Complaint Review: Homeaway.com - Austin Select State/Province

 HOMEAWAY.COM, VBRO.COM, VACATIONRENTALS.COM, HOMEAWAY.SE, HOMEAWAY.CO.UK and all their international websites they have bought is a COMPLETE SCAM in my opinion. We were both owners and renters. We rented once and that is how we found out about these websites that are all owned by  Brian Sharples and Carl Shepherd out of Austin Texas.

The pictures were a complete FRAUD, the location of the housing were a complete Scam and we were routed to a different website when we asked for refund. As it turns out mangers and other vacation rental companies list with this company. They list a beautiful home with great pictures in a very affluent location but when you write them, they say this home is occupied for your dates then they send you to a different listing like hellorelaxation90210.com. They will say that a home is located in Bel Air when it reality it is located in West Hollywood and then you get routed to their website, homeaway.com is VERY much aware of this problem but refuses to remove them because this company has around 20 listings with them which are all paid on a yearly bases so they value money over honesty and integrity of the listings.

As owners homeaway.com charged us $999 for a yearly membership and another $299.00 for a global bundle, they promised us that our listing would be on the top of their site lest say between number 1-3 and we would be a featured listing for the year so as soon as a traveler clicks on the location they would see us on top of the page. the entire scam ripped us off from our monies and we were on the bottom 4-5 listing and didn't pull up as featured listing picture on top unless a traveler clicked on the photos multiple times. Homeaway.com AKA VBRO.com told us that we had to enroll in their payment plan which would charge us fees and act as a credit card company and our bank for checks coming through if we wanted to be pulled up higher. Wait you just sold us this expensive plan and now you want to come between my home and the traveler's payment to me on top of it? Hence they lied to us.

When we called their costumer service, we were put on hold for over 20 minutes, and then were told a manger would call us back when we confronted them and demanded to know why they charged us for a service they did NOT provide. We told them that this was consumer FRAUD, switch and bait and advertising deception and that we would report them to BBB and FTC as well as the state attorney's office because the costumer service was RUDE, NASTY, INEPT and REFUSED to help us.

Instead of a manger calling us back we got an e-mail from a "Chris" from their security dept., saying they had LOCKED our account and there would be NO REFUND and to have our lawyers call them. WE called back but they hung up on us about 10-15 times.

Further, when we were enrolled for a short time, any travelers without A VERIFIED profile would write us, NO e-mail address required, NO phone number required NO picture profile required. Hence any joe, d**k and harry could write us without any verification asking if our home was EMPTY and when can they come to see it, which means any criminal now can have access to your home. Homeaway.com AKA VBRO.com does NOT even keep an IP address of the person who inquires so that if you are a victim of a crime, you can get their info for the police.

Finally when we did enroll for the short time, they demanded copies of our passport, home deeds, tax bills, utility bills, wait tax papers are NOT even discoverable under the law in a court room, and your NOT allowed to make copies of passports or driving licenses. These paper work that opens you to ID theft is sent to their security dept., the same dept. where they hang up the phone on you and won't help you and act as if they have an IQ of a 10 year old. Very nice trusting them with your personal info that will expose you to identity theft for ever.

HOME OWNERS BE AWARE, DO NOT LIST WITH HOMEAWAY.COM, VBRO.COM OR VACATIONRENTALS.COM and any of their international websites, they are a COMPLETE FRAUD AND SCAM in our opinion and NOT worth paying them outrages monies with their disgusting costumer rep services and security dept. that can steal your info and steal your money without a REFUND.

We wrote them and demanded their legal dept. info but they refused and instead a “chris” from the security dept. wrote us saying they would NOT talk to us, they would NOT refund us and to have our lawyers write them.

Perfect costumer service after stealing our $1300 right?

Some one should sue these people in a class action lawsuit for consumer FRAUD and deceptive advertising. They guarantee you $60,000 a year, but what they fail to tell you is that you are guaranteed $1300 rip off and horrific costumer service. SAVE your money and try airbnb or other like them which do NOT require any payments up front and VERIFY the travelers. By the way homeaway.com AKA VBRO.com also offered a 15% commission out of our fees but we were NOT approved because their “security” dept. was so INEPT that they couldn’t even verify our real address of where we have been living for the past 20 years of our lives! Great Job homeaway.com, AKA VBRO.com and Vacationrentals.com and all your other websites you bought to RIP OFF CONSUMERS. I hope some district attorneys office prosecute these people soon for consumer fraud, switch and bait tactics and deceptive advertising! May you all choke on our monies you STOLE from US!

STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY AND ANY OF THEIR OTHER ENTITIES AS A TRAVELER AND AS A OWNER!