If I could give no stars I would. Warning: long post ahead as this has been a year in the making.
Take home lesson: If you or someone you know did not travel because of the pandemic and made a reservation to stay in a vacation rental managed by this company, and they won't return your money, do yourself a favor and file a dispute with your financial institution: it's the only way you'll get your money back. Otherwise, I believe these people are profiting off of the unprecedented events from COVID last year and taking advantage of the situation. So disgraceful!
Also:
Stefanie was the least helpful person and could really use an entire course on effective customer service, respectful communication, and the importance of follow through with her customers. If she's not the owner of this company, I have no idea how she still has a job. She is an absolute disgrace to customer service representatives everywhere.
The Details:
My husband and I were planning to attend a wedding last April. We found and booked a vacation property through this company. The wedding was cancelled due to COVID. I called about a month before the wedding was supposed to take place and informed them about the unfortunate cancellation. Stefanie gave me two options: Receive a refund of a cleaning fee, or place our total funds on hold to use in the future. I opted to place the funds on hold and waited to see what would happen with COVID.
Fastforward to the Fall 2020 around Thanksgiving. The wedding was never able to be rescheduled due to COVID. I was in touch with Stefanie letting her know about the status of the wedding and the fact that we still were unable to travel. Stefanie told me that our funds would be honored, but that our booking window was now limited to May 2021-October 2021 and that we had to stay at the same property that we originally booked. My husband and I were not happy with the time frame limitation, but understood we would book the same property, understanding the pandemic shifted everything off kilter and were willing to work with them to use our funds.
Fastforward, to January of 2021. My husband and I picked a date that fell within the May 2021-October 2021 timeline, and called Stefanie to book the property. When I finally got ahold of her (she does not return phone calls and is extremely difficult to get ahold of), she informed me that the property we originally booked, (and the only property she was willing to let us book again) was no longer available as a rental in their company. I was shocked as we had not been called about the property not being available anymore, and think if I hadn't been so diligent, we never would have received a call regarding that piece of information. I proceeded to asked her about the refund process, which she reported, "Oh no, there are no refunds. If you want one I'll have to call the owners and see if they're willing to return your money, call me back on Monday." It was Thursday morning, and I was a little confused why she couldn't call the owners same day and follow up with me later that day, but when I asked her about this she repeated, "Call me on Monday." I was floored and I requested she call me back after she spoke with the owners. At this point I was really frustrated as I had been doing all of the calling and following up with very little follow up. She replied rather sarcastically, "Okie Doke" and hung up. I knew she wasn't going to call me Monday.
That following Monday, I waited until the afternoon giving her all morning to follow up with me. No call. I called around and finally got ahold of Stefanie and she said, "Yeah, they're not giving refunds. Thanks for trying" and hung up on me before I could ask further questions. I was very upset.
My next phone call was to dispute the charges from this company. I made a full report of all events explaining the situation and expressing my frustration that after trying to work with this company, we were told "Thanks for trying."
My credit card company launched an investigation after they received my disputes. Within 2 days of the investigation, I received a text message from Stefanie stating, "After consideration, we have decided to refund your money in full. We need to cut a check to you now. Confirm your mailing address."
It was a long process and it took a lot of time, but it was worth it in the end to prove to this company their business practices are shameful. read more