In planning our big trip to Thailand, one of the top adventures on our list was having bespoke suits made for my husband. He really needs a new suit, but we live in California, the land of every day Casual Friday so we can never bring ourselves to fork over the princely sum. Having suits made in Thailand seemed like the perfect solution. I studied Holly’s post and read about it in my Lonely Planet guidebook, and the one thing I concluded was: it’s easy to get scammed by disreputable tailors.

Savvy traveler that I am, I swore this wasn’t going to happen to me. Oh no! Not clever, insider me! I decided the best way to avoid this was to secure a recommendation from the concierge at our resort. Granted, I knew concierges can be paid off, but we were staying at a high-end, American-owned hotel chain that is known for its customer service and integrity.

Needless to say, I still got scammed. The hotel strongly recommended a tailor and arranged for them to pick us up at the hotel. We were in a rush that morning so I didn’t take the time to Google their recommendation, believing that as locals they knew the good tailors from the bad.

At the shop, we were a little uneasy, but I chalked it up to cultural differences and paid the costly deposit. When we returned to the hotel later, my husband, still feeling uneasy, did a quick search on the Internet and found hundreds of posts by travelers warning this place was a scam. People talked of sleeves falling off when you tried on the shirts, seams glued together, and worse.

First I called the tailor and tried to cancel our order. They were irate on the phone and refused to refund my deposit. Then, I called my credit card company long distance. They felt confident they could fight the charge and get my money back. And they advised me to never go back and just deal with the dispute when I returned. I hung up the phone feeling better. I figured even if my credit card couldn’t get my money back, surely the hotel would do something to make it right.

How wrong I was. After returning from my trip, my credit card company changed their story and claimed they were unable to help me. Then I approached the hotel chain and they were unwilling to make it right too. I recognized that they weren’t going to write me a check, but I thought some compensation was in order, perhaps credit for a future stay.

All in all, I am out a lot of money, and no one is willing to accept responsibility for the mistake. Plus, I’m really frustrated. I knew in advance that you could get scammed by tailors and I worked hard to avoid this trap. Yes, I should have double-checked their recommendation, but shouldn’t the hotel stand behind their own advice?

Who's to blame when the concierge is wrong?