Terrible customer service. We booked a villa in Madeira which was cockroach-infested (amongst other issues.) We spoke directly to the agent and were promised a refund and he persuaded us that there was no need to go through Home Away. We booked into a hotel. Not what we wanted for our holiday but the best that could be done under the circumstances. Of course, the promised refund then never materialised, and the agent claims that he never offered it. In spite of our providing evidence of all this, Home Away say they cannot act against him because we didn't get the promise of a refund in writing. We are not covered by their guarantee either because we didn't go through them when we had the problem. They appear incapable of understanding that this was purely because the agent was so reasonable and apologetic and appeared happy to sort it out with us directly and this persuaded us away from notifying Home Away - but of course the refund didn't arrive. This must be perfectly acceptable behaviour on his part as far as Home Away are concerned, as they refuse to do anything about it. We are significantly out of pocket and Home Away's customer service appear totally unable to understand the problem or even to read the evidence we have submitted to them properly.