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View Full Version : I've been ripped off! Don't you get caught.



Mike Circo
10-08-2017, 10:09 PM
A place called "getaroom.com" has just scammed me out of $175. Called my credit card and hotel, and I'm basically out of luck. Here is what to watch for so you don't get ripped off also.

So I went to book a hotel, the brand doesn't matter, could have been any chain. Googled them, and got their site... or so I thought. Great price I thought, so I booked. Went through the usual stuff name, address, credit card number. I checked that all was okay, and clicked their " BookNow" button. BOOM! A reply comes that says I've booked the rooms, the cost is non-refundable and the price has some goofy $175 extra charge. There was no second chance to click ok or back out, they just took my money and were done with me.

Long story short. The web site was NOT the hotel but those scammers at "Getaroom". The scammers say the money is non-refundable so too bad. Credit card company can't do anything except dispute with marginal chance for success. The hotel has my reservation so I'm not totally ripped off. I feel like such a dummy. I'm an IT pro and should have caught it. So for your future protection here are the red flags.

The web site had only a single outdoor picture of the outside of the hotel. NO lobby, room or any other interior pictures. RED FLAG.
Looking back, there was only one incident of the hotel logo, on the lead page, not on the booking page. RED FLAG.
Finally I recall thinking that the web site was jerky and very poorly done for a major hotel company. (It was not their site so, yeah, cheaply done) RED FLAG

Anyway. Be careful out there. I'm out $100-$175, not thousands. My CC company will watch for future transactions so I'm protected.
Please learn from my stupidity, that will be the value for my money lost to a scammer.

I'm trying to find a BBB or other association to look into these guys. So if you have ideas, I'll take them.

Larry Foster
10-08-2017, 10:24 PM
Call the credit card company and do a charge back

eugene thomas
10-09-2017, 7:26 AM
I alwice though cc company's can stop a charge but debit cards good luck.

Frederick Skelly
10-09-2017, 8:05 AM
Mike,
I'm sorry to hear this and appreciate your warning.

If you haven't already, consider doing some or all of these things:
* Contact the hotel chain's office. Not the hotel - you want corporate. They WILL care that someone is messing with their customers - such things can affect their business.

* Contact the FTC. If you search for "Federal Trade Commission Internet Scams", it says this "The FTC encourages consumers to file a complaint whenever they have been the victim of fraud, identity theft, or other unfair or deceptive business practices. They can do it online, or by calling the FTC's Consumer Response Center at 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357)." Someone I know just did this - they have people who can record what happened and offer advice.

* Contact your State's Attorney General Office. Many States track such abuse and pursue action when possible.

Thanks again for the warning.
Fred

Perry Hilbert Jr
10-09-2017, 9:28 AM
Ditto on the federal trade commission. I had to find someone and used one of those on-line people search companies. The cost was supposed to be a one time use fee of 99 cents. But when I got to the pay button I pushed it. The following month there was a $9.99 fee. WTH, so I called the credit card company and complained. put in a stop etc. The woman I talked to, told me she had three complaints about the same company over the past week. She added that there is a point a few steps before the pay button where the fine print slams you into a monthly service. I called the federal trade commission and there was already an investigation and the company backed down and I got my money back. It is kind of like those offers for time shares that once came in the mail. You have definitely won one of the following prizes. All you have to do is show up for our friendly sales program. (Mrs. actually drug me to one of those, I told the guy I was just there for the freebie and he handed us the cheapest prize on the list, a cheap china service for 4 and we were out of there.)

Jim Becker
10-09-2017, 10:39 AM
It's truly sad when anyone get's caught in these 'fine print slams" that are structured so it's very difficult to recover money...it's effectively a legitimate charge, despite the fact that it's stealthy in how you get hit with it. I do agree with lodging a complaint with the FTC as well as notifying the hotel corporate folks about the incident, however.

That said, please, when booking any kind of travel only use KNOWN booking sources or go directly to the hotel/airline website. And do understand that with many of the consolidators, such as "hotels dot com", etc., the transactions are non-refundable which is why the prices are often reduced below direct "best price" bookings. Booking direct will get you the best price available while still retaining the ability to change or even cancel a reservation. Saving a (very) few bucks using consolidators and "odd ball" web sites just doesn't pay in the long run, IMHO. So if you want to stay in a Marriott or other "brand" property, book directly with them and just use the more generic web sites for research to figure out what's in the area you plan on traveling to before getting serious about booking.

Wade Lippman
10-11-2017, 8:13 PM
I've twice used companies I had never heard of to get car rentals for half price. Maybe I got lucky, but it worked.

I have disputed credit card charges three times. I won all three because the vendor never replied to the dispute. On one the CC guy was honest enough to tell me that all the vendor had to do was say I was wrong and I would lose, but since they didn't reply... Maybe I got lucky there also, but it worked.

Mark Bolton
10-11-2017, 8:48 PM
It's truly sad when anyone get's caught in these 'fine print slams" that are structured so it's very difficult to recover money...it's effectively a legitimate charge, despite the fact that it's stealthy in how you get hit with it. I do agree with lodging a complaint with the FTC as well as notifying the hotel corporate folks about the incident, however.

That said, please, when booking any kind of travel only use KNOWN booking sources or go directly to the hotel/airline website. And do understand that with many of the consolidators, such as "hotels dot com", etc., the transactions are non-refundable which is why the prices are often reduced below direct "best price" bookings. Booking direct will get you the best price available while still retaining the ability to change or even cancel a reservation. Saving a (very) few bucks using consolidators and "odd ball" web sites just doesn't pay in the long run, IMHO. So if you want to stay in a Marriott or other "brand" property, book directly with them and just use the more generic web sites for research to figure out what's in the area you plan on traveling to before getting serious about booking.


Jim, you seem to travel and be savvy on many of these things. I have always stuck to your mantra of "go right to the source". So are you saying these sights like hotels.com/trivago/etc. are completely unnecessary?

Pat Barry
10-12-2017, 8:13 AM
Jim, you seem to travel and be savvy on many of these things. I have always stuck to your mantra of "go right to the source". So are you saying these sights like hotels.com/trivago/etc. are completely unnecessary?
I used the Travelocity / Trivago to get a comprehensive listing of hotel availability and then went to the hotel website to book the room

John K Jordan
10-12-2017, 9:27 AM
Twice in 40 years I had problems with unreasonable charges to my AMEX card, one from a car rental company in Italy. Both times AMEX immediately voided the charges and then took care of everything. I don't know how this compares to other credit card companies.

JKJ

Jim Becker
10-12-2017, 9:49 AM
Jim, you seem to travel and be savvy on many of these things. I have always stuck to your mantra of "go right to the source". So are you saying these sights like hotels.com/trivago/etc. are completely unnecessary?
The reputable sites ( the two you mentioned included) have their place and as long as you can "play by the rules", can sometimes net you a lower cost hotel room from unsold inventory. But I still prefer to book directly with the hotel because there usually is more ability to make changes or cancel. With a consolidator, if your plans change, you lose the money. And for anyone traveling with reasonable frequency (more than once or twice a year), there's advantage to sticking with a chain/program. For example, even though most of my hotel stays over the past few years for business purposes were with Hyatt (because that hotel was across the street from my Fairfax VA office and was the preferred properly for my now-former employer's travel program) I did stay enough times at Marriott properties (my personal preference for decades) to maintain a point balance. And with their recent merging of Starwood properties and program, I was able to combine points and get an automatic upgrade to Gold status, since one benefit of my AMEX relationship is Gold status with Starwood regardless of number of stays. Those points paid for my two nights's rooms traveling to/from central Florida to visit my parents last week. And sticking with a chain that has the beds you like is a very good thing if you're sensitive to mattress qualities as I am.

For car rentals, I've booked direct on occasion, but in the past few years have used Costo's travel service to book cars for much better prices than even direct. Since Costco is obviously a reputable business, I'm comfortable with that.

For air travel, no question, I'll only book direct with the airlines.

For complicated or involved travel, especially international, there's still good reasons to work with a traditional travel agency that you can walk in the door and work with an agent to sort things out, or to work with a leading online/phone agency such as AMEX for the same services.

Mike Henderson
10-12-2017, 12:30 PM
If you go to a site like TripAdvisor and read the reviews on hotels, you often see someone complaining that they were "walked" when they arrived at the hotel, or that the hotel claimed that they did not have the reservation. ("Walked" means that they sent you to another hotel). It's always when the person made the reservation through one of the booking sites and not directly through the hotel.

For airline travel, I would recommend that you NEVER make reservations except directly with the airline. I'll give you a couple of examples. Sometime before we were married, my wife was flying to Australia and booked through one of those booking sites. Maybe a month before her flight, she got a notice that the arrangements were changed and she would be flown into a different city than the one she was going to (but fairly close by). This was a problem because she had a connecting flight. She called the airline and they said they could do nothing because the flight was booked through a booking company. The booking company did not want to change her back to the proper city. It took a lot of work to get that straightened out. I suppose the booking company got a cheaper flight to that other city.

Second example: After we were married, we were scheduled to fly to France. Unknown to me, our travel agent had bought our tickets through an aggregator. Something came up and we needed to change our tickets. I called the airline to make the changes and was told that they couldn't do it because the tickets were purchased through an aggregator. It cost a bunch of money and time to get the changes made. I made sure the travel agent never bought tickets for us except direct through the airline.

If we had been in France and needed to make changes, it would have been almost impossible with the time difference to contact the aggregator.

Go direct. You'll have a lot less problems. Many hotels guarantee that you'll get the best price on their web site or they will match the price. After all, they have to pay the booking company if you book through one of them. If you book direct, they get the full price.

Mike