GetTransfer is taking me for a ride

As I will need to collect my car from a garage in a few days’ time, I decided I really must try to use up this balance and I scheduled a journey of 29 miles to Mere in Wiltshire from Bath today.

I have had one offer from a Skoda cab driver of £589, which is ridiculous in the extreme. A local cab firm would ask £73 for this journey.

Can you help me get this money back?

Jill replies

GetTransfer is a Cyprus-based company which organises taxi rides with local firms around the world. I asked it to return your £270 and on the same day it said it had identified your account and issued a full refund. Despite this — and my chasing the company on many occasions — you have never received the money.

Readers tempted to book a ride via GetTransfer should check its reviews on Tripadvisor and Trustpilot. “This is the worst company ever! Do not use! If I could give a 0 rating I would,” said one customer on Tripadvisor. Another who posted on Trustpilot this month said: “My pre-booked taxi, which I had rechecked would be there a few days beforehand, never turned up. The driver never responded, the GetTransfer support did not respond. I still haven’t had a refund four weeks later. Feels like a scam.”

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It seems that the taxi firms booked by GetTransfer are also having problems with the company. One on Trustpilot said: “Very bad company to work with. I’m still waiting for my payment — it’s been over a year.” Another, who was complaining about issues with payment since 2022, said: “GetTransfer has contacted me. [It is] saying to wait till March 2025 because at this moment [it has] low cash flow…”

Of the 8,173 reviews on Trustpilot, 53 per cent have given the company just one star while a surprisingly high 40 per cent gave the full five stars. Trustpilot has put a note at the top of the page saying: “We have detected and removed a number of fake reviews for this company. If we find additional fake reviews on this profile, we’ll remove those too. If you believe a review is fake, you can flag it.”

In the latest collection of reviews about GetTransfer on Tripadvisor some 242 customers out of 256 give the company one star. One of the eight who gave five stars said: “Excellent service. On time, immaculate car, polite and friendly driver. Cannot fault any part of my experience so surprised at the many other negative experiences. Maybe I got lucky.”

Come on, Booking.com, back me up

My wife and I went on a month-long trip to Jordan in April and arranged all our hotels through Booking.com in February, all booked as “pay on arrival”. One charged us in full at £250 on February 21 although our stay was for April 21.

I messaged the hotel via Booking.com pointing out the error and it replied that it had not made a charge. I messaged back saying that it had charged me and asking for a refund. The hotel eventually admitted that it had charged me but refused a refund and said I had insulted them. I persevered and the hotel’s replies became very angry and rude, saying it would take legal action against me. At this point, my wife and I feared for our safety and decided that we couldn’t stay at the hotel.

I contacted Booking.com directly and explained that I had received threatening messages from the hotel and did not want to stay there. The representative read the messages and agreed they were unacceptable. I received a very supportive email from her saying that she was sorry for the inconvenience and that Booking.com had “got my back”. I was relieved to get another email saying it would refund me in full. The service was amazing.

I then booked alternative accommodation through Booking.com which cost a bit more but we were happy to do this.

Our trip went well but after our return, the first hotel unexpectedly charged £242 to my credit card. They had obviously kept my credit card details. I immediately called my bank but it said it could not stop it and I could not make a chargeback. They told me I had to contact Booking.com, which I did and that’s where things started getting bizarre.

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The agent I spoke to said that the hotel was correct to make the charge because we were marked as a “no-show”. I explained that I had been refunded and booked alternative accommodation through Booking.com but he wasn’t budging. I thought I had maybe caught an agent on a grumpy day so tried again a few days later. I struck lucky. This representative apologised and said Booking.com would refund me in full. No refund arrived. I have made numerous phone calls since then and they just repeat that it was a no-show. They sent an email saying there was no written proof that Booking.com had advised me to book another hotel so would not refund me.

All the Booking.com messages to and from the hotel and with Booking.com customer services have now mysteriously disappeared. I have asked Booking.com how I can view them to send the proof but it won’t reply.

I suspect it is thinking of the initial refund to me as a “temporary” refund because the hotel charged me early. What annoys me even more is that Booking.com has earned commission from the hotel and the alternative accommodation we booked.

Booking.com appears to have punished the hotel because it sent me an angry, rude message via WhatsApp demanding 600 Jordanian dinar to compensate for it being suspended by Booking.com for two weeks. The hotel says if I don’t pay immediately it will increase the amount to 2,000 dinar and take legal action against us. I sent this WhatsApp to Booking.com but it didn’t respond and the hotel is still listed on the site.

We are a retired couple who constantly travel and have used Booking.com for years. Not any more.

If you think there is any way you can help, I would really appreciate it.

Jill replies

I can’t judge whether the initial emails from the hotel were aggressive as they were no longer visible on the Booking.com website and you couldn’t forward them to me. I asked Booking.com for its opinion, but it failed to comment. You were, however, able to forward the email from Booking.com’s customer service team which apologised for the “inconvenience” and said it would ask the hotel to refund you. Telling the booking agent that you can’t stay at a hotel because you don’t feel safe seems like a pretty firm cancellation to me, but this email makes no mention of cancelling the room you had booked. I suspect you are correct in thinking it regarded the refund as a temporary measure and failed to inform the hotel that you wanted to cancel your booking.

You were able to send me the WhatsApp message you had from the hotel, in which it demanded a payment of 600 dinar because its Booking.com account had been suspended for 14 days, so someone at Booking.com clearly took your complaint seriously. The message is politely phrased, but does threaten you with legal action if you don’t pay up.

I asked Booking.com to stop the hotel from sending you threatening messages, and to refund the £242 taken from your credit card. It did, but pointed out that your contractual relationship is with the hotel — Booking.com is just an intermediary and if the hotel does take legal action against you it advised you to contact your lawyer. So much for having your back.

You said: “Thank you so much for your very quick help with this. I have blocked the hotel from WhatsApp and cancelled the credit card it used to make the extra charge so I think I’m safe now.

“I asked Booking.com if I could post a review warning people of what happened to me. The answer was no. I do hope others aren’t caught in the same trap as us.”

British Gas took months to tell me what meter I needed

I signed up to British Gas Electric Driver V5, a dual rate tariff, in March but still don’t have a meter that can manage the dual electricity rates, nor any indication from British Gas as to when I may get one.

I have called the company at least five times, each time being told that it is in hand. At the end of June British Gas did manage to send me the first electricity bill for up to the start of May, but all units were charged at the higher tariff. Bearing in mind that I have been charging my electric car since mid-March, British Gas’s service has been dire if not non-existent.

I feel other prospective customers need to be warned what they could be in for if they move to British Gas. Please can you help resolve my problem?

Jill replies

I asked British Gas to provide you with a new meter able to cope with your dual rate tariff or to release you from your contract. I also asked it to calculate how much electricity you used that should have been at the lower rate and to reduce your bills by the appropriate amount.

British Gas told me that you only needed normal smart meters, not dual rate meters, which were finally installed in September. It apologised for not doing this sooner, and has credited £375 to your account.