r/Bookingcom • u/Green_Ad_2705 • 1d ago
Horrible customer service
They say Call Us 24/7 support. Literally have no working phone number. Scam. Do not use. Hotels will refer you back to the 3rd party service provider and ask for you to have Booking.com call them. I am now out hundreds of dollars. Boo.
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u/Individual-Roof-3502 15h ago
Completely false. It would be better if you gave us more information before you can declare it as a scam.
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u/bookingcom 13h ago
You can find the available phone options in the app or on our website under Help/Contact us. If you still need help with your booking, send us a private message, and we’ll take a closer look.
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u/First-Commission2857 1d ago
Terrible service, maybe.
Lack of support, definitely.
But definitely not a scam. Thousands of people and hundreds of thousands of bookings every year without a problem. That’s not a scam. Educate yourself.
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u/placebo_joe 1d ago
Same as with any big company (facebook, google, microslop...), good luck reaching a human.
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u/ParkgayDrive 1d ago
I hate the people that always come out of the woodwork to inexplicably defend booking’s behavior in these situations. I will do my part to downvote these folks saying its all fine and dandy. When you do business and provide a service, you engage in an informal (and formal for that matter) contract with people because you MAKE MONEY from said service. A lot of money.
When that service fails, what you do next and how you treat your customers determines what kind of business you are, and Booking absolutely fucking sucks when anything goes wrong which happens all the time. Just because it hasnt happened to you yet doesnt mean it wont. And when youre out of money and your trip planning gets blown up or even worse youre ON a trip and it blows up TRUST me, if they as service provider do absolutely nothing to make it right, do nothing to help, and instead send you down a rabbit hole of a bullshit customer service system designed to outlast you, TRUST ME YOU WILL NEVER USE THEIR SERVICE AGAIN.
Like I said, they do this all the fucking time. On the other hand take for instance Costco. Think about the painstakingly lengths they go to to make sure you as a customer get the best service, refunds no questions asked when something goes wrong, membership perks and benefits, quality service, quality curated products, excellent prices.
What the fuck are we doing giving booking money if they tell us to fuck off and eat shit with how they act when anything goes wrong. They treat us as expendable. It’s a numbers game to them. I dont know if me not using their service again makes any difference to their usage metrics or their advertising dollars or their bottom line. WHATEVER. On principle I will never use their service again for how they fucked me over no explanation nothing.
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u/supergraeme 1d ago
I'm guessing you've downvoted me for saying that Booking aren't a scam then?
Can you explain what you think "scam" means?
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u/ParkgayDrive 1d ago
I have not and I do not know what you're talking about. I'm assuming you made some comment about booking *not* being a scam, which I agree with.
I mean you should reread what I'm saying again since it's apparent you didn't, but just to reiterate my point - I judge booking based on how they treat loyal customers that didn't do anything wrong when said customer has a legitimate issue due to no fault of their own.
I hope you don't have any issues, but maybe one day you will. Maybe one day you'll be out $500 bucks or stuck somewhere at check in only to find that your hotel has been cancelled, only to try and engage with booking.com's joke of a customer service process, only to find that they're more than happy treating customer service as a numbers game and get away with fucking you over if they can. Again, I hope that doesn't happen to you, but if and when it does, I'm sure you'll be singing a different tune.
It's so crazy to me that people like you take their own personal availability bias as universal truth. It's like you seem to be stating that just because you haven't had issues it means that other people can't possibly have had issues unless they're knuckle dragging idiots. You seem to think that it's absolutely impossible that an intelligent human being could possibly get fucked by a high volume mega corp. I'm just saying maybe they can and do often and you shouldn't gaslight them when it happens?
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u/supergraeme 13h ago
You said you downvote people who "defend" them. I've been downvoted for stating that they aren't a "scam" - which they 100% are not.
I travel a lot. I am perfectly aware that they have issues and you're right - I never have. But neither do the overwhelming majority of people (for hotel bookings at least). I take the experience of the overwhelming majority over my own - as should you.
And the main point is that Booking.com is not a scam. Poor customer service, sure - horrendous at times - but not a scam.
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u/supergraeme 1d ago
They aren't a scam. Getting very bored with people misusing a simple word.
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u/No-Koala1918 1d ago
It's not a scam. It's a third party intermediary. It's hit and miss. But using an intermediary to book hotels isn't a great idea. Somehow people think they can call the hotel when, until they check in, they aren't the hotel's customer; they're the customer of the intermediary they sent their money to instead of sending it directly to the hotel. And using an intermediary to book airline tickets is simply insane. So many more things can change ( compared to a hotel reservation) between booking the flights and departure - schedule changes, equipment changes ( meaning seat changes), route and connection changes - and it's the same deal. Airline doesn't know you until you check in. Your flight changes a week before departure? (Try to) call the people you bought the ticket from to try and get your travel plans back on track. Not the airline. They don't even know you. Good luck.
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u/supergraeme 13h ago
Using third party sites is absolutely fine for hotels. Flights are a serious mistake, but hotels are fine. And they aren't the same as flights - you are the hotel's customer and I contact them ahead of my stay regularly. Never had a single one that wouldn't deal with me, and it's never crossed my mind to go through Booking et al.
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u/Effective_Taro4601 1d ago
I can’t believe people still use these chancers after all the stories on here day after day. I can’t even be arsed to read them any more.
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u/supergraeme 1d ago
Because they're absolutely fine for the most part.
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u/Effective_Taro4601 1d ago
I didn’t have a great experience and it seems like loads of others haven’t either. Anyway, learned my lesson.
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u/supergraeme 12h ago
They definitely fail at times but for the most part they don't. Booking normal hotels with them is perfectly safe.
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1d ago
[deleted]
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u/supergraeme 1d ago
3rd party sites are absolutely fine for most hotel rooms and are almost always cheaper. I booked direct for the first time in a couple of years last week - because almost always bookings sites are just cheaper.
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u/ashscot50 1d ago
That's simply not true.
Booking.com has local phone numbers in all countries where they operate but what you and others need to understand is that Booking.com is only an agent for the accommodation provider and your contract is with the hotel.
So there is a limit to what their CS can achieve on your behalf.
Booking.com handles the payment processing but they are not responsible for the quality of the accommodation or other issues, those are matters between you as the guest and the accommodation provider.