A friend called with a vacation plan in October, somewhere in California’s natural beauty, for a sort of “male bonding” trip. Five people were contacted for this trip, four of which could commit to the plan at its final stage. I volunteered to arrange for the trip, since I had more time on my hands than other friends. I started by collecting information as to the time, the place, sort of entertainment, mode of transportation, and lodging. A drivable location in California with beautiful autumn features and a rental house where we could be all together and have the freedom to play games and cook, was the final consensus.
After checking various places, the decision was made on two South Lake Tahoe vacation houses (which were available the weekend we planned), listed on two different websites. From the pictures on their websites, they both looked roomy, surrounded with Sierra pines and a beautiful nature, and for comparable prices. Although one of the lodges on a website looked more spacious with more amenities, a place called Cedar Lodge in another site offered an indoor spa in addition to extra night of stay for the same price, as an off-season bonus.So, we decided on the place with one extra day (three of us could use thisadvantage) and indoor spa, called Cedar Lodge. I contacted the manager, Jennifer Jamieson, who explained details of Cedar Lodge without a mention of the extra day. At the end of our conversation I asked her about the extra day advertised, which she confirmed. I was left with a feeling that if I did not bring up the subject of the extra day (one of the determining factors for choosing this place) she would not mention it. I gave Jennifer the benefit of the doubt, as in our society one would unfortunately not receive what is promised, if one does not demand it! I asked her to wait until I confirmedher placewith my friends before making the final decision. Subsequently, I contacted Jenniferand informed her of our agreement to rent the place. At this time, she added another condition, previously unknown to us, that since she normally received payments several weeks in advance and considering that there was not much time left before our vacation date, I had to send hertwo cashiers’ checks, one for the deposit and one for the rental (the website advertised any mode of payment from personal checks to credit cards).This additional transaction was time consuming and costly, that required me to go to the bank and receive cashiers’ checks and pay $15 in fees. But I had already cancelled the other place, my friends had already agreed on this place and we had only a couple of weeks to our vacation.Jennifer also mentioned that if we brought our own bed sheets and towels and cleaned the place before we left, she would refund our cleaning fee, already included with the rent. My friends preferred to use their own sheets and towels, so I asked her for the bed sizes. She informed me that there were all queen sizes. The following day, I bought the cashiers’ checks and mailed them to her address (which was located a couple of driving hours from where I mailed the envelope). I did not hear back from her until the following week, when Jennifer informed me that since it took five days to receive those cashiers’ checks, she rented the place to someone else! However, she had another place with more rooms (without the indoor spa) called Sierra Vista, and it was available! At this point we had no other choice. I told her that when I notified her of sending the money it should have established a reservation;thus we humbly accepted what she offered instead. Jennifer inquired in an e-mail if the party members were able to use stairs, which I replied that we could. She called again with the same question.
It was dark when we got to the destination on a Thursday night. The GPS dropped us in a street with a small hill covered with trees on the left, in the place of the lodge! After rechecking the direction and searching the block for about an hour we realized that the lodge was on the top of the hill behind the trees, and the entrance to the lodge was on another street, after making two more left turns. To add to this, there were about twenty or thirty steps to reach the lodge; explaining why Jennifer was concerned and stressed about our ability of climbing stairs, without telling us how many steps there were!Thus, the distance from the parking to the lodge was a journeyon its own right! Since we brought some supplies, it took us several trips to carry them all to the lodge. Another problem was the combination for the key box, as the key box was old and rusty, and it took a lot of time and effort to open it. In addition to the main entrance door, there was another door in the side patio, each with two locks. It appeared that one of the locks of each door (each had two locks)was forced open, leaving a broken door piece, which we joked that the damages were caused by some frustrated renter who could not open the key box! There were two rooms on the level floor, with two other rooms in the basement, in addition to a loft. All rooms looked much smaller than their pictures, with a cat-walk space around beds. The furniture was extremely old and uncomfortable, and the placewas not as clean as we hopedin general. One of the chairs of the four-people-dining-room was broken, and sitting in the couch and sofa bed would sink one to the floor! We were happy to have brought our bed sheets and towels, as the ones provided were old and ragged. However, the place was sufficient for four of us. Since there was no toilet paper or soap available, and we did not think of bringing those with us, the first thing in order was a trip to buy necessary supplies. The next day I sent an e-mail to Jennifer and, without detailing our adventures, I thanked her for renting the place to us and remarked broken locks and chair to her. She replied that someone was supposed to have the locks fixed the week before, and she would see to that. We lucked out with beautiful weather throughout our trip, and we enjoyed every minute of our excursion. We were also with good company, as each member of the group was resourceful, helpful, and generous in their attitude anddisposition.All and all, we had a good time in our trip, content and rested,drove back towards our homes safely, Sunday morning. I sent Jennifer an e-mail and let her know that we cleaned the place in a way that it looked better than when we arrived, and thanked her again for allowing us to rent the place.
It has been my unfortunate experience that sometimes some individualsdo not treat others in the same manner they had been treated by the same people. In fact, they take advantage of other people’s calm and tranquildemeanors. For example, if someone is respectful and modest and tolerates errors, instead of treating that person the same in return, some try to see how they can take advantage of him, or commonly said how they can squeeze him more. In addition, when someone speaks with an accent, they assume that the person’s lack of command of the language is because of his lack of intelligence in general, and such person can be subjugated and exploited easily.
A week passed and I did not hear back from Jennifer Jamieson. Next Saturday, I contacted her and asked her for our deposit and the cleaning refund. She said that she wrote checks on Saturdays and therefore she had taken care of it same day. Sure enough, the following day I received my cashiers’ check for the deposit, and no other payments. I sent her an e-mail asking for the refund (and mentioning that I had received the deposit check) with no response. After different modes of communication in the next few days, she finally said that she sent me the check the Saturday she claimed, and she was wondering why I had not received it. It took me a range of correspondence to realize that she was acting as if I was talking about the deposit check and not the cleaning fees. After writing to her in black and white and bold and highlighted letters that all I was asking was the refund of the cleaning fees not the deposit, she said that I would not get a refund since we did not use the “self-cleaning option”. Now I realized that she had been trying my tolerance from day one, and since I complied with all her dishonesties, she was taking it to the max. It was not the matter of money any longer, as I told her, but honor! I sent her copies of some correspondence with regards to the fact that she had known about “self-cleaning option” we chose, and was prepared to sue. The response did not take the usual few days, but a few hours!She stated that she did not have clear communication from me for self-cleaning option; butshe would send someone to check the place and make sure that she could refund me the cleaning fees. Another message came back the same day that she was sending me a check.
The economy is tough, there are several wars instigated by our government, costing the nation millions of dollars every day. All and all said, this brand of thiefery is new to me! This experience will not make me change my attitude and behavious towards people however, as I believe most of those living in my community are not like Jennifer Jamieson. Thus, it gave me a lesson that whenever someone is continuously hinting dishonesty, I should take it seriously, expect more,and spread my feelers out!
