In For a Penny...

...Out of a marriage, apparently.

I received an entertaining phone call yesterday while at work, from a frequent guest of the hotel. He stays fairly often, usually coming in very VERY early. He once came in at 8 in the morning, when check-in's at 3. He then called hourly to ask if a room was ready. His reason for coming so often? To cheat on his wife.

As you would imagine, he does not want any record of this on his credit card. So he always pays cash. Unfortunately for him, upon his latest stay the guy who checked him in didn't round correctly, and one cent was charged to his credit card.

Now, I should mention that this was an error on the hotel's part. If there is a balance for one cent when checking someone out, the clerk is supposed to make a cash adjustment. Why? Because that penny will not cover the cost of the transaction fee from Visa/Mastercard/Amex/Discover, so it's best to just not do it. Unfortunately for the cheater, the girl who checked him out is a lazy idiot, who has since been fired. Not that that really helps him now.

So now there is a charge for one cent on this guy's credit card, and he wants it removed. I've seen my manager make refunds after a guest has checked out, but I can't remember how to do it, so I tell him that I'll have my manager do it when he's there. He says okay, as long as it's removed, and wants me to call him back to tell him it's been removed.

I wonder if this guy knows how credit cards work. It can't be removed, it can just be credited back. The transactions will still be there. So he'll just have to hide the statements from his wife this month. Or better yet, just not cheat in the first place. It's called divorce.