Joseph Sheppard

I reported in this forum last month that I was the victim of a swindle when
I paid the MinOtel International Americas Division in advance for rooms in
France, Italy and Switzerland. MinOtel closed down its Americas Division
which was under the direction of Anne Balke. According to a MinOtel
representative, Ms. Balke did not forward payments made by customers to the
home office and was terminated. However, MinOtel continues to refuse to
take responsibility for the actions of their authorized agent in the United
States.

I have posted my story and all supporting documentation at the following
website:

http://www.MinOtelRipOff.com

Enjoy!

Joseph Sheppard

After not being able to get any response from MinOtel Internation after
they cancelled $1630.00 worth of room nights for my family of five to stay
in three European countries last month, I opened a complaint website at:

http://www.MinotelRipOff.com

In less than 24 hours, Pierre Goy, President of MinOtel International sent
me an email.

Anyone interested in what Mr. Goy had to say is welcome to visit the site,
and click "MinOtel's Response".

nitram

On Sat, 06 Nov 2004 14:29:10 GMT, Joseph Sheppard <[email protected]>
wrote:

    >After not being able to get any response from MinOtel Internation after
    >they cancelled $1630.00 worth of room nights for my family of five to stay
    >in three European countries last month, I opened a complaint website at:
    >http://www.MinotelRipOff.com
    >In less than 24 hours, Pierre Goy, President of MinOtel International sent
    >me an email.
    >Anyone interested in what Mr. Goy had to say is welcome to visit the site,
    >and click "MinOtel's Response".

I'd say that Minotel have an internal problem and that they owe you
compensation.
--
Martin

Ulrich Neumann

Joseph Sheppard wrote:

    > I have posted my story and all supporting documentation at the following
    > website:
    >
    > http://www.MinOtelRipOff.com

Having read MinOtel's fax in which they cancel the hotel reservation
because of non-payment I am wondering why they advise the hotel
expressis verbis to charge the highest daily rate.

What is the rationale behind this? To me this seems like rubbing salt
into the wound...

Ulrich

Charles Hawtrey

Joseph Sheppard <[email protected]> wrote:

    >After not being able to get any response from MinOtel Internation after
    >they cancelled $1630.00 worth of room nights for my family of five to stay
    >in three European countries last month, I opened a complaint website at:
    >http://www.MinotelRipOff.com
    >In less than 24 hours, Pierre Goy, President of MinOtel International sent
    >me an email.
    >Anyone interested in what Mr. Goy had to say is welcome to visit the site,
    >and click "MinOtel's Response".

Mr. Goy's response suggests that Minotel is not a competently run
business. Regardless of whether you ultimately are compensated,
things never should have reached this point.

Thanks for the warning.



--
"... a political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the
facts is not a person you want as your Commander in Chief".
George W. Bush Oct 26, 2004

Joseph Sheppard

That really did upset us. I tried to explain to their customer service
rep, that this was the only chance they would have to make this thing
right. I suggested several things that would help. First off, that they
step up and give us the rooms we paid for. After that, I suggested that
they at least offer us some kind of discount. They flatly refused.

The whole time, the person on the phone was telling me about how much
money MinOtel had lost. I pointed out that they hadn't lost anything in
my case, because they weren't doing anything to fix it. I was the only
person out any money. Then she lamented about how much damage it had
done to their reputation. I told her that they could certainly limit that
kind of exposure by doing the right thing. But, they just couldn't see
themselves as anything other than victims in the situation.

I operate a business too. If one of my employees did something like this
to my customer, I'd make it right with the customer first. Then, I'd
deal with the employee myself.

When I asked MinOtel why they didn't contact me, they said that they
thought Anne Balke (their former Agent) would. I laughed and said, "Did
you really think that after stealing my money, she would call me and tell
me she did it?". Stone silence on the other end.

A big problem in business is that managers allow lower level employees to
handle things like this, and duck responsibility in hopes that the
grievant will just go away. I guess a lot of people do give up, because
they don't have the time or resources to fight something like this. If
they were in the US, I could take this to small claims court. But, I
can't go to Switzerland and sue these people. All I can do about it is
let people know how MinOtel conducts business and they can decide for
themselves if that is where they want to spend their tourist dollars.

As for Anne Balke, she seems to have vanished. My research shows that
before going to work for MinOtel, she specialized in tours to Mexico.
Mr. Goy claims that she owes his company "a small fortune". Hmmm...

Thanks for your comments.

Ulrich Neumann <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

    > Joseph Sheppard wrote:
    >
    >> I have posted my story and all supporting documentation at the
    >> following website:
    >>
    >> http://www.MinOtelRipOff.com
    >
    > Having read MinOtel's fax in which they cancel the hotel reservation
    > because of non-payment I am wondering why they advise the hotel
    > expressis verbis to charge the highest daily rate.
    >
    > What is the rationale behind this? To me this seems like rubbing salt
    > into the wound...
    >
    > Ulrich
    >

Tim

"Ulrich Neumann" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Joseph Sheppard wrote:
    >> I have posted my story and all supporting documentation at the following
    >> website:
    >> http://www.MinOtelRipOff.com
    > Having read MinOtel's fax in which they cancel the hotel reservation
    > because of non-payment I am wondering why they advise the hotel expressis
    > verbis to charge the highest daily rate.
    > What is the rationale behind this? To me this seems like rubbing salt into
    > the wound...

Yes, I thought exactly the same thing. It is entirely up to the hotel
what they charge a customer who turns up without a prior reservation.

ISTM that this act reflects very badly on the main organisation as it
seems to imply some prior expectation of the event.

There is also the question of, if they cancelled the hotel booking
14 days before arrival, why did they not tell the customer that
this was going to happen to give him a chace to make alternative
arrangements.

To me this all looks like a deliberate scam from stat to finish

tim

Go Fig

In article <[email protected]>, tim
<[email protected]> wrote:

    > "Ulrich Neumann" <[email protected]> wrote in message
    > news:[email protected]...
    > > Joseph Sheppard wrote:
    > >
    > >> I have posted my story and all supporting documentation at the following
    > >> website:
    > >>
    > >> http://www.MinOtelRipOff.com
    > >
    > > Having read MinOtel's fax in which they cancel the hotel reservation
    > > because of non-payment I am wondering why they advise the hotel expressis
    > > verbis to charge the highest daily rate.
    > >
    > > What is the rationale behind this? To me this seems like rubbing salt into
    > > the wound...
    >
    > Yes, I thought exactly the same thing. It is entirely up to the hotel
    > what they charge a customer who turns up without a prior reservation.
    >
    > ISTM that this act reflects very badly on the main organisation as it
    > seems to imply some prior expectation of the event.
    >
    > There is also the question of, if they cancelled the hotel booking
    > 14 days before arrival, why did they not tell the customer that
    > this was going to happen to give him a chace to make alternative
    > arrangements.
    >
    > To me this all looks like a deliberate scam from stat to finish

Why don't you take the U.S. division to Small Claims Court ?

jay
Sat Nov 06, 2004
mailto:[email protected]


    >
    > tim
    >

Joseph Sheppard

Go Fig <[email protected]> wrote in news:061120040951374688%[email protected]:

    > In article <[email protected]>, tim
    > <[email protected]> wrote:
    >
    >> "Ulrich Neumann" <[email protected]> wrote in message
    >> news:[email protected]...
    >> > Joseph Sheppard wrote:
    >> >
    >> >> I have posted my story and all supporting documentation at the
    >> >> following website:
    >> >>
    >> >> http://www.MinOtelRipOff.com
    >> >
    >> > Having read MinOtel's fax in which they cancel the hotel
    >> > reservation because of non-payment I am wondering why they advise
    >> > the hotel expressis verbis to charge the highest daily rate.
    >> >
    >> > What is the rationale behind this? To me this seems like rubbing
    >> > salt into the wound...
    >>
    >> Yes, I thought exactly the same thing. It is entirely up to the
    >> hotel what they charge a customer who turns up without a prior
    >> reservation.
    >>
    >> ISTM that this act reflects very badly on the main organisation as it
    >> seems to imply some prior expectation of the event.
    >>
I can't find them. MinOtel no longer lists an Americas Division on their
website. All the phone numbers are disconnected. The
[email protected] address does not send back a bounce, but there is no
reply.

If anyone here is in the vicinity of Highland, Illinois, I'd be
interested to know who is at this address:

MINOTEL
1207 Oak Street
Highland , Illinois 62249.


    >> There is also the question of, if they cancelled the hotel booking
    >> 14 days before arrival, why did they not tell the customer that
    >> this was going to happen to give him a chace to make alternative
    >> arrangements.
    >>
    >> To me this all looks like a deliberate scam from stat to finish
    >
    > Why don't you take the U.S. division to Small Claims Court ?
    >
    > jay
    > Sat Nov 06, 2004
    > mailto:[email protected]
    >
    >
    >>
    >> tim
    >>
    >

Michael

"Joseph Sheppard" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected] news.com...
    > After not being able to get any response from MinOtel Internation after
    > they cancelled $1630.00 worth of room nights for my family of five to stay
    > in three European countries last month, I opened a complaint website at:
    > http://www.MinotelRipOff.com
    > In less than 24 hours, Pierre Goy, President of MinOtel International sent
    > me an email.
    > Anyone interested in what Mr. Goy had to say is welcome to visit the site,
    > and click "MinOtel's Response".

Well done, many people would have given up long ago.I hope that they
actually follow through with some meaningful compensation for the stress and
inconvenience.

Joseph Sheppard

"Michael" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

    >
    > "Joseph Sheppard" <[email protected]> wrote in message
    > news:[email protected] news.com...
I was laying in bed a few days ago thinking about this thing. I've got
an really good shot at being compensated by my Trip Interruption
Insurance. But, it was just getting to me that these guys treat people
this way and don't suffer any consequences.

The thing is with insurance, when they pay claims like this, all of us
pay higher rates as a result. It just isn't fair.

So, I'm laying there trying to figure out how I could get publicity on
this and then I thought, "DUH! You know how to put websites together".
$15.00 to directnic.net, and a few hours later the thing was online.

I received another email from Pierre Goy today. He is offering me all
the money back. But, he doesn't take into consideration the extra money
I had to pay to replace his hotels. Even his two hotels that I did keep
followed the company advice to charge me the highest available rate. So,
I rejected his offer. He may come back with a higher offer, he may not.
If I do get paid from Minotel, I'll cancell the Insurance claim, or send
Travelguard the money if their check gets here first.

I just got a massive American Express bill that would have been about
half the size if not for this fiasco.

The latest Pierre Goy email can be found at:

http://www.minotelripoff.com

Click "Minotel's Response".

Thanks for your comment.

    >> After not being able to get any response from MinOtel Internation
    >> after they cancelled $1630.00 worth of room nights for my family of
    >> five to stay in three European countries last month, I opened a
    >> complaint website at:
    >> http://www.MinotelRipOff.com
    >> In less than 24 hours, Pierre Goy, President of MinOtel International
    >> sent me an email.
    >> Anyone interested in what Mr. Goy had to say is welcome to visit the
    >> site, and click "MinOtel's Response".
    >
    > Well done, many people would have given up long ago.I hope that they
    > actually follow through with some meaningful compensation for the
    > stress and inconvenience.
    >
    >
    >