TRIP.COM Error in booking our hotel stay, refuse to refund charges (over $300) Hong Kong China

Trip.com charged me for a hotel stay that they scheduled for me on the wrong date and will not refund a charge to my card for over $300.

backstory: Trip.com advertises hotel stays on a particular date for less money than what they will charge you upon check out.  This is an illegal scheme but they get away with it.  I paused during check out, and called their support office. The call center was looking into the issue and then agreed to book my trip for the proper date, at the advertised price.

When we showed up for our hotel stay (over $300 charge) the hotel was booked and my wife had a surgery procedure the next morning at 5am. This placed us in a very bad spot and put unnecessary stress upon us, forcing us to scramble late at night to find a hotel close enough to UCLA Medical to avoid hours in traffic and potentially miss a very important surgery. Luckily we found another hotel that night close to the hospital.

Trip.com is refusing to refund us a mis-booked hotel stay involving their customer service department for over $300 that we never used.  Never again will I use Trip.com.