Agoda : What's your experience when they mislead?

[albatross710]

I just had a horror experience with agoda.com last week....

Yep, they are terrible and should be run out of town.

I did have a Resort Fee refunded after I proved to them the problems in their booking confirmations. It took all of one Sunday to get it done.

I have another $600 in dispute with them from a February booking.

I will never use them again and encourage everyone to steer clear.

The disappointing thing is that they are part of the Priceline group and I always find priceline.com a good process.

 

[Max Samuels]

Anyway, time comes to check out of hotel and there is an additional charge of JPY 14,000 ($197).
When I queried what it was, they said it was for the extra child. I showed them my agoda confirmation, they didn't budge. They said call agoda.

Here is an update - after 3 escalations, each involving emails written in the poorest/funniest of English, agoda finally agreed to refund me the JPY 14,000! Of course, a credit card reversal is never quite the same... they seem to conveniently have a worse fx rate than the original charge, plus the AMEX "commission" etc.... so I am still out of pocket about $10..... but let's call it a win!!!!

My advice is to stay clear of such coughpy places like agoda. Sooooooooooooooooooooo cough.
Also, if using such terrible services, wherever possible, PREPAY your accommodation on your credit card. That way, when you rock up at your hotel, if everything is not as it should be, simply cancel your booking - and if they do not refund you, make a claim against your credit card. You will always win. Just tick the reason box that says "the goods/services I received are different to what I purchased".

 

[albatross710]

make a claim against your credit card. You will always win. Just tick the reason box that says "the goods/services I received are different to what I purchased".

I tried that on my dispute with Agoda. Westpac state that they cannot dispute a transaction based on 'quality' only if the transaction is fraudulent.

 

[Max Samuels]

I tried that on my dispute with Agoda. Westpac state that they cannot dispute a transaction based on 'quality' only if the transaction is fraudulent.

Try harder! If you don't get the what you paid for - i.e. you book and pay for the presidential suite and they put you in a hostel - you can definitely make a claim. Plus my example isn't about "quality" - it's about a different rate being charged.

I worked for years in a bank in the credit card dispute section and the onus is 100% on the merchant to prove to the bank that you (the customer) is incorrect. If they cannot do it the bank always rules in the customer's favour. The merchant would need to provide all sorts of documentation that what they gave you is EXACTLY what you paid for.

Many merchants get so many complaints about them from credit card providers that they cannot even respond. Hertz is a classic example. They never respond to the credit card provider, and after 14 days of silence, the credit card will refund the customer. Hertz then sells your "debt" to a debt collector - they will never engage in conversation with you. It's impossible to even call them. Then the debt collector sends you a nasty letter. And then you send that to VCAT (in Victoria) and it goes away. And then they punish you, Hertz bans you for life.... and you just go to Avis instead.

True story.

 

[JohnK]

This company is truly awful.

I had booked 10 x 1 night bookings and a 5 night booking for recent trip to Thailand and I used the pay later option on ANZ Visa.

When making the booking the rate is displayed in AUD. Even if I change my display options to THB the price displayed is still AUD. So I looked around and Agoda was a few $$ cheaper so went ahead with bookings.

When booking emails arrived the total price was in THB so I thought that's what they'll charge but there's confusion in their fine print I missed.

About 30 days from travel the first booking charged appeared on ANZ Visa and it was ~AUD5 more than expected. I thought ANZ Visa were taking commission but even that looked high. Similar story with next few bookings so I called Agoda and changed the credit card to 28 degrees. The same issue occurred there as well and I started to dig deeper.

I'd lost $4-$6 for each 1 night booking. The AUD rate displayed is charged if you choose Pay Now but the THB rate quoted is charged and converted to AUD by them using a very low Bloombeeg rate of 19.1THB where exchange was 20.90THB.

My last booking was AUD197 and I figured they'd charge $213 so quickly checked and cancelled and rebooked again paying ~AUD180.

I've sent some emails to Agoda stating I'm not happy with their deception and they'll investigate. Initially I was getting the standard scripted response and I asked them to stop wasting my time and treat my complaint seriously. Still waiting on response.

In total there were 13 bookings. Each booking was to earn AA miles but there was no way to get my AA number to stick in the booking and I'm following up with this as well.

This company is difficult to deal with and their customer service questionable. I'd have been happy to pay THB but they don't offer the option even if the invoice is in THB. I'll use pay now option next time so I know exactly what I'm charged.

 

[Franky]

This company is truly awful.

I had booked 10 x 1 night bookings and a 5 night booking for recent trip to Thailand and I used the pay later option on ANZ Visa.

When making the booking the rate is displayed in AUD. Even if I change my display options to THB the price displayed is still AUD. So I looked around and Agoda was a few $$ cheaper so went ahead with bookings.

When booking emails arrived the total price was in THB so I thought that's what they'll charge but there's confusion in their fine print I missed.

About 30 days from travel the first booking charged appeared on ANZ Visa and it was ~AUD5 more than expected. I thought ANZ Visa were taking commission but even that looked high. Similar story with next few bookings so I called Agoda and changed the credit card to 28 degrees. The same issue occurred there as well and I started to dig deeper.

I'd lost $4-$6 for each 1 night booking. The AUD rate displayed is charged if you choose Pay Now but the THB rate quoted is charged and converted to AUD by them using a very low Bloombeeg rate of 19.1THB where exchange was 20.90THB.

My last booking was AUD197 and I figured they'd charge $213 so quickly checked and cancelled and rebooked again paying ~AUD180.

I've sent some emails to Agoda stating I'm not happy with their deception and they'll investigate. Initially I was getting the standard scripted response and I asked them to stop wasting my time and treat my complaint seriously. Still waiting on response.

In total there were 13 bookings. Each booking was to earn AA miles but there was no way to get my AA number to stick in the booking and I'm following up with this as well.

This company is difficult to deal with and their customer service questionable. I'd have been happy to pay THB but they don't offer the option even if the invoice is in THB. I'll use pay now option next time so I know exactly what I'm charged.

Had a similar experience with them in the UK last September, $75 difference in what showed on the booking page, and what we saw on the payment page. Tried a charge-back with Amex with no success. There won't be a next time for us.

 

[albatross710]

I can only imagine the heartache that people must be going through with this company in the current Covid-19 issues. Certainly they are not service-driven.

 

[ethernet]

Despite Trivago being fined slightly, Agoda is always up to tricks. I never understand their pricing. Certainly when they say 77% off that is often flat out untrue. My trick is to book one day midweek, then slowly after several days book on either side, often a month -45days ahead. The second rule is assume weekends cost more, so if you can bag a weekend at Tuesday prices.. And you do know what you see in Australia is not the same as you see in your destination country. If you have time to waste, you can use a VPN so save a buck or so.