I rented a vacation house with five friends in Leavenworth, WA to celebrate Oktoberfest. We had a great time and the house lived up to its advertising. We were careful to leave the house clean and in excellent condition.
I paid $1305.00 plus a refundable deposit of $400 for three days. When I did not receive the deposit back, I contacted Sunspot and asked them about the deposit. They told me that they were not going to refund my deposit because I had ten extra people staying the weekend there. That, of course, was a total lie. There were six adults and one 5-year old child staying in the house, all of which were disclose on the rental agreement. No one else stepped foot anywhere near the place over the weekend.
They refused to discuss it with me, or to provide any evidence of these additional 10 'phantom people' that they claim were staying there. I wrote over ten letters and had all of my friends sign affidavits stating that no one else stepped foot on the property (the affidavits were provided by Sunspots). After all of that, they still refused to refund the deposit.
I filed reports with the Better Business Bureau and the Washington State Attorney General, but Sunspot refused to respond to the complaints. I was contemplating taking them to small claims court when, to my surprise, I received a letter from the Attorney General stating that they had gotten a judgment and settlement against Sunspots. They followed up the letter with a check for a partial refund of my deposit. While I only got less than half of my refund back, I felt totally vindicated. There is justice in the world.
Stay as far away from this company as possible. Even though the Attorney General and the courts forced them to pay up, I dont believe for a minute that the experience caused them to grow some ethics and integrity.
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