Harrah's Rincon pulling scumbag move, need advice

[Grindstone]

Long time lurker here, need advice on a shady situation.

I am a Seven Star account holder at Caesar's, which basically entitles me to the top amenities, priority line service, etc. at most Caesar properties. I say "most" because I can't believe how I'm being treated by Harrah's Rincon upon attempting to book my annual 7 star trip, which basically grants me air fare up to $1200, 4 night comp hotel stay, and limo service between airport and destination casino (so long as the casino is within 50 miles of airport).
Anyways, I book my room and flight with little hassle, but then the host at Rincon denies my complimentary transportation service from San Diego to Rincon once my plane lands in San Diego from Vegas. I figure this was just an inexperienced host and so I figure it will be no big deal to get someone at Rincon to rectify the problem and I'd be all set for my trip.WRONG!

I have argued with at least 3 people at Rincon to get this taken care of and have been repeatedly told that this is their "policy". In fact, the casino manager told me that Rincon does not always follow the policies and procedures as set forth by Caesar's corporate because Rincon considers themselves "sovereign", even when it comes to company policies. I then told them to go fuck themselves and to cancel my trip because I felt disrespected, even though it was only going to cost an extra $100 or so out of pocket. However, I'm feeling a little Druff-esque at the moment and would like to appeal this up the chain of command, or at least do something to fuck with them to stick it up Rincon's sovereign ass.

Suggestions ?

[rum dick]

Is rincon within fifty miles of Lindbergh field? Anyhow, welcome to the rincon experience. Sounds like they haven't changed since i stopped going there five years ago. Pro tip with san diego casinos you need to have personal connections with the local powers that be.

[Dan Druff]

I have a lot of experience with the Rincon recently. Sadly (and not surprising to you), most of that history is of the unpleasant variety.

I will say that most of my bad experiences there have been from the hotel side, and the casino staff/hosts have actually been decent thus far. However, in general it's kind of a shady place, and they also suffer from arrogance because they're the only Caesar's property in California, and they know they will have a steady stream of clientele regardless of how shitty they treat people.

Just to give you a few samples of my Rincon experiences since last year:

- The spa has shorted me on a substantial number of minutes on not but one, but TWO different occasions. The first time, the massage girl tried to cover it up by turning off the clock in the room during the massage, and then the spa mangaer tried to cover up her coverup by blaming it on "daylight savings time". That manager has since been fired, but on my last visit to Rincon, I got shorted again. At least that time the (new) manager was much nicer about it and didn't try any coverup nonsense.

- On several occasions, I was promised hotel rooms, and when I got to the property, they gave the room away. Finally, I arranged a week in advance for a specific room to be held and asked for exact instructions on how to make sure they don't give it away. I followed those instructions to the letter and called right when I left Vegas for the drive to Rincon... only to be stalled on hold for long periods of time and receive nonsensical answers as to why my room might not be ready. ("We still have to clean it, it might not be ready", even though I was 3 1/2 hours away from getting there!) Finally a host admitted to me that they screwed up and again gave away my room, and that the front desk had been spending the last 30 minutes figuring out different ways to lie to me and stall me!

- After being erroneously charged $81 by the front desk, I tried to call to have it removed. An obnoxious operator considered herself the gatekeeper of the front desk, and refused to let me speak to them, telling me, "The front desk doesn't handle billing." I insisted that they were the ones who billed this $81, so they were the ones to remove it. She instead told me I had to call a 24-hour voice mail for "accounting" and leave a message -- a number I knew from experience was never even checked. She fought and fought and absolutely refused to let me speak to the front desk. She even had her supervisor come on and confirm that both would be making sure I never get through to the front desk to speak about this matter. I finally got through by calling back a little later, using my Colonel Fabersham voice, and claiming that there were bedbugs in my room. The front desk told me that the operators were clueless, and that indeed I should have been transferred. When I called the next day and spoke to the #2-in-command at the hotel portion, that idiotic woman again backed the operators' behavior, telling me, "We are trying to keep calls away from the front desk, so they acted properly." When I asked how I was supposed to get the $81 off, she replied, "That's something you need to take up with your host." I finally reached the hotel manager, who was horrified by the whole thing. She told me that everyone involved screwed up royally, and that an operator should never be refusing to connect anyone to the front desk -- only suggesting connecting them elsewhere if they think the front desk isn't the right department. She also admitted that "messages are often ignored on the accounting phone number, but we are working on hiring someone to take care of that." She also admitted to me that the hotel has a lot of customer service problems, and in fact she was recently brought in to fix them. She then promised to remove the $81, but it took yet another phone call on my part (this time the operator transferred me -- LOL) to finally get it taken off. Amazing.

One of the hosts there privately told me that they are sick of the hotel "chasing away some of our best Seven Stars members", and that the hotel has been mistreating guests for a long time.

Hopefully that new hotel manager gets things improved. I will say that my last few stays there were issue-free from the hotel side, aside from the massage-shorting recently.

But back to your situation.

The casino manager is full of shit. They are required to honor all Seven Stars rules. There are some areas of freedom given to individual properties (such as whether they give free internet/pay TV), but the basic features of Seven Stars, such as free rooms (given 48 hours notice), ability to take a Seven Stars trip there, etc are always in force.

You should speak to your host at your home property and complain about this. Typically you are best off booking your hotel portion of the annual trip with the hotel itself, but your home property will have more power (and your interests more in mind) if you raise issue with them.

Last I heard, Rincon does NOT do limo service, but will give you a rental car credit of $200 (not sure if they reimburse you or just give you $200) for your Seven Stars trip. This is the only property I know of that does that.

Call Rincon and ask for a host again. The head host is named Jameson, so you might want to ask for him. The "casino manager" might have been the wrong one to speak to. Ask about the $200 rental car credit.

BTW, you shouldn't take your trip to Rincon unless your goal is to see other things in southern CA. The property itself is in the middle of nowhere, and there's not much to do. There's also only one good restaurant there (Fiore), so you'll go crazy trying to spend your $500 in food. You will need a car to get anywhere else noteworthy in either LA, Orange County, or San Diego, and you are fairly far from everything.

[Dan Druff]

Also, read this, especially the airfare portion: http://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/sho...rs-Annual-Trip

[Grindstone]

Thanks rumdick and Druff for the replies.....I actually feel much more calm now that I know that this wasn't a personal attack on me by their staff, it sounds like they just suck ass in general.

I definitely got the feeling that they have a weird sense of entitlement at this property and I agree with you rumdick that you must have to be "in" with some of these hosts, managers, etc. Ironically, every person in authority I spoke with there spoke in noticeably poor broken English, so not sure if that goes along with it, but whatever.

Druff, I tried speaking with my local host Tony at the Rio, but he claims that his hands are tied because Rincon is the destination property and all amenities, etc. are at their discretion.

They must just figure that I'm not a big enough player to warrant the $200 credit and they want to be hard asses about it. I tried to explain that they don't have the liberty of changing corporate rules, but now the casino manager is refusing to take my calls and the phone operators are screening my calls and REFUSE to let me speak to any hosts or the manager. So fucking frustrating.

Anyways, I think I will just drop it at this point and go somewhere else on my trip,as it seems that the visit to the property will be more headaches and frustration. Thanks again for your input

As a funny sidenote, I too had to use an accent and an alias to break through the host cock-block and speak to a host on duty on my most recent call. The nasty lady host figured out it was me when I dropped the accent, and told me it was against the law to impersonate someone else in order to get through the call screening. I then bluffed her and told her that I had been recording all of my phone calls with them and that I would be going to corporate (which I still might if I can figure out who and where I need to call). She then yelled something in broken English about how it was illegal to record phone calls and slammed the phone down. LOL

[Dan Druff]

I am still confused about this "casino manager".

Casino managers should NOT be arranging Seven Stars trips. I would call back and ask for a host, unless you meant "host" by "casino manager".

As I said, ask for Jameson. The time I spoke to him, he was very reasonable, and he's the head host. Tell him you know about the $200 and want it, and that otherwise it will cost you too much in transportation to get there.

BTW, that operator is a moron. It's not illegal to impersonate people on the phone (though you probably knew that), provided you're not doing it to defraud. You also can't impersonate the police, but putting on a fake accent to get past a power-hungry operator is not against the law.

I don't blame you for wanting to travel elsewhere instead. I don't know if you like New Orleans, but that's not a bad place for a Seven Stars trip. The property is nice, it's got a great location (right by the French Quarter), and you get $500 RCs instead of that stupid $500 dining credit, so you can use the RCs later on (even way after your trip) and don't feel pressured to eat at the property. That's where I went for my trip in 2013.

[Grindstone]

I spoke to 3 different executive hosts (but not Jameson). In each case, the 3 hosts all acted surprised that the previous one had rejected my transportation request and then each of them vowed to "double check" with their boss and make things right, only to call me back each time and say "Yeah, I'm sorry, but our policy here at Rincon is to not provide transportation from the airport on 7 star trips. That's coming from my boss and I'm just relaying the message, sorry." So when I asked who their "boss" was who was making this decision, they told me it was the casino manager and his name was Ahaz. I finally get ahold of this guy and he gives me the same runaround (although I did not know about the $200 rental car reimbursement and instead was under the impression that they were just choosing not to extend their limo service to me). I then contacted my local host and complained and got another dead end there as I explained earlier. All further attempts to contact Ahaz and/or any other host at Rincon have been blocked by the Nazi operator call screeners.

I've heard alot of nice things about New Orleans as a destination for 7 star trip, so thanks man, I'm gonna book there instead. The $500 in RC's is a nice bonus, and I've heard the poker there is also rather decent. Thx again Druff

[Dan Druff]

BTW, don't know if you give a shit about this, but you also get the Seven Stars cruise, and they have them right out of New Orleans, so if you have the time to take off, you can take a (sort of) free Caribbean cruise and get a balcony stateroom for 2. You'll end up paying like $530 for both people in "port charges and fees", and are expected to tip $24/day per room, but it still breaks down to like $700 total for a 7-day cruise for two with a balcony room, which is a great buy.

You can combine that with your Seven Stars trip. That's what I did in 2013. It did cost me some extra because I had more than 2 people, but something to consider.

Also, make sure you read my advice about the airline thing. Don't let them do all of the "work" or you will get some terrible flight.

[Dan Druff]

Also it sounds like Rincon is deciding to cheap out on the rental car thing. They definitely gave the $200 before.

Really lame.

[Belly Buster]

I spoke to 3 different executive hosts (but not Jameson). In each case, the 3 hosts all acted surprised that the previous one had rejected my transportation request and then each of them vowed to "double check" with their boss and make things right, only to call me back each time and say "Yeah, I'm sorry, but our policy here at Rincon is to not provide transportation from the airport on 7 star trips. That's coming from my boss and I'm just relaying the message, sorry." So when I asked who their "boss" was who was making this decision, they told me it was the casino manager and his name was Ahaz. I finally get ahold of this guy and he gives me the same runaround (although I did not know about the $200 rental car reimbursement and instead was under the impression that they were just choosing not to extend their limo service to me). I then contacted my local host and complained and got another dead end there as I explained earlier. All further attempts to contact Ahaz and/or any other host at Rincon have been blocked by the Nazi operator call screeners.

I've heard alot of nice things about New Orleans as a destination for 7 star trip, so thanks man, I'm gonna book there instead. The $500 in RC's is a nice bonus, and I've heard the poker there is also rather decent. Thx again Druff

Is there anything to do off-property at Rincon cos it looks like it's in the middle of nowhere? Sounds to me like New Orleans might be a better destination.

[rum dick]

Thanks rumdick and Druff for the replies.....I actually feel much more calm now that I know that this wasn't a personal attack on me by their staff, it sounds like they just suck ass in general.

I definitely got the feeling that they have a weird sense of entitlement at this property and I agree with you rumdick that you must have to be "in" with some of these hosts, managers, etc. Ironically, every person in authority I spoke with there spoke in noticeably poor broken English, so not sure if that goes along with it, but whatever.

Druff, I tried speaking with my local host Tony at the Rio, but he claims that his hands are tied because Rincon is the destination property and all amenities, etc. are at their discretion.

They must just figure that I'm not a big enough player to warrant the $200 credit and they want to be hard asses about it. I tried to explain that they don't have the liberty of changing corporate rules, but now the casino manager is refusing to take my calls and the phone operators are screening my calls and REFUSE to let me speak to any hosts or the manager. So fucking frustrating.

Anyways, I think I will just drop it at this point and go somewhere else on my trip,as it seems that the visit to the property will be more headaches and frustration. Thanks again for your input

As a funny sidenote, I too had to use an accent and an alias to break through the host cock-block and speak to a host on duty on my most recent call. The nasty lady host figured out it was me when I dropped the accent, and told me it was against the law to impersonate someone else in order to get through the call screening. I then bluffed her and told her that I had been recording all of my phone calls with them and that I would be going to corporate (which I still might if I can figure out who and where I need to call). She then yelled something in broken English about how it was illegal to record phone calls and slammed the phone down. LOL

Get out of there....not worth the drama. If you're gonna continue to stay in the area, the two best casinos nearby are pala and pechanga. Both are nice and close. Personally, id go with pala. Pechanga is bigger and in town (temecula...which has some cool stuff...vineyards and bars and such), but pala is much classier, they recognize and reward quality gamblers quickly and generously, and it's only ten minutes from pechanga and temecula. Lmk if you want the shortcut from pala to temecula/pechanga.