When I did a search for a motel on the internet (I was search for a motel 6 in Richburg, SC) their site came up. When I completed the search, they showed that there was no availability on Thanksgiving (11/22-24). Thinking this must be a mistake, I called their number, and without missing a beat, "Nelson" told me that the Motel 6 was completely sold out, but there was "one room remaining at a Days Inn nearby. Thinking this sounded strange, I asked him why I couldn't make a reservation directly with the hotel. Nelson told me they (Reservation-Desk.com) was the "Official" reservation desk for the motels in the Richburg area. OK, so why no rooms available on Thanksgiving, I asked?"Nelson" told me that there was a convention during that time period, and all the rooms in the Motel 6 were taken, in fact they were "oversold." So, thinking that Nelson was being honest with me, I went ahead and reserved the room. The next thing that was not right: Nelson told me that it was "motel policy" to "prepay" for the room. But I could cancel up to noon on the day of arrival without penalty.
After calling the Motel 6, in Richburg, SC, directly (which I should have done to begin with), I found out that there were plenty of rooms available, in fact, I got a better rate than was given to me by Reservation-Desk.com, and was able to reserve two rooms for the dates that I wanted, AND there is NO CONVENTION in the area over Thanksgiving!
I was lied to twice by Nelson of Reservation-Desk.com, and they charged my $97.74 under false pretenses!
Now I have to say that I called back to cancel the reservation with them, and asked to talk to a supervisor. A Mr. Bill Patel came on the line after a 12-minute hold, and told me that the refund would be made and the reservation cancelled. But when I asked him to explain why "Nelson" made this reservation by telling me lies, he said that Nelson must have been trying to make a "sale" so he told me what he wanted me to hear in order to make the sale! I told Bill, in no uncertain terms that that is a bad way to do business. Then he said he had no way to know what transpired during my conversation with "Nelson, " and I asked him if the statement that I heard before Nelson answered the line that said something like: the conversation would be recorded for accuracy and training purposes (it went something like that, I don't remember exactly, but you've heard it before, and we could call their number again and find out exactly what it said). But Bill replied that the recordings were random and that one had not been recorded. That was very convenient for them. So, in the end, I contacted my credit card company and had them put a note on the account for when the charge comes through to dispute it and not let it hit my account. And I do have an email from an entity called "travel-now.com" that the reservation has been cancelled and a credit has been issued, but of course it will take up to 7-10 business days for the credit to go on my account.
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