This is the letter I sent to hotels.com after spending over an hour on their customer service line, being transferred to the wrong person or cut off four times, being called an asshole by customer service and not given a straight answer as to why none of the prices quoted on their recent 'New York on Sale' promotion were actually available:

'This has become completely unacceptable and totally ridiculous. I have been on the phone now with your customer service for over an hour. The first person I spoke with, Angel, was very helpful, but when he tried to connect me to a supervisor to help me further, I was disconnected. I called back to the number he provided and spoke with a second customer service rep who tried to transfer me to a supervisor.

This time I was transferred to an internal help line, where the person who answered it asked for my employee ID number. When I told him I was not an employee, he transferred me back to the main line where I spoke to a THIRD customer service person. I asked again to speak to a supervisor. I was transferred again. I spoke to a woman for several minutes and she was very helpful, but she said she couldn't answer any of my questions because she wasn't a supervisor and wasn't in customer service, she was in the sales department. So she transferred me again to the main number where I got my FOURTH customer service person, I believe her name was Anila.

As she answered the phone, I heard in the background another customer service rep saying, and I quote, 'This guy is a real asshole', followed by a mass of giggling. When I asked Anila if she had heard what I heard, and she replied that certainly no one had said that, I told her I know what I heard and that I wanted to speak with a supervisor. She then tried to make up several stories as to why it was impossible for me to speak to a supervisor, including the fact that I didn't have a booking number. None of the other three customer service reps seemed to have a problem with this or any of the other b.s. reasons she gave me for not transferring me.

Finally, when I would not take no for an answer she put me on hold, and after another wait, a woman named Myra answered and identified herself as a supervisor. She was utterly hopeless. She would not let me explain the problem I was having and continually cut me off. When we finally got to the root of the problem, which I will explain shortly, she could not even navigate their own website properly and could not even locate the hotel in New York that I was calling about. I wound up telling her that it was pointless for me to go through this any further, told her goodbye and hung up. If this is the best you can do, then you obviously need to do something drastic quickly to improve your customer service.

'Now, as for the reason I called in the first place, OVER AN HOUR AGO, I was trying to book a three-night hotel stay in New York City starting on February 13th. When I tried to book my stay, there was a link advertising a special on New York City hotels. I clicked on the link and saw some great rates, in particular one for the Millennium Broadway Hotel.

The quoted rate advertised today, Wednesday, December 31, 2008, was $112 per night for a three-night stay. Right now, the lowest rate that you can actually book a room for at this hotel for the dates I requested is about $197. Not even close. So I tried other hotels listed on the promotions page (http://www.hotels.com/promotion.jsp?id=34159&tab=deals&al=h) and several dates for each hotel. As far as I can tell, none of the rates advertised are actually available for any of the dates advertised. I feel that you should either take down this page completely, update it regularly, or try to make things right if someone like myself tries to book through this promotions page--which you are advertising on several places on your website--and is unable to get the rates advertised. I think that this kind of practice is tantamount to fraud and should not be abided.

This is why I will be forwarding this email, as well as screen shots of the pertinent web pages to as many consumer websites I can (i.e. Consumerist.com, Angie's List) if I do not receive some kind of satisfactory reply. I don't think you want the reputation as being a deceitful business and I don't think you want to lose any customers, especially in these difficult economic times. Please respond to this as soon as possible and let me know what you can do about these situations. Thank you.'

That was four days ago and I haven't heard a word from them. I don't really expect to, either. And I won't be doing business with them ever again. I would encourage you to do the same.

I am of European nationality and living in France. I have not been in the US for more than 10 years, nor do I plan to do so in the near future, and therefore I certainly won't make a hotelbooking in the US. So I was very much surprised to discover a charge on my credit card accounts from IAN Travel Services, dated 12-08-2008 for an amount of 1657, 36 in dollars, concerning a hotelbooking in the US. All my other charges are always in euro's, so I instantly presumed some form of of fraud. I called my credit card company and reported the charge as fradulent and immediately closed my account. Unfortunately, due to circumstances, there were more than 30 days past by, before I discovered the fraud, so I won't be compensated by the insurance of my credit card company.

The reason of filing my report is to make clear that, where it concerns Hotels.com - IAN Travel Services, you don't need to make an internet booking, in order to to be charged fraudulently and consumers should be aware that that this credit card fraud is a worlwide problem.

My flights was cancelled because hurricane IKE was about to hit Houston; in the process of changing my flights Continental Airlines asked if I needed a hotel room. Continental Airlines transferred my to a customer service rep. I was never informed that I was talking to Hotels.com. With the CSR, I booked a Holiday Inn hotel room. During the call, I was never informed of any cancellation/charges fees etc. Since a Hurricane was about to hit Houston, and not knowing the status of IAH after hurricane IKE, this detail would have influenced my decision to book a hotel. There is no way that I would have booked the hotel room.

After hurricane IKE, my flights were cancelled again. I found out my flight status on the 14th. Once I knew that my flight was cancelled, using my Blackberry since I didn�t have electricity, I checked my e-mail to get the information regarding the Hotel. At the time I realized that it was Hotels.com, I still had no idea that there was a cancellation/charge fee. I contacted Hotels.com and they explained the cancellation/charge fee for the hotel. During the same call, I explained that the cancellation/charge fee was never explained and the Hotels.com representative said that they would contact the hotel on my behalf and see if they will refund the fee. The representative put me on hold and contacted the Holiday Inn, when she took me off hold, she had said that she had contacted the hotel�s accounting department and that I need to call back in a few days and they would refund the cancellation/charge fee. She then asked if I wanted to cancel, explaining that the cancellation/charge fee would be refunded. I cancelled, but was explicitly clear that I was never explained a cancellation/charge fee nor was I accepting the fee.

I called back the following week and Hotels.com would not refund the cancellation/charge fee. They told me to contact the hotel, which I did. Holiday Inn said that I need to contact Hotels.com.

Bottom line, this is the worst service that I have ever received. The fact that the cancellation/charge fee was never explained to me, the fact that Hotels.com said they would reimburse the charge and that Hotels.com was unsympathetic to the fact that Houston was just hit with a hurricane. This all left me with an extremely bad taste in my mouth, consumers should be aware of the type of company they are dealing with before they ever think about doing business with Hotels.com. This is if they know they are doing business with them.

Hotels.com WARNING: Price quoted is for ONE PERSON ONLY regardless of how many people you enter in your search.

This was my first time using hotels.com--and will definitely be my last.

I was earching for 1 room, 2 people, 6 days and found a rate atthe Alexandria Old Town Hilton for $95.20 per night. This is a fantastic price. In fact it seemed almost too good to be true. So before booking, I...

First called the Hilton to make sure they had such a deal with Hotels.com and that the room would not be in the basement next to the heat/air machinery or some other such place. They said they did work with hotels.com and the room would be a regular.

I then called Hotels.com and spoke with a woman named "Julie." I explained that my husband and I would be spending Christmas with our son in Alexandria. (She replied in an oh so friendly a voice "my daughter lives there, too.") I told her about finding the 1 room, 2 people, 6 days room for $95.20 a night and that I wanted to be certain there was a good room with no caveats. She assured me it would be. She told me that Hotels.com bought in bulk and could thus offer cheaper rates.

Feeling reassured, I made the reservations and gave her our credit card number. She told me $600+ would be charged to the card and the my husband and I "were are all set" for our arrival" on x date. She told me a confirmation would be soon sent to my email and gave me their customer service number to call if I had any questions, then pleasantly said goodbye.

I was feeling fine--until the confirmation came through showing only 1 person in the reservation. Thinking this was just a typing mistake, I called customer service at hotels.com. I spoke with a very supercilious jerk called "Amil." who told me it would be $20.00 more per night for a second person. When I said this was not what the woman at booking told me, he dismissed all that and said "go look at the web page."

I told him I did NOT book at the web page; that I had BOOKED BY TELEPHONE. He ignored this and repeated "go look at the web page." I went to the web page and searched on the same criteria and came up with the $95.20 rate. I told him this. He said click on the green select button and then click on green button on the next page. I did it to placate him and there in there after the subtotal was the charge $20.00 per additional person.

I told him I could see this now on the web page, but it was not mentioned when I booked by phone. I read back to him the amount "Julie" said we would pay and that she had said "you and your husband" so she knew there were two of us when she quoted me the $600+ price. He said basically "too bad" the rate is 95.20 plus $20. He refused to cancel the transaction.

After demanding to speak with the supervisor (who Amil said may be too busy to speak with me!), I was finally told I could cancel and get a refund in "30 days or the next billing cycle" or go to the hotel and if we were charged the additional $20.00 per night, Hotels.com would later refund it. Yeah, right. I cancelled everything.

Now begins the struggle to get the money refunded to our charge card. I will contact our bank tomorrow and alert them to this BAIT AND SWITCH experience and see if they can get a prompt refund for us. I will also place a complaint with the BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU in my home state and in Virginia.

I strongly suggest that every one else who has such an experience with Hotels.com do the same.

Hotels.com debited my bank account on 09/29/2008 for $275.64. When I called them they had no record of the charge. My bank statement shows Hotels.com aith a phone of 800-219-4606 (their customer service line). They passed the buck saying to dispute the charge.

My last reservation with Hotels.com was Dec. 2005. Now three years later they debit my account but have no record??

They can cancel my account, delete my info, give me my money back and go out of business. I'll go to their Dallas headquarters and stand on someone's desk.