S'plain Something to Me

[dieselguy]

Being more of a recreational camper, I mostly frequent lakes. We use Recreation.Gov probably 90% of the time with Reserve America the rest when booking sites. Reserve America has always been a bit of a more pricey hassle for us, but ya gotta go with who does the booking for a particular destination. Anyways … I was having a problem the other night using Reserve America with the website not taking my credit card. I had just used it locally on another purchase a few hours before with no issue. I decided to call Reserve America and have the operator complete the transaction. Well … she informed me that my card will expire in November and that Reserve America doesn’t accept cards expiring in the current year no matter what month??????? Yes I have more than one card, but I prefer not to use a debit card. I just don’t see their logic as even if you intend to close out the card in the near future … you have to pay off the balance first. Not everyone carries a stack of credit cards that they can sift thru till the approved expiration date is found.

[1retired06]

Have never run into such a policy?! Cannot understand such logic. Dumb.

[mlh]

I ordered a tuner for my MH using my personal card. It is a good card expires 10 17 and it wouldn't go through. My company card worked fine. Why wouldn't my personal card???
Lynwood

[DQDick]

Had that problem recently and then the next week I got a new Discover card in the mail with a chip in it. Could the chip issue be the problem?

[BB_TX]

Makes no sense to me. If it expired in Dec, that would make it basically worthless for some things for a full year. I can see it if the reservation date were after the expiration date, but not before. ????

[mlh]

We take credit cards from all over the world and have never had this problem. People send an order with a CC number on it we type it in just like when a CC reader can't read your card. Nothing fancy we aren't LL Bean. If you saw the order you would think it was not secure but it is because you haft to do some math to the number we receive and no one knows what math to do. Are you going to add, subtract, multiply, divide and what number do you use.
Lynwood

[MARK A]

quote:Originally posted by DQDick

Had that problem recently and then the next week I got a new Discover card in the mail with a chip in it. Could the chip issue be the problem?

The chip is only used in the new machines where you insert the card and it slows down the transaction even more... It's hard to consider it progress.

Mark

[DQDick]

I know that's true, but basically Discover quit taking the old card when they issued the new card, but before I received it and activated it. Didn't make me very happy and the old card would not work online or at old style machines.

[dieselguy]

BB__TX ... when you reserve no matter when the reservation date is, you are charged at that point. That's the price of a guaranteed site (mother nature not withstanding). There is a 6 month rolling window that's as far out as you can reserve.

[jcurtis934]

Dieselguy, that is a real good one. I would vote in favor of telling them "thanks, but no thanks" and use my money with someone else...but that's probably just my old fart thinking. John

[stengels]

dieselguy, I think you got a bad operator. I have made 2 reservations for up at Tuttle Creek this year, the latest being about a week ago for October. My card expires in August. I have always been able to do my Reserve America reservations online, without the assistance of an operator. For those of you who don't use it, Reserve America is really a good site. On several parks, you can actually see photos of the specific sight you are looking for.

[dieselguy]

Steve ... I am wondering that about the operator myself, but I wasn't going to argue with her the other night. We've reserved online a few times as well without issue ... till this year. Sorry, but I just don't care for RA as a whole. At Melvern Lake in Kansas ... an at Milford Lake a little farther to the west there seems to be the same site photo for more than one site. The biggest thing that chaps me although small monetarily is the "$3 per transaction fee" on top of the site rental fees. Lakes that use RA charge the $3 per transaction fee on top of the regular site fees whether you actually reserve or just roll in to the campgrounds and pick one ... at least Cheney and El Dorado (Kansas) do. Then to add to insult, say you decide to stay an extra day or two ... the $3 per transaction fee is levied yet again. Then there's the five night minimum stay on holidays (at least in KS) ... who would want to stay at Cheney Lake for 5 days in one stretch?? OK ... you're asking why we even bother with RA ... because they are the only game in town at some lakes.

[stengels]

dieselguy, You are correct, they are far from perfect, but as you say, they are the only game in town. I think we've been fortunate in that we have stayed at Tuttle several times, as well as Clinton and Hillsdale. The photos have been accurate there. As full-timers, we hate the 14 day limit. Not that we'd stay that long at Cheney, but we probably would at Tuttle Creek. We've never had to pay the $3 transaction fee, normally just the $18/night. Waiting for Winfield Lake to get on the list. LOL.

Here's hoping the Colts have a good football team this fall!!

[dieselguy]

How do you get around the $3 transaction fee??? Every time we go to Cheney or El Dorado it's listed separate right on the camping receipt the host gives us. As for the Colts ... unless things change in Haysville ... they'll be lucky to cross the 50 yard line into the opponents playing field. We had a good coach around the 2004 time frame, but only stayed for 3 years or so. Besides the summer practice restrictions in USD 261, said he grew tired of trying to keep the boys off "weed" and focused on the sport.

[DQDick]

Possibly they should change the type of grass they plant on the field

[dieselguy]

But USD 261 got a good deal on the seed we hear ...