Carolyn C.

A month after National Animal Hospital said in an email that it would upgrade my shipment, it has not arrived and NAH does not respond to my multiple emails and phone calls. My credit card company tells me it may take up to 60 days for me to receive a refund of $150.80.

I will never do business with NAH again.

Total Dissatisfaction. Why Destroy a Once Great Company?

I have been with HomeAway for 16 years. You were a leader in the business when I joined, I soon learned. You brought more bookings than We Need a Vacation and TripAdvisor. Consequently, I dropped those rental companies to work solely with HomeAway. Now you are changing everything that was good about HomeAway.

I recently looked at a Website (Sitejabber) with 949 reviews of HomeAway. More than 800 reviews were negative. Those writers have the same complaints I do. With such a drop in people's estimation of HomeAway, I would think you would be trying to court us, your customers, instead of driving us away. I am appalled by your lack of loyalty to all your clients and me.

For years I was a homeowner who originally advertised two houses on HomeAway. You allowed me to communicate with my prospective tenants by phone and e-mail. I answered their questions, explained the lease and the house rules. They understood I am a hands-on homeowner who wants to maintain a lovely home. They read the excellent reviews my two houses, Nantucket and I have received from my guests. Now you want me to allow people to live in my house without my interviewing them over the phone. NEVER. Writing only e-mails to prospective tenants does not get the same timely or complete results as a telephone call.

You charged no fees until recently. Now each person who books on-line is charged a service fee. Why? I have already paid you a hefty yearly subscription amount. Additionally, I don't think you are honest because prospective tenants tell me they do not know you are charging them a percent of the rental, in my case $200-$300.

Your ads are new. The pop-up ads I see much too frequently now interfere with my editing my site. They cover part of the page I am looking at. FRUSTRATING ADS. DO AWAY WITH THE ADS. There seems to be a lot of HomeAway money grabbing now, what with service fees and these ads. Distasteful. Nantucket's rental rates are already high enough. I don't want possible renters to compare my Nantucket rates to mainland rates which are considerably lower and then go elsewhere, feeling I am overcharging them.

I have called family-run We Need a Vacation, which charges no service fees, and TripAdvisor to inquire about their policies. Each has retained all my rental and personal information. All I have to do is update my photos, which I need to do anyway because I have just finished renovating my house, and pay them a yearly fee, which is much less than yours.

So I am thinking seriously of leaving HomeAway unless you learn we clients are not going to be pushed around. I will stay with HomeAway only if you come to your senses, allow me immediate access to all my prospective tenants' e-mails and their telephone numbers, remove your incessant ads, and stop charging service fees. Then you will become the great company you once were.

Your decision determines what I do: stay or move on to other Internet home-rental sites. Please advise.

Thank you,
Carolyn Crowley

Note: HomeAway has responded to my letter. It is making no changes. I will leave HomeAway at the end of this season. I will not be bullied into following their new rental policies.