Janine M.

Rented a great place in Ocean City, NJ. Best vacation in years, but my feelings of contentment and relaxation quickly evaporated when it came time for my security deposit to be given back to me. The lease stated the money would be returned 14 days after our vacation ended. Waited patiently but on the 19th day decided to call HomeAway. Customer Service at HomeAway must be outsourced overseas because everyone I spoke with had a thick accent and it was evident that English was a their second language. Nothing wrong with that as long as the reps are efficient and good problem solvers (like Amazon!). Unfortunately, that was NOT my experience. Not only did I have to "dumb" down the reason for my call multiple times, but I ultimately discovered that every rep I spoke with was operating with different timelines for security deposit returns. The first rep, MJ, said my money would be returned in 7 to 10 business days because of an "owner" error. An email from the owner indicated that he was not at fault so I decided to call HA a second time to see if they could speed up the refund since the error was theirs. The second rep I spoke with, Nico, never returned to the phone with an answer, which then resulted in my third call to HA. Cherry explained that my money had just gone out to my bank and that it would be deposited at the close of business. When the money didn't show up, I called for a fourth time and asked for a supervisor. Mr. "Lou K" told me that ALL of the info I'd be given previously was incorrect and he'd have to look into my particular situation. Just received a message from Mr. Lou and apparently, I "might" get my money on Monday or Tuesday of next week. Thank goodness it's only $200! What a disorganized place HA appears to be! No one seems to have been trained adequately and no one can resolve my issue. For this I paid $156 administrative fee? Lesson learned, from here on out I won't be paying for things like this with anything other than American Express! At lease AE will credit your fees until the problem is resolved... and oh, yeah, never again booking a vacation rental through HA... because they truly don't know what they're doing!