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Agoda review: Cancellation policy 7

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4:50 am EST
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On 17 jan 2011, I booked via agoda website a superior room at orchard parade hotel - singapore for 1 night. But a minute after booking, I found out that the room's price you advertised varied greatly from what's charged on my credit card. The display says sgd$177, but it's charged as sgd$214.33 (Usd$161.59) there was no explanation of why the charge differs so greatly, no clear breakdown of why that is.

I immediately cancelled my booking and sent email to agoda stated my reason of cancellation in the original complaint on jan 17, 2011.
A few minutes later, I received a cancellation notice stating that my booking has been cancelled by their system and the payment for this booking, less all applicable cancellation fees will be refunded to my credit card within 10 working days.
On jan 18 2011, I received an email from a person at the contact centre spesialist - agoda customer response saying that they already received my email and noted the cancellation made via self - service link but he didn't clarify about the price mismatch.

Based on these two emails, I considered my booking was successfully cancelled and would receive the refunded payment within 10 days.

On 7 march 2011, I checked with my bank and according to them they still haven't received the refund from agoda. I emailed agoda customer response asking them about the payment refund. They told me that there will be no refund for this booking as per hotel policy, the booking is non-refundable and can't be amended or modified.

If this is not refundable, the website shouldn't allow me to cancel. Why on their cancellation notice they mentioned about payment will be refunded within 10 days and said nothing about this non-refundable. And, why the contact centre specialist who replied to my cancellation email, also did not let me know about this. If they indicated this on the cancellation notice, I would continue my booking I initially made with agoda since it was a non-refundable.

I was expecting myself to deal with a honest business here. Unfortunately, I can hardly think of such about agoda at this point - first charging me beyond what's advertised. Second, refusal to refund my money by stating illogical argument.

Update by schristia
Mar 11, 2011 1:02 am EST

Agoda has kindly given me the full refund and waived the cancellation fee. At the end, their "Contact Centre Specialist" gave a good and professional response and brought the matter into a good conclusion. And with that, I believe they have shown their commitment in running a decent business.

My suggestion is - please carefully review your order and final total before you finalize the payment. Their website doesn't have a typical "Shopping Cart" experience that most people have grown accustomed to, and that might cause a surprise. I have given some feedback on this.

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7 comments
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Nhia Shafik
, US
Jul 22, 2019 9:41 am EDT

I have very bad experience with agoda. Please don’t ever trust the customer service agent! If you accidentally booked the hotel and not refundable, please don’t call customer service and ask them whether we need to pay or not! They will simply said.. YES! DONT WORRY, YOU WILL NOT PAY ANYTHING! So I did another booking and unfortunately I need to pay both hotel! I called agoda for clarification. They simply said Its my mistake! I don’t care about lost money. But very dissatisfied with their service! Lied fo customer for their own benefit and profit are not good at all!

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Kiarah
, PH
Dec 06, 2016 4:37 pm EST

I had the same experience and it was more than 1 year already and I still haven't received any refund from them! I cannot believe they are still allowing them to operate with all of these complaints. I just hope we can receive back our refund plus an additional amount for the inconvenience they are causing to people.

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vicky flores
, PH
Feb 29, 2012 4:12 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

hi i'm vicky flores. my member id is 1434470. i have a problem with my booking id [protected] with royal plaza hotel bec i booked only a room with an extra bed and we are 5 all in all. i booked only a room bec my 2 sons are not sure whether they will stay with us or not bec i have a friend and her family also coming to hongkong. they have invited my 2 sons to stay in their hotel. however royal plaza hotel will not allow us to stay in one room. i didnt want to book another room bec of the uncertainty whether my 2 sons are staying with us. but if royal plaza hotel will require us to get another room, do you think its possible just to book us to a bigger room so we can all be together in a room should my sons decide to stay with us. i am also trying to minimize my hotel expenses. pls advise and see what agoda can do. i am also willing to transfer to another hotel if royal plaza will give a full refund of my payment. furthermore i was advised that royal plaza is undergoing renovation and it will cause noise disturbances from 8am to 6pm which will be very inconvenient for my family. thank you for the kind assistance.

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JamesKMan
Fort Macmurray, CA
Jun 16, 2011 5:32 am EDT

AGODA are flat out crooks and scammers.
They make sure that the booking is as unclear as possible, until you receive the voucher which is always a surprise.
I booked a room in Parkroyal Penang at Agoda thinking during the booking process I had the best rate available. I got a huge surprise when the rate was 1450$ for 5 nights. I imediatelly cancelled the booking and received a cancellation notice. The original cancellation policy was if you cancelled atleast 3 days prior you received a full refund, so when I saw the acknowledgment I assumed everything was cool, since it was still 2 weeks from my arrival time. I rebooked at the same hotel from Booking.com for around 300$ in a downgraded room. When I arrived at the hotel they had my booking from booking.com and made no mention of the cancelled booking. So I go to pay my credit card and find the 1450$ Agoda billing on my card with no refund. When I contact Agoda they give the same excuse as others have mentioned here that the there will be no refund because thats the hotel policy. When I tell them that its them charging my credit card not the hotel they stick to the same story. They said that they would check to see if the hotel would consider a refund, which I took as just another tactic by Agoda in this fraud. I asked what the hotel had to do with this since Agoda were the ones charging me and they just kept repeating the same story like a parrot. I was getting furious because of the contempt this customer service rep was giving me so they asked if I wanted to speak to the supervisor. I talked to this guy who kept trying to convince me there was nothing he could do to refund me except contact the Hotel. The ridiculous fact in this is that the written policy on Agoda's website for this hotel states that even if you are a no-show the most they will charge is the first night. I finally told this ### that I would not be paying the fraudulent charge and that the next call was going to be to the credit card company to cancel this obviously fraudulent charges. I Hit this idiot with a few choice words and then repeated that he had 24 hours to make the refund. He just kept saying that he couldn't do that. So I gave a few warnings as to what I would do to their reputation then said I was hanging up and that he had better do the refund. I contacted the hotel and they indicated that they had received the original booking from Agoda but that it was cancelled and as per policy no Charges were due as the booking was cancelled 2 weeks in advance. SO THIS AGODA COMPANY HAS THE NERVE TO SAY IT WAS THE HOTELS POLICY TO CHARGE ME ! Unbeleivable! This company is completely fraudulent and no one should ever do business there. I REPEAT never use this company ever.

THEY are a pack of lieing SCAMMERS.

By the way they immediately made the refund knowing they were going to have VISA on the case in any regard.

THESE PEOPLE ARE COMPLETE [censored] BAGS!

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Sally Doyle
Omeo, AU
Apr 08, 2011 11:08 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I had no idea that the charge would be so punitive

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Sally Doyle
Omeo, AU
Apr 08, 2011 11:07 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

okay, here is my problem with Agoda.
I booked 2 rooms in Kyoto for 3 people. I read the cancellation policy and agreed with it...I understood it to be $15 cancellation fee, and if it was within 7 days then the first night charge was forfeit.
Then the Japanese earthquake happened. I cancelled one room after one of my party decided not to go...with a $15 cancellaton fee which was fine and what I expected.
Then 16 dyas prior to our departure, I decided to look for other Agoda options and found a ryokan ...this option only become available due to so many cancellations with the earthquake. So I cancelled my previous booking and rebooked with Agoda for the ryokan rahter than the aleady booked skyscraper...
Then I got a notice that my cancellation meant thst that whole previous booking charge, 4 nights for 2 people was forfeit. Whoops.
Looking back I do see that that was on the rebooking notification for when I changed from 2 rooms to 1 room.
However, It was way down in the writing, only noticeable if really looking for it, and I think that since i cancelled on the 16 th day it is very harsh.

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FDL_HOU
Houston, US
Mar 08, 2011 11:10 am EST
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It was probably the taxes added on. Singapore has expensive taxes.