Trip Advisor tricked me out of £840!

[HeckyWithTheGoodBear]

Made a booking to go on holiday yesterday, then changed it to a few weeks time to fit in with uni dates.

Specifically did it with tripadvisor/ booking.com as there is no deposit or cancellation fees up to 2 weeks before you travel, and money is tight so it was good to know we could cancel if necessary.

Anyway, it was necessary to cancel (unexpected money had to be spent on essential household/ children's stuff) so I did. Did that last week; I checked and they had sent me an email saying all is fine and I would not be charged.

Got an email today saying that I had not showed up yesterday (the original booking date) so would be charged £840.

It seems I did not get an email to confirm that I changed the dates, but that is definitely what I did; I logged into booking.com went to my bookings and clicked change the dates.

I've lost and ordered a new card since the booking so I think that's why no money went out today. Thank goodness as its rent day today and we wouldn't have had it. What a nightmare!

What do I do? Where do I stand legally? AIBU not to pay it? I definitely can't afford to, and although I should have checked for a confirmation email which I usually always do, Sod's law, I know for a fact I changed the date of my original booking, not made a new one

Well done if you understood any of that, and please don't tell me too many times how stupid I am, my anxiety is going through the roof

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

I checked and they had sent me an email saying all is fine and I would not be charged.

It seems I did not get an email to confirm that I changed the dates,

Can you clarify?

[Gazelda]

Shit! That's awful. Have you got the original booking confirmation for the one you cancelled? Is there any reference to a previous booking number or change of date?
I think you'll have to phone them and be firm that your booking was changed then cancelled, rather than a second booking.

[Sweettuth]

When you say you received an email saying all is fine and you won't be charged, was that after you made the cancellation? If so then all you need to do is forward that to tripadvisor/booking.

[NotMeNotYouNotAnyone]

I don't understand? You said you had an email then no email?

[magicstar1]

From what you say, you can change free of charge up to two weeks before travel. You changed it a week before the date of travel, so you missed the cut off for free cancellation. Am I reading that correctly?

[EveOnline2016]

Is the email legitimate one.

[HeckyWithTheGoodBear]

I checked and they had sent me an email saying all is fine and I would not be charged.

It seems I did not get an email to confirm that I changed the dates,

Can you clarify?

I changed the dates a couple of months ago, I didn't get an email confirmation (didn't actually think to check, but it confirmed on screen). However, when I cancelled the booking last week, I got an email saying I wouldn't be charged. These were obviously for the 2nd dates; I was not aware that instead of swapping the 2 dates like I had instructed, they had instead given me a complete new booking. I'm making this sound much more confusing than it is, sorry.

[chelsbells]

Log onto your trip advisor and see what 'upcoming bookings' you have and you'll know then if the booking still remains - I'm sure it shows you bookings cancelled too.

Not sure legally where you stand, you booked it, possibly didn't cancel it and the policy is therefore to pay.

Let's hope it's a mix up and it was altered first time round and not a brand new booking! Is it possible to email them and ask for confirmation of your booking as you believed it had been cancelled?

[specialsubject]

contact your card issuer.

[Sweettuth]

Woah.

[Gazelda]

So OP, from what I understand it went like this:

Made booking for 3 May
Changed date of travel to 30 May, received email confirmation of new booking details.
Cancelled booking
Got charged 840

Is that right?

[HeckyWithTheGoodBear]

When you say you received an email saying all is fine and you won't be charged, was that after you made the cancellation? If so then all you need to do is forward that to tripadvisor/booking.

I have done. I'm just nervous they're going to say that on their system it's two different dates, and as I have no email confirmation of changing the date, they might still make me pay.

[katemiddletonsnudeheels]

Booking.com are awful; I won't use them at all now because of similar issues, not as disastrous as yours though, OP.

I really hope you get it sorted

[Sweettuth]

If you paid by cc then you may be able to take it up with them.

[HeckyWithTheGoodBear]

Sorry. This story is all over the place. I'll use a PP's format:

Made booking for 3 May
Changed date of travel to 30 May, no email confirmation (just checked now) but on screen confirmation that date had changed
Cancelled (30 May) booking, email confirmation no charge
Today received email regarding 3rd may booking that I had changed to the 30th - charging me 840 for no show

[Ladycrazycat]

I understand I think.

You changed dates, confirmation on screen. It seems they started it as a new booking instead and then when you cancelled you cancelled the original booking. Although in theory it shouldn't have let you cancel the original booking as there should only have been one open anyway.

When you look at your orders now, how many does it say you have? Is it the one or the two?

I have had problems with booking.com before although never this particular one. I would contact bank ASAP to ask them to put a block on any payment they try to take in future and contact booking.com to make a complaint.

[CamembertQueen]

Had a similar issue, though not as much money. Only we rang them to change the dates etc. All fine, then on the day turned up to the place, no booking and our previous was a "no show". Booking wouldn't give us our money back. I now always get confirmation. Don't know what that company are playing at!

[HeckyWithTheGoodBear]

No it's DC. As I said, I think because my card number has changed since the booking, they won't be able to take money out? I hope anyway as even if I legally had to pay it back due to lack of email confirmation, I could only do it in really small chunks.

[Sweettuth]

Right. So basically you're worried that a whole new booking was made instead of changing the original date (to the new one). Have you contacted booking.com?

[Sweettuth]

X post

[HeckyWithTheGoodBear]

On the website, it only has the order that I've cancelled (30th may)! So would it usually have 3rd may listed there as a no show? I've screenshotted for evidence.

I have emailed them explaining too but I will ring my bank tomorrow and make sure they're not going to take any money.

[Ladycrazycat]

All you can do is complain to them and complain some more unfortunately.

We had an issue (twice) where they didn't send booking to our hotel. Hotel had no record of us so wanted to charge us at their rate. Meanwhile booking.com wanted to charge us a no show!

We sorted it with a lot of complaining and persistence and it helped that our booking was in a country that uses the mantra 'Guest is God'

[Fleurdelise]

The entire booking should be under only one reference number. So first email confirming the initial booking should have a reference number and the cancellation email should have the same reference number.

These are automated system reference numbers so any time you amend something it stays under the same reference.

If the cancellation email has a different reference number it looks like you have booked two separate holidays and only cancelled one.

[NapQueen]

Booking.com themselves dont take money - they instruct the hotels to. It is highly likely that whilst booking.com amended your reservation, they either failed to notify the hotel, made an error when speaking to the hotel to book your room, or they sent the correct info and the hotel made the mistake.

[Sweettuth]

I recently used booking.com and needed to change a detail. I found the person I spoke to very helpful. It might be worth giving them a call to find out exactly what has happened from their end