I think I just got Duped (again) by another "deceptive business practice," Check this out.

[Up2Late]

Last January, my Dad and I flew over to Germany to visit some distant cousins who we had never met before and lets just say, my Dad is taking his new, "I want to travel on a flexible schedual..." thing to the extreme.

So here's the thing, he tried to book our last night at the Frankfurt Airport over the phone, with some person in India, through Hotels.com! Long story short, Hotels.com booked us at the WRONG Frankfurt Hotel (they booked us at the Downtown Frankfurt Hotel NOT the Airport) and the Hotel wouldn't fix it after arguing about it for 10 minutes, so then we called Hotels.com and argued with them for another 20 minutes, then they gave us another "toll free" phone number to call, which I had to call twice and both times, they put me on hold for 20 to 30 minutes, on my CELL PHONE, in GERMANY!

Anyway, I gave up after the second 20+ minutes on hold, so my Dad called them when we got back to the U.S.A., but they didn't refund anything. They DID send us $80.00 in "Hotels.com Hotel Bucks," which I just tried to use tonight.

So I thought, Cool, I've got a year to use these on my NEXT booking made through Hotels.com because of what it said in the letter Hotels.com sent with the Hotel.com bucks (see letter in pdf format at this link) and by what is written on the FRONT of these "Hotels.com Hotel Bucks," but when I JUST went to "Notate" my Booking Number on the back "in the space below" as instructed in Step 2 on the back of one of the Hotels.com Hotel Bucks, I read in Step 3 something I had never noticed before! It says:

Step 3: To receive credit toward your NEXT reservation, after you have completed your stay please mail your voucher to the following address: ATTN: .....

(Hotels.com Hotel Bucks, front and back, at this link: hotels_com_bucks.pdf)

So, does it seem to anyone else like Step 3, on the back of the "Hotels.com Hotel Bucks is saying something completely different from the letter I got and the Front of the Hotels.com "Hotel Bucks???"

What I mean is, it looks to me like what "Step 3" is saying is that I'll get a credit for NEXT time I book a room, not THIS time, which I just booked for a one night stay in Columbus, Georgia in March?!? :shrug:

Btw, this is a trip I could have scheduled for anytime, but booked it for March to make sure I used up the Hotels.com Hotel Bucks. Hell, I don't even know what they mean by "discounted rooms only" at the top of the Hotels.com Hotel Bucks! What do you figure that means? :shrug:

Any thoughts or help figuring this out would be welcome.:hurts:

Sorry, I didn't think this post would be so long, I hope this isn't too confusing.:blush:

[sandnsea]

1. I think it means

that you received the "hotel bucks" for you next stay after the Frankfurt stay, which would be the Columbus Georgia stay. What I don't understand is why you have to wait to redeem these after your stay since they screwed up to begin with. Or why you have to mail anything in, they are capable of managing this through email.

Just call them, take a name, and verify that the coupons are good for the Georgia stay.

[Up2Late]

5. Yup, they sure don't want to make any of this process easy...

...and I really hope they don't expect me to recommend them to anyone I know either.

[sandnsea]

7. They used to be a small start-up

out of Springfield MO. Then they got gobbled up by Travelocity who was gobbled up by Sabre, and so now it's just another arm of the same hotel booking industry that has always run hotel bookings. The more things change and all of that.

[VotesForWomen]

2. ripping customers off is standard operating procedure for most businesses. nt

[Up2Late]

6. Yup, but this is one of the worst I've run across so far.

If you want to hear another good one, add my journal to your list. I'm probably going to post about an almost unbelievable scam that I just went though with Citi(bank) last week.

[mahina]

3. Frankfurt

bleh.

[Up2Late]

4. I never saw the city, but I can tell you that the added "security" post 9/11 really sucks there...

First we went through the big screening area, then, after we were in the "secure" part of the Airport, as we walked to our gate down this wide, open corridor, we had to go though TWO MORE screening areas!

"Post 9/11 security" is such a joke.:mad:

[mahina]

8. You didn't miss a thing.

Actually, consider yourself way ahead.

[Up2Late]

9. kick n/t

:kick:

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

10. Sounds To Me Like You Can Use Them For Georgia, You Just Have To Submit Them Afterwards.

[Up2Late]

11. I hope you're right...

...because that's what I was counting on, I'll let everyone know what happen in mid-March.