Complaint Review: Reservation Counter

I made hotel reservations thinking I was making them with the hotel directly.  Our plans changed and I tried to cancel the reservation.  I started with the hotel before the cutoff time  and that's when I found out that we actually went through Reservation Counter.  When I called to cancel the reservation, it was 15 minutes past the cutoff time.  Reservation Counter (RC) said they would need to get manager approval to refund our money. However, there wasn't a manager on duty on Saturday and we had to wait until Monday. At that time, I knew we were getting ripped off.  I called RC today and they lied to me. They said they talked to the hotel manager and she refused to refund our money.  When I talked to the hotel, they said that RC hung up on them.  We were not able to talk to the manager of the hotel and RC refused to refund anything. We have since filed a dispute for the charge with our credit card company and should receive a refund.

From now on, I'm calling the hotel directly to make reservations.  These third-party reservation systems stink and are nothing but a ripoff.