I booked a hotel, that was described by lastminute.com as a short walk to two underground stations. It was in fact a short walk to two OVERground stations and over a ten minute hike to the underground stations. I complained immediately as the person I was booking for has restricted mobility. The advert for the hotel was incorrect and a false representatation and in accordance with Section 2 of lastminute.com T&C that states if it is wrong on the site that lastminute.com have liability. I made lastminute aware of this and received an e-mail stating that they would cancel the booking and refund my money. When I politely replied to thank them, I received an e-mail telling me in fact it wasn't cancelled (despite the e-mail stating quite clearly stating that it had been cancelled and that the money would be refunded). After a flurry of more e-mails, I finally received a call from them (on my colleagues phone) where they stated that it was not refunded despite the e-mail to the contrary. I explained that I was not happy with this and asked to speak to a supervisor. I was then told they would call me back. A representative called back a short time later and stated very clearly that the issue was resolved and they would in fact refund the £140.25 and would I please accept their apologies for the terrible level of customer service I had received. Brilliant! I was at that moment very impressed with lastminute.com. I then booked another hotel (which really was close to an underground station) for my colleague.
When I checked my balance the next month - no refund? When I contacted the company and asked for an explanation and was told - nope we never agreed to give you a refund? What? - when I explained that they had called me back to confirm the refund, they denied it! So not only have this company stolen £140.25 they are also calling me a liar. I am furious.
All calls are recorded and despite my calling (15mins on hold=10p per minute) and sending repeated e-mails in which I have requested a transcript of the two calls made to my colleagues phone to prove that the company is at fault, I have been ignored or when they have responded, they have just thanked me for my comments or written complete gibberish. I am still awaiting a response and this ongoing debacle commenced on the 6th April...
I can handle bad service from a company but to have a company that blatantly lies, cheats and defrauds its clients is unacceptable, especially when it calls into question MY honesty and integrity.
It is pretty obvious that lastminute.com has no idea of what "Treating Customers Fairly" (TCF) means and is completely ignoring the guidelines set by the FSA, the body that regulates them.
I am interested to see if lastminute.com would like to save what little (if any) integrity that they have left and resolve this issue swifly. If not, any advice on how how to proceed would be gratefully received.
0 comments