The Duct Cleaning Pros

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:the business suggests that I submit an email for help on this issue, however, I have already done so and never received a response to that. Therefore I see no reason to repeat my actions. I submitted the email to the address specified and and in the manner directed by the customer services agent that I spoke to over the telephone. I request that the business get in touch with me, the consumer. My email address is [redacted].This is what was promised by the customer services employee to me and that would be 'better business'.
Regards,
[redacted]

Thank you for your additional concerns. We certainly do apologize for any frustration that this issue may have caused them. We apologize for not making this clearer to this consumer in our earlier response. The owners or advertisers of the properties listed with us have the option to set up online payments through with our partner, VacationRentPayment (VRP) which is a third party credit card processing company. HomeAway does not receive any credit card funds processed for the rental fees. The owner elects to use this service on our site, and the funds are processed through the merchant of record VRP. The funds go directly from our site to the owner and the owners bank account in which they have set up with VRP.If a traveler has any issue with their payment they should work with the owner of the property, they are the ones who received those funds, not HomeAway. We simply have them put HomeAway on the billing charge so that travelers will recognize the name, as VRP is again as we mentioned a third party vendor.

Thank you for bringing this consumers concerns to our attention. Subscriptions require one annual fee and allow for unlimited inquiries and bookings, whereas Pay-per-booking requires no upfront fee but up to 10% per booking.Pay-per-booking customers are required to use HomeAway payments and online...

booking.  Both types of listings gain access to the same inquiry management, calendar, and reservation tools. With pay-per-booking, you must accept online payments and bookings. With a subscription booking, online payments and bookings are optional. The easiest way to see which option is right for you is to consider how many bookings the property receives. The basic rule of thumb is that if it's rented more than six weeks a year, the annual subscription makes sense.[redacted]HomeAway uses VacationRentPayment (Yaptone) for payment processing services. Upon receipt of the Registration Form, YapStone will review Your application and determine whether it is able to offer You the Services, and the manner in which it will settle Payments of Rents in its sole discretion. Upon successful completion of the required screening, You will be offered either of the following settlement timelines:    Advance Payments: Subject to banking processing delays and any fraud or risk holds imposed by YapStone, You will typically receive the Guest’s Payment (minus Fees (as defined below)) in Your or Payee’s bank account, as instructed by You, within 2-3 business days, subject to banking delays, following the day a Payment is posted to YapStone’s accounts, in accordance with the terms of this Agreement.Or    Check In Payments: Subject to bank processing delays and any fraud or risk holds imposed by YapStone, You will receive the Guest’s Payment (minus Fees) in Your or Payee’s bank account, as instructed by You, within 2-3 business days, of the day after the scheduled check-in date for the Guest at Your Property; provided however, in the event a Guest provides proper notice to the website that the Property was booked through within 24 hours of the scheduled check in that the Property is not as described, or there is some other issue with the Property, You authorize YapStone to return the Payment to the Guest.In addition, for risk and fraud reasons, YapStone will generally hold all disbursements scheduled to occur within the 30 days after Your first scheduled successful check-in date.You can view a copy of the VacationRentPayment Client Service Agreement here:[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: Homeaway is not willing to give me any information about the landlord or the management in question. I booked it through them. They should be able to give me the full information of the landlords business because we did not receive any information about the landlord than a phone number that was giving to me by my bank. It is sad that they want me chasing after a ghost meanwhile they are received they money. So now if I let them off, there is nobody to go after. Either Homeaway has to refer Revdex.com to the management or they have to return my money because I did not pay to a landlord directly. I paid through them.
Regards,
[redacted]

Thank you for your additional concerns.To be very clear the HomeAway.com site is secure. Our HomeAway site has not had a security issue. It was the owners account with HomeAway and the owners HomeAway account credentials that were likely phished, which allowed a third party (phisher) to gain access to this owners HomeAway account and traveler inquiry detail and communicate with travelers like this consumer fraudulently representing this owners listing. As we have explained we do have many educational materials available and are presented to travelers when inquiring as well as a Security Center to help travelers protect themselves and their financial commitment when doing business on the internet. We are so sorry that this has happened to this traveler and their family and as a unprotected traveler they may be eligible for coverage up to $1000 under the terms of our Basic Rental Guarantee.

We thank this consumer for their patience with us as we worked through their issue and apologize for any frustration caused.  Our records show that a refund of the remaining funds was initiated on 3/10/16.  We hope that the consumer now has receipt of these funds and urge them to reach out...

to us if that is not the case.  Customer support can be contacted on ###-###-####.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:I booked through VRBO thinking I would be dealing with the owner.  The property I booked was in Canada.  I was charged a fee in US dollars by HomeAway and another fee in CDN dollars by Canada Stays.I do not understand why I should be charged, as a traveller, by both agencies, when both are also charging the property owner!
Regards,
[redacted]

HomeAway introduced a service fee in February 2016. The service fee is currently launched on listings that were purchased through VRBO, HomeAway and VacationRentals.com. When booking and paying for a property on a HomeAway website, the Service Fee is clearly included in the breakdown of the total...

cost of the rental. To read more about what the service fee is and why we introduced it, see this article:   [redacted] This fee covers the cost of providing 24/7 customer support, enhanced site and mobile features for both owner and travelers, plus expanded marketing efforts to generate more exposure to global audiences. Additionally, when a traveler books and pays through HomeAway, they are eligible for the Book with Confidence Guarantee. [redacted] We do hope this information helps explain the recent addition of the traveler service fee on HomeAway. Tell us why here...

Thank you for bringing this consumer's concerns to our attention.HomeAway introduced a service fee in February 2016. The service fee is currently launched on listings that were purchased through VRBO, HomeAway and VacationRentals.com. To read more about what the service fee is and why we introduced...

it, see this article:https://[redacted]This fee covers the cost of providing 24/7 customer support, enhanced site and mobile features for both owner and travelers, plus expanded marketing efforts to generate more exposure to global audiences. Additionally, when a traveler books and pays through HomeAway, they are eligible for the Book with Confidence Guarantee.https://[redacted]The banner this consumer's travelers are seeing is there to ensure their payments are eligible for protection through the Book With Confidence Guarantee mentioned above. We want travelers to make their payments in a safe and secure way, and this message is intended to educate them on how to do so using our services.Regarding changes in the performance of this consumer's rental property and search results, this is due to a new and improved search result system called Best Match. This system is designed so travelers see more relevant listings when they search, and owners get more relevant booking requests that result in a successful booking. Best Match affects every owner differently, and there are many factors they have control over to positively impact their performance. For more information, see our Best Match FAQ here:https://[redacted]All of these changes are universal to every consumer using our services. We hope this information helps to shed light on why they were made and how they benefit both the consumer and their travelers.

We appreciate this consumer bringing their concerns to our attention, and we certainly do apologize for any frustration that this issue may have caused them.   Using the 'Request to Book' or ‘Book Now’ button on a listing requires the consumer to enter a credit card so that if the booking is...

accepted, the card can be charged.  On the page where a traveler enters their credit card information, there is a message that states:  "The owner has 24 hours to confirm your reservation or decline. A temporary hold will be placed on your card to ensure sufficient funds. Your bank's policy determines when this hold is released."   According to our records, this consumer only submitted one request to book under Reservation ID [redacted], which would have caused one temporary hold of $1107.25. This request was later deleted, in which case there is no charge for the held amount, and the hold request is withdrawn. The amount of time it takes for a bank or credit card company to remove the hold request varies based on individual bank policies, and HomeAway has no oversight or control over this process. Hold requests are usually resolved within 1 - 3 business days.   In the future if this consumer encounters this same situation and would like to expedite the fund release process, they can contact our payment merchant, VacationRentPayment at 1-866-210-6106. They will be able to provide instructions on how to request your bank to release the funds earlier.   We can confirm the consumer did have the charge hold released, and they were able to successfully book the same property under Reservation ID HA-4KC5FW. As such, we consider this complaint resolved and closed.     [redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
Regards,
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: Your claim that the hold is only on the bank's side does not match the information given when I called customer support. If this is really the issue, then you should train your employees to inform people of this so that they may contact their bank. There is no need for you to place a hold on money when you cannot verify the availability of the rooms. 
Regards,
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: @page { margin: 0.79in } p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120% } Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: HomeAway is misrepresenting the reasons for changing our paid subscription from direct contact with guests to forcing all transactions to be made through the HomeAway platform. The purpose is to guarantee they are able to collect non- refundable fees from guests via paid advertisers. If they had advised us that after our paid subscription expired it would be different. We were sent the notice of their intent in June of 2017. In their reply they state that, “You and the traveler will be able to see each other's contact details after a booking is confirmed.” “Once booking is paid for, then the traveler email address and phone are visible. This does not take away your ability to communicate with your travelers at all.“ This means that Homeaway will collect fees on property they do not own, manage, rent or take care of guest needs. It also prevents us from being able to communicate directly with guests, vet them and send them crucial links for information they need. As we operate as a corporation in Japan guest need direct communication more than in most countries. We have had our paid subscription since 2011 and no guests have ever taken the option to pay extra fees to use the HomeAway transaction platform. A search of social media and various consumer complaint organizations bears out the fact that neither guests or hosts have expressed a belief that the HomeAway platform is secure or that paying extra fees to rent is desirable. HomeAway has expressed no regard for the owners and managers of properties they have built their business on and show that their primary concern is to be sure they collect non-refundable fees from guests. Tokhouse Inc. stands by our original statement that collecting our advertising funds and eliminating our ability to communicate directly with guests is fraudulent, bait and switch action taken by HomeAway for the purpose of forcing guest to pay fees on top of collecting our advertising payment. Regards, [redacted]
[redacted]

We thank this consumer for their comments.  The goal of our website is to increase the number of bookings for our advertisers.  Part of that effort is researching what travelers look for and how they use the site.  Most travelers search for vacation rentals based on a specific...

location and they want listings that have accurate calendars indicating when they are available to book. We recommend you update your calendar any time there are any changes to it. To get maximum credit for your listing quality, you should update your calendar at least every 30 days. If you don't update your calendar every 60 days, your listing may be hidden from searches when travelers enter specific dates. If you don't have any recent bookings after 30 days, we recommend you click the "Last Updated" button on the calendar page of your dashboard. Additionally, listings without a verified location do not appear in location-based search results, so you’re missing out on bookings. While we recommend showing an exact property location, you can still verify your location and show an approximate location to travelers by deselecting “Display my property’s location” under “Traveler Map & Insider Guide.”  Verifying a listing's location only needs to happen once and takes only a brief moment to complete.These requirements are outlined in the Terms and Conditions that the consumer agreed to when they purchased their subscription.  Additionally,  subscription listings are sold to run the full term that is chosen by the member.  Refunds are not generally available.  I urge this consumer to contact our customer support team so that we can help them ensure they are doing all they can to maximize the listing's visibility on the site.

Thank You for bringing this consumer's concerns to our attention.  The initial concerns from the consumer was changes that have been made to the website and how it has made it harder for them get in touch with a traveler. As previously stated:  “We may change, suspend or discontinue any aspect of the Site at any time, including the availability of any Site features, database or content. We may also impose limits on certain features or services or restrict your access to parts or the entire Site without notice or liability.  This version of the Terms became effective on the date set forth above and this version amends the version effective before such date.  We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to amend these Terms, in whole or in part, at any time.  Notification of any amendment will be posted on the Site by the indication of the last amendment date at the top of these Terms and will be effective immediately. When members renew subscriptions, the terms in effect at the time of renewal will govern, provided that such terms may change as described above.” We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused the owner.  The consumer is more than welcome to submit a help request email to our customer service team and we will be more than happy to answer their questions for them.  They may do so at the following link ([redacted]) and clicking on Contact Us

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: it is just a copy and paste of what they are currently telling homeowners. We want to know how it is legal let alone ethical for a business that started out as a subscription model and collected our dues suddenly changed the platform mid-stream by charging travelers. Here's another thing they are doing. I wanted to change a reservation from "reserved" to "tentative" but unlike before it would not "let me". I had directed these potential guests to my vrbo to purchase their insurance policy and make their security deposit but they were going to pay by company check for the rental once they brought the signed lease agreement. Unfortunately they had a plane to catch and were unable to drop both off so I wanted to change the reservation to "tentative". I called support and asked their representative to please give me back control of my calendar. Now, in order for me to even start the transaction I had to add a dollar value in the "rental" box so I added ONE dollar. But when he saw that he said: "you can't just charge a dollar for rent!".........how is this ANY of his or HomeAway's business??? I don't work for them. They do not pay my taxes.  I pay them to host my site and I have maintenance and remodeling projects that I add to my calendar. I also let friends and family use it for free. So I need to use my calendar to keep track of it all and that calendar syncs to others so it is VERY IMPORTANT for me to manage without having HomeAway tie my hands behind my back. I also have repeat guests who contact me directly and then I direct them to my vrbo listing because I have set up my bank account through their merchant servicer who charges us 3-5% on the entire transaction if a credit card is used. I have my own merchant servicer and will also request a paper check, ACH, wire transfer or eCheck but now if they go through the vrbo platform they would be required to pay $499 (their maximum), just for the privilege OR HomeAway has THREATENED to put our listings down at the very bottom. They also today at their webinar THREATENED to take down our site if we inserted ANY message about the service fee and how to circumvent it. Am I in CHINA?!?!?!?! What the heck!?
Regards,
[redacted]

Thank you for bringing this consumer’s concern to our attention. This consumer raises numerous concerns regarding upcoming changes to the design of HomeAway’s advertising and business model, in addition to requesting a full refund due to these changes. We are not currently requiring our advertisers...

to utilize Online Booking as she claims. Accepting this payment method is optional, however doing so does improve their performance in search results. The additional fee she refers to is most likely the Traveler Service Fee, which is paid by the traveler and not by her. To read more about what the service fee is and why we introduced it, see this article:  https://help.homeaway.com/articles/What-is-the-service-fee-and-how-does-it-work Despite being upset with the changes our website is going through, they are for the benefit of both advertisers and travelers alike. Since she originally purchased an annual subscription in October 2015, and received over 8 months of service, no refund is possible for that product. Furthermore, their purchase of a subscription upgrade and Featured Listing in April 2016 would normally be outside our standard refund window. However, in light of the consumer’s tenure with us, we have offered a pro-rated refund of those products as an exception. We have been in contact with her via case# [redacted], explained in further detail the changes that are planned for the future, and she accepted our partial refund offer. We consider this matter resolved and closed. [redacted] Trust and Security Senior Agent | HomeAway,Inc. [redacted]

Thank you for bringing this consumer's concerns to our attention. HomeAway introduced a service fee in February 2016. The service fee is currently launched on listings that were purchased through VRBO, HomeAway and VacationRentals.com. When booking and paying for a property on a HomeAway website,...

the Service Fee is clearly included in the breakdown of the total cost of the rental. To read more about what the service fee is and why we introduced it, see this article: https://help.homeaway.com/articles/What-is-the-service-fee-and-how-does-it-work This fee covers the cost of providing 24/7 customer support, enhanced site and mobile features for both owner and travelers, plus expanded marketing efforts to generate more exposure to global audiences. Additionally, when a traveler books and pays through HomeAway, they are eligible for the Book with Confidence Guarantee. https://help.homeaway.com/articles/What-is-the-Book-with-Confidence-Guarantee We do hope this information helps explain the recent addition of the traveler service fee on HomeAway.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: I do not agree with the answer
Regards,
[redacted]

This complaint is not against HomeAway Inc.   We cannot comment on this consumer/traveler’s complaint, because it appears that this complaint is not with our online advertising service, but appears to be the result of a marketplace transaction between this consumer and the owner or manager of...

an individual vacation home rented by that owner or manager to the public. We are in no way a party to the agreement or contract between this consumer traveler and the owner manager, and cannot solve this consumer’s complaint. Our advertising service is an online site for owners to advertise and travelers to find vacation homes to rent, but we are never involved in the transaction between the traveler/consumer and the landlord/property manager. See the Terms and Conditions below that the consumer/traveler and landlord/property manager agreed to about our role here. Therefore, this complaint is incorrectly being associated with HomeAway Inc, and it should be associated with the landlord/property manager.   Section 1 of our Terms and Conditions http://www.homeaway.com/info/about-us/legal/terms-conditions:   “The Site is a Venue and We are Not a Party to any Rental Transaction.   We urge all users to be responsible about their use of this Site and any transaction entered into as a result of either listing a property or renting a property.  We do not own or manage, nor can we contract for, any vacation rental property listed on a Site. HomeAway.com and other Sites act as a venue to allow homeowners and property managers who advertise on the Site (each, a “member”) to offer for rent in a variety of pricing formats, a specific vacation or short term rental property to potential renters or renters (each, a “traveler” and, collectively with a member, the “users”). "Members" may also include property owners or managers who originally advertised their properties on another website and their listings have been redistributed on the Site. We also may offer online booking or other tools or services to allow users to communicate with each other and enter into rental agreements or other transactions.   We are not a party to any rental or other agreement between users.  This is true even if the Site allows you to book a rental or provides other ancillary products or services, as the Site may facilitate booking a rental or other tools, services or products, but we are not a party to any rental or other agreement between users. As a result, any part of an actual or potential transaction between a traveler and a member, including the quality, condition, safety or legality of the properties advertised, the truth or accuracy of the listings (including the content thereof or any review relating to any property), the ability of members to rent a vacation property or the ability of travelers to contract for properties are solely the responsibility of each user. You acknowledge and agree that you may be required to enter into one or more separate agreements, waivers or terms and conditions prior to making a booking or purchasing a product or service and may place additional restrictions on your booking, product or service.   While we do take certain measures with a goal to assist users to avoid potentially fraudulent or other illegal activity of which we become aware, we assume no liability or obligation to take any such measures or actions.  When we provide warnings or messages to users about any such activity, we do not warrant that such messages are accurate or that such messages will reach any or all users they should have reached in a timely manner or at all or that such messages or measures will prevent any harm or otherwise have any impact."   According to our records this consumer also filed a formal property complaint against this advertiser (case#[redacted]). As part of that formal complaint process we did reach out to the advertiser on behalf of this consumer in order to try to get the two parties to settle their dispute. We however do NOT mediate; we simply try our best to put the two parties together to work the situation out if possible. We also closely monitor accounts that have had formal property complaints filed. Our policy is to carefully document both sides of a dispute, and keep track of all complaints submitted. When a pattern clearly develops where an advertiser is causing problems for our travelers, we do not hesitate to remove that member from our site. I assure you we have taken the appropriate action in regards to this complaint. Lastly in regards to trip insurance this consumer would need to discuss that with CSA directly, they can be reached at [redacted]) [redacted].