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