Lorna Gold was overcharged when hotel reservations she made in Ireland through Hotels.com were wrongly billed to her credit card. It’s another good reason to always check your credit-card bills in detail
“I was wondering whether you could help me with a problem that I suspect other travellers may unwittingly have suffered.
“In July last year I booked two hotel trips in the US on Hotels.com. I used its Irish site but changed the currency to US dollars, to avail of an attractive exchange rate.
“I booked the two hotels, received e-mail confirmations in US dollars and was very pleased with the rates. Myself and my husband enjoyed a great holiday in California.
“On my return from the trip I received my MasterCard statement. I was shocked to see that the two transactions had not been converted to euro. Rather, I had been charged the exact US-dollar amount on my credit card in euro – that is, for every $100 I was meant to be charged I was charged €100. At the exchange rate at the time, it amounted to an overcharge of about €200.
“Not to worry, I thought: I have the e-mail confirmations, which state the amounts in dollars. I’ll give Hotels.com a call and get it to reimburse the difference. No problem.
“Following five phone calls to various call centres in India, each with a different assistant – most of whom were polite but totally unhelpful, as this problem was not on their script – I got very frustrated.
“They recognised that there was a problem with the currency but ‘had never seen this before’ and apparently didn’t know how to deal with it. I even spoke to a supervisor, who started to ask why on earth I booked in dollars. I booked in dollars because I wanted to and your site let me, I felt like saying.
“Having gone around in circles with Hotels.com, I contacted MasterCard, which immediately reversed the payment and said the retailer would have to reprocess it in the correct currency.
“Several months passed, but before Christmas Ulster Bank, my MasterCard provider, wrote to say that Hotels.com had provided additional information to support its claim. Unless I contacted Ulster Bank within four days my card would be recharged the original amount.
“As Hotels.com’s documentation made no sense to me, I faxed the company immediately. (I have the receipt to prove the fax arrived.) Unfortunately, the bank clerk failed to pick up my fax, and on December 23rd the full amount I was originally charged was recharged to my card. Aargh!
“Now I am back at square one. Please, please, can you help? My case is clear-cut. I have all the documentation to support it.
“Other travellers should be aware of this problem – and of the difficulty of getting a response. Given that I booked two separate transactions on two separate days and both had the same mistake, I doubt I am a unique case. Check your credit-card statements!”
Hotels.com responds"We're looking into this matter and have been in touch with the customer and offered her a full refund."
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