For those of you who have been following my interactions with the owners of our B&B, Joyce & Dan, I have one last event to report.
For background: When booking with them over the Internet and by phone, they kindly gave me a very nice discount, as I told them we were staying for 2 weeks. The room we had goes for about $85 per night, but she quoted me something in the low to mid 40s. I never could find where I had written that down. And since we booked in August, I was hoping that she remembered what she had quoted.
A few days prior to arriving I had sent them an email confirming that we were still planning to keep our reservation and received a nice response, though no price was mentioned. Joyce had initially taken my credit card number over the phone, but said that she wouldn't charge anything to the card prior to our arrival.
The day we were to arrive we were a bit late, so I called to let her know that we'd get in about 9 pm. She was surprised and said she didn't think we were coming that day(??), but not to worry our room would be ready. (I found out later that Dan had been in the hospital and just got out a couple days earlier, so I attributed this glitch to that distraction.)
While there, she made a big thing about how she didn't fuss over details of reservations. I kept hoping she remembered what we'd agreed on for our room, but as our relationship began to deteriorate due to our political differences (& personalities), I was afraid to bring it up. When we decided to leave a few days early (after 10 days), I wondered if that would affect the charges, but kept quiet.
The morning of our departure Joyce was busy busy with new guests, and we were standing around wondering when we were going to be able to pay her. No statement of charges was ever presented to me. Eventually she just took my card and disappeared. Then she came back with one of those rectangular slips for me to sign.
I figured that at $40 a day for 10 days the bill would be about $400 plus, particularly if taxes were added on. And if she insisted charging us for the full 14 days that we had reserved for, it would be even more.
Just as I was to sign the form, I looked at what was written. The tax was $27; that was clear. But the price of the room before tax: Was that $300 or $500? I couldn't make it out.
As a real Sarah Palin girl, her handwriting was all full of those curly cues, like calligraphy, that high school girls like to use. With all the little extraneous swirls, I couldn't tell if it was a 3 or a 5 preceding the two zeros.
A total of $500 could have been right, if tax was included; but tax was listed separately. And $300 was much too low. How would the credit card company read it? Better get this straightened out now.
"Is that a 3 or a 5?" I asked (I thought politely).
To which she responded in her terse way:
"A 3 !
And then reacting as though I had insulted her added:
"I got an A in penmanship!"
"Oh, it really is beautiful writing. I just wasn't sure," I said like dripping honey, as I tried to write over the number to make it look more like a 3.
$30 a night, with a full breakfast. Not bad. But she obviously thought I was accusing her of trying to cheat me.
However, I had learned on an earlier trip that prices back there in SW PA can really surprise you. Once when our '57 Oldsmobile was having some problems, Redjeb and I took it to a garage in Jennerstown. The guy put it on the lift, raised it way up, and went underneath to check it over. Grease from the old car dripped all over him. After about 45 minutes, he reemerged and let her down. Fearing the worst I asked,
"How much?"
"$12.98."
"Twelve dollars and ninety-eight cents!" I exclaimed in disbelief,
as Redjeb gave me a shut-up-jab in the ribs.
So now in the B&B I applied what I had learned: don't give away your surprise; just act naturally and be glad.
We left shortly thereafter and began our long drive back to New York. Too bad it all went so badly with Joyce. It would have been a good place to stay on my next trip home.
