Hi, me and my wife are left very much appalled and frustrated over the poor management rendered by Fragrance's Hotel and its supposedly 'senior' staff. We do not wish future holiday makers to suffer the same unjustice as we had, so please publish this letter to the better good of the public.
We are regulars at the family budget hotels in Geylang. Me and my wife always go there for a short holiday and food whenever we are able to take time off work. It had always been enjoyable and Hotel Fragrance, amongst other more family suited hotels like Hotel 81 had always been our favorite. But the incident some time ago made me consider spending my bucks at more reliable hotels. Fragrance, no matter the restructuring and revamping, just doesn't deserve it. The staffs, even the manager I suppose, was simply low class and horrendous.
Our last stay with this unpleasant incident was at Fragrance Sunflower. I had to make urgent business and personal calls that night and my cell phone was dead. Now, as with my experiences with other family budget hotels like Hotel 81, all you have to do was pay a sgd 1 dollar for use of the room's phone for all local outgoing calls the next 24 hours till check-out, in which the staff will very kindly and politely tell us the charges before use. There were even hotels in the same district where local out going phone use was simply free. This is common sense; if a service or commodity is rendered chargeable, it is your responsibility as a staff to inform the user of the relavant charges, and thereafter the user will decide the option to use it or not. There should never be any hidden costs.
When I rang up the staff at the reception that particular night to express my need to use the phone in the room, the staff simply connected the phone line and did not rely to me that it was chargeable. And, as with my past experiences earlier mentioned, if there was no mentioning, it just meant that there was completely no charge. I was very disturbed the next morning when I needed to use the phone again and realised the line had been cut, and when I rang up the reception she told me that as there was a charge of 12 dollars to the phone bills already according to their un-mentioned rate, so she had to cut off the line till I pay up last night's usage. I find this absolutely ridiculous. I had used the phone less than 45 mins and there was an unknown 12 dollars charge which I unjustibly had to pay. The hotel room stay was only 50+ and I had to pay a good 5th on hidden phone bills? Now, the issue here isn't about the sum of the bills, 12 bucks is nothing. But how can you run a business this way? Isn't it your staff's responsibility to inform me of the charges should there be any so that I can decide whether I will be using it? Who in the world will want pay a 12 dollars phone bill for a 45 mins usage when there's a 10 cents public pay phone just around the street? And isn't it a really ridiculous thing that the phone bill should cost a good quarter or fifth of the hotel stay? What kind of exorbitant 'hidden' charge is this?
Alright, never mind, I didn't wish to spoil my wife's holiday stay, so I held my composure and just told the staff very nicely that it really isn't right to inform the charges thereafter only. She should rely to us the rates on first hand before usage (which was so much higher than a public pay phone). But to my suprise, the staff told me that she was already very nice as she did not charge us another 10 dollars more for room usage as we had called in to ask whether there were any available rooms yesterday instead of a walk in. NOW, what is this? More hidden charges again? This staff DID not tell me that phone enquiry on the room was chargeable at all. Nothing was mentioned when I rang up yesterday. Is this the way your management practice business? This is rubbish really.
When we checked out at the counter, the staff held us back and said that the manager wanted to talk about the phone bills which I had made my intension clear that I was not going to pay. What was really horrendous and made this trip a nightmare was the low class manager. First, he can't speak English, only Chinese. Ok, not an issue. Then, he threatened us that he was going to report to the police for us not paying the hidden phone bill. His attitude was really horrible. I thought there was going to be an apology on his part, but no, he was really bent on getting the unjustified bill settled. This were the unbelivable comments from Fragrance's Manager, a supposedly senior Management staff-
1. I will make a police report if you don't pay.
2. It isn't my staff's responsibility to inform you of all the charges.
3. If she needs inform you of everything, there will be so many things to inform you. There is no end to the list of things she need inform you.
4. Use your common sense, don't you need pay when you use the public pay phone?
5. Use your common sense, does my staff tell you to check out after a day? If not, why you still know how to check out yourself? You mean if she never inform you of the checkout time, you going to tell us you don't need to checkout?
Well, belive it or not, these are the horrendous comments made by a supposedly Senior Management staff of an SME. So in what way do you deserve any credibility Fragrance? With a manager that kept mocked the 'common sense' of a paying customer, well, in the first place your management practice is the only thing with completely no common sense whatsoever. This is the biggest joke I have ever been told really. For someone to ask me if I need pay on a public pay phone? Well, the issue here is that I KNOW the public pay phone costs me only 10 cents per minute, unlike your hidden phone service, which was a use and extort me thereafter. And, yes, Mr Manager, I do checkout even if the reception does not inform me to, as I had only paid the stay of a day, which I jolly well know the rate before making the decision to stay too.
I was left so shocked and disturbed, me and my wife just left. I can't even be bothered to argue with the Manager.
Last week was my birthday, and guess what?
My wife wanted to stay in Fragrance but another branch, and after I flashed my IC, the staff told me Fragrance had put me on 'blacklist' and that I am no longer qualified to stay at any of their branches. Wow! This is really the biggest joke of the year. To blacklist a victimised customer, so where should I go to 'blacklist' you Fragrance?
