Bad customer services

To All my fellow travelers around the world, I want to bring it under your attention about the poor services you will get from Booking.com to get back your refund after canceling a booking with them.

I have made a booking with them on 04 March 2024 to fly with Ethiopian Airline from Johannesburg International Airport - Hong Kong International Airport from 11 April 2024 - 14 April 2024.

I paid Booking.com 15,338,48 ZAR for the flight and I received a confirmation email with booking reference no. ***.

On 9 April 2024 I cancelled my flight on their website and I once again received a confirmation email notifying me about the cancellation.

I have called Booking.com customer helpline desk to find out about my refund and they told me that Ethiopian Airline has not yet forwarded them the refund. Weeks past and I never received any email notifying about my refund, and I called them again and the answer from them was still the same that the airline never forwarded them the refund.

On 23 April 2024 I personally took it upon myself to call the offices of Ethiopian Airline in Johannesburg and I contacted the CEO. The airline told me that they do not work with Booking.com and that Booking.com is using a third-party travel agent called Tourvest Travel Services to make flight bookings on their behalf. The airline told me that they have returned the money to Tourvest Travel Services on 10 April 2024 and that it was an instant cash refund payment because my booking was paid for in cash from Tourvest.

On 24 April 2024 I contacted the offices of Tourvest to find out about the status of my refund, and what they told me was that they did receive the refund from Ethiopian Airline on 10 April 2024 and that they have forwarded the money to Booking.com finance department to refund me my money AND that they have also emailed Booking.com to process the refund to me and that I should wait for an email from Booking.com to notify me about my refund. I never received an email from Booking.com and I called them again, and they told me once again that Ethiopian Airline did not return my money and that I should wait.

On 03 May 2024 I went to the offices of Tourvest in Brynanston Johannesburg to find out why they haven't forwarded my money to Booking.com because they keep on telling me that the airline has not yet returned my money. The person that was dealing with my booking at Tourvest told me that they did return the refund to Booking.com and that they have been emailing them and that Booking.com doesn't even bother to respond to their emails.

Two weeks back on Saturday 4,2024 I contacted Booking.com AGAIN to find out about my refund and I told them that Their third-party agent Tourvest has told me that they have returned my refund and that THEY Booking.com is sitting with my money from 15 April 2024, so what they told was that they still waiting for the Airline to return my money and that i must wait for an e-mail from them.

On 10 May 2024 I once again called Tourvest to tell them I have not received my money from Booking.com and that they should talk with a senior at Booking.com and I told them that I got the name and contact nr of the CEO of Booking.com which is Mr. Glenn Fogel. Tourvest gave me an international contact nr to call and find out about my money and I think it is unfair for them also to give me that task because the issue is between them and Booking.com, so Tourvest told me to give them another week until Friday 17, 2024. Tourvest also informed me that I am not the only person with the same problem of getting back our refunds from Booking.com

This issue has been coming on for more than a month now and to date I have not received my refund from Booking.com.

So, my fellow travelers if you are from another country other than Europe, DO NOT MAKE THE MISTAKE I DID BY USING THE SERVICES OF BOOKING.COM to make bookings on your behalf because their offices are in the Netherlands, and you are going to struggle like i am now to get back my refund.

This is the first time I used a travel agent to try them out and it was a mistake. I have been traveling many times before and I personally went to the offices of the airline that I want to use to make my bookings and I never had a problem, so please take my advice and spread the news about this international agent and rather support our local travel agents if you wish to.

STAY AWAY FROM BOOKING.COM

Thanks David