"The idiots that answer the calls are like robotic that don't have a clue what you're talking about"
The same thing happens if you contact them via the extranet. You get only standard answers that don't resolve anything, and each time you respond to these messages, another robot answers with the same crap. You never deal with the same person and all give the same stupid answers.
I only got a slightly different answer when I asked if these names represented real persons or bots. Then they asked me to be respectful. ***!
It might be intentional as part of their internal policies, but it might also be a software problem. I have found what appears to be a serious bug in their booking software, regarding cancelation policies. Their software department seems to be quite sloppy and their call center agents are not prepared to recognize and forward reported bugs to the right people.
"I spoke with more than 30 booking com employees, they are not doing anything to pay me the money they owe"
Although we don't have the same problem as we here get paid directly from the guests, there is one big ugly truth that we have in common.
Booking has obviously a common policy for all problems: they have a huge number of incompetent call center agents who are neither trained nor enabled to solve problems. Their only task is to give irrelevant standard answers, hoping that either the partner resolves the problem alone or, where this is not possible, simply gives up in desperation.
It appears to be cheaper, at least in the mind of BDC's management, to go this path than to have a sufficient number of trained personal, dedicated to really solve problems.
I am experiencing exactly the same obstacle. I have received emails from more than a dozen of employees, all with vague, irrelevant, or otherwise useless answers, none of which did anything to resolve our problem.
I have now started to answer these useless messages very impolitely, hoping that this may wake somebody up if nothing else to finally get the attention of some supervisor who might elevate the case to somebody competent.
In the case of not paying VCCs, there is the added advantage for them that not resolving the problem might save them additional money ... if the partners don't take legal action. So it is probably the only solution for your problems to do exactly this. Not individual lawsuits which would be too costly, but a class action. And give this class action all the publicity you can.
Obviously, it was the first thing I did. I filed 6 complaints, with no useful result. They just repeated the obvious without offering a solution,
Now, after 2 weeks I have finally reached someone who appears to be willing to look into the causes, but I am not holding my breath.
I am posting here so my colleagues are warned.
When I discovered this forum, I was shocked by how many things go bad with BDC.
Did you know that there are people who have not received their payments for reservations via VCC for more than a year, and despite constant calls, BDC now says that they won't pay claims that are older than a year? When I started with BDC, I was disappointed that BDC does not offer the service to charge the client's credit card and then pay us for businesses in Panama, but now I am glad they don't. It has probably saved me a lot of headaches and maybe losses.
They are considering a class-action lawsuit now.
"I am waiting on payment myself on a guest that stayed in my house, and has departed, but no money was transferred to my account. Add me to your lawsuit list. I’ll be canceling all other guests thru bookings.com"
Besides the fact that BDC does not offer "Payments by Booking.com in Panama" so we have no way to adhere to this program, I don't see how we could notify BDC of a no-show if the guest cancels the reservation on the very afternoon of their expected arrival, after the time limit for cancelation and after the expected time of check-in, against our registered cancelation policies.
Once they have done this, the reservation is closed and we cannot access it anymore to register a no-show, not even to denounce the damaging behavior of the guest or to access their credit card data to charge a penalty (the latter is hypothetical as our POS system does not allow us to charge cards that are not physically present). We cannot even block them from booking us again.
How does BDC protect us against such fraudulent behavior? Apparently not at all.
Hi Pension Bergseeblick, you could contact the guests as soon as you receive the booking and tell them that BDC does not pay you and they can cancel the booking free of charge and book directly with you, offering them a discount or a free meal equivalent to about 50% of BDC's commission. This way both sides share the advantage, and you will have a guest that pays you directly and you don't add another loss from BDC.
Having cash flow is essential for us small businesses and if BDC does not respect your interests, they cannot expect you to respect theirs.
We don't have the VCC problem as BDC does not cash in from guests in Panama, so we are on our own and I am now very glad they did not offer it. But we had another problem recently when guests booked allegedly with the right to "cancel at any time free of charge", which is the exact opposite to what our policies state. These guests canceled the afternoon of their expected arrival without paying a cent and BDC does not want to compensate us. So, from now on, we will rigorously demand the BDC clients pay a deposit immediately, otherwise, we will cancel the booking regardless if BDC allows cancellations from our side or not. The word "partners" that BDC uses for us is a joke. You don't create partnerships like this.
This is obviously fraudulent. Try to look for alternative ways to get clients asap. There are many other OTAs, although some of them are simply BDC outlets with another name. The best is to get a good website on your own with good SEO. It takes time and money but is certainly worth it saving you the dependency, commissions, and the trouble with this fraudulent behavior.
I have done exactly this. I mailed "partner" support but they insist that I call them by phone.
I am not expecting BDC to answer me on this forum, but I want to share the case with other "partners". I have seen cases even worse than mine shared here, so I think it is important for everybody to know what this company is doing.
In the past, I have been hanging in waiting loops seemingly forever while my prepaid phone credits ran out. I won't do this again. There are more reasons why I want a WRITTEN answer.
1. you can't show a person a screenshot on a phonecall
2. I want proof of what they tell me in case of legal actions, not a "he said - she said" after a phone call.
3. I don't hear well on the phone, but I have no problem reading a written answer.
"The idiots that answer the calls are like robotic that don't have a clue what you're talking about"
The same thing happens if you contact them via the extranet. You get only standard answers that don't resolve anything, and each time you respond to these messages, another robot answers with the same crap. You never deal with the same person and all give the same stupid answers.
I only got a slightly different answer when I asked if these names represented real persons or bots. Then they asked me to be respectful. ***!
It might be intentional as part of their internal policies, but it might also be a software problem. I have found what appears to be a serious bug in their booking software, regarding cancelation policies. Their software department seems to be quite sloppy and their call center agents are not prepared to recognize and forward reported bugs to the right people.
"I spoke with more than 30 booking com employees, they are not doing anything to pay me the money they owe"
Although we don't have the same problem as we here get paid directly from the guests, there is one big ugly truth that we have in common.
Booking has obviously a common policy for all problems: they have a huge number of incompetent call center agents who are neither trained nor enabled to solve problems. Their only task is to give irrelevant standard answers, hoping that either the partner resolves the problem alone or, where this is not possible, simply gives up in desperation.
It appears to be cheaper, at least in the mind of BDC's management, to go this path than to have a sufficient number of trained personal, dedicated to really solve problems.
I am experiencing exactly the same obstacle. I have received emails from more than a dozen of employees, all with vague, irrelevant, or otherwise useless answers, none of which did anything to resolve our problem.
I have now started to answer these useless messages very impolitely, hoping that this may wake somebody up if nothing else to finally get the attention of some supervisor who might elevate the case to somebody competent.
In the case of not paying VCCs, there is the added advantage for them that not resolving the problem might save them additional money ... if the partners don't take legal action. So it is probably the only solution for your problems to do exactly this. Not individual lawsuits which would be too costly, but a class action. And give this class action all the publicity you can.
Obviously, it was the first thing I did. I filed 6 complaints, with no useful result. They just repeated the obvious without offering a solution,
Now, after 2 weeks I have finally reached someone who appears to be willing to look into the causes, but I am not holding my breath.
I am posting here so my colleagues are warned.
When I discovered this forum, I was shocked by how many things go bad with BDC.
Did you know that there are people who have not received their payments for reservations via VCC for more than a year, and despite constant calls, BDC now says that they won't pay claims that are older than a year? When I started with BDC, I was disappointed that BDC does not offer the service to charge the client's credit card and then pay us for businesses in Panama, but now I am glad they don't. It has probably saved me a lot of headaches and maybe losses.
They are considering a class-action lawsuit now.
"I am waiting on payment myself on a guest that stayed in my house, and has departed, but no money was transferred to my account. Add me to your lawsuit list. I’ll be canceling all other guests thru bookings.com"
Besides the fact that BDC does not offer "Payments by Booking.com in Panama" so we have no way to adhere to this program, I don't see how we could notify BDC of a no-show if the guest cancels the reservation on the very afternoon of their expected arrival, after the time limit for cancelation and after the expected time of check-in, against our registered cancelation policies.
Once they have done this, the reservation is closed and we cannot access it anymore to register a no-show, not even to denounce the damaging behavior of the guest or to access their credit card data to charge a penalty (the latter is hypothetical as our POS system does not allow us to charge cards that are not physically present). We cannot even block them from booking us again.
How does BDC protect us against such fraudulent behavior? Apparently not at all.
Hi Pension Bergseeblick, you could contact the guests as soon as you receive the booking and tell them that BDC does not pay you and they can cancel the booking free of charge and book directly with you, offering them a discount or a free meal equivalent to about 50% of BDC's commission. This way both sides share the advantage, and you will have a guest that pays you directly and you don't add another loss from BDC.
Having cash flow is essential for us small businesses and if BDC does not respect your interests, they cannot expect you to respect theirs.
We don't have the VCC problem as BDC does not cash in from guests in Panama, so we are on our own and I am now very glad they did not offer it. But we had another problem recently when guests booked allegedly with the right to "cancel at any time free of charge", which is the exact opposite to what our policies state. These guests canceled the afternoon of their expected arrival without paying a cent and BDC does not want to compensate us. So, from now on, we will rigorously demand the BDC clients pay a deposit immediately, otherwise, we will cancel the booking regardless if BDC allows cancellations from our side or not. The word "partners" that BDC uses for us is a joke. You don't create partnerships like this.
This is obviously fraudulent. Try to look for alternative ways to get clients asap. There are many other OTAs, although some of them are simply BDC outlets with another name. The best is to get a good website on your own with good SEO. It takes time and money but is certainly worth it saving you the dependency, commissions, and the trouble with this fraudulent behavior.
I have done exactly this. I mailed "partner" support but they insist that I call them by phone.
I am not expecting BDC to answer me on this forum, but I want to share the case with other "partners". I have seen cases even worse than mine shared here, so I think it is important for everybody to know what this company is doing.
In the past, I have been hanging in waiting loops seemingly forever while my prepaid phone credits ran out. I won't do this again. There are more reasons why I want a WRITTEN answer.
1. you can't show a person a screenshot on a phonecall
2. I want proof of what they tell me in case of legal actions, not a "he said - she said" after a phone call.
3. I don't hear well on the phone, but I have no problem reading a written answer.