Intownsuites, Intown Suites Anti-Service ripoff Company Salt Lake City Utah

I have stayed at several Intownsuites locations, and I am quite familiar with all the crap they try to pull on their customers. They are a hotel, but they don't supply toilet paper. There are no non-smoking rooms, but you can't open the windows to air them out. There are vents between the rooms (in my latest stay), so when my neighbors smoke (or smoke marijuana all day, as they did once), it stinks up the room which has to be aired out again. The towels are pathetic and I bring my own. The comforter is nasty and I bring my own. They give you an empty kitchenette and I bring my own dishes, pots, etc.

This particular location in South Salt Lake City happened to be a Suburban Lodge previously, and they had been downgrading the building by removing nicer furniture, blinds that actually block sunlight, and window screens, but it was still slightly better than the rest of the chain -- there was an extra lock inside that they couldn't open with their key -- so at least they couldn't barge in while I was in the shower like they do at other locations.

Unfortunately, as stupid as they are, they are currently the only weekly hotel offering high speed Internet access. (Extended Stay America is stuck in a contract and are planning to add that service as soon as possible, they tell me maybe the end of 2004.) I work on the Internet and really need this one service, which I am now suffering without.

After leaving the Nashville dump and being ripped off for stained sheets and towels that weren't even changed in my room the week they claimed, I checked into the dump in South Salt Lake.

Amazingly enough, they had a human being running the place, Hugh. When leaving the office, he would put up the sign saying to call the manager, which usually rings the office that no one is in -- but he carried it with him! I could call and say "I'm at the office" and he would be there within a couple mintues. He was intelligent and friendly and tried his best to offer customer service, which is actually against company policy so it was tough for him.

After six months, he was gone. I knew it was time for me to leave because in Nashville, the guy there did something nice and they fired him instantly. Hugh's boss ran the place first, then the "floating" manager, then they hired a total shithead, James.

What turned out to be his first day, the high speed Internet was down (again) and I called to tell him. Instead of what I used to hear (from Hugh and the others, that they'd send the message up the chain to eventually get to tech support to fix it), he insisted that it worked and he used to work for Microsoft (and that makes him smart?) and I have to call my tech support to fix my computer which I broke. He insulted me and hung up the phone.

1. Tech support NEVER helps you fix something you didn't buy from them. Any tech support that would have fixed the Internet connection would have been the provider, Broadwing, which doesn't have a phone number -- I searched their web site.

2. There was nothing wrong with my computer settings, as evidenced by the fact that the next day, with no settings changed, I had access for about an hour, and about five hours the day after that, until it went dead for the next two days after that.

3. From Hugh I learned that the office is not on the network the rest of the hotel is on, so when the new moron, James, said it worked, he was obviously too stupid to know that simple fact.

Four days later (long weekend, no Sunday hours), there was still no Internet. I called the new idiot in the office and he immediately insulted me again and hung up the phone. I tried to call back and explain to him the it worked for a few hours in the past four days, but he instantly picked up the line and hung it up -- and turned off my phone, so not only was there no high speed, I couldn't dial out either. I could have called to tell him the building was on fire and he wouldn't have answered.

Maybe an hour later, he showed up at my door and told me I had 15 mintues to leave. He soon had the police at my door to arrest me if I didn't leave immediately. He said he could evict me if he wanted for breaking rules, but that's not why he did it. In fact, it's discrimination for claiming he was evicting me for opening my window -- it wasn't open that day, but there were at least a dozen other open windows open in the building and none of them were evicted for it. He threw me out because I told him a service he is supposed to offer did not work. That's all.

He said they would pack my things for me (which they charge extra for -- it's in the fee list). The cops watched me pack a few things (I'd been there for 7 months and didn't just have a suitcase to move out) and I left.

I had the SLC Consumer Action Group call him, and he was rude to them as well, but he was just smart enough not to hang up or they would have raised hell. So the next day, he actually let me pack up the room myself, probably because of that phone call.

I have called their corporate office, which is in Georgia at 770-799-5000, and left messages that they never answer within two days like they say they will. I once actually got a call from the Memphis office about a complaint I typed into their web site contact form, but that was just to confirm that the wrong regional office got the complaint and the correct office never followed up, naturally.

I have posted complaints to the Nashville BBB (previous stay), Utah BBB, and Georgia BBB (they promise to respond to your message, bt never do).

This company is anti-service. Don't use them if you can avoid it. Go to Extended Stay America and pay a little more. It's more than worth the money.

Lynn
Salt Lake City, Utah
U.S.A.