Times, and CNN.)

I know, some of you will say these are liberal media outlets and are not objective. So, MrConsumer uploaded the entire SSA email to Google Gemini and Microsoft CoPilot and asked these AI services to “evaluate the veracity and factual accuracy” of that email.

Here is what each said about the key claim that the new law contained a provision eliminating income tax on social security benefits:

*MOUSE PRINT:

“The new law includes a provision that eliminates federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most beneficiaries…”:

This statement is inaccurate in its phrasing. As noted above, the law does not eliminate the taxation of benefits, but rather provides a deduction that can lead to many beneficiaries paying no tax on their benefits due to reduced overall taxable income. —Google Gemini

Claim: “The bill eliminates federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most beneficiaries.”

– Misleading. The bill does not change the underlying tax code that governs how Social Security benefits are taxed.
– Instead, it adds a temporary deduction that applies to all income, not just Social Security. This means the tax is still technically in place, but many seniors will owe nothing due to the deduction.
– The deduction phases out for individuals earning over $75,000 and couples over $150,000, and it expires after 2028 unless renewed. — Microsoft CoPilot

What do you think? Did the SSA email cross the line? Offer your comments below, but please do not turn this into a pro or anti Tr–p rant, or a pro or anti political party diatribe.

Share this story:

 

ADV