Who has booked thru Bookit.com recently?

[ReefHound]

The law gives you the right to dispute a charge but I don't see that the law gives you the right to win the dispute.

 

[DandyDon]

The law gives you the right to dispute a charge but I don't see that the law gives you the right to win the dispute.

I've always been able to dispute with a phone call, Visa or Master Card. From what Cert1967 shared, paperwork may possibly be required in some cases.

 

[Illini_Fan]

I hope that what I heard about some banks refusing to refund credit card charges was wrong. This is a guarantee of Visa, MC, and others, isn't it?

I'm sure you heard correctly -- the rules governing disputes is failry complex and will vary between card issues (i.e. Amex is different than Visa)

But many times, what a consumer thinks is a valid dispute for a refund, is not. For instance, Ticketmaster is not actually cancelling many of their concerts - rather they are postponing them. That slight wording difference makes a huge difference in weather your credit card company will chargeback the vendor and refund your money. A cancellation is pretty clear -- but a postponement effectively makes you, the consumer, the one "canceling" and then you are bound by the T&Cs of the vendors policy, which is typically "no-refund"

 

[Rockit31]

I have never ever seen a better deal on Bookit than what Expedia (expedia, Travelocity, orbitz) offers. They were never even close. Bye bye bookit.

 

[swimbody]

The nice thing about Bookit was a monthly payment plan for our trips. I will miss them as I did get better deals but it was only for hotels as I never used them for airfare due to being in Houston and only flying Southwest

 

[kelemvor]

Seems like Mr. Bud Finlaw would be likely to be targeted by civil and maybe criminal legal proceedings. I'm not sure about that but I do recall at least one rebreather shop in FL recently that was in trouble for accepting money for training and products that they did not actually produce. If memory serves, it didn't go well for the perpetrator.

Unless Mr. Finlaw lives in some country that protects him from laws involving international crimes that is.

 

[DandyDon]

Seems like Mr. Bud Finlaw would be likely to be targeted by civil and maybe criminal legal proceedings.

I suppose he is well hidden behind corporate barriers. The corporation can be sued, perhaps even charged, but can the CEO?

I would think that the vast majority of payments to Bookit were made with credit and debit cards, and that those should offer protection with full refunds. I'd be curious about any cases that customers attempted to obtain such refunds but were unable to.

The hardest hit would probably those traveling at the time, especially for spring break trips, who were not allowed to leave their hotels until they paid in full - again, as well as those not being accommodated by airlines for return flights that they paid Bookit for. Several were reported in some news stories.

Excerpted from: OTA's COVID-19 Failure Highlights Value of Working With a Travel Advisor

Nadia Sparkle, owner of Travel by Sparkle, also warned travelers and colleagues via Facebook: “They have tons of clients currently in destinations and are not able to leave the hotel/resort because Bookit.com failed to pay them,” she said.

And: Book It customers speak out; company reportedly owes them thousands

And when we checked in on Monday the 16th, everything was fine.” But two days into the vacation, hotel staff told Devlin there was an issue,” said Devlin.

“They said there’s been a problem, all the reservations have been canceled, your airfare, your hotel, your transfers, everything. Something with the travel agency and you need to pay us directly,” said Devlin.

She attempted to call Book-It, but got no response.The phone did not even ring.

“We payed $4,700+ to Book It and they never transferred the money to the hotel. And we had to pay for the hotel directly out-of-pocket an additional $2500 just to get the hotel situated because they negotiated with us,” said Devlin.