Oilers bouncing cheques to hotels and being sued?

[Oilhawks]

I think the real question is what the heck do you get for $27,000-$28,000 in a stay?

Are they getting 27 rooms at $1000 each, or staying there multiple nights? Looks like it was one night only both trips.

Sounds like a heck of a lot of pay per view and booze from the room mini fridge

 

[Cloned]

Sounds like a heck of a lot of pay per view and booze from the room mini fridge

I’m pretty sure hockey players wouldn’t need to spend money on that kind of pay per view.

 

[Jumptheshark]

I think the real question is what the heck do you get for $27,000-$28,000 in a stay?

Are they getting 27 rooms at $1000 each, or staying there multiple nights? Looks like it was one night only both trips.

Not that hard to get charges that high.

My guess it is not just for single room use. My guess is that the oilers also reserved one or two conference rooms, tea and coffee replenished and maybe Lunch or another meal tossed in.


I hope no one takes this the wrong way, but as someone who has worked for years in hotels from 1 to 5 star. I have scene 27K bills at 3 star hotels, At the 5 star level? my record was tracking down payment? for a payment of just over 2o mill from a government in the middle east when I worked at a 5 star here in London. They had contracts for 30 rooms per night year round, regardless if the rooms were actually used or not and all charges when back to the government. And they paid quarterly--so every 4 months I sent them charges and it was amusing sometimes

27k is not a lot, there are a lot of people who travel with the team that you never see, they need rooms as well

SO, if you think of the old school picture of players closing up the hotel bar at the end of the night, my guess they put it all on their room, team got the bill and the players then paid the team any "disputed charges" the team may have had.

 

[MettleMcOiler]

I find the whole situation odd. I am sure they could have settled the issue without resorting to a lawsuit.

Did hotel management not call the OEG and ask " hey, your check bounced, you need to pay these outstanding fees?"
It's not like they can't afford it.

I find the whole situation is like making a mountain out of a molehill and I don't like how the hotel went about it.



Obviously, the oilers going to rectify the situation because I don't feel it was intentional and puts the whole team in a bad light even though it was a accounting issue.

I would not want to do business with that hotel again if this how they try to solve these problems.

Would they have done it to get publicity for their hotel in the expense of shitting on the oilers brand?

Pretty low if that was their intention.

 

[Oilhawks]

I’m pretty sure hockey players wouldn’t need to spend money on that kind of pay per view.

Why not both?

 

[Cloned]

Why not both?

You have experience?

 

[soothsayer]

Not that hard to get charges that high.

My guess it is not just for single room use. My guess is that the oilers also reserved one or two conference rooms, tea and coffee replenished and maybe Lunch or another meal tossed in.


I hope no one takes this the wrong way, but as someone who has worked for years in hotels from 1 to 5 star. I have scene 27K bills at 3 star hotels, At the 5 star level? my record was tracking down payment? for a payment of just over 2o mill from a government in the middle east when I worked at a 5 star here in London. They had contracts for 30 rooms per night year round, regardless if the rooms were actually used or not and all charges when back to the government. And they paid quarterly--so every 4 months I sent them charges and it was amusing sometimes

27k is not a lot, there are a lot of people who travel with the team that you never see, they need rooms as well

SO, if you think of the old school picture of players closing up the hotel bar at the end of the night, my guess they put it all on their room, team got the bill and the players then paid the team any "disputed charges" the team may have had.

I think I can corroborate what you're saying from the other end. Paying hotel bills can get get lost in the shuffle in big organizations, especially, I've found, the more intermediaries there are between the person processing the invoices and the person signing off on them. (The turnover rate that people have been mentioning probably wouldn't help things.)

The lawsuit is interesting. I highly doubt a hotel would take litigation with a big repeat client lightly. Sort of a last measure. Do you have any insight on what would cause a hotel to sue for payment? It sounds from what you're saying that it would take a lot.

 

[Jumptheshark]

I think I can corroborate what you're saying from the other end. Paying hotel bills can get get lost in the shuffle in big organizations, especially, I've found, the more intermediaries there are between the person processing the invoices and the person signing off on them. (The turnover rate that people have been mentioning probably wouldn't help things.)

The lawsuit is interesting. I highly doubt a hotel would take litigation with a big repeat client lightly. Sort of a last measure. Do you have any insight on what would cause a hotel to sue for payment? It sounds from what you're saying that it would take a lot.

Some hotels shy away from lawsuits others embrace them. Hilton avoids them like the plague--if they are in a lawsuit then it is bad. Other hotel chains I have filed lawsuits 30 days after stay after issuing only one payment notice. Depends on management and how they are structured. I do not know much about the hotel suing the Oilers.

 

[Oilhawks]

You have experience?

I’ve just heard that that’s what some people do at hotels

 

[soothsayer]

Some hotels shy away from lawsuits others embrace them. Hilton avoids them like the plague--if they are in a lawsuit then it is bad. Other hotel chains I have filed lawsuits 30 days after stay after issuing only one payment notice. Depends on management and how they are structured. I do not know much about the hotel suing the Oilers.

Interesting. I find that surprising but I believe you. I would have just thought that a hotel would do everything it could to avoid suing a big repeat client. But maybe lawsuits against teams happen more often than we think and we just don't hear about them.

 

[Draiskull]

Hotel industry is hurting big time due to Covid. The sue would be understandable on a 11month old payment receivable with that big of an amount.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I find the whole situation odd. I am sure they could have settled the issue without resorting to a lawsuit.

Did hotel management not call the OEG and ask " hey, your check bounced, you need to pay these outstanding fees?"
It's not like they can't afford it.

I find the whole situation is like making a mountain out of a molehill and I don't like how the hotel went about it.



Obviously, the oilers going to rectify the situation because I don't feel it was intentional and puts the whole team in a bad light even though it was a accounting issue.

I would not want to do business with that hotel again if this how they try to solve these problems.

Would they have done it to get publicity for their hotel in the expense of shitting on the oilers brand?

Pretty low if that was their intention.

The whole situation including how long payment did not occur, and the Oilers subsequently being embarassed that the matter had not been dealt with smacks of the OEG having dropped the ball entirely on expediting payment and or responding to ANY requests or invoices for payment. I mean at what point should a hotel just keep expecting payment in good faith when the other party were noe responding in anyway. All hotels are hurting and I would think there would be reasonable expectation of at least getting a pro team invoice settled to help balance a tumultuous bottom line. I certainly don't blame the hotel, and the Oilers have pretty much admitted culpability.

My guess is some Covid related downsizing and shortening of front office, or not having the office open at all for long periods was related to this. The Oilers are notorious skinflints when it comes to their employees which other posters have mentioned.

 

[MettleMcOiler]

The whole situation including how long payment did not occur, and the Oilers subsequently being embarassed that the matter had not been dealt with smacks of the OEG having dropped the ball entirely on expediting payment and or responding to ANY requests or invoices for payment. I mean at what point should a hotel just keep expecting payment in good faith when the other party were noe responding in anyway. All hotels are hurting and I would think there would be reasonable expectation of at least getting a pro team invoice settled to help balance a tumultuous bottom line. I certainly don't blame the hotel, and the Oilers have pretty much admitted culpability.

My guess is some Covid related downsizing and shortening of front office, or not having the office open at all for long periods was related to this. The Oilers are notorious skinflints when it comes to their employees which other posters have mentioned.

Thanks for clarifying some of the details. This would be good opportunity for the OEG to rectify the situation in-house so they don't have these type of problems again. It's not a good look. You want them to be better in all aspects of their organization not just on the ice.

 

[samiam]

If this truly was a case of something simply "slipping between the cracks" during a pandemic, as the Oilers claim ........ couldn't this whole situation have been avoided with a simple overdraft protection??

If a chq was issued, which demonstrates intent to pay, one would think that a corporation (Oilers) that deals with MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS in annual expenses, would have something like this set-up as a safety net of sorts.

An initial bounced chq for $27k has snowballed into a public relations disaster! This could have so easily been avoided with a simple over-draft protection. There just has to be more to this.

 

[Paralyzer]

It gets to the point of law suit? That is no simple accounting glitch, miscommunication.

It may have been a glitch or miscommunication to start but no one sues unless you are simply showing no signs of paying or dicking them around.

Thats America. Your next door neighbor can sue you for having 2 inches of your grass going over the property line. Its mostly to do with nothing. I'm not worried about it.

 

[Jumptheshark]

If this truly was a case of something simply "slipping between the cracks" during a pandemic, as the Oilers claim ........ couldn't this whole situation have been avoided with a simple overdraft protection??

If a chq was issued, which demonstrates intent to pay, one would think that a corporation (Oilers) that deals with MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS in annual expenses, would have something like this set-up as a safety net of sorts.

An initial bounced chq for $27k has snowballed into a public relations disaster! This could have so easily been avoided with a simple over-draft protection. There just has to be more to this.

Overdraft protection?

Most banks do charge a lot of money on a monthly basis for overdraft protection.

But getting back to the topic on hand. This kind of thing happens a lot more than people realize and depending on the hotel, things get handled differently

For people asking "Why not just pick up the phone and call"

My response is how many of you get phone calls that start "we hear you were involved in an accident that was not your fault."?

Here in the UK I get a lot of these phone calls

Businesses are no different. The last hotel I worked at, I was in charge of reservations and finance. I got letters, emails and phone calls, on a daily basis saying the hotel was behind in payments and if we did not send payment right away they would send the bailiffs in. 99% of the time it was a scam

Businesses are just like people, they get phone calls and other things demanding payments from fraudsters all the time and the fact it works sometimes is why they keep coming back. Some places do pay them blindly.

Based upon my experience in working hotels, my guess is someone left the oiler organization and the organization did not forward all emails onto whomever replaced that person, if they got replaced.

Some responses on the main board shows how little of the business side of any business many people have experience with.

This is not unusual. My guess is that the hotel phone up the Oilers and whomever picked up the phone thought of it as being a scam. Again, I have received phone calls at the hotels where I worked from people telling me to get the company card and give them the details over the phone or not only will the sue the hotel but me as well (intimidation is something the scammers try a lot)--I have told them "go for it" and they then talk about the balliffs kicking down my front door having me arrested, all my property being removed and my wife and kids crying(I have neither but that is neither here nor there)--When I point out that is not how bailiffs work here in the UK they tell me yes it is. I just hang up. Businesses get phone calls daily demanding payment from people. Obviously whomever the hotel contracted in the Oilers organization was as jaded as me and did not believe them and that is why the lawsuit was filed

 

[Dorian2]

New GM hired in July for that outfit. Trying to be a hotdog? Heat for his new position?

The Iconic Hotel Crescent Court Hires New General Manager - D Magazine

 

[bellagiobob]

Overdraft protection?

Most banks do charge a lot of money on a monthly basis for overdraft protection.

But getting back to the topic on hand. This kind of thing happens a lot more than people realize and depending on the hotel, things get handled differently

For people asking "Why not just pick up the phone and call"

My response is how many of you get phone calls that start "we hear you were involved in an accident that was not your fault."?

Here in the UK I get a lot of these phone calls

Businesses are no different. The last hotel I worked at, I was in charge of reservations and finance. I got letters, emails and phone calls, on a daily basis saying the hotel was behind in payments and if we did not send payment right away they would send the bailiffs in. 99% of the time it was a scam

Businesses are just like people, they get phone calls and other things demanding payments from fraudsters all the time and the fact it works sometimes is why they keep coming back. Some places do pay them blindly.

Based upon my experience in working hotels, my guess is someone left the oiler organization and the organization did not forward all emails onto whomever replaced that person, if they got replaced.

Some responses on the main board shows how little of the business side of any business many people have experience with.

This is not unusual. My guess is that the hotel phone up the Oilers and whomever picked up the phone thought of it as being a scam. Again, I have received phone calls at the hotels where I worked from people telling me to get the company card and give them the details over the phone or not only will the sue the hotel but me as well (intimidation is something the scammers try a lot)--I have told them "go for it" and they then talk about the balliffs kicking down my front door having me arrested, all my property being removed and my wife and kids crying(I have neither but that is neither here nor there)--When I point out that is not how bailiffs work here in the UK they tell me yes it is. I just hang up. Businesses get phone calls daily demanding payment from people. Obviously whomever the hotel contracted in the Oilers organization was as jaded as me and did not believe them and that is why the lawsuit was filed

There is a difference in a call that is clearly a scammer than one who calls and mentions their hotel name, the dates you stayed there, and the amount you owe. This sounds like either an A/P error or a cash flow situation, neither looking good on behallf of the Oilers.

 

[Jumptheshark]

There is a difference in a call that is clearly a scammer than one who calls and mentions their hotel name, the dates you stayed there, and the amount you owe. This sounds like either an A/P error or a cash flow situation, neither looking good on behallf of the Oilers.

I have had invoices that look legit come across my desk that I almost paid. Several phone calls also had great detail but were completely bogus

 

[Drivesaitl]

New GM hired in July for that outfit. Trying to be a hotdog? Heat for his new position?

The Iconic Hotel Crescent Court Hires New General Manager - D Magazine

Pretty likely that a new manager hire at a time of a once in a century pandemic, in which hotels are extremely hard hit would be there to clean up the books and maybe even hired on that basis due to need. I could see hotels having limited patience for a Multi Million buck league, one of its member teams, not having the decency to pay long outstanding bills. I mean if we're clear here too there would be longstanding priors with this org, and I know this goes back years ago but both Pocklington, and the Owners group that took over were like trying to get blood out of a rock where money was concerned. The Oilers would have that longstanding rep, Katz or not. Fair to mention.

 

[Dorian2]

Pretty likely that a new manager hire at a time of a once in a century pandemic, in which hotels are extremely hard hit would be there to clean up the books and maybe even hired on that basis due to need. I could see hotels having limited patience for a Multi Million buck league, one of its member teams, not having the decency to pay long outstanding bills. I mean if we're clear here too there would be longstanding priors with this org, and I know this goes back years ago but both Pocklington, and the Owners group that took over were like trying to get blood out of a rock where money was concerned. The Oilers would have that longstanding rep, Katz or not. Fair to mention.

I took the long standing rep that the article said the Oil had with the hotel. That's why I found it a bit odd to bring it to court at this point. This is all conjecture of course as we really don't know the story tbh.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I took the long standing rep that the article said the Oil had with the hotel. That's why I found it a bit odd to bring it to court at this point. This is all conjecture of course as we really don't know the story tbh.

As if this ever stopped hfoilers from discussing stuff. haha

 

[Stoneman89]

Overdraft protection?

Most banks do charge a lot of money on a monthly basis for overdraft protection.

But getting back to the topic on hand. This kind of thing happens a lot more than people realize and depending on the hotel, things get handled differently

For people asking "Why not just pick up the phone and call"

My response is how many of you get phone calls that start "we hear you were involved in an accident that was not your fault."?

Here in the UK I get a lot of these phone calls

Businesses are no different. The last hotel I worked at, I was in charge of reservations and finance. I got letters, emails and phone calls, on a daily basis saying the hotel was behind in payments and if we did not send payment right away they would send the bailiffs in. 99% of the time it was a scam

Businesses are just like people, they get phone calls and other things demanding payments from fraudsters all the time and the fact it works sometimes is why they keep coming back. Some places do pay them blindly.

Based upon my experience in working hotels, my guess is someone left the oiler organization and the organization did not forward all emails onto whomever replaced that person, if they got replaced.

Some responses on the main board shows how little of the business side of any business many people have experience with.

This is not unusual. My guess is that the hotel phone up the Oilers and whomever picked up the phone thought of it as being a scam. Again, I have received phone calls at the hotels where I worked from people telling me to get the company card and give them the details over the phone or not only will the sue the hotel but me as well (intimidation is something the scammers try a lot)--I have told them "go for it" and they then talk about the balliffs kicking down my front door having me arrested, all my property being removed and my wife and kids crying(I have neither but that is neither here nor there)--When I point out that is not how bailiffs work here in the UK they tell me yes it is. I just hang up. Businesses get phone calls daily demanding payment from people. Obviously whomever the hotel contracted in the Oilers organization was as jaded as me and did not believe them and that is why the lawsuit was filed

I seriously doubt that it was just a few phone calls. This was a significant chunk of cash. Very likely letters were sent to follow up, and then finally, letters threatening legal action.
I've received letters or calls threatening me with action if I didn't pay, but I was never expecting a call or letter from those companies and knew I didn't owe them money.
The Oilers knew damned well they owed that money, and they knew who they owed it to, so to dismiss all the calls and letters as "scams" is wildly far-fetched. . I can't begin to answer why they wouldn't have responded, but this is a really bad look for them.

 

[Stoneman89]

I have had invoices that look legit come across my desk that I almost paid. Several phone calls also had great detail but were completely bogus

There are ways to verify them, especially if you KNOW you owe and to whom you owe. This isn't someone demanding reimbursement for a candy bar.

 

[shoop]

The bigger the companies the bigger the boondoggle of getting paid some times.

OK. The Oilers aren't that big an organization in the grand scheme of things. So size isn't really an issue here.

As someone who has worked in hotels for 30 + years and has had to chase down money from some of the biggest companies in the world--yes, things do fall between the cracks and as for the magicallly $27K bills always get paid right away? no they do not.

What a misleading question. The $27K invoice hasn't been paid after 11 MONTHS. What does that have to do with bills 'magically' getting paid right away? Sure it might take three, four or even five months to get paid. But 11 months?

Given your experience in hotels what would your employers have done with an invoice of more than $25K that hadn't been paid in almost a year? At what point would they have filed suit over a bill that large? No organization is walking away from an invoice that large.