I booked a hotel from Ikyu.com through Yahoo travel. It was announced as a campaign in which, if you pay by credit card, you get a large discount.
I then went to Ikyu website and requested the payment by credit card, but I got an error after putting my card details. I tried again, and got a different error. Called my card operator and confirmed with them that no transaction was requested, so it was Ikyu problem.
I e-mailed Ikyu and they confirmed the error means there was a problem on their site, and suggested me paying at the hotel instead without the promised discount. Of course I wasn’t happy with that, and my reservation was made already on the day before my stay, so I would have to pay 50% if I wanted to cancel.
I tried again with a different credit card (different bank) and got the same error. E-mailed them explaining the problem and the error one more time. I said I was not satisfied with their solution and I wanted either the discount or a free cancellation since it was a problem on their website. One more time, they said it was an error from their website and told me to pay at the hotel at no discount. A copy of the previous message.
This final useless reply came at almost 11:00 on the day of check-in, while I was driving to the area I intended to stay already. I finally called them at 13:00 and explained the problem yet again. Guess what? They told me the same thing: it was a problem in the website and that I should pay at the hotel without the discount. Nothing could be done about it.
I don’t want to ask the card operator for a partial refund because it will be the hotel who will take the “payment cut”, and they are not the ones to blame for it. But take this as a lesson to avoid Ikyu.com.
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PS1: both credit cards are mine, in my name and address, and both are from Japanese operators. I have used them in Japan and abroad to book hotels many times. Never had a problem like this.
PS2: I tried first to pay at Yahoo travel, but the transaction was blocked by the operator due to security concerns (this is normal). My operator takes around 30 minutes to send me the confirmation to unlock the payment, so I just clicked in the choice to “change the payment type on Ikyu later and still get the discount”. My only guess is that this first blocked payment messed something in Ikyu system. Either way, it was a problem on their side and they should have done something about it.
2 comments
I use Ikyu exclusively, but I always pick “Pay on site” to avoid stuff like this.
I’ll never understand the ranting reviews on here about fairly benign issues. Your inability to use your credit cards on a certain website doesn’t warrant a warning to everyone to avoid this company. Ikyu is fine. I’ve never had a problem. I’ve had problems on other sites (but don’t feel the need to post 8 paragraph rants about it.)
Also, they didn’t “take your money”. You didn’t get a discount and instead you paid full price for something. You weren’t robbed.