Richard Fairlie Richard Fairlie AKA www.elegant-vations.com Travel Agency Scammed Mother & 5 year old on Vacation in NYC Internet

I found this SCAMMER, Richard Fairlie, on www.vacationtimesharerentals.com, so I thought he was legitimate.  He was advertising a timeshare property for rent in New York City, and I wanted to take my 5 year old on a last minute surprise trip.

His initial timeshare was out of my budget, so he instead offered me a 3-night hotel reservation at The Bentley Hotel in Manhattan as a less expensive alternative.  He insisted on payment via www.Payza.com (instead of Paypal), which I agreed to so that I would not have to disclose my credit card information to him.  He claimed to be based in Australia, which he said made using Payza, instead of Paypal, more convenient for his company.  I paid immediately, and he emailed me a hotel confirmation shortly thereafter.

Sounds good so far, right??  Don't be fooled.  That's what I thought too.

I called the hotel twice after I received his confirmation, to confirm the reservation.  The hotel was not able to verify the reservation, but told me that it should be in the system the next day, the day I planned to arrive.  So, I had faith all was well.  BIG MISTAKE.

I arrived at the hotel, and long story short - 4 hours later - I find out that there was NO booking, and I'm now stranded with my 5 year old in NYC with no hotel reservation, with most hotels in the city being sold out.  I was devastated.  The entire time I was at The Bentley trying to get everything to check-in, Mr. Fairlie made me believe that the hotel had made a mistake, and that my reservation was in fact valid.  LIE!!  He also kept telling me that he had been speaking to various hotel staff about my reservation, and I later find out that NONE of those people even worked at the hotel.  It was the helpful hotel manager who finally told me that he thinks I had been scammed, and there was no hotel reservation in my name.

I called the CROOK (AKA Richard Fairlie) back and he promised to refund my $$, and pay the difference between what I'd paid him and what a new hotel reservation would cost.  And, you guessed it - that was the last phone call I received from him that day.  Thank God for the manager Paul at The Bentley Hotel, who arranged a discounted reservation at one of their sister properties because he felt bad for my daughter and me.  I booked the new hotel, at a $300 cost increase (BEFORE I'd been refunded my money, mind you), only for Mr. Fairlie to refuse to answer my calls.

Mr. Fairlie had claimed to be affiliated with www.wotif.com, so I immediately called them to start the process of getting my $$ back.  Turns out they've never heard of the CROOK. 

I finally reach him the next day (after calling his phone incessantly), and he gets very abusive with me and refuses to pay the cost difference.  He also insisted that he'd already refunded my $$ via Payza, which I later find out from Payza that he did not. 

Thank goodness I'd paid through Payza and initiated the disputes quickly...in less than 24 hours they'd reversed my payment to him, although I was still out the $300 additional $$ I paid for the new room.

Whatever you do --- STAY AWAY FROM RICHARD FAIRLIE & HIS COMPANY - WWW.ELEGANT-VACATIONS.COM.  He is a CROOK, A LIAR, AND A THEIF.