DEAR TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER: We booked a room on the Oasis at Grace Bay in Turks and Caicos via Motels.com in January 2020, for lodging in early April 2020. After we booked the reservation, we couldn't reserve the identical room for our whole keep, so we made two separate reservations.
We needed to cancel due to the pandemic. I emailed the resort quite a few occasions to resolve this, and the corporate lastly issued a refund for one of many reservations, however not the opposite. I requested why, they usually couldn't give me a straight reply.
I reached out to Motels.com, they usually responded that they might situation a voucher for a similar resort. I didn't need this and simply wished a refund. I went forwards and backwards with them for some time on this and haven't acquired my refund.
Motels.com now says my voucher has expired, they usually can’t do anything for me concerning this. None of this provides up. Are you able to please get my $1,632 again?
— Michelle Sprekelmeyer, Costa Mesa, California
ANSWER: Motels.com ought to have refunded your keep three years in the past. I feel you’ve simply damaged the report for the longest look forward to a refund.
Pandemic refunds have been complicated. However the confusion began earlier than the outbreak. It appears such as you cut up your keep into two reservations — one from April 5 to April 8 and the opposite from April 8 to April 10.
Splitting a reservation means extra paperwork and extra of an opportunity that one thing can go mistaken. If that ever occurs to you once more — and I hope it doesn’t — it’s higher to discover a approach to make a single reservation. Complexity is the enemy of quick refunds.
Motels.com ought to have helped you from the beginning. Asking the Oasis for a refund would have been your backup plan, not the first step. Motels.com is your on-line agent, and it ought to have taken care of you.
If the common customer support channels don’t work, you may have reached out to an government. I publish the names, numbers and emails of the Motels.com customer support managers on my client advocacy website, Elliott.org.
So, why did the resort refund solely certainly one of your stays? I reviewed the correspondence and likewise spoke with Motels.com about your case, and it’s unclear why the resort solely refunded certainly one of your rooms. I feel within the chaos of the pandemic, the second refund obtained missed. Motels.com tried to repair the issue with a voucher, however it expired.
I contacted Motels.com in your behalf.
“When a buyer has a priority concerning their lodging, we advocate to seek out the most effective and quickest resolution attainable,” a consultant informed me. “We remorse that it took longer than traditional to resolve the issue with the property.”
Motels.com issued a full refund.
Christopher Elliott is the founding father of Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit group that helps shoppers remedy their issues. E-mail him at chris@elliott.org or get assist by contacting him at elliottadvocacy.org/assist/.
(c) 2023 Christopher Elliott
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