the phrase "cork stacking" goes back to a joke I heard while in high school, shortly after Elvis first appeared in the consciousness of the American people.
I made reservations at the El Cortez Hotel some amount of time ago because the price per night was about $50 per night instead of $119 per night at the Alexis Plark. At the time I thought I was going to be driving. I decided that I was not driving about a week before DefCon and made arrangements to caravan with DarcElf(DE).
Wednesday night I found out from DE that he was staying in Vegas Sunday night. Thursday morning I call the reservation service, hotel.com to see about making a reservation for Sunday night and find out that I can only do that through them if I use a credit card. I had already used my credit card to make the reservations for the first two nights so they had my card number on file. I hang up thinking that no such reservation had been made.
I go down to the registration desk on Sunday morning to pay for an additional night with cash, having enough space on my credit card to accomodate the interest charges without going over the limit.
At the desk I talk to the woman whose name I find out later is Sophia. She says I am ok through Monday morning. Somewhat puzzled I think it is a computer error similar to getting the Monopoly card that says "Bank Error in your favor, collect $200"
I go on about my business thinking I got a night for free until I get home and on Tuesday I call the credit card company to check the status of my account to find that there is a $52 charge for the hotel room and a $29 fee for going over my credit limit.
I then make about 6 phone calls using up about an hour and a half to find out that if I mail a money order to the hotel for $44 they will reverse the credit card charges. I called the credit card company and explained that the charge to the hotel was an unauthorized charge and that it would take a couple of days to straighten out but the hotel would reverse the charges as soon as they recieved from me a USPO Money Order in the amount of $44. The woman said she would reverse the over limit charge immediately.