Jocelyn_P

I had posted this under a different title, but the circumstances have since changed, and I thought people might be more attracted to this title, as everyone here loves to give their opinion, lol. Here's the background:

Author: Jocelyn_P
Date: 07/06/2005, 12:46 pm
I am not slamming worldby.com, a reputable company. I just want to share my experience so the same misunderstanding doesn't happen to another fodorite.

I made reservations last fall at Villa della Fonte in Rome through Romeby.com, their booking agency. Our stay was split up; one night when we first landed in Rome in June, then two nights a few days later, after our time in Positano.

In March, we decided to change our trip and go to Paris instead. Using the Romeby.com website, I canceled our reservation (so I thought). I recently received a notification from Worldby.com stating that we were a "no-show" and were being charged one night's stay, 160 Euros. After reading the fine print, I see now that in their system, they filed our stay as two separate reservations. According to them, I canceled one but not the other, even though some of my correspondence directly with the hotel had the stay lumped as one unit.

This still has not been resolved, but I'm hoping that in the name of good customer service, Romeby.com will retract the charges. So, if you need to cancel a reservation with worldby.com, read over the dates very carefully to make sure ALL of your reservation is canceled.



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Author: JulieVikmanis
Date: 07/06/2005, 01:15 pm
Good information presented very levelheadedly. Thanks. I like the Worldby sites generally but I do know that you have to be very definite about what their cancellation policies, etc. are.



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Author: Jocelyn_P
Date: 07/07/2005, 08:44 am
Thank you, Julie, but now I am ticked. I looked through my credit card statement and they have charged me the $194 US. I wonder if it is worth contesting the charges through the credit card company? Looking back, I made the original booking on a single request form and the "we received your booking request" response was for the conglomerate dates. The first time the reservation was split up is when they sent "vouchers" for the hotel. They are label request *****9AAA and *****9AAB (the same numbers). When I requested a cancellation, the fine print in the cancellation confirmation lists some of the dates, but not all. So, technically, I guess they've got me because I could have looked over the fine print and figured out, wait they may not have canceled the ENTIRE reservation, but come on! What should I do here?



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Author: JulieVikmanis
Date: 07/07/2005, 09:59 am
Can't hurt to try. I'd alert my credit card company to hold up on payment and send both them and the Worldby people the same explanation contesting the charge. See if they won't do right.



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Author: Jocelyn_P
Date: 07/07/2005, 10:10 am
Hi Julie,

Worldby.com just sent me an explanation of why they are charging me. Again, legally I think they've got me, but the whole thing seems very unclear, if not deceptive. They actually charged my credit card three days before they even alerted me that they'd be doing so. I don't know if it's too late to contest now, since they charged me on 6/28. I just sent worldby a scathing email. If nothing else, it made me feel a little better, lol.



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ira

Dear J,

You can always send your CC company the exchange of emails and ask them to investigate the charges.

The worst that will happen is that they will honor them.

Jocelyn_P

Ugh. I called Capital One and this is turning into a monster. To contest the charges, I need to send in a formal written dispute with all the supporting documents I can muster. At least the guy on the phone was helpful and sympathetic.

Patrick

These things are tricky. I'm curious how you cancelled the reservation though. If you had a confirmation number, then surely you had two of them if they made two separate reservations. Or if you cancelled by date, I'd think you would have had to say "for arrival on the 4th and departure on the 5th and also for arrival on the 9th and departure on the 11th" or something like that. I'm not sure how you cancelled without both sets of dates. If you cancelled by fax or email, then did you keep a copy of what you said?

I had a somewhat similar situation but in a complete reverse. I had reserved two rooms at a hotel, but cancelled one of them. In my case the two reservations had separate confirmation numbers, so I carefully gave them one of those numbers. When we arrived at the hotel they had cancelled both rooms -- even though nothing had ever been said about the one reservation.

RufusTFirefly

I wouldn't think you have either a legal or ethical leg to stand on. They were two separate time periods even though you made both reservations at the same time. I don't see anything deceptive about charging you for the second time period.

But it wouldn't hurt to give it a try. Maybe a nice letter to worldby.com plus inquiries by the credit card company might pay off. Of course the credit card company requires a formal request and evidence from you; you shouldn't be surprised by that.

djkbooks

It's doubtful Capital One will favorably consider a dispute, since you did have two confirmation numbers, but apparently cancelled only one stay, and it would seem this is what all your documentation will support, particularly since you cannot document that you cancelled all of your dates.
Perhaps it was you who were not clear with your cancellation request and they did exactly as you instructed.

I truly sympathize with your oversight in not having double-checked the cancellation confirmation to ensure dates for both of your stays were listed.

But, I don't see any deception here whatsoever. Were the dates in the cancellation confirmation really "fine print"?

Christina

That is a lot of money to just swallow, but it isn't really clear to me how you could have cancelled both stays without it being clear. If I were cancelling a hotel reservation, I would state very clearly the dates. Particularly in such a case as having two reservations for two different stay sequences at the same hotel. I don't know how else you could have done it except to just say -- please cancel my reservation, without giving any dates or reservation numbers. In that case, I think it is, unfortuntely, entirely your fault. If you did state very clearly all of the dates you were cancelling, I suppose I'd dispute it as it's a noticeable amount of money. Of course your card is going to require documentation, this is a serious thing to claim no responsbility for fees on the card. They can't just take someone's word for something. I'll admit I thing you are unfortunately not looking at things objectively, and I understand that as it's your money. For example, in your first message you talk about how your stay was split up. Well, that isn't the way I view it -- it was not one stay, it was just two different stays.

Patrick

Christina has made the same point I was trying to make, only she said it much more clearly -- and I was trying to be polite.
If you cancelled your "stay" then it is your fault. You would have had to make two definite cancellations of your two "stays" to have any reason to complain. Each stay has its own arrival and departure dates.

MaureenB

I'd challenge the charge. You've got nothing to lose. If you can print the e-mail records you've got, then write a letter explaining the circumstances. I've had good luck with Bank One Visa when I've had disputes with vendors, and I've always had them reversed. Heck, it's worth a try.

djkbooks

Even so, if the cancellation confirmation, based upon the cancellation request, did not list all the dates cancelled, Jocelyn really should have noticed, and taken care to correct that.

And, I believe she'd have done better sending the comments she posted herein to worldby.com, rather than sending "a scathing email", which would seem to suggest that she knew the situation was hopeless and her own fault, but that made her "feel better".

Jocelyn_P

Thank you all for your honest feedback. As Christina said, I am not able to look at the situation objectively with this steam coming out of my ears; that is exactly why I posed the question here.

The main thing that was unclear to me is this: if I was able to MAKE the reservation for two &quot;stays&quot; on a single booking form, why would it even cross my mind that I would need two separate forms to cancel it? It obviously didn't and I guess I'm the one paying for it. What irks me is I did state that I would not be coming to Rome, and it seems like it would be such a simple thing for <i>someone</i> to put two and two together, but I guess they're not obligated to.

I have never contested a charge on a credit card, so I'm not familiar with the procedure, and I was hoping it would be as simple as forwarding them the emails I have kept, as Ira suggested.

djbooks, I did send more than one kind, explanatory email to worldby.com and it got me nowhere. I'm just using all my bullets here.

Even if they are totally in the right, I will not use worldby.com again. Too many &quot;i&quot;s to dot and &quot;t&quot;s to cross, and too big a penalty if you overlook one.

Again, thanks for the direct feedback. I haven't decided yet if it's worth contesting. I'll see how it looks in the morning.

lyb

Always, always, always, cross your T's and dot your i !

Whenever I've cancelled reservations, I specify the dates that I am cancelling and request a confirmation of my cancellation with the dates on it. It may seem obvious to you, but the clerk who receives the cancellation doesn't have time to think about putting 2 and 2 together.

Yes, it should be obvious that if you told them that you weren't going to Rome, you meant both stays, but in all honesty, how do they do that it's not just a sheer coincidence that people with the same name are coming one after the other....basically, they are not there to think for you.

I feel for you and I say go ahead and do try to contest the charges..what have you got to lose? But I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you.

LAwoman

Jocelyn, I think you will find it much easier to contest a charge than you think. The main thing is to keep it simple and not get into a lot of extraneous detail. Call them first and simply tell them you are contesting a charge, give them the date, amount and vendor. Tell them the charge was for a hotel room that you cancelled well in advance, and that you have written confirmation of the cancellation.

They will send you a form in the mail, just check the appropriate box, attach your cancellation email and send it back. They will take care of the rest.

Just be prepared to lose, so you don't get emotionally invested in the outcome. I think you have a better than 50% chance, tho, and will be surprised how easy it is. For this amount of money, would definitely contest.

As for what you should and should not have done with worldby.com - that's all in the past, it could happen to anybody, live and learn.

Patrick

Jocelyn, while it looks like some of us have now turned to blaming you, I still think the problem is none of us have a very clear picture.

How did you cancel the reservation (s)?
Did you pick up a phone and say, &quot;cancel my reservation under the name ____&quot;. Or did you write out and fax them or email them a cancellation including all dates? Did you have actual confirmation numbers and did you use them when you cancelled? Until we know that, it is simply silly for any of us to be commenting on who's right and who's wrong.

But I'd have to agree that if you simply called a hotel and said &quot;we aren't coming, please cancel the reservation for June 1st under the name of ______&quot;, there is no reason in the world for a clerk to have looked any further after he found the first reservation and cancelled it.

Jocelyn_P

Thank you for the kind words, LAWoman.

Patrick, as far as people blaming me, I asked for it! I wanted to know if I was completely to blame or if I had a case with the credit card company. I've been around here long enough to know what kind of answers I might get, and it could have been a lot worse.

To answer your question, you have to go through the romeby.com website to cancel the reservation. There is a link to the cancellation page on the voucher. What I think happened, is that when I went back through the email folder with my hotel confirmations, I scanned until I saw &quot;Voucher for Reservation Yada Yada&quot; and followed the prompts to cancel that reservation. The voucher for the <i>other</i> reservation is down a couple of messages, as they did not send them together, and in between the two vouchers is the autoreply from the same address saying we received your request (for all the dates stated). So, I'm sure I saw the one Voucher, saw the autoreply under that and figured that was it--all the other correspondence with the hotel was old news. Again, until the vouchers, it had been treated as one stay, why would I go out of my way to search for more? If the two vouchers had been side by side and not separated by the &quot;we received your request&quot; message, I may have noticed that there were two vouchers. Who knows. One thing's for sure: I must have been wildly distracted during every step of the cancellation process, because I am usually obsessive about checking and rechecking dates. The cancellation confirmation email I received says

&quot;Dear so and so, This message is to confirm that you have successfully submitted a Request of Cancellation for the Reservation #_____, regarding your stay at Villa della Fonte.

Please read the INSTRUCTIONS box for possible actions to this messagequot;

and in that chunk of text below is the one set of dates. The next day I received a similar message confirming the cancellation, in the same format.

As far as the cancellation form that I filled out online, I remember that it was very simple: do you want to cancel reservation # ______? Yes or no. I don't remember seeing dates on there and there's no way to go back and review the form. There was also a space for &quot;reason for cancellation,&quot; which is where I stated we will not be coming to Rome after all.

More than you ever wanted to know about booking with worldby.com...I'm getting a headache.

Jocelyn_P

I just received another message from worldby. The customer care rep was kind and apologetic despite my rant. She suggested I contact the hotel directly and plead my case with them.