To think it's 'innocent until proven guilty'?

[ATruthUniversallyAcknowledged]

Oh in this case, just 'innocent'?

Myself, DH and 1yo DS stayed in a Travelodge a few weeks ago. Checked in late, left early. It was literally just a place to lay our heads.

This morning I received a letter from a company called Civil Recovery Service saying I owed £150 in a fine for 'tampering with smoke equipment'. The letter uses phrases like ?the incident took place on?, ?damages caused by you? and ?your actions?. I am fuming; we didn't do anything! Neither DH or I smoke and have no reason to tamper with anything. Plus, we had DS with us. Even if we did smoke (which we don't!) I'm appalled at the suggestion that we'd expose him to smoke in a teeny tiny hotel room.

There's no more information in the letter about what we're supposed to have done, although a google search suggests they will say we've covered the smoke detector with a sock or plastic bag. I called the hotel and they're 'not allowed' to discuss it with us.

Grrrrr... AIBU to think it's 'innocent until proven guilty' and that at the very least Travelodge themselves could have contacted us before passing our details to a civil recovery company? I now have to waste my time writing to CRS to 'appeal' when I haven't bloody done anything.

[thebody]

Post in legal for best advice.

[sanityawol]

I'm sure I've seen a story along these lines on Watchdog or a similar programme recently - might be worth a Google?

[manticlimactic]

Yes there was something on Watchdog about this a while back.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg74/features/travelodge-fines

[sanityawol]

Here you go www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg74/features/travelodge-fines

Not a programme that I usually watch, but DD is obsessed with it for some reason.

[andubelievedthat]

Trust me on this one (i have a similar prob ongoing at the mo.) you are getting the piss ripped out of you.tell them(if you will) to go take a flyer ! and also ,whilst doing so ,inform them you will be billing them for your own time dealing with this "taking the piss" crappo ,fuck right off ,totally without foundation claim> it is ,of course ,your call but really ,chancers !!!!

[Isityouorme]

What bastards .... Will avoid travelodge

[ATruthUniversallyAcknowledged]

andubelievedthat - are you looking over my shoulder? That's pretty much what my letter says

Thanks for the links everyone else. My mum thought she'd seen it on Watchdog but for some reason that didn't come up on the google search I did.

[Mumblepot26]

Thanks for heads up, will avoid travel lodge