Guest Reservations review: This company is deceptive

There was nothing positive about my experience using Guest Reservations / Hotels.com . The first representative lied .They use the hotel platforms and tell the customer that it is the direct hotel reservations dept. They require you to pay the total amount in full. They state that there are free cancelations. The call is free, but they will keep approx. 95 % of your payment. When I called the hotel to see if they had the reservations, and I was told they had no record of it. I waited on the phone line with a representative on the other side of the world for over 1 hour while he called the hotel to let them know that I paid in full. I told him that I'm not getting off this phone until I hear it from the hotel directly .I will never use this company or a third party agency again.