Jameson Inns Refused to Return Forgotten Items

I have forgotten items at hotels before and they've never had a
problem sending them back to be. I don't understand what the big deal
is: OP offered to pay for postage. Obviously, somebody doesn't want
to have to take the trouble to help the OP out.

I don't think this request is at all out of line. Yes, the OP did
leave the items behind, items that they were responsible for. But, it
isn't as if the OP is asking for the hotel to mail these out on their
dime. They offered to pay for the postage, I don't see anything wrong
with that. I personally LOVE Bill's suggestion of taking this issue
of to the manager. It would be one thing if the pillows had already
been tossed. But, as of the OP's phone conversation with a staff
member, they had not been. So the quickest way to resolve this
situation if you ask me would have been to take the issue up the
chain. This ensures that the OP gets a final answer quickly prior to
the pillows being tossed, lost etc.

for future reference, I find it helpful to use colorful pillowcases on
my own pillows when travelling. hotel linen is almost always white and
purple paisley cases stick out like a sore thumb.

If this was just recently, and the pillows are still at the hotel, you
may want to try Jeffrey's suggestion (Calling FedEx or a similar
carrier). While expensive, it may be cheaper to pay the carrier
shipping than replace them.

So long as you are willing to pay to have the items shipped to you, I
don't see the problem, depending on when you called about the
pillows--within a day or two is one thing, but a week or two later...
I imagine most forgotten items are long gone by that point.

OK Team...we're being a bit brutal today.

I have no idea how much a night at this establishment is, but I don't
think it's completely out of line that if I did forget something that
they might help me out as a gesture of goodwill. We've all done it --
sunglasses, ballcaps (left one of my favorite caps one time), etc. If
it's an expensive item, and you don't have someone in the area to help
you out, it can be a pretty stiff loss.

Now...in the hotel's defense. I suspect that lurking in the
background here is a concern about liability. If it is damaged in the
packing process, who's going to cough up the expense to fix it? If I
pack it and ship it (even if you pay for it) and it somehow gets lost
in the system (cross reference all of the UPS complaints here), I'm
sure the hotel is concerned that the guest will feel that they are
liable for the item and should replace it. All sorts of questions
like that are most likely behind it. Even if the guest swears they
won't hold the property responsible, once the item is damaged or lost
the tune often changes.

There's probably not a good way out of this. I wonder if they could
somehow send it to one of their properties that is located near the OP
through an interoffice system. They may not for the same reasons.

They should "appreciate" that you can't keep track of your stuff?

Perhaps instead of offering to pay them to ship your pillows back, you
should be paying for some sort of tracking or special return tags for
these pillows - it sounds like you tend to lose them frequently.

Making a checklist of everything you bring might help, since it seems
that you are frequently forgetting these pillows.

The hotel is not responsible for items you leave behind.

You may want to try this, since you travel weekly and have left
several things behind.

When I go to leave the room the last time, I ask myself "did you get
everything?" I go through the room until I get back to the door, and
the answer to the question is "yes". *Then* I go back through the
room one last time and double check. I usually answer "yes" the first
time to the door, but 50% of the time on the "double check" pass I
find something (stray sock in bedding, shirt on hanger, shampoo).

As Jeffrey reports below, this isn't the only case where this chain
refused to help with misplaced items. I learned my system after
leaving a jacket behind. In that case the motel gladly sent it to me,
but I realized some places might not be so generous.

As someone that once forgot something at a Jameson (actually, it was
my wife), I can share my own experience.

When we got to our destination, we called the front desk. They said
that they didn't know if the item was found, but would check. I was
put on hold for about 15 minutes. The person came back on and said
"yes, we have it." I asked if they could mail it to me, at my
destination.

"Uh , no, we can't mail out things from here," she said. I asked,
"You don't have mail pickup?"

"We do have mail pickup, but I can't put this in a box and use
Jameson's postage to mail it."

"What are my choices?"

"We'll hold it here for you for a few days, if you want to pick it
up."

"What if I give you a FedEx account number? Will you send it?"

"I can't box it up. If you send someone here with a box, whatever."

So, I called FedEx and explained the situation. They said that their
driver would have a box on his truck and would take care of it.

Sure enough, my package arrived the next day. No thanks to Jameson,
but thanks to FedEx.

P.S. This wasn't Lenoir, but was another NC location.

I'm sorry you left your pillows behind, but forgetting items seems to
be a problem for you.

One solution might be to make a list of everything with which you
travel so that as you leave the hotel you can check the items off so
that you will take all your belongings with you.

If you look in my profile, I had a complaint about a stay at a
Courtyard by Marriott. I did all I could to resolve it while I was
there to no avail. I contacted the GM when I returned home and
everything was resolved. Sometimes the regular staff does not have
the authority to handle certain issues.

HarleyCat,

Good observation.

We called it enpowerment and it still is. I can say from experience
those of us that empowered front line associates had a smoothered
running operation for not only the guest experience but for the
associates knowing they had a say in the opreation.

Of course there was always an MOD and the General Manager to handle
issues refrred to by a front line associates or for a guest that asked
to speak with the GM.

BillR.