I recently found the hotel I wanted to stay at on Hotels.com. I called the number to book the room for the next night. I, mistakenly, thought I was calling the hotel. I booked the room for one night. At the end of the call was when I was told, "thank you for booking through Hotels.com." I was surprised but thought oh well, it's done.
I called the number back to cancel due to extenuating circumstances. I was grateful when I was told the hotel would refund my credit as I was within the 24 hour cancel policy. I was told that the charges should be reversed within 72 hours.
Two days later I went online to make sure the charge was refunded. It was but found that at the same time my original transaction was made, so was another charge for $171.90 to IAN Travel Services. Through further investigation, I found that Francine Zeppa had stayed at a hotel in Santa Barbara, CA on the original night I had made the reservation. Because the night had passed they could not refund my money. "So you will just have to make a report with your credit card company for the refund, " is what I was told.
Hotel was in California. I live in Florida. The room was rented as I was sitting in my living room making the reservation. You would think that I had teleportation to be able to get there that fast.
What really bothers me is that I tried to be safe. I didn't put my credit card information online. I called them and I didn't use a cell phone or cordless that can be tapped into by a scanner or monitor with high frequency capabilities.
Needless to say, my credit card company refunded the charges as these thieves knew they would. Will they search for this culprit? I don't know. I hope so. I would think that they are eating lots of charges for this type of scam. What does that mean for consumers? High interest rates.
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