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Report: #1311003

Complaint Review: Hotwire.com - Nationwide

  • Submitted:
  • Updated:
  • Reported By: Bonzai — Henderson Tennessee USA
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  • Hotwire.com Nationwide USA

Hotwire.com Hotwire.com: Fraudulent Billing for Reservation never made San Francisco California

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    My wife's father was scheduled to have cancer surgery on the morning of June 7, 2016.  So on June 5, 2016, my wife booked a five night hotel reservation through Hotwire.com, using the phone number on their website.  The agent refused to give hotel name or number until the debit card billing was successfully completed.  Once that has occurred, the agent gave the information, said an email would be sent to her with the billing information and itinerary number shortly. She was informed that if any problems should occur, to call back Hotwire customer support.  My wife specifically requested a smoking room and when she called the hotel number provided, she was informed that it was a no smoking hotel.  That is where our nightmare of out-sourced Hotwire customer support began!

    She called Hotwire customer support, and was asked for her phone number, name, and email address.  After providing them with the information, she was told that they could find no reservation made and that she wasn't even in their system.  Upset that she had provided her debit card information, she asked to speak to a supervisor, who transferred her to a credit card specialist, who said nothing was billed to the credit card in their system so she didn't have to worry.  This took two hours to complete, mainly being put on hold.

   Upon her informing me of that the debit card wasn't charged, I called the debit card authorization company 'Shazam', and was informed that Hotwire had indeed processed a charge in the amount that my wife was told by initial Hotwire booking agent.  So we called back Hotwire customer support, and went through the same scripted question to get to a supervisor who asked the same scripted questions, only to be told to call the hotel and see if our reservation had made it to their system yet.  So while we had Hotwire on the landline, my wife called the hotel back and was informed there was no reservation.  She was transferred to the hotel’s National reservation office, who informed her that there was no record of a reservation for us booked by Hotwire the previous evening.  So I demanded to speak to the supervisor's supervisor, and was finally transferred to "Jack", who after quite a bit of time said he found the billing, and would notate that 'upon reception of the funds, Hotwire would reimburse our account' and the money would be back in the account by Wednesday June 8,2016.  That was the best that he could do to resolve the problem.  So after four hours (June 6, 2016 03:38 am of the day we were supposed to leave) of answering the same questions, we were told we would get our money refunded for the reservation to the wrong hotel that was never made.  We were so tired of the hassle, we just said OK.  My wife had developed a migraine, and we knew we wouldn't be able to travel until the next day and arrive the evening before my wife's father's surgery.

    Having learned our lesson, we did not book the replacement hotel reservation through Hotwire.  Upon arriving back home in the late evening of June 11, 2016, I unloaded our vehicle.  We unpacked our things, and it wasn’t until about 03:00 June 12, 2016 that I thought I should check our account to see if the Hotwire refund processed as we were promised.  I quickly saw that we had been lied to just to get us off the phone by the so-called supervisor and Hotwire had indded charged the account for a reservation that they has repeated told us was never made by their company.

    So I called Hotwire to find out why we were not reimbursed.  I went through the same scripted questions three times, with three ‘levels’ of supervisors, and was continually told that there is nothing they can do because they have nothing in their system.  The last supervisor I spoke to asked me to hold, while she checked on something.  25 minutes later, I hung-up because I was tired and knew I was just being ignored. 

    I slept a few hours, and called Hotwire customer support again.  I was asked what phone was given for the reservation, what was the name the reservation was under, and what email was given for the reservation.  I have heard these same scripted questions so many times, I don’t believe that Hotwire customer support even has supervisors to talk to.  After another three hours on the phone, I was even transferred to Expidia.com, a sister booking site.  After explaining everything, because of course I had to be transferred to a supervisor there, I was transferred right back to Hotwire; where I had to start from the beginning again, answering the same questions, and supposedly being sent up the supervisor ladder. 

    The last Hotwire customer support supervisor informed me that since they could not find any proof that they had received payment from the debit card in the amount I read right off my account transaction history from my bank; my only option is for me to have the bank dispute the charges with Hotwire.com.  My word is not good enough about the number of times, hours spent on the phone, English names for outsourced customer support representatives is not good enough.  They do not keep record of the number of times a customer tries to resolve an issue, if they do not have an itinerary number (never emailed), phone number, name, email address, in their system.  However, they have no qualms whatsoever, about billing someone not in their system and then denying any existence of the billing.

    From researching on the Internet, I have discovered that Hotwire.com has a NO REFUND policy, due to their supposedly lowest rates on reservations.  During this whole process, we found we could have received a lower rate using my 100% Disabled Veteran military discount.  So I understand that their customer support representatives are trained in denying customer requests for refunds, but to deny a refund request for a reservation to the wrong hotel that was never made is pure fraud.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 06/12/2016 01:59 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/hotwirecom/nationwide/hotwirecom-hotwirecom-fraudulent-billing-for-reservation-never-made-san-francisco-cali-1311003. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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