Does VRBO have the worst customer service in the industry? VRBO sucks
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VRBO is expensive. I spent $600 to place an ad with them last year and after 7 days, the ad was still not approved. They have no customer support phone number, they don’t provide updates on support tickets and they just plan don’t communicate at all with their customers. The CEO of Homeaway is a complete buffoon having spent all this money buying all of these companies, he’ll just lose market share are companies with better customer service and better business models slowly eat away at his market share.
Back to my story, so last year I ended up telling them to cancel my ad and refund my money. They actually did that, after 10 days of waiting. I promptly took that money and spent it at one of their competitors. I thought I would try again this year. On Sunday I posted a beautiful add and again paid them $600.00. Today it’s Wednesday and guess what? The listing is still pending and no one answers my customer service inquiries.
Tomorrow I can going to process a chargeback against VRBO for the full amount. Once again they will lose my business and they’ll also get charged a chargeback fee.
And now they have this negative blog post as well. I just can’t fathom why a company would treat their customers this way. There are so many great competitors out there…you can spend $600.00 at a multitude of 2nd tier sites like this site, vacationrental4s11, flipkey, vacationsfrbo, etc.. If you are in florida vacationrentalhotspots or vacationrealty…and get similar results as vrbo and be treated a hell of a lot better.
Not only that, they expect me to pay for my listing while it’s in a “pending” state? I got news for them, that sh*t doesn’t fly around here. We treat our customers with respect!!!
May 28th, 2010 at 1:09 am
I had similar problems with VRBO. First they denied my website link because they said it had nothing to do with my listing! Click on it! My listing # 302721 and the website are IDENTICAL! As of this date May 28, 2010 the listing is still on VRBO. They also reassigned my house as an “Apartment” when it is so obviously a huge French stone house! They wont change that either. I had to put my owners info in three times as VRBO deleted it! There was nothing wrong with it…..just poof! Gone. I sent them multiple emails, all unanswered. I called….the woman I spoke to “couldn’t do anything” really! All she COULD do was take my money. I emailed them to remove my listing immediately….no answer. I finally fled a complaint and refused charges on my credit card. These morons must be smoking crack! I have never experienced such a TOTAL lack of regard for customers. Customer service just isn’t BAD it’s NONEXISTANT!
June 14th, 2010 at 7:27 am
I was a customer of VRBO for over eight years. They have no customer support or service. If you post your email with them or phone number you will get hundreds of spam and phone calls in the middle of the night. You will get email from every rental scam out there. Your money will be better spent going with several of the smaller vacaton rental sites.
July 21st, 2010 at 10:26 pm
These people are thieves. DO NOT SPEND YOUR MONEY WITH THEM. If this industry was regulated by any government agency, they’d all be in jail.
September 2nd, 2010 at 7:33 pm
they allow scammers to publish all over there site and when they are told about the scam they’re say we’re sorry, come back soon. I hate VRBO. yea, you get a good deal here or there but then you get screwed and ALL of your great savings are washed away. Im gone VRBO until you clean your act up - and your site and your customer services. Man am i pissed!!
October 18th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
I’m an owner with my house listed on VRBO for two years. I just had a similar experience. NO customer service. Which prompted me to look at other companies. Yes, I found others with actual people I could talk to (findrentals.com) and much nicer UI’s with better prices (tripadvisor.com). My contract’s up with VRBO in January. I’ll be done with them. But I’m sure they don’t care about one guy leaving.
If you haven’t already, you might filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Here’s the link: https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/getstarted.aspx
The address for VRBO is (you’ll need this for your complaint): 1011 W. Fifth Street, #300 Austin, TX 78703