“IRRESPONSIBLE AND INDIFFERENT BEHAVIOUR
It’s difficult to grasp how such a large entity as booking.com can act so irresponsibly and be so indifferent towards customers.
It feels like their system is set up in a way to simply frustrate customers for a long enough period in order for them to give up dealing with the nonsense. When calling a representative they follow a script that make them sound like AI bots and there is apparently no CRM system available.
Every time you call you have to explain everything once again and answer multiple questions. The workers follow a guideline of what to say and ask, but there is no desire to actually solve an issue or have an independent thought. Very depressing really - and extremely tiring and frustrating.
My case:
Made a reservation on the 1st of March with a friend. Paid with my credit card.
On the day of the flight (14th of June) we receive a message that our booking has been cancelled free of charge. This is three hours before the plane is leaving.
“We can confirm that your booking has been cancelled - you don’t have to do anything further”. And then a number for the place we booked.
What kind of message is that? Your system should surely be able to see that we have not cancelled our booking. Why is that we are to contact you? And three hours before the flight?
The place we reserved doesn’t answer their phone, so no information from them. Having to spend time making a frantic call and first making it through the automatic phone system with codes and then a long wait time before talking to a company representative from booking.com
No information available on why our reservation is cancelled and why you send an automatic e-mail stating that we have cancelled it ourselves.
I am then promised that we will get a new place free of charge, but I still have to pay for it first and then get a refund. This is a bit odd to me and I cannot get an explanation as to why booking.com can’t just handle it from here.
We are now in the train to the airport trying to go through the new booking on our phones with a bad connection, so we board the plane not having been able to confirm the new booking.
After landing we go to the new place, but there is no reception. We finally manage to pay for the new booking with my credit card and we complete the stay in a location that is far inferior thus leading is to spending a lot more time on walking/transport and having to take Uber/Bolt.
After returning from the trip I have once again been in touch with your customer service and each experience is equally frustrating. There is absolutely no logic and it just a person saying the same things from the script and not trying to do anything. Maybe it’s even a plan for them as well to just try to be polite and keep you on the line long enough to give up and hang up. Again; there is no CRM system it seems because you have to explain everything from scratch. And there is no log of who I have talked to earlier and when.
The result is that I have not received the refund of the 403,10 GBP that I paid 14th of June as per the 4th of July.
I have spent more than 3 hours calling your customer service.
You ruined the first day of my vacation.
You made our stay worse and cost us additionally as we had to pay extra for transport.
Booking 1: 4236691303 Booking 2: 4559649673
I have a few questions that I would like to receive an answer to.
1. When can I expect my refund?
2. Why did you send an e-mail saying we cancelled our booking when we didn’t?
3. Why was our stay cancelled in the first place?
4. Why can’t a company representative see what has been talked about before regarding a booking? Do you not have a CRM system?”
“Excellent service. Makes it very easy to find suitable accommodation whenever you're away travelling. Always a good range of choice and prices, with good info and reviews on each property to help decide. Would recommend the app for an extra ease in making and managing bookings when on the go.
Also a nice bonus to get £15 after a recent booking for using a friend’s referral link.
If you’re going to make a booking of over £100, feel free to use my link to do it and you’ll get £15 back too. Even if you already have an account.
https://www.booking.com/s/34_6/75cb428e”
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“I used Booking.com while traveling in Europe. It was easy to find and book a hotel in whatever town we decided to go to next without needing to know the local language. No problems whatsoever.”
