If You Stay At Golden Nugget, Keep An Eye On Your Credit Card Statements

Where: 129 E. Fremont St. [map], 89101

September 5, 2012 at 1:00 PM | by 702Becca | Comments (10)

We have all been there before.

You're looking at your bank or credit card statement when that what the hell? moment comes. A reaction usually sparked by an unexpected charge or fee. So, imagine how VegasChatter reader Rachel K. felt when she was charged three times for a Vegas vacation that only happened once.

Rachel originally booked a stay at downtown's Golden Nugget in mid-July, but before she even arrived she was hit for the entire cost of her stay -- about $530 bucks. And then, charged for it again. And, she wasn't the only one. After discovering the second charge, Rachel learned from the Golden Nugget's reservation department that a "good number" of guests were in the same boat. She was eventually able to have the second charge reversed about a week later.

After hearing of Rachel's tale, VegasChatter reached out to the GN and spoke to an executive who told us a third of guests had been double charged during a two-day period in July and that all the charges had since been reversed. So, with the GN apologetic and Rachel with money back in her account, we thought all was good.

Until Rachel emailed us over this past holiday weekend.

She had been charged. Again.

After raising concerns on Yelp regarding the new double charge, Rachel was contacted by a Golden Nugget representative who asked her to get in touch with their accounting department. So, she did. Except, every time she called, the phone went straight to voicemail. And, no one called her back. For days. On Friday, a real person finally dialed her up to let her know that the same accounting issue that was blamed for the first double charge was to blame again. Even worse, though, is that as of this morning (Wednesday, September 5) Golden Nugget had still not reversed the duplicate charge.

We're reaching out to the Golden Nugget for comment. In the meantime, if you've booked a reservation at Golden Nugget or have stayed there recently, it's probably best to keep a close eye on those bank or credit statements. And, you're fingers crossed.

(PHOTO: Golden Nugget on Foursquare)

Comments (10)

Return to » If You Stay At Golden Nugget, Keep An Eye On Your Credit Card Statements

I wonder if someone at the GN is trying to skim money off of people who potentially don't check their credit card bills.

Thanks for posting this story. This is exactly the kind of thing that would prevent me from staying at the GN. Not only that it happened in the first place, but that the consumer is having difficulty even getting a response from the company.
It's the anti-vegas.
Who owns the GN these days?

When a company runs a credit card, the transaction goes out to the card issuing bank to be approved. The bank then sends the approval back to the company and their system prints a receipt.

If the call is interupted or there is a communication issue between the point of sale system and the network that processes the transaction, it's possible the card issuing bank may approve the card multiple times.

At that point, the company doesn't know there was an issue because they may only see the transaction processing once on their POS system and not realize there was an issue until the cardholder sees it on their account statement or online reporting.

There are new systems being put out where you're supposed to be able to void out an approval through your POS system, but it's such a new feature, most terminals and softwares don't even have that ability yet.

The part that's sketchy is the transaction being run again weeks later.

Thanks for explaining what might have happened, but how do you explain the response of the GN regarding their communication (or lack of) with the customer?

Landry's owns Golden Nugget currently.

I'm not defending their customer service, I'm just stating what happens from a technical standpoint when you run a credit card and mentioning that it could just be lousy service on the part of GN and not fraud.

I work in the payments industry and we get calls every day because someone's card was authorized more than once from a communication error through an ISP or a telephone company. The usual solution is for the company that ran the card (in this case GN)to call the card issuing bank for the card and request they drop the additional authorizations back to the cardholder's account. In most cases they could clear up the issue within a couple of days if not that instant.

I don't have too much of a problem with the duplicate charges unless it becomes a recurring issue, but they should be bending over backwards to correct it and even offer a credit, free meal or something as an apology.

Their lack of accessibility by phone is unacceptable. That's the key part of this story that GN should be called out on.

After the first set of double charges, Rachel was offered a discounted rate, but that offer has yet to be made a reality. And, now she's been hit with a double charge again for the original rate.

Step #1 should always be the call the credit card company and put it in dispute: They'll hold up the charge and it is on the merchant to prove the charge.

At this point, I'd suggest the property needs to toss in a couple of comped nights or similar "I'm sorry" gesture.

http://www.reddit.com/r/vegas/comments/zhhkb/golden_nugget_charged_me_four_times_for_one_room/

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