First and the last time!

The worst experience I’ve ever had. There are issues between Bookings.com and Mafadi Air and as a customer I was “smack bang” in the middle of it! I made a booking at 19h41 and cancelled the booking at 06h59 the next morning, due to a work emergency. They refused to refund me and billed me the full cancellation fee, because “at midnight the full cancellation fee was app****”. My Booking was 4 hours and 19 minutes old. I didn’t check in, and the cancellation was 2 days before check in. The sent me from pillar to post and I’ve been fighting this since January. Mafadi Air sends me to Bookings for the refund. Bookings requests Mafadi approval, Mafadi declined the approval. Mafadi then says the “building was sold” so they cannot refund me from a listing that was deleted. Bookings then says if Mafadi decline they can escalate and refund. When I contact them to inform them that Mafadi declined to refund, they escalate, then decline my refund due to the “midnight policy”. Does nobody think anymore? A booking that was 4 hours old is all of sudden worth 800 rand? Does that make sense? Make it make sense?! I went to Department of Tourism, none of them comp**** with Tourism. I went to NCC (National Consumer Commission) didn’t receive any feedback or an attempt to resolve. The CPA is explicit when referenced to reasonableness. Their refusal to resolve and or refund is in direct conflict with the law and they, for some reason, are oblivious to what reasonableness means. Not refunding booking that was only 4 hours old before the full cancellation fee was in effect is considered as unreasonable. They way they’ve handled this, the blatant disregard for the law, the inability to resolve, the lack of communication is such a disappointment. This was my first booking with Bookings.com and will definitely be my last. As for Mafadi Air, every booking from now, I will have to scrutinise to ensure that I do not book or lease from them. The worst experience I’ve ever had.