Agoda Company Pte Ltd - Amount deducted No booking confirmation from Agoda

Hello,

I have been using Agoda.com for hotel booking since long. And I used to trust this platform as I never faced any issue earlier. But recently my views towards this company have changed completely and sorry to say but I would never use this platform for hotel booking ever. And would also ensure to use social media platforms to let others know about the fraudulent activities ongoing on this platform.

I was planning a family trip for which I had to make * hotel bookings. So on ** Mar ****, I opened Agoda.com and searched for hotel "Honeymoon Inn, Manali, India". (Note: I didn't login into my user account at Agoda.com.) I found the price offered by Agoda quite good, so I decided to go ahead with the booking. I selected the room of my choice, filled up all other details like name, email id, mobile number etc. and finally selected "Book Now Pay Later" option. Then I was asked to enter my credit card details, which I entered expecting that I will get the booking confirmation now and my credit card will be charged on a later date. Surprisingly, amount (Rs. ****) got debited from my credit card (Citibank credit card) and I got a technical error message on Agoda.com webpage. I thought since the amount has been debited and I have filled up my email id and mobile number while making this booking so soon I will get the booking confirmation. Since I had trust over Agoda.com as I have used it in the past, so I was sure that I would get the booking confirmation or refund of my amount in case of any issue.

I had to make a booking in another hotel also, so because of my trust over Agoda, I again used their online portal for booking (I wish I would have stopped at that point). So again on ** Mar ****, I searched for "Sterling, Kufri, India" and followed the same steps to reserve one room. Again I chose "Book now, Pay later". This time I used ICICI bank's credit card for booking. Shockingly, the same thing happened again. Rs. **** got deducted and the same technical error page appeared on Agoda.com. This made me worried.

When I didn't receive any booking confirmation for several hours, I reported the issue to Agoda.com and both banks (Citibank and ICICI Bank). In case of successful booking the merchant name shown in the credit card statement is "AGODA" but this time in both credit cards's statement it is showing merchant name "PTM*PAYTM APP NOIDA IN". Now Agoda is saying they haven't received the amount and the merchant name should have been AGODA, so I should check with my bank. ICICI Bank has confirmed that money went to "PAYTM" so check with Paytm. I'm trying to follow up with Paytm on this issue.

I got frustrated with all these follow ups so I just did a search on google to see if there are other similar instances reported. I was surprised/shocked to see so many similar cases have been reported and still there has been no steps taken by Agoda.com to stop this fraud happening through their online platform. If I can do a google search and find out similar cases then I'm sure Agoda would have received many complaints on similar issues. Why it hasn't rang a bell, why Agoda's customer care team's response is still the same that "they haven't received the money check with your bank". Agoda has to understand that its their platform that has been used to trigger these transactions and customers have followed the usual hotel booking and credit card payment steps.

Most of the customers who used the "Book now pay later" option, have faced this issue. First of all why money got deducted when a customer picked pay later option? That itself shows that there is some fraud going on through your online hotel booking portal. So Agoda has to take responsibility here and address this issue.

In total I have made transactions of Rs. ***** (****+****). I'm trying to get this money back without much help from Agoda. I'm going to report this issue on social media and consumer court. So that other innocent customers don't get duped because of Agoda's online platform (which is supporting fraudulent activities).

Have a look at other similar complaints:
https://voxya.com/view-complaint/fraud-app/******/
https://voxya.com/view-complaint/payment-deducted-but-booking-not-made/******/
https://voxya.com/view-complaint/booking-confirmation-not-received-but-amount-got-deducted/*****
https://voxya.com/view-complaint/payment-deducted-but-no-booking-confirmation/******
https://voxya.com/view-complaint/money-deducted-from-my-bank-account-twice-but-no-confirmation-from-agoda-on-reservation-/******
https://voxya.com/view-complaint/booking-not-confirmed-amount-debited/******
https://consumercomplaintscourt.com/agoda-failed-transaction-*/
https://www.consumercomplaints.in/hdfc-bank-diversion-of-payment-made-for-hotel-booking-through-secure-agoda-com-c*******
https://www.consumercomplaints.in/central-bank-of-india-transaction-failed-amount-deducted-c*******


These are few complaints that I could dig on single google search and I could sense there is something fishy here. I hope Agoda take  note of this and help me in getting my money refunded.

Following are the details I used while making booking:
Booking *:
Payment Through Credit Card: xxxx xxxx xxxx ****
Amount: Rs. **** (INR)
Bank: Citibank
Hotel Name: Honeymoon Inn, Manali, India

Booking *:
Payment Through Credit Card: xxxx xxxx xxxx ****
Amount: Rs. **** (INR)
Bank: ICICI Bank
Hotel Name: Sterling, Kufri, India

- Avinash Kumar