Question: We’ve been ripped off royally by an Internet travel agency, and need your help. My husband and I took a trip to Grand Cayman a few months ago for our fifth anniversary.
We booked the trip through an agency called Changes in L’attitudes, which was based in Tampa, Fla. We paid with our credit card.
About two weeks after our stay at the Grand Cayman Beach Suites, we got a call from someone at the resort. Our travel agency never paid for our stay. We were being asked to pay for the hotel again.
According to the hotel, we had signed a form saying if the travel agency did not pay for the booking, that we would be responsible. The property then applied a $1,488 charge to our Citibank MasterCard.
I have tried contacting the travel agency, but the Web site is no longer available and it doesn’t have a connected phone line. I’ve since found out that the agency went out of business, keeping customers’ money instead of paying for rooms and airline tickets.
I disputed my charges with MasterCard, but it sided with the bankrupt travel agency. Can you help? — Nanci Moll, Oklahoma City
Answer: MasterCard should have sided with you. The card you used offers a number of security features and terms that should have made this an open-and-shut case in your favor.
Shouldn’t there be a law against being double-billed? As a matter of fact, there is. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, which protects consumers from fraudulent credit card charges, you aren’t liable for charges for goods and services you didn’t accept or weren’t delivered as agreed. Here’s an excerpt.
The Grand Cayman Beach Suites should have mentioned the payment problem to you either before you checked in, but no later than the time you checked out. When you leave the hotel and receive your final bill, it’s reasonable to expect a late charge only if you ran up an incidental charge, like a minibar snack.
The resort could have also offered a discounted rate, particularly if it knew you were going to pay twice for the same room.
You might have been able to avoid paying twice by pushing back when the hotel asked for more money. MasterCard allows late charges of up to 15 percent of the transaction for a hotel, cruise line or car rental company, but if it exceeds that amount, it must ask your bank’s permission. In other words, your hotel couldn’t arbitrarily charge you again without approval.
But ultimately, I think Citibank’s dispute resolution department fell asleep when your case crossed its desk. Obviously, you had already paid for your vacation. What happens between your travel agency and hotel isn’t your problem. That’s the whole reason you pay for your vacation with MasterCard — to be protected from this kind of internecine squabble.
When Citibank sided with the bankrupt travel agency, you should have appealed its decision.
I contacted Citibank on your behalf. A representative phoned you and told you that things were “not handled quite right” and that you were being credited $1,488 for your hotel stay.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
The form that Nanci signed is quite common. It generally states that you are ultimately responsible for paying for the room should the hotel be unable to collect from the third party whether its the credit card, your employer, an airline, etc.
I can understand the hotel’spoint of view. It provided a service, Nanci received the service, the hotel wasn’t paid, why should the hotel eat it.
Ultimately, it comes down to is who does the travel agency ultimately work for. I don’t know the answer. And that’s the fundamental problem with booking through 3rd parties.
I once booked a flight on American Airlines. Part of the flight was on British Airways. AA never sent all of the paperwork to BA. BA said bluntly, unless they get the paperwork transmitted before departure, I wasn’t getting on the flight. Fortunately, I arrived 4 hours before departure and had plenty of time to fix the issue.
The problem is that today, travel providers don’t see travel agencies, third party websites, etc. as the agents of the travel provider, but rather the customer’s agent. As such, if the travel agent or third party screws up, the travel provider takes the position of tough luck.
Hence my mantra. Booked directly with the travel provider. If its a complex trip or a cruise, then a travel agent is the other option.
Some of Carvers response is somewhat valid but I have to differ with his generalization of not booking through third parties.
I have used all three methods. 1. direct 2.Internet agency 3. local brick and mortar travel agency. I can see a hotel (was in the industry for 20+ years) looking at reservation from a dot com travel agency and wondering is the payment going to follow the reservation. My local travel agent has always given me confirmation emails from my bookings showing that they (hotel -rental agency ect) have received my deposit or payment. It was nice when I screwed up and missed a flight that was going to cause me to miss a ferry departure that my travel agent was working the phone and emailing while I was on the next available flight out. My rerouted trip itinerary was waiting when I landed.
I wasn’t worried as knowing my travel agent on a first name basis let her do her job and me to not stress out.
So bottom line there is something good to say about third party bookings
I have had two billing error disputes involving Citibank. In both cases they initially ruled against me; in both cases after a long fight and complaints to the Comptroller of the Currency, they changed. In the first case we provided our credit card number to a medical laboratory to cover charges not covered by insurance. Rather than actually file the claim with the insurance card, they charged our credit card. The laboratory was uncooperative, until we got the charge reversed. Citibank initially said that the fact we paid our bill in full each time meant I could not dispute the claim. After I filed a complaint with the OCC, they changed their position.
In a second case–in late 2008– there was a mystery $34 charge from a gas station after my son and bought $3.4 in snacks when we walked there from his school. Citi initially claimed the charge was valid and could not be disputed because it was a ‘card present’ transaction made at a pump. I asked for the documentation to verify this purchase. It showed zero gallons of gas purchased at 0 dollars per gallon for $34. I simultaneously complained to the OCC; Citi finally agreed that the charge was erroneous or fraudulent.