Semi frustration with Universal's Hotel only pre-pay system

[Iheoma]

Hi Everyone,

We're in the final week before our vacation and I wanted to pay off our hotel room in advance. I followed the instructions on the Credit Card Authorization form and sent in my Drivers license, credit card and the completed form. I called this morning just confirm that it was received and got the run around. First no one has answered the phone in the accounting office, then the central number (listed on the form) said that they don't process the form and told me that the hotel directly processes the form. I got transferred to the front desk who transferred me to an accounting department that never picked up the phone. I called the front desk back and the clerk told me to fax in the form again. because they "don't know" if the the accounting department received it. I really don't get why Loews doesn't do this over the phone or online. Does anyone else have some recent experiences on how long it takes for this form to be processed and suggestions on if I should fax it directly to the hotel. I DO NOT want to be charged twice for a hotel bill. TIA

 

[macraven]

sounds like you really got the run around on that.

i'm sure you have a headache over trying to work this out.

i haven't heard of anyone having the issues you are going through.


there are a few posters here that do the pay in advance and it has gone smooth for them.

i'm hoping they will come and help you with your situation.

i did the forms for pre paying over time before i arrived some years back.
only went that route once as i prefer to pay when i check out.
my experience was good but i only did the prepay once.

 

[diskids2]

I sent you a PM.

 

[Iheoma]

THanks for the help ladies.

 

[macraven]

I sent you a PM.

can you share what the solution is in taking care of the prepaying setup?

it would help others if they would have the same problem.

 

[Iheoma]

So, I was totally swamped at work yesterday morning and I decided that I was *not* going to call Loews until the afternoon. UNTIL I got an email from Loews billing department with a copy of the receipt from my first night's deposit with the message, "per your request here is the receipt." That kinda mad me a little, just a bit, TOTALLY annoyed!!

So I called the person on the email (in Tenn.) and told him that I just wanted to be sure that my fax was received for the remainder of my stay, not the deposit only. I told him I was really trying to give them money in advance and didn't he want to take it? He was really nice and over the next hour kept me on the phone while he attempted to find someone in Florida to actually take the money (which was significant money). Eventually, he spoke with the ONE person in Orlando who processes advance payment and she said that she would process the payment later that afternoon.

So when I told my laid back DH about this - he says, "Why did we pay in advance again?" He's right - good question to which I didn't have a good answer for. So here's the lesson I learned from this - I will not pay Universal in advance again. It's just not worth the worry of sending such identifying information to a fax that can't be followed up with a person and I spent WAY too much time on it. BTW the payment was processed around 6:00 p.m. yesterday.

 

[Bluer101]

We always pay the one night deposit and then pay cash at checkin. This summer we are using a MasterCard gift card. For us instead of prepaying, we just put the money in a separate account leading up to the trip, then withdraw to have fun.

 

[Iheoma]

We always pay the one night deposit and then pay cash at checkin. This summer we are using a MasterCard gift card. For us instead of prepaying, we just put the money in a separate account leading up to the trip, then withdraw to have fun.

That's what I will do next time. We have a dedicated vacation savings account that we use for trips as well but I now I know it's just better to pay in person with this set of hotels. Interestingly, I've never had problem before with Loews