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  1. #1
    Thailand Expat
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    Scamming Bastards

    I posted earlier about the Dragon Lady and I going to stay at the KC Resort in Koh Samui in august this year,well that was the plan,but now it doesn't look so good.It turns out that the booking agents are nothing but a pack of scum sucking scamming bastards.We took advantage of an offer from a company called Graboneescapes to the tune of about 35,000 baht and made our reservations through an agency called villasindonesia and all was going well. I originally emailed our booking to villasindonesia and received an auto reply saying they were busy and I would be contacted in 3-4 days,when this didn't happen I tracked them down to an adress in Singapore and called them directly. They assured me the booking had been made and not to worry. Just be on the safe side I contacted he resort personally and they too assured me the booking had been made.
    Fast forward a couple of months and as our travel date is approaching I thought would confirm our dates.When I talked to a person at the resort they informed me that I no longer had reservations as villasindonesia had not made any payments on about 200 bookings.
    Digging a little further I have since discovered that villasindonesia seem to have renegged on payment of several thousand bookings in Bali, mainly in sanur seminyak and ubud.
    Evidence of this rip off started hitting travel sites in early March yet companies that were offering these holidays for sale on-line never contacted anybody who was or were about to be affected,for that matter neither did any of the hotels or resorts.
    I am currently chasing a refund of my money and also looking for new accomadation as we are not going to let these bastards ruin our trip.
    Please, anybody who comes across villasindonesia, take my advice and have nothing to do with these lowlife dogs.From what I have found out so far this scam was carried out over a few months and was not the work of some rogue employee.
    Anybody else had problems with these pricks please give me a yell letting me know how you went getting your money back.

  2. #2
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    Mid's Avatar
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    suggest you edit the thread and put villasindonesia in the title .

    meanwhile the website is still up

    http://www.villasindonesia.com/index_main.php

  3. #3
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    Question: Why book so far in advance?

  4. #4
    Thailand Expat
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    that's when it was on offer

  5. #5
    Thailand Expat terry57's Avatar
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    Shits me no end when I read a story about an innocent punter being ripped of by some scum bag dodgy company.

    Some people save for years to have a decent holiday and this sort of shit can be devastating.

  6. #6
    Thailand Expat
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    Luckily I have the time and the means to get by it but there may be several thousand out there who aren't able to.

  7. #7
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    Sorry this happened to you.

    Honestly, I don't understand why anyone uses an agent these days. It's so easy to book things for yourself and you can find the same deals, or sometimes better, on your own.

  8. #8
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    ^ Agree

  9. #9
    Thailand Expat
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    Quote Originally Posted by Don Ho View Post
    Sorry this happened to you.

    Honestly, I don't understand why anyone uses an agent these days. It's so easy to book things for yourself and you can find the same deals, or sometimes better, on your own.
    The agents used an on-line seller. That's who I bought from and hopefully who I may get a refund from.

  10. #10
    Excitable Boy
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    If you paid by credit card (especially an AMEX card, which usually includes free trip insurance with a travel purchase) you may very well have some recourse- I would call my cc company if I were you.

  11. #11
    Thailand Expat
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    Quote Originally Posted by FailSafe View Post
    If you paid by credit card (especially an AMEX card, which usually includes free trip insurance with a travel purchase) you may very well have some recourse- I would call my cc company if I were you.
    Definitely our first port of call if no result from Grabone.

  12. #12
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    Sorry to hear of your plight Crocman, but Failsafe is right, you should get that back off your CC Company.

    I can't believe they are still online after not paying for all those people

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mid
    suggest you edit the thread and put villasindonesia in the title .
    Only Mods can edit the title I think ???

  14. #14
    Thailand Expat
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kwang View Post
    Sorry to hear of your plight Crocman, but Failsafe is right, you should get that back off your CC Company.

    I can't believe they are still online after not paying for all those people
    It's got me buggered how they are still on-line and trading. Like I said even though they call themselves villasindonesia they operate from Singapore,maybe this puts them out of reach,I don't know.
    Any time I talked to them it felt like I was talking to a couple of young sisters who sitting at home taking calls.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kwang
    Only Mods can edit the title I think ???
    'tis possible for the first few minutes after posting .

  16. #16
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Don Ho View Post
    Honestly, I don't understand why anyone uses an agent these days.
    We used an agent to schedule our (coming) month long trip to China. The reason, they know of (personal) guides that will be with us along the way.

    We had used the same BKK agents before when visiting China and the guides (with transportation) they set us up with were wonderful.

    We couldn’t have done it without them and the trip wouldn’t have been as good.


    Quote Originally Posted by crocman View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Don Ho View Post
    Sorry this happened to you.

    Honestly, I don't understand why anyone uses an agent these days. It's so easy to book things for yourself and you can find the same deals, or sometimes better, on your own.
    The agents used an on-line seller. That's who I bought from and hopefully who I may get a refund from.

    Good luck and I hope things work out for you.
    Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

  17. #17
    Member Mojo's Avatar
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    Booking a Samui holiday from company specializing private villa rentals in Bali is the first mistake. The other company sounds like scam set-up from the start.

    Looks like scam set-up from the start promising deals "too good to be true"...

    If the deal is for a resort and not backbacker guesthouse you can find it on their own site or from bigger legit sites like Agoda etc.

  18. #18
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    Mojo said it right. But since its on your credit card I would be on the phone now. Call the emergency number on the back. I have had to do it with Standard Chartered and the problems were sorted out within a day. Get an agent that speaks good English, tell the person to have a pen and paper and then simply go through chronologically with all the facts as to what happened.

    You will get your money back. Hell Samui is dead in August. You can get deals as you like. Best of luck as others have said.

  19. #19
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Use a reputable company like Hoteltravel.com, Bookings.com, Agoda.com FFS. It isn't worth the hassle.

    I've even seen people turn up in Chiang Mai having paid a considerable sum of money to an agent in Bangkok to do a few days of the faux hill tribe experience, only to find the company in Chiang Mai knew (or claimed to know) fuck all about it.

    Asia is full of scammers, and it's worth paying a bit extra for peace of mind, or as Aging one says, you could almost turn up at Samui and get a hut for the first night, then troll around and see what deals you can get from near empty hotels.
    The next post may be brought to you by my little bitch Spamdreth

  20. #20
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    best to go through agoda, will be cheaper and safer

  21. #21
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    Sorry to hear you've been scammed, but fark me,

    Quote Originally Posted by Mojo
    Booking a Samui holiday from company specializing private villa rentals in Bali is the first mistake.
    EXACTLY.

    I wouldn't book a European holiday from a Greek travel agent either.

  22. #22
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    Smile

    Quote Originally Posted by terry57 View Post
    Shits me no end when I read a story about an innocent punter being ripped of by some scum bag dodgy company.

    Some people save for years to have a decent holiday and this sort of shit can be devastating.
    Like Gordon Brown promised a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty or UKs evcition of the inhabitants of Diego Garcia.For real scum of course Merdecock shite from Tit to bottom

  23. #23
    I am in Jail

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    That is the same company all those Paki's or Bangladeshi's, Indians got stitch up with a couple of weeks back, now they are doing it to intellegent people.

  24. #24

    R.I.P.


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    Quote Originally Posted by Sir Wilson
    I wouldn't book a European holiday from a Greek travel agent either.
    What about if you was in Greece?

  25. #25
    I am in Jail

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    Was It a Rotary booking, night in Pattaya, back to business? Whoops,,

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