The worst support ever - Booking.com

Need help with your reservation with Booking.com? Make sure to prepare yourselves for some of the worst customer support interactions you can imagine

Since this is a consumer blog today I decided to share my extremely bad experience with Booking.com support team.

How did it all started?

Almost a month ago I decided to take advantage of their so called "Invite and Earn" program (also known as Refer a friend) which is a referral program which allows you to share personal unique link which your friends can use when making the reservation. So, what's the benefit - if anyone uses this link to book their stay you get $15 after their stay. And here is what's exactly said on Booking's site:

"After their stay, you get US$15 back on your credit card! (And your friend gets 10% back.)"

Everything looks fine so far, I have used the link to share with my friends and actually one of them used it shortly. What went wrong is the fact that Booking.com promises to pay the referral seven working days after the guests check out as stated on their website: "You should receive your reward within seven working days after giving us your card details". And as you can guess 20 days later the $15 are still not transferred, neither my friend received their 10% back.

Of course as an active Internet user I guessed there might be some technical issue or delay in the system so contacting support was the best and the most appropriate solution.

The worst support experience ever

The first attempt I made was through their online form. Some time later I received extremely unsatisfying canned response answer that was totally not aligned with my issue. Yep, I replied back for further answers but unfortunately nobody contacted me back.

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Then I decided to give them a call... again, total waste of time. I was advised to wait couple of days as the problem might have been caused by propagation.

After waiting three more days I replied back as advised by the customer support representative - the response really pissed me off. Another canned response without any relation to my request. I gave them a call almost immediately. Then things got even uglier - the support representative was hardly speaking any English and after 5 minutes of struggling to make a decent conversation she just hang up on me, without any notice or anything, she just cut the line.

I called again
The next support representative had better English but in contrast with the very bad communication skills and knowledge of the product (still English skills were below average). Unfortunately, after couple of minutes left on hold I was told that there is no obvious reason for the delay and I should just keep on waiting (waiting on the world to change I guess :) )

Get your sh*t together Booking!

I am not sure if Booking.com are outsourcing their support services but I think they should really get into this more seriously. This is world's most popular booking service and I think it is totally inappropriate to offer such bad experience when relating to support services and customer support in particular. This is not a complicated "science" and using the services of adequate QAs and supervisors should improve the process significantly.

I am still waiting for my $15 so Booking.com, please stop sending me surveys (I will keep replying with DSATs as that is the most accurate score for such bad support experience) and get your sh*t together and take your customers and their  requests more seriously.

For more interesting travel information feel free to visit SVEYO Places, one of my favorite travel blogs.

Thank you!