Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Hotel Review: The Furama, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Credit Card Fraud and Poor Customer Service Skills

Hotel: The Furama
Location: Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Alleged Star Rating: 4 Stars
Decided Star Rating: 2-3 to be generous, but I'd take a hostel over this on principle
Cost: About $65 CAD per night on 55% discount through www.Agoda.com, for a ten day stay
Disabilities Access Rating: Strong
Vegetarian Suitability: Moderate
Food Quality: Leaves something to be desired
Cleanliness: Moderate--could have been worse
Location: Very close to Bukit Bintang Times Square Mall
Sleep Quality: Not much sound-proofing, but not busy enough to be a problem
Service: Don't even get me started.
Conclusions: Don't even bother.

Details...


Beds
Beds
Bedroom
Bedroom
Bathroom
Bathroom
Living room
Living room
Fortunately, the only aspect of our wonderful vacation to Malaysia to disappoint us was our stay in the Furama hotel. Now, allow me to disclaim: if you know me in person, you probably know that I am a reasonable and generally nice person, so I do not like to post negative reviews and only do so when my mind is truly blown by the fathomless depths of an establishment’s disdain for its customers. This was one of those times.

This is going to be long, so consider yourself warned if you plan on reading it. For those with shorter attention spans:

tl;dr: Don’t go to this hotel.

Let’s begin by touching on the things we liked about this hotel:

- The concierge staff who put up with the piles and piles of postcards we sent on our vacation, with a smile and good manners. They understood the concept of good customer service, unlike their superiors.
- The marble floors in the front entrance were pleasantly shiny.
- The big yellow sign on the tall building made it easy to find when directing taxi drivers.
- The internet (LAN) was pretty quick. This 'plus' is questionable, however, as I suspect they somehow managed to hack my computer through their network and plant malware on it in order to further steal from me, but I'll get to that momentarily.
- The location was conveniently close to the Bukit Bintang Times Square Mall.
- Disabilities access was quite good; no random steps, lots of ramps, an elevator, and big bathrooms with a phone nearby

And the less impressive, though more-or-less minor things that I would otherwise have been willing to overlook:
- The hotel rooms and upper floors were a bit rundown (chunks of paint torn away, chips and cracks, marks on the walls in the hallways, carpet pulled a little in some areas, that sort of wear and tear that you might expect from 1-3 star hotels but not of 4-5 star hotels)
- Huge ugly pillar in the middle of our room taking up a ton of space
- Dead cockroach in the hallway (very dead, and about 2-3 inches long) which made me question exactly how many living ones were skittering around the place, but as we did not see any others I was willing to write this off as a one-time thing
- Cinnamon Lounge, the little café in the front entrance
-   Excruciatingly slow service
-   Exorbitant prices
-   Donuts so stale I had to cut through it with a knife and couldn’t bear to finish it (this cost me 9 ringgit, by the way, or about $3CAD)
Buffet
-   We only tried the buffet once, in the afternoon. It had a wide selection of options, which was nice, but none of them were particularly good. At best, the food was acceptable, but it was certainly not worth the price.
- Elevators
-   What fresh hell. These elevators are rigged so that you have to use your key card to get to your own floor, presumably for security purposes. This is good in theory, but useless in practice. Not only is it inconvenient to dig out your card every time you get into the elevator and try to push by the other riders to stick the card in really fast and press the button before the elevator has already passed your floor, the logic behind it is flawed.
-   If you wanted to sneak onto another floor for some reason, all you would have to do is get off the elevator at the same time someone else reached their floor and voila, you’re in business to engage in whatever nefarious activities the hotel is worried its patrons will engage in. I know, I must be a criminal mastermind to have figured that out.

Honestly, can’t say I’m surprised that their logic is lacking in this hotel. As with many hotels, I’ve no doubt whatsoever that I could have picked up that dead cockroach, set it on the counter in front of them and they would have jumped into some ridiculous conspiracy theory that I’d sneaked it in from the outside for the sole purpose of tarnishing their precious reputation.

Which, consequently, leads me to my major concern and perhaps the primary reason no one should subject themselves to staying in this hotel: Credit Card Fraud and the poor customer service it managed to provoke.

That’s right ladies and gents, if you don’t feel like you’ve been screwed over quite enough by hotel establishments lately, then you’ll find the Furama right up your alley.

(Fair warning, this post it about to degrade into what is more-or-less a very detailed rant and a set of email exchanges with the hotel, so you may wish to skip it unless it interests you. Seriously, I can rant like nobody's business. You've been warned.)

Now, I am no stranger to the concepts behind Loss Prevention. The focus of my degree, in fact, was Criminology, and anyone who has ever made the colossal error in judgment of stealing from my mother at her workplace will no doubt tell you they’d rather stick their hand in a blender than cross her again, so I know all the sordid stories. And oh, are they sordid! I could devote an entire blog to the subject—but I digress.

To start with, a little note on my bank, the CIBC: these guys are hyper vigilant when it comes to fraud protection. I don’t know how they figured out that someone had made a copy of my card and that it wasn’t just me using it in Malaysia (I’d informed them ahead of time that I would be there), but they did. My credit card requires a pin to use it, but only once in a while. Most of the time, it doesn’t ask me for a pin number, but in some places with more security on their machines I have to enter it. My assumption is that the first time the thief used the copied card (and indeed, it had to have been copied as it remains in my possession and has never left), it worked without question, then the next time it asked for a code and the thief’s inability to enter that code set off a red flag on my account, causing the bank to contact my home in Canada after which the message was passed on to me.

I’m a very, very (Geogirl might even say, obsessively) security conscious person. I keep my cards either locked up or on my person at all times, in an RFID-Blocking wallet specifically designed to prevent the possibility of credit card fraud by people electronically lifting my information from my card as they pass me by in the streets.

My (or Geogirl’s) entire life could be flipped upside down and shaken, and it would be okay, because I have a contingency plan in place for every conceivable possibility. Medical emergency? Covered. Financial emergency? Covered. No access to funds? No worries. Natural disaster? Please, of course I’m prepared for that. End up in a Thai jail for some inexplicable reason that would never happen in a million years? No problem, I already have the number of some Thai/English lawyers just in case.
So, credit card fraud? Yeah, not overly phased. I have fraud protection in place with my bank and as usual, they did a phenomenal job of keeping me protected. Is it inconvenient? Of course. I had to cancel my card, and will have to sign off on some stuff, all of which would not be as big a deal if I was going back to Canada anytime soon, but it’s still doable.

The most important thing though, is that I hardly ever use my credit card. The last thing I used it for was to pay for the hotel (about $700 CAD) online, then it went back into its safe little wallet and was not touched again for the duration of our trip. The only time it left my wallet was at the Furama Hotel when we were checking in, as the copy of my email to them below will show:

Email 1: Sent from me to The Furama

I am not certain to whom I should address this email, but if you could please ensure that it is forwarded to your Human Resources and/or or Security/Loss Prevention Director, I would greatly appreciate it.
...
Dear Director,
I am writing to inform you of a security breach at your Furama Bukit Bintang hotel in Kuala Lumpur. I am currently a patron of this hotel, checking out tomorrow morning, and have recently been informed by my bank in Canada (CIBC) that a fraudulent credit card transaction was made on my account.
My companion, [redacted] (under whose name the room [redacted] was booked), and I (under whose credit card the room was booked) have been booked to stay at your hotel from May 16-26 2013, and we checked in around 1am on the morning of the 17th (due to a late flight). At this time (1am, May 17th, 2013), only one woman appeared to be on staff at the reception desk and per hotel policy she requested my credit card and had me sign a pre-approval form for 400MYR. She took a very long time in doing this, but we thought nothing of it at the time. I mention all of this because this was the first and only time during my trip to Kuala Lumpur that I removed my credit card from my RFID-blocking wallet, and is therefore the only possible time my information could have been compromised as my card has not left my possession at any other time. Whether it was the woman at the reception desk or someone else who would have had subsequent access to customers' credit card information, I do not know.
The fraudulent credit card transaction, according to my bank documents, was made on May 19th, 2013 (posted May 22, 2013), in the form of a Cash Advance in Kuala Lumpur, for the amount of 1000MYR ($350.32 CAD). An additional Cash Advance chequing fee for the transaction was posted on May 22, 2013 in the amount of $5.00CAD. My bank also informed me that several other Cash Advance withdrawal attempts were made following this transaction and were, luckily, declined as they found the activity to be suspicious. Since the transaction was in the form of a Cash Advance for 1000MYR, this incident could not simply be a misunderstanding between the hotel and myself regarding legitimate charges, as I had initially hoped. The only conclusion I can come to, then, is that some individual under your employment is engaged in credit card fraud against your patrons without your knowledge.
I have sorted the matter out with my bank and cancelled my credit card, but seeing as I am in a fairly unique position to have an idea of the exact time and place that my information was compromised (because I use my card so very rarely), I feel I am obligated to inform you of this unfortunate incident in hope that you may be able to take action to prevent this from happening to other patrons. Were I in your position, I would certainly want to know if one of my employees was committing fraud/theft on my premises and jeopardizing the reputation of my establishment in the process. I trust that you feel the same.
Should you need to get in contact with me again, you may reach me at [redacted]. Alternatively, we can arrange to speak over Skype (my Skype address is [redacted]) or I can call you directly if provided with a phone number and date/time to do so as we are returning to Thailand tomorrow night.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Best regards,
Ms. [redacted]
P.S., I would like to note that while this experience was indeed disappointing and inconvenient, throughout my stay here your concierge staff on duty between May 17-26 have been very helpful and friendly and should be commended for their exceptional customer service.


Pleasant Response from the Marketing and Communications Department, May 27th:

Dear Ms [redacted],
Thank you for your detailed email of the credit card incident.
I have forwarded your report to the management and we are looking into this matter without hesitation.
Kindly provide us with 3 working days to investigate upon which the Manager in charge will advise you on our findings.
In the meantime, please accept our regrets for any inconvenience caused and we are happy to know that you had a pleasant stay with us overall.
Kind regards,
[redacted]
Marketing Communications [redacted]


Disappointing Response from the Safety and Security Department (decidedly unrelated to their public relations department), May 30th:

 Dear Ms.[redacted],
Greetings from  Furama Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. Thank you for your concern regarding your credit card transaction while you were on vacation in Malaysia.
Regarding your allegation that our hotel associate are involved in credit card scam is untrue and baseless accusation. We’ve carried out further investigation by interviewing the associate who checked you in to the hotel. She received your credit card for verification and it was certified with your password. The associate did not move away from your view nor did she gave the card to anyone. Any clone credit cards are used to purchase valuable items and clone cards cannot be used to make withdrawals from ATM machine as that need your personal pin code or password number to make withdrawals. The documentary evidence of your reservation through agoda.com confirmed that, you have utilized the same credit card when making payments for your hotel reservation. For your information, the Asia Pacific credit card risk management regional director has confirmed that, clone credit cards are not able to withdraw cash from ATM machines. Please provide your monthly credit card summary to verify with the bank to scrutinize the location and CCTV footage to identify the person who have made the withdrawals.  Sorry for the inconvenience caused.
With Regards.
[redacted]
Security & Safety [redacted]

And my response, May 30th:

An "untrue and baseless accusation"? I see. I think you will find upon rereading my email that the tone was not in fact one of accusation and I did my best to handle the situation objectively while providing your establishment with an opportunity to redeem my opinion of the hotel. For the record, I do not appreciate the implication that I am lying or throwing around false accusations, and I find it disappointing that you have so little respect for your customers.
Well, thank you for your time. As a travel blogger, I will take our exchange into consideration when posting my reviews.
Best regards,
[redacted]


I’m really not into accusing people of things, and would never do so if I was not certain the accusation was fair. I generally prefer to see the best in people. In this case, objectively, I know that sometimes individuals do stupid and shitty things on their own accord and that it isn’t usually fair to consider the actions of one person as a reflection upon their establishment/group. I also accept, objectively, that it is always possible that my judgments are mistaken.

In other words, this email exchange was an olive branch. This was an opportunity for the Furama to deal with an unpleasant situation that left one of their paying customers displeased, and to do so gracefully. Had they responded that they had been unable to locate the individual responsible but that they were very sorry that my experience with them had been regrettable and left it like that like their Marketing and Communications department had, I would have been satisfied and my review of this hotel would have consisted of the sentiment that it was ‘okay’.

I did not accuse the hotel of being in the wrong, I explained the situation as thoroughly and nonjudgmentally as I am capable, especially considering how upset about it I was when I found out, and I asked for nothing but for them to look into the matter. $700 CAD on this hotel was a huge waste of money that could better have been spent elsewhere.

The fact of the matter though, is that instead of handling the situation gracefully, they went the much travelled route of victim blaming. Yep, they went there. There have been many occasions that I have reamed people out in my lifetime for blaming victims of crime. But who else could be responsible for crime, you ask? Surprise, it’s the criminal! If someone is stabbed in the street, is it their fault for not being more stab-proof? No, it’s still the criminal’s fault. If someone has their money stolen, shouldn’t they have been more careful with it? Actually, the thief should not have stolen it in the first place.

If you want to throw blame around, at least put it on the person that is actually responsible for committing a crime. I don’t know what it is in society that makes us think it is acceptable to victim-blame, other than some deep seated psychological need to believe that the world is really a just place and that bad things only happen to bad people and good things only happen to good people, but I’ll tell you what: it’s a false belief. They could have taken any other route to responding to me, but they went the way of victim blaming. This was a very, very bad idea on their part. I gave them a chance to redeem themselves, and they failed to take it (leading a horse to water, you know the drill).

At this point, whether or not they were involved in the credit card fraud is inconsequential to me.

Who knows, maybe I was way off base. But their pitiful failure at customer service has done a disservice to their reputation and has only worsened my opinion of the hotel.

So in conclusion, if you don’t feel like wasting your hard earned money on a disreputable establishment that does not have the best interests of its customers in mind, don’t bother with the Furama.

Update: Inexplicably, magically, my brand new credit card was compromised while I was in Thailand and someone in KL Malaysia was committing yet more theft. This is a credit card that had been activated for only two weeks and was never used, never even left the apartment, and had only one internet charge on it. It is therefore my not-uninformed opinion that The Furama may also be engaging in computer crime as mine was the only computer connected to their LAN internet and is the only one seemingly affected. Unless a magical fairy broke in and stole my well-guarded information, this is the only logical conclusion I can reach. The Furama is the hotel that just keeps on giving, isn't it?

-LuckyStar

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