FlipKey, Inc.

Hello ***, Thank you for reaching out to us via Revdex.comWe understand that you have now spoken with a Senior Member of the Customer Relations TeamWe have been in a dialogue with both yourself and *** *** since raising your complaintFrom reservation ***, we can only confirm the
reservation is for guest and not We have investigated the issue and have cancelled the booking allowing a full refund to be processed; however, we are aware that you have requested a full refund via your payment provider ***Once you have contacted them for a refund, the funds are frozen and we are unable to release any money until *** has concluded their investigation which is usually daysWe have contacted *** to ask them to proceed with the full refund and hope this will expedite the refund for you, however this will not guarantee an immediate refund and you may have to wait days from raising your claim, regardless of the outcome we will process a full refund as soon as the hold on the funds have been removed and the funds are available to usWe thank you for your continued patience and should we be able to provide any further assistance please do not hesitate to respond to our last emailBest wishes, *** ***

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # *** First of all the owner did not get back to me with a compromise after you talked to himYou have repeatedly sent me emails wanting me to take the offer of the doubled priceYou have also offered to help me find a new place but since I don't have any trust in you that is not going to happen. Both the owner and TripAdvisor has has admitted to me that they knew the pricing was wrong when it was posted and that this has been an ongoing problem for monthsThis tells me that it is being done on purpose as a bait and switch schemeYou have done nothing to resolve this except continuing to send me emails trying to get me to book something different.
Regards,
*** ***

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # ***.
I am curious to know what records Flipkey needs to review This is a simple request which I first made over months ago (see attachments) In case Flipkey or their customer service "team" is unclear what the issue is let me attempt to spell it out again - cancel my account (Account ID# ***) effective immediately This issue has also been referred to the Federal Trade Commission for review and will be referred to the appropriate law enforcement agencies shortly. Regards,
*** ***

Hello ***,Thank you for taking the time to write to us via the Revdex.comI want to begin by saying how sorry I am to see your booking was cancelled by the advertiserI do see the homeowner informed you via a direct message that he was not longer able to honor your booking at the
quoted priceWe expect our advertisers to immediately notify us if a booking must ever be cancelled, and unfortunately, we initially experienced some difficulty in contacting the homeowner. We have since confirmed the cancellation with the homeowner, and your full refund was released and processed back to your original form of payment on 28th JanuarySome card providers may take up to business days to post the transaction back to your account.We regret the advertiser was unable to honor your booking as originally agreed, and we do hope we are able to assist you in the futureIf we can be of any further assistance in any way, please let us know.Senior Customer Relations Executive*** Rentals Support

Hello ***,Thank you for your responseIt is easy to send a no-committment inquiry message to a homeowner regarding a property you are interested in to start a conversation by using the "Send Message" linkIt would appear this is what you had intended to do, as you were not ready to commit to the booking yetHowever, you used the "Book Now" button, which indicates you have reviewed the relevant cancellation policy and booking contract and have decided you are ready to commit to the booking.By using the "Book Now" button, you are taken to the check-out page which asks for paymentThis page details the responsibilities involved with entering into a booking with the homeownerI have attached an example of the checkout page you used to confirm the booking.You will notice there is clear language on our check-out page to remove any ambiguity as to happens when the homeowner accepts your booking request: "This booking is facilitated by FlipKey Inc(a wholly owned subsidiary of ***), but the booking is solely between you and the owner or managerBy clicking above, you agree to the owner's booking contract and cancellation policy as well as FlipKey's terms and conditions and privacy policy."All of the relevant documents you are agreeing to are clearly visible and accessible from this check-out pageThe cancellation policy and booking contract details are determined by the homeowner you book with and not FlipKey or ***If you are not yet at the stage in which you are ready to commit to the booking, we suggest sending an inquiry message instead of a booking request.We are happy to confirm that your refund has been released in full back to your original form of payment. We thank you for your thoughts and concerns and wish you a happy new year.-***

Dear ***,Thank you for reaching out to us via the Revdex.com and we are sincerely sorry to hear that you are having difficulties getting in touch with our customer support team.We have checked our records and can see that you have contacted us mid December regarding the communication with a holiday
makerFrom the case we can see that our team has responded to you but we have since not received further communication from you. Should you require further assistance regarding this matter, you can simply reply to our last email for the case to re-open, or alternatively contact us again via the contact form or via phone at ** *** *** ***.Do let us know should you have any further questions.Best wishes,The FlipKey Team

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # ***Please add your rejection comments below1) The chargeback was not through *** . There are currently no disputes, chargebacks with my *** accountSee attached copy of screen shot of my *** account showing NO disputes or chargebacks during Aug-Dec 2015.2) I have attached screen shot that provides details of my *** booking........showing date of refund of security deposit was supposed to be on January 24, 16.3) Until I filed this complaint with Revdex.com........*** has NOT PROVIDED ANY information about the status of the refund.4) *** has not provided an exact date of when I can expect refund
Regards,
*** ***

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does satisfy my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint #***I understand that by choosing to accept the business response that my complaint will be closed as resolvedI am glad to read that the owner will be informed, if this ever were to happen again where someone informs him they no longer wish to book it, to not accept the bookingThank you for giving me a better opinion of *** *** for future possible purchasesAlso I never had a chance on my end to withdraw the requested booking on the house site page on **Could you maybe add this option?
Regards,
*** ***

Thank you so much for getting involved in this Flipkey made good of paying me after your interventionI would love to write a review to let the public know that speaking to Revdex.com is proactive and worth speaking to.*** ***

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # ***Regards,
*** ***

We can confirm that *** *** cancellation and refund have been processed as of November 2ndTypically FlipKey is not able to cancel a reservation and provide a full refund on behalf of a guestThe rental arrangement is between a traveler and a property owner, so we cannot override the owner's
policiesHowever, due to the claim of validity and unresponsiveness of this account holder, we were able to issue this cancellation on behalf of *** ***The properties on our site do go through a verification process during the activation, so our Trust and Safety team did revisit the account details and proceed with an investigationWe apologize that this took some time, as an investigation can be lengthy.We do apologize that *** had to experience this difficulty during his booking process and we have reached out to him to provide assistance in finding an alternate accommodation

Hello ***, Thank you for bringing this matter to our attentionI am
sincerely sorry to hear about the difficulties you experienced during this
processIt appears the owner of this property has a fee set into the rates of their account for a late check-outThis fee can be removed by an
owner prior to the reservation being paidUnfortunately in this case, the late check-out fee was sent to the owner when the remainder of the funds were paid out to themIn cases such as this, the owner is
usually happy to refund the amount but may not know the best way of making that possibleIt appears there was some confusion on the
part of the owner since they believed this amount was still held by FlipKeyI
can confirm that a member of our Customer Support Team reached out to the owner
on your behalf clarifying that the fee was no longer held at FlipKeyThe agent involved also advised the owner to contact you as
soon as possible to work out a refund for that amountAt this time, we have
also called the owner who has confirmed you were refunded via checkWe will be
in touch with you shortly to confirm the successful reception of this check and
to offer any additional support as necessary

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # ***Please add your rejection comments below.
The companies response is not factual When taking a call the callers identify themselves as from *** *** Further after making the complaint the calls have stopped If I get future calls I will record them and forward to legal counsel with the these comments from the companyThis will only increase the damages the company will pay .Only a fool would admit they are breaking the law and *** *** is in fact braking the law All future marketing calls will be recorded *** *** is so notified of what my future actions will be and thus they are legal Be so advised .
Regards,
*** ***

Dear ***, Thank you for raising your concerns to us through the Revdex.com We are sorry to hear about your dissatisfaction in regards to the applied fee, following the cancellation of booking ***Changes in local or national vacation rental regulations have become more and more common in
popular destinations and we appreciate the impact this has on your businessThe cancellation fee is stipulated in our terms and conditions and apply to all owner-initiated cancellations, regardless of the reasons behind itThis is collected to prevent cancellations from happening in the first place, to cover the costs of processing the cancellation and in some cases necessary to assist guests in finding alternativesHowever, we of course understand that in some cases, this may be due to factors out of your control and therefore review these on a case by case basisFollowing your first contact on 7th August 2017, the agent you have spoken to asked you to provide documentation so this could be investigated furtherAt this point, no promises to waive the fee have been made as this was still pending the outcome of our investigationOn 9th August, we received a number of attachments from you, which have been reviewed thoroughly in order to make a decisionOne of the documents, a court judgement, advised you of the violations of your property and dates back to 30th May Yet, Britni’s booking was accepted in July 2017, at which point you were aware of the potential issues the booking has faced, which is not fair to the guestWe understand that some laws or regulations may not be actively enforced; however, we are unable to waive any cancellation fees for bookings cancelled due to violating those regulations, where owners have been in full knowledge of these being in placePlease note, that as an advertiser on our platform, it’s your responsibility to ensure that your property is in line with an applicable regulations and that you hold any required licenses you may needThis is stipulated in our terms and conditions and advertiser agreement with youOn the basis, we are not in a position to consider removing the charge from your account Best wishes, *** *** Senior Customer Relations Executive

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does satisfy my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint #***I understand that by choosing to accept the business response that my complaint will be closed as resolved.
Regards,
*** ***

Dear Matthew, Thank you for taking the time to contact us via the Revdex.com.First of all we would like to apologise for the delays you have been experiencing with the resolution of your case and that we are sorry to learn about your experience.In order to investigate this matter, we have double
checked your case (ref: ***) and can confirm that this is currently with our customer relations teamYour case is currently in the very capable hands of *** *** who is only waiting for management approval in regards to your refund (due to the high amount).He will be in touch shortly with a resolution so please bear with us in the meantime.Thank you for your patience and cooperation on this matter.Best wishes,The FlipKey Team

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # ***Please add your rejection comments below. Thank you for your feedbackIt is
shameful and abusive that Flipkey operates with a refund policy as such and can get away with it.When I made my reservation I read its refund policy and did not perceive that if a cancellation is done months in advance not a single dollar is available for refundRevdex.com as an entity to protect the consumer should denounce such practices use by any business and be able to put some pressure on Flipkey to modify their ways of doing business with the consumerI did contact the property owner to let him know about Flipkey decision
Regards,
*** ***

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # ..
I booked with Flipkey and was a responsible customer and in return my vacation was ruined and I was left to find a solution on my own with no compensation or face being homelessI incurred extra costs because I had to drive another hours to a different location where a hotel was available last minute (we had all already been driving for hours), I had no private space and had to share sleeping space with other people because nothing was available with separate rooms (which I would have had at the rental property), all of the food that I had brought to cook went bad in the car while trying to find somewhere to stay, and I lost half of a vacation day to phone calls and anxiety about being homeless. I was assured housing and was not supplied itI understand that the manager of the property was punished BUT so was I as the customer and that is disrespectful Flipkey did reimburse me for the rental property but there was no punishment for Flipkey offering a faulty product Their job is to supply vacation rentals and if they cannot stand by their contract of supplying you the property you paid for through their site, they should at least accept the cost of the customer having to find new accommodations, especially when the cancellation occurs last minute (mine occurred an hour AFTER the check in time)
Regards,
*** ***

Hello ***,Thank you for taking the time to contact us via the Revdex.comI would like to begin by saying how sorry I am to see the property did not meet your expectationsWhenever we learn a guest has encountered a problem at a property, we work to immediately engage the owner in an
effort to bring a resolution which is acceptable by both parties.When the problem was reported to us and we spoke with the homeowner on June 12th, the homeowner informed he was sending a representative to tend to the air conditioning problem and offered a refund of $to you to settle the complaint.When our representative, ***, called and relayed this offer to you, you accepted the homeowner's offer and indicated it was fair to bring resolution to your complaintYou also confirmed this in writing in a follow up email on the same day:"Thank you *** as per our conversation the terms are acceptable to me.Regards,***"Because you accepted this offer to resolve your complaint on June 12th, your customer support ticket has been closed since that timeThis $USD refund was released to you on June 13th back to your original form of paymentAt this time, if you no longer feel this was an acceptable resolution to your complaint with the homeowner, we would encourage you to maintain a dialogue with the homeowner in regards to your concerns.We thank you for contacting us and for choosing to book with FlipKey.Best regards,***Senior Customer Relations Executive

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does satisfy my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint #***I understand that by choosing to accept the business response that my complaint will be closed as resolved.
Regards,
*** ***