sandra, please tell us that you've disputed the charge with your credit card company.

Sandra,

You really should send your complaint to the office of New York's Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer. Based on what I know from media coverage of the WooGo saga, I believe Spitzer's office is looking into WooGo's business practices. I'm sure they would want to know about your experience.

Contacting the AG's office is easy. Here's a link to their online complaint form:

http://www.oag.state.ny.us/online_forms/email_ag.jsp


You should also consider getting in touch with the office of Liz Krueger, a New York legislator who is gathering information on WooGo and other illegal hotel operations in the NYC area. They've been trying to gather information from tourists who've had run-ins with WooGo.

The point person for Krueger on this issue is a woman named Edline Jacquet. You can probably get contact info via Krueger's Web site: www.lizkrueger.com.

For even more information on WooGo, and for more ideas about ways to take action, go to WooGoSucks.com.

Good luck!

Thank you for the feed back. I have taken all your advice and lodged various complaints with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Bureau of Consumer Protection I have also sent a copy of my complaint to the office of New York's Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer.
And a copy to the office of Liz Krueger, and let Woogo know of my actions but still no refund. I was wondering if Peter-bay or LF Chessington have received their refunds. if not I hold no hope for myself. All I am currently receiving when I email the company is an automatically generated reply, telling me I am inportant and they will get back to me as soon as possible. But still no word. It is almost 3 months.
Instigating legal action against an internet site seems difficult, any advice ??
Sandra

Thank you so much for all your hard work in keeping this open for all to read to be aware of what they are doing. I could not believe when I was scrolling through Expedia that they post there places. It almost made me stop looking at expedia for help. But thanks again for all your help and good evening!!

Lizzy

I remember your post a while ago (and some people who didn't understand your plight) and I was shocked when I saw a hotel on hotels.com (or expedia, I think) and when I did a cross reference for a review on tripadvisor, the review listed that the hotel was "booked", but put them up in an apartment building nearby. I immediately thought of your posting, and though the price was cheap, I declined.

Way to go on your plight and your helping both travelers and apartment tenants alike!

Raz Ofer just continue with his Woogo.com illegal activity in New York, can someone stop him please?
Did you hear that Raz just liquidated Woogo NY LP a couple of months ago and opened a new company called Global Hotels Inc. which now operates Woogo.com? It's because he had problems both with the company's account in HSBC and also with the merchant account because he made double charges equals more than 1 Million USD, hundred of clients waiting more than 4 months for their money!

The address of Mr. Raz Ofer's office is: 301 W. 53rd Street, 10019, Suite 2B, Phone number: 212 956 2275, Fax: 212 956 3008 .

Mr. Ofer's residence is: 120 Riverside Blvd. 9A New York, NY 10069
Phone: 2123624631, Mobile: 646-431-7934, email: [email protected]

Please stop him and Woogo.com . Thousands of people were scammed by them.

Why on earth doesn't TripAdvisor, at least, acknowledge the problem and warn tourists? Are they seriously worried about being sued by Woogo? Don't they know that truth is an absolute defense.

If you use TripAdvisor, suggest you write them.

Thanks for taking this on and helping to eliminate such a scam as this. You saved me from considering WooGo, when we were looking for a NYC hotel last October. I was searching Expedia, and, sure enough. a WooGo property popped up with availability. Because I'd read your other post, I knew about them and to avoid them. Thanks for saving my family from a big problem!
>-

Some of the actions of these "hoteliers" have been so egregious that the New York City Council is now considering legislation that will much more clearl define what is a hotel and what is an apartment. Apparently they intend to require anyone renting rooms for less than several months to have their premises inspected for a different type of Certificate of Occupancy - with different laws relating to fire and other safety issues.

(Legitimate corporate short-term rentals generally already meet these requirements - it's the scammers like WooGoo and similar that will be affected.)

No news on exactly when the law will be voted on - or go into effect.

Well this isn't MY first post, but I've posted before on this issue, originally joining in the slams against this company that simply sounds outrageous.

But good friends who have great taste and are major travelers informed me they rented apartments twice from Woogo in the past year. The building was just south of Central Park -- sorry I forget the exact location. One time they had a one bedroom and one time they had a two bedroom (they have two children). They couldn't say enough good about the place. Formerly they usually stayed at the Waldorf towers, but actually claimed these apartments were beautifully furnished, brand new, and in far better upkeep than their usual digs at the Waldorf Towers at a fraction of the price. They plan to return often.

So I'm not sure what the deal is -- if the company is doing some turn-a-round or just what gives.

To be fair, Neo-Patrick has been posting for quite a while, on many topics. It's not out of the question that a few people may have had a reasonable experience with WooGo -- if 100% of their guests had been scammed or inconvenienced, I don't know that they'd still be there.

However, given their general track record, it's not nuts to be suspicious of their defenders, either.

Never mind: I did that search for you. I see now, they told me they've actually stayed there three times, not just two.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...1&tid=34895010

You can certainly tell that borkngr is new to Fodors; anyone who has been around here for any length of time knows NeoPatrick (and probably knew Patrick, too ;-) ). As to the disparity in experiences, I think HKP has it right.

The end of Woogo.com is coming soon, after that today Centrock Corporation filled a demand against Raz Ofer (President of Woogo.com) in the District Court of Israel, to pay 1.15 Million USD. Centrock Corporation used to be a partner in Woogo.com more than a year ago, but left the company after being defrauded by Mr. Ofer .

Interesting recent article -
http://www.thevillager.com/villager_...llillegal.html

An interesting article indeed Starrs.

ATTENTION: XGLOB.COM is another website by Woogo

It seems that Raziel (Raz) Ofer is trying everything as he realized that he's reaching his end, after all authorities in the USA and Israel are after him.
The new website: xglob.com, is a new website by Woogo.com, which offers you a 10% discount and even lower prices than Expedia,Hotels.com prices. Of course It's illegal for Mr. Ofer to do so, because he must give the lowest prices to Expedia, but here he tries to tempt potential expedia clients illegaly.
Now what's the reason behind that? A couple of months ago, the Call Center manager of Woogo resigned, it was followed also by the resigning of the Revenue Management manager, and all the shift managers and the customrecare team, so Woogo now relies 99% on Agent bookings, and since Woogo pays an average of 30% commission for each booking, it loses money. Since there are no people to operate the call center and it's about to be closed, Woogo opened this website in order to tempt potential Expedia and Hotels.com clients. I wonder what Expedia and Hotels.com would do when they hear about it.
here is the WHOIS information:
Registrant:
world acomodation LLC
1 central park W new york
new york, New York 10023
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: XGLOB.COM
Created on: 14-Mar-07
Expires on: 14-Mar-08
Last Updated on:
Administrative Contact:
sysadmin, sysadmin [email protected]
world acomodation LLC
1 centarl park w new york
new york, New York 10023
United States
8668656489
Technical Contact:
sysadmin, sysadmin [email protected]
world acomodation LLC
1 centarl park w new york
new york, New York 10023
United States
8668656489
Domain servers in listed order:
NS2.RACKSPACE.COM
NS.RACKSPACE.COM
Rackspace also host Woogo.com website, and you can notice the same orange color like in the woogo website. In addition the registered address is for the Trump Intl. where Woogo owns one apartment , which it sells on its website.
Avoid xglob.com, and of course woogo.com
Please spread the word.

I was just trying to reserve the Blakely Hotel for mid-July on Expedia. They wre fully booked but expeida gave me 5 alternative that are available....and 2 of them are WooGo properties!

Raziel Ofer was finally caught by authorities:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/07182008...biz_120454.htm