It took just over a week, but I just got a nice form-letter apology from the franchisee. While relatively impersonal, they did say they’re sending us a free night voucher in the mail. I guess they got my address from the check-in system.

So color me shocked, I never really expected a reply. Now the final test: does the voucher actually get here? 🙂

I wouldn’t be as irritated if I had been told up front, but here’s the story:

My wife and I checked in to the RedRoof Inn in Peoria, IL. After patiently waiting for a basketball team to get checked in (it takes awhile for one person behind the desk to get 10 rooms sorted out and paid for in cash), it came to be my turn. We reserved their “all-inclusive” king which is supposed to have free wifi and other stuff. During the checkin process, the front desk jockey asked me if I had a laptop. I commented that we had multiple laptops, to which she didn’t respond.

Fast forward to about 15 mins later when we’re all settled in, and I hop on to quickly check my email. I use this pre-paid card to get on the wifi, with little fuss. About 10 mins later, my wife had actual stuff to accomplish on her laptop, online. She tries to sign in, but it keeps kicking her out. So, I go back to the front desk to complain, and they tell me that the card only works for one machine, and that I’d have to buy another card. I grumble a bit, but I buy their card, and stand around for awhile while the night shift guy fumbles around getting the card activated. I get back to the room and get her all signed up, but their site keeps re-directing me back to the prepaid card pin screen in the middle of the process. So, I switch over to IE, and this time when I’m re-directed there’s an error message saying that the pin is invalid, and to call support. I call support, explain this whole story, and promptly get disconnected. I call back, and they run the PIN, and tell me the card hasn’t been activated, and I need to go back to the front desk.

I get back up to the front, and update the night shift guy on the situation. Without an apology yet for this whole fiasco, he tries to activate the card again. Then he grabs another card from the shelf, and activates it.

I’ve done some digging around, and nowhere on the RedRoof Inn site, on the prepaid card, or on T-Mobile’s FAQ’s do they ever bother stating that you only get to use the card for one device.

I’m letting Guest Services know about this, so we’ll see if they care more than the night shift does.