Dr. Meyer,
In your PD Digest post (10/15), you describe a terrible situation as to
how the hotel mistreated you -- even perhaps physically injured you -- and
how you responded by faxing the Hyatt CEO your letter.
I'm puzzled: What was the purpose of your your letter to the CEO? From
what you posted of that letter, it seemed to me that you had no focus,
other than to recount the details of a problem. Unless I missed it, it
seemed to me that you did not make clear what you wanted Hyatt to *do* for
you now. In your letter, did you ask for financial compensation, or an
official apology? Did you threaten to sue? Did you demand better treatment
for the next time you visit that hotel?
It seems to me that, although some sort of apology by Hyatt would be nice,
you gave them no direction, other than to lead them to perhaps think (a)
that this customer was dissatisfied, and that's that; (b) that this
customer likes to vent at length, with no purose beyond venting, and we
have no time for this; (c) that this customer has sent us this detailed
account, without a demand, simply to lay the groundwork for a possible
eventual lawsuit against us; (d) that if he's planning a lawsuit, our
lawyers believe that it's best at this stage to do the following:
[1] to not respond, because to do so will be to establish that we did
indeed receive his letter, while by not responding we can later claim --
if need be -- that we never received such a letter; it's easy to deny
receipt of any letter that is *faxed* to us, because nobody at the
receiving-end of an incoming faxed item signs a paper for the
sender to verify receipt.
[2] to not respond to his letter, because to do so may be interpreted in
a court as evidence of an implicit admission by us of culpability
regarding his charges;
Also: (e) It may be that the CEO's secretary forwarded the letter to
another department which, in true bureaucratic fashion, forwarded it
elsewhere, to someone who filed it because he/she is backlogged... and
that they by now have either forgotten about or discarded your letter...or
they will indeed soon get to sending you a letter of apology. The latter
could indeed happen; things can, in large corporations, take time.
My suggestion would be to first decide what you'd like the Hyatt chain to
*do* for you; then put that request right in the beginning of a fresh new
letter to the CEO; synopsize the account of what happened -- including
too the fact that you'd faxed him a letter about this situation on
such-and-such a date; and either FEDEX or snailmail this new letter to
the CEO BY CERTIFIED MAIL, RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED.
It might also be a good idea to type on the letter, below the header,
something to the effect that you are cc'ing a copy to either/both {1} the
top exec of their Customer Service Department, and {2} perhaps a top
executive of an organization such as the National Parkinson's Association,
or the American Parkinson's Disease Association organization, and/or, if
you feel it's appropriate, {3} your attorney. (Or you could have your
attorney send a letter instead.)
Your approach & wording will of course depend upon what you wish Hyatt to
do and how you'd like them to react.
As I do not have your posting in front of me as I write this, I don't
recall how long ago you said that the problem at the hotel happened. Was
it recent? Did you see a doctor? Well, you *are* a doctor -- but your post
did not say whether or not you did a thorough medical checkup on yourself
or had anyone else do that either. Perhaps, if the event was recent, and
you did not have a thorough medical checkup of your injury, you really
should get yourself checked soon. (And insist that Hyatt pay the cost.)
You certainly, however, appear to be okay, judging from your post, and
that is of course the best news of all.
Keep a positive attitude -- things may turn out better than you might
think.
Best,
SJS
10/17/97
