MGM charged my Visa for a comped room?

Yes, I was checking my bank statements today and saw I was charged $145.60 for a comped room at the MGM Grand. This was an email offer I received last week for 2 comp nights Sun - Thurs w/free Executive Suite upgrade good until April 2014. Some of you may have received a similar offer.
The itinerary shows no charges, no tax, no balance due, no deposit, and nothing charged to my Visa card. There is a section that shows MLife savings $347.20.

Anyways, this charge is NOT an incidental hold or deposit, the Visa receipt it is a 'sale'.

So I called MGM, was on hold for almost 15 minutes, then a girl answers and says, "Thank you for calling the MGM Grand, I'm hanging up now!". Yup, you guessed it, she hung up and we were disconnected.

So my question is: Is this normal for them to charge you for a fully comped room (except for the resort fee when I'm there)?

I have to leave for work, and don't have time to deal with this now, until Thursday. Has anyone else experienced this lately?

 

They tried the same trick on me in May when I had a comped room. That is why at MGM props I check out in person as opposed to CET props where I check out on the TV because they have their shit together.

They had billed my Visa for a similar amount. They still charged me the resort fee because as they said "the fine print in your offer did not take off the resort fee". Host would not take it off. I recommend people check out in person at MGM props. But that's just me.

Whatever. My next three Vegas trips have me booked at Caesars.

 

Happened to me at Mandalay Bay a couple years ago. i didnt realize they charged me until I got my bill from Visa in the mail. I called in and they said they were having system problems that day and would reverse the charges within 24 hours. They did. But how many other people "that day" didnt bother to check their bills? Good Ol MGM!

 

I worked in customer service for a bank 2009-2012. Just call your bank and dispute the charge. MGM will have to physically prove you approved those charges and when they cant do that, the bank will refund your money.

 

Did you just check out, was it this past weekend? has the charge cleared or is it still pending?

This happens to me everytime I go to Vegas, the charge is "pending" for a few days and then falls off...never been charged

Holds and deposits show up as a "sale" charge for me

 

This just happened to us last month. Me and my BF both had offers for a Bellagio suite, which our marketing rep combined into one offer - of a nicer suite. Well, something got lost in translation because the morning we were leaving, we got an e-mail showing we were being charged $125 a night. I called VIP marketing and they assured me it was a mistake and we wouldn't be charged. Of course we were. VIP marketing still insisted the charges weren't from them and said that we would have to call accounting - which we did. The worst part was the person who fixed the problem issued a credit the very day after I called, but didn't bother to let us know - and if you know how credits work - it take quite a few days for it to show up. So like a week after I called, we finally got an e-mail from someone apologizing and telling us a credit had been issued almost a week before.

 

This happens to me all the time at casinos.
Six months ago Harrah's in AC.They actually gave me the folio which showed $00 balance and a the end of the month my bill shows up with $300 plus charged.
It happened at Paris LV,MGM Grand, and Caesars Palace.
I used to just leave after they told me everything was comped but now I always check out.
Then I always check my CC bill because they add stuff on and think you will miss it.
I'm not sure if it is a communication breakdown between casino marketing and the hotel or if they just do it and figure if 20% of the customers don't catch it they are way ahead.

 

wow, this is crazy that this has happened to all of you. I've never been charged for anything except stuff I've put on the room that wasn't comped.

 

Yeah, that all sucks.

I check my folio on the TV every day to make sure only stuff that's supposed to be there is there. And I've never had my card charged a different amount than what it said when I checked out.

 

A similar thing happened to me a long time ago but worse. The hotel where my wife and I had our wedding reception (here in Houston, not Vegas) charged a portion of the reception charges to my wife's debit card which we used for incidentals while checking into the complimentary suite we got for our wedding night since we had our reception there. The Reception charges had already been taken care of by me with catering using a completely separate card so not only was the charge duplicate but it was a card we never even gave catering. To make matters worse we only discovered this a day later when we were ALREADY on our honeymoon cruise, planned to use those funds for on-ship expenses and the card was declined! I think we I used a backup card of mine instead but ended up having to watch money more closely because of it. It took like two months of dealing with the hotel to finally get it all squared away. The catering manager ended up delivering in person to my wife at her office a HUGE basket of wines, cheeses, coffee, and stuff as an apology.

Guess it isn't just Vegas. That's why I NEVER use debit cards for hotels or rental cars anymore.

 

Debit cards can be the devil.


As to the OP - I have run into charges showing up as actual charges, then clearing in a few days. If not, and no luck calling in, the credit card company will clear it.

 

First, as others said up-thread, make sure it's not a temporary cc hold. Those usually clear within a few days on credit card websites.

If it's an actual charge, then contact the casino first. If you can track down the name of a host to nag directly, all the better.

One of the things that happens to me sometimes, I think, is that the host promises something beyond what's listed in the official mLife offer. Unless you push a bit, the casino just goes with whatever is in the offer. For example, in April I was offered two free tickets to a Boyz 2 Men concert, but asked host to provide comped Love tix instead. Those tickets were not comped automatically on checkout. So I contacted the host, who was not on property that day, and he refunded the charge to my cc within a day or two.

 

This is for my comped suite this Halloween!

This charge was dated July 4th for a sale on the 2nd. Which is when I booked the comped room with zero charges for it.

Will call them again in the morning. I sure as heck better not get hung up on again, or I'm may not be so nice this time!

 

Sorry, with all due respect... if they hang up on you, you can yell and scream all you want. They hung up!

LOL!

 

Same here. Never seen it.

 

Same thing happened to me for a comp booked on the 3rd. Called VIP services and they promptly removed the charge. From what I could gather since they just started allowing comps to be booked online there was a problem with the reservation system.

 

Got through to a CS agent, and are you ready for this?!?!?!
The charge to my Visa, is a deposit for my trip in October. The charge will be removed in October when I show up of course!

Wow, like I told CS on the phone, "I have been with CET for many years, got many a comped room, and only once did I have an incidental hold against my card for a stay..... and it was listed as an 'authorization' on my card, and not a 'sale'."

So they get my money to do what they want with for 15 weeks, then I get it back after I get there.

Anybody else need an interest free loan while I'm on a roll here?