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

[kali110]

Could it be something to
Do with the magic themes resort as it says in your screen shot that they set their own cancellation policy and to contact them etc?

[UpsiLondoes]

I've booked with them a few times (and sometimes cancelled) and you do always get a new email for every new booking. So you didn't make 2 bookings as you didn't get an email.

Never been charged in advance, either.

[buzzpop]

I have booked a trip before and despite it being a "we won't take a penny before you arrive" they have pre-authorised the entire amount on my card.

This happened to me today, said no money would be taken from card prior to arrival, and free cancellation... They took the full amount of £600 on the day my rent is due, I tried to sort it with bank today and obviously cancelled the booking immediately but the money is still not there in my account.
Pain in the arse, won't be booking with them again, hoping it gets sorted asap so can pay my rent :(

[AndNowItsSeven]

Won't help now but for future always screen shot confirmations , order numbers everything in case of no email.

[Sweettuth]

[Sweettuth]

penguin

[AndTakeYourPenguinWithYou]

And they would have took it, if they could. They sent me an email saying they were planning to.

And if me aunt had bollox she'd be me uncle. Nobody took any money from you, so no-one tricked you out of any amount. And it sounds more like you fucked up than they did. Either way, you haven't paid a penny. So IF means nothing.

[Sweettuth]

Don't worry about being emotional heck, Yanbu to be upset about the idea of losing a considerable amount of money because of a mistake that was not of your doing. They need to sort it out. End of.
I lost my rag with Vodafone last year after they overcharged me for the third month running and ended up actually crying down the phone. It was so infuriating that I had to call every month to correct the bill and wait 20 mins or so to speak to an actual human being each time. I, alongside many others, am convinced that it is a ploy to extract money from customers who eventually give up/can't be bothered/have the means to write it off and forget about it. And eventually I got through to the head of cs at Vodafone, got a month's credit and haven't had a problem with my bill since. It is worth pursuing. Don't let them get away with it.

[HeckyWithTheGoodBear]

Thanks hefzi. That's what I was hoping. I'm afraid I immediately rushed into writing a quite emotional email telling them I was really distressed etc wish I had just been more curt and sure of myself like one of you would have been! Ah well, what's done is done and I'm feeling much more reassured now.

[karalime]

I had a similar email from them but don't panic just yet.

I had booked a few nights at a hostel through them, didn't like the place so left after one night (only paid for the one night in cash).

The next day I got an email saying I hadn't shown up. Nothing came of it but I'm guessing that the hostel pays the site a fee or percentage of the cost of the stay, so to avoid paying for a customer they didn't end up getting, they have to telling booking.com that you didn't show up.

[hefzi]

If it was your debit card you guaranteed the booking with originally (which, from your comments about the rent, I'm guessing it was) they can't take the money from your new card - basically, they may have tried to run your "old" details and CIC code through, but it will have been rejected, as that card has now expired/been cancelled/whatever the deal was with the card being replaced. That money request is attached to those details - there's no way for a merchant to access your current details, or your account, without you providing those: so you are absolutely fine and they can't take the money from your account in any way.

I've honestly never had any problems with booking, and I use them quite often when I don't want to pay in advance on a booking: but it genuinely sounds as though it's an error at their end. The hotel can try to charge you the money if booking decide/claim you're liable - but practically, there's very little they can do to force you to pay it, especially as they're based overseas, so I honestly wouldn't worry about being chased for it etc Turn it over to booking to resolve, stick to your guns, and hopefully, it'll get straightened out without too much more bother

[Potatoface2]

so you booked 2 holidays and cancelled both and have been charged for one....opps!

[HeckyWithTheGoodBear]

Thanks Queenbean

[HeckyWithTheGoodBear]

Right, so no-one tricked you out of anything, and you haven't actually paid anything anyway?
Kinda misleading title, don't you think?

Maybe tricked was the wrong word, but I thought it might go down better than 'fucking scammed'. And they would have took it, if they could. They sent me an email saying they were planning to. Thanks so much for the valuable input though

And tripadvisor and booking.com have joined up, so it seems.

[Queenbean]

Penguin

No need to be thread police snarky, the OP is clearly worried as anyone would be at the prospect of losing £840. Leave it out.

[Rdoo]

I don't understand how tripadvisor is involved? Aren't they and booking.com different sites?

Have used booking.com about a dozen times and never had a problem, well only one hiccup where a hotel said I was double booked, I rang booking.com and it was sorted out in a out 5 minutes (I wasn't double booked apparently, hotel had got something wrong and booking sorted it out them while I held).

And to those talking about booking taking money, they don't the hotel does.

[AndTakeYourPenguinWithYou]

Right, so no-one tricked you out of anything, and you haven't actually paid anything anyway?
Kinda misleading title, don't you think?

[BitOutOfPractice]

God what a nightmare. Hope you get it sorted OP

[Sweettuth]

and the booking shows up as cancelled

[Sweettuth]

I think fleur nailed it. There only appears to be one booking of that particular holiday in OP's account and therefore indicative of an internal mistake from booking.com/tripadvisor. Either way not OP's problem.

[justmyview]

In fairness to booking.com, we've booked several times and had no difficulty

Surely an email confirming that a trip on X date had been cancelled with no penalty would include the booking ref number

Maybe OP has booked a holiday, then booked another and only cancelled the second trip, not the first

[Marmalady75]

Aargh - autocorrect
*If you didn't receive that I would assume it was only the original (then changed) booking.

[Marmalady75]

Surely if it was a whole new booking they would have sent you a confirmation email for that booking. Fo you didn't receive that I don't assume it was Tony the original (then change do) bookin.