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“NOT WHAT THEY USED TO BE”

written by Rapunzel123 on 14/07/2017

Have been using alpha rooms to book holiday apartments for years. I go away at least 4 times a yr and often book holidays for friends and family. Every year I book for my husband and 4 friends to go to Portugal, same hotel usually same dates. Tried to book 5 rooms but could only book 3 and was directed to " group bookings "
Put through to call centre in India where the agent proceeded to do one booking for three rooms and another for two. I could have done that myself !I subsequently find out that for every payment made there is now a £4.95 admin charge. I had to pay two deposits one for each booking and will have to pay two final balances so total " admin charge" for something I did myself will be £19.80 I also didn't receive any confirmation emails. Rang customer service on the usual Sheffield number but it just transfers you to the call centre in India. Turns out they had taken my email down wrong. Countless phone calls later to complain about the double admin charges I was assured these charges had been included in the price quoted. Time to pay the full balance and guess what the admin charges weren't included. Phoned the call centre and asked to speak to somebody in the UK " there are only registered office in the UK you have to speak to us at the call centre here in India" Very frustrating conversation where I was informed that I had specifically asked the agent to do two bookings - not true. The agent eventually said he needed to speak to his manager to see if they could way 2 of the four £4.95 admin charges. Came back and said rather than me waiting he would call back in ten mins. Four days later no call,no surprise there. Historically I have used alpha rooms even if they were slightly more expensive as I had confidence I was booking with a reputable company who were easy to deal with but NEVER again. If I could have cancelled without losing money I would have done. Also I had phoned on the day my deposit balance was due but wanted clarification of the admin charges before paying. As the agent never got back to me I didn't pay. Checked my bank the following day and the payment had been taken automatically.
I'm sure that alpha rooms will come back and just as they do in telephone calls just keep repeating their terms and conditions but I still felt it was necessary to alert people that this company is not what it used to be and is trading on the good reputation from previous years. I will definitely never use them again and would go as far as to say I would pay more and book with somebody else.