On
the 31st of March I made an inquiry through a website for
the Treehouse River Lodge in Shongweni for the 6th of May.
They
accepted my booking and I paid the deposit required of R550.00, I
received a confirmation of the deposit paid and the dates etc on the
5th of April.
When
my partner and I arrived there this weekend, we were told our booking
was for the 7th of May and that there were other guests in our room.
We
were shocked and bordering on tears but did not want to be rude
to the woman, Alison, who clearly had no idea what was going on and
couldn’t get hold of her daughter, Sue, who I had been dealing with
all along.
Unhappily,
to keep the peace,
we agreed to move our booking to the next Saturday.
Within
the hour of us leaving, I sent an email through saying that we would
not be visiting and requesting my money back.
I
did not hear from the establishment so started emailing them and
eventually received a call from Sue saying that my booking
was "definitely for the 7th" and that she would not be refunding my money.
I
saw red and immediately emailed the website I had made the booking through, asking them to send through
the original emails that had been sent to Sue showing the date of the
booking, which they did, even the initial inquiry made on the 31st of
March.
I
then received a call from Alison saying that because I
CANCELLED THE BOOKING (now referring to the Saturday AFTER the
original booking) she would not be refunding my money.
My
partner even tried to call this Sue woman who told him to take it up
with his lawyer and hung up on him twice!! She has since smsed me to
say I must let the lawyers deal with this and she won't give me ANY
of my money back.
I
have never in all my life and travels received this sort of treatment
from any establishment and I just let them get away with my money and
thinking it’s alright to treat people like this.
Further updates:
18 May 2017 - Sue advises the Tourism Department that I did not book a self catering unit. I forward them the original booking form with the transcripts of our communication where Sue advised me we would be staying in unit 3 and that we would not have to share the kitchen with other guests as well as the emails between us after that where I had asked about whether or not they supply dish washing liquid.
25 May 2017 - Sue smss me:
"Hi Shiloh i will refund u out of my personal bank account. Would u mind if i pay u R500 now and balance next month? Please send yr bank details. Sue Treehouse river lodge. I in all honesty cannot allow this 2 happen and i am very sorry 4 this. I work here, Allys is the owner."
26 May 2017 - R500.00 received. Waiting for the other R400.00 to be paid in June as promised.
