False advertising, false billing, false "help" centre

I booked a room for my boss on Friday with the explicit condition that no prepayment was needed, just payment upon arrival. Despite this, I was forced to enter my personal card details to confirm the booking. Weird, but fine.

I was then immediately charged and the full amount for the entire stay was immediately deducted from my account - several thousand rands. Not fine. I called booking.com first thing on Monday morning to rectify this. I was put on hold over 5 times, and was made to wait (listening to TERRIBLE electronic catcalling) for over an hour with no resolution.

I insisted on speaking to a manager - after another 15 minute hold, I was first reprimanded for not contacting the center on Saturday, which I did try and got tired of no-one answering. I was then told the property would be contacted and any help they give me is conditional on when they happen to respond to the email, and it is further then their discretion to make "an exception" to refund me or not. All of this after expressly only booking this room BECAUSE it is pay on arrival.

I will never use booking.com again. False advertising, absolute waste of time, abysmal customer service, and they lie from the jump in their 'contracts' that are not in any way followed. They are everything that is wrong with corporations.