more replies please

jannett
Posted: 05 Nov 2007
11:53pm
camera smashed by staff?

Question: Have any of you visitors on this site had any experience like this?

Just got back from Sharks Bay. Stayed at Melia Sinai hotel. Great place but:

Me and my wife found both of our cameras damaged after the first day by the pool at our hotel. Digital compacts in the upper quality range. Metal casing on both.
Cam´s were left in the room during roomservice and were collected by us for some fotosessions in the afternoon.
I then found that my camera started to act silly and to eventually totaly freeze mechanically. After some investigation and turning and twisting i found that one of the corners of the casing (upper right, by the shutter and zoomfunctions) was severely dented, like somebody had been banging it to the floor/wall or something). Heavy blow, not like a drop on the floor or something. It even started to come apart in the crack between the front and the side casing. The night before it worked like a charm when I made some nightfotos to try out the nightprogram (brand new camera, finepix f30)
My wife later found a similar dent, and widened crack inbetween front and side casing on hers. It kept working though but might fall asleep anyday now.
Both of us are interested fotographers and have done intensive travel in the outbacks before without any trouble. We keep a keen eye on our stuff and take precausions not do damage delicate tecnology that we bring along. Would never risk situations that could damage our stuff. The fotos untaken aren´t worth it.

I seem to recall an advise from somebody in the hotelrevues that we screened before making the final descision on booking that had been into a similar situation. He also seemed like a keen fotographer with a fair experience in keeping stuff undamaged. He´d left his camera in the room during the first day and found similar damage to his stuff when he brougt it out for use. His idea was that staff found tipping unsufficient and used this method for revenge. Same for us, -we had no tipmoney at hand after arrival and had little reason to go over the top to get some. Tried to talk to hotelmanagement but they declined any reponsability because no cleaningstaff had reported any accidents and we should have kept our stuff locked into the safe when not in use. Guess they´re formally right but on the other hand I guess hotelstaff don´t bragg about vengeance to their empoyer in the first place. This other guy had the same experience in contact with his hotelmanagement.

I tried to locate the his specific post in our hotels user revues on the webb but couldn´t find it. He probably stayed in another place in the Sharm area that I just happended to cruise through in search of opinions and ideas before our trip. He gave the advise to do as he was told by management: keep stuff locked up when not in use and be careful with leaving stuff in the open. I thought it was a freak accident an left it unreflected when I first read it.

But I later recall a diskussion we had at work, me and my colleages, about hotel- and other staff screwing things up. Like opening every bottle in the toiletbag, so you´d have one smeary mess when you tried to pick it up, and other stuff conducted by clever cleaners and others at the tourist sites. Heard quite a few stories then but it didn´t really catch. Guess I´ll take more precautions from now on.

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lesliemac
Posted: 06 Nov 2007
11:27am
1.

I don't know what happened to your cameras, but I can't imagine leaving valuables like photographic equipment out in plain sight when there is a safe in the room. This is just common sense.

As far as opening toiletry bottles as revenge for poor tipping...I say non-tipping, wealthy Europeans get what they deserve.

Eve1
Posted: 06 Nov 2007
11:28am
2.

That's a bit strange, you'd think if they would want to steal it rather than damage the camera...

HIP2BSQRE
Posted: 06 Nov 2007
10:43pm
3.

No-one deserves to have their camera smashed for no tipping. Tipping is not a right.

lesliemac
Posted: 07 Nov 2007
1:12pm
4.

I agree that no one deserves to have their camera smashed--that's serious. But people who don't tip good service DO deserve to have their toiletries spill all over their luggage.

SkyPrincess
Posted: 07 Nov 2007
1:31pm
5.

I never heard any complaints like either of these before.

I suppose it is possible but I don't think it is the norm. Egyptians are more likely to just come out and ask you for baksheesh (tip) if they feel you owe them (and often when you don't!). I can't see anyone normally doing that because it would kill their chances of getting a tip in the future, not to mention complaints to the management. Also, many people tip on the last day and make it large enough to cover the previous days cleaning and the cleaners know this. So I would be very surprised at this. However, anything is possible.

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I look forward to the day when the Martians invade us. Clearly we can't lead ourselves. (Nexus)


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