2 days ago i made a reservation on booking.com for a penthouse in eilat. as stated in the site the payment will be when i arrive and the owner of the penthouse may hold a part of the amount to make sure that i will not cancel in the last minute or so.
yesterday i got a SMS that there was a problem with my credit card. i call the credit card company and they told me that there is no problem with my card and that the owner of the penthouse made a try to charge the card that also was successful but he told booking.com that there is a problem.
so i called booking.com and after a long talk i asked them how has my credit card been charged? have you done it or the owner and to my surprise they told me that they gave all my credit card information to the owner and he is the one that does the charge. i could not believe that they give my credit card info including full name, credit card number, date + CCV without me agreeing with it. i told them that there was nowhere stated that my card details will be given to the person i rent from. so they told me that it says that he can charge your card and "HOW CAN THAT HAPPEN IF HE HAS NOT MY DETAILS" so i told them there are 1000 ways to solve such a problem you could send him a link where he just clicks on it and adds the amount with seeing any details of my card and so on. they told me that he has limited access to this info so about few times he can click to see my details. what a stupid argument i said to them. i guess they have not heard about the PRINT SCREEN button on the keyboard or a pencil and paper.
i told them that i have not interpreted anything by myself like how he is going to charge me without getting my details it is your responsibility to tell me that by clicking on the ORDER button that i agree that my credit card details will be given to the owner of the penthouse.
then the customer guy told me haaaaaa i found here it is written that he gets my details, so i asked him where and this is what i showed me:
hebrew version:
(in hebrew it sounds worse)
i told him, do you understand what is written here? it just tells me as a customer what kind of payment the owner accepts and not that i agree to give him my credit card details!!
how unprofessional can such a big website be where they have lots of reservations every day.
after some searching i found that i am not the only one that is surprised:
www.tripadvisor.com
how can it be that they have no secure way to ensure the payment for reservation like giving a demo card to the owner where they have my card details secure and encrypted .
the customer guy also told me that you don't need to worry that he will do something with your details its like you are going shopping and buy with your card it is the same thing. and i answered it is not when i shop no one takes all my card details like CCV and also everything is done in front of me and i am also not saying that the owner will do something with my card but how is he going to store my details on his pc? in an excel file? on booking.com I guess everything is encrypted and secure but how would a private person store such sensitive data on his private pc at home??
really a bad way start my vacation
yesterday i got a SMS that there was a problem with my credit card. i call the credit card company and they told me that there is no problem with my card and that the owner of the penthouse made a try to charge the card that also was successful but he told booking.com that there is a problem.
so i called booking.com and after a long talk i asked them how has my credit card been charged? have you done it or the owner and to my surprise they told me that they gave all my credit card information to the owner and he is the one that does the charge. i could not believe that they give my credit card info including full name, credit card number, date + CCV without me agreeing with it. i told them that there was nowhere stated that my card details will be given to the person i rent from. so they told me that it says that he can charge your card and "HOW CAN THAT HAPPEN IF HE HAS NOT MY DETAILS" so i told them there are 1000 ways to solve such a problem you could send him a link where he just clicks on it and adds the amount with seeing any details of my card and so on. they told me that he has limited access to this info so about few times he can click to see my details. what a stupid argument i said to them. i guess they have not heard about the PRINT SCREEN button on the keyboard or a pencil and paper.
i told them that i have not interpreted anything by myself like how he is going to charge me without getting my details it is your responsibility to tell me that by clicking on the ORDER button that i agree that my credit card details will be given to the owner of the penthouse.
then the customer guy told me haaaaaa i found here it is written that he gets my details, so i asked him where and this is what i showed me:
hebrew version:
(in hebrew it sounds worse)
i told him, do you understand what is written here? it just tells me as a customer what kind of payment the owner accepts and not that i agree to give him my credit card details!!
how unprofessional can such a big website be where they have lots of reservations every day.
after some searching i found that i am not the only one that is surprised:
booking.com and credit card security - Holiday Travel Forum - Tripadvisor
Answer 1 of 76: Looking at booking.com FAQ on credit cards, you get a plain answer on the question;"Are my credit card details safe?" http://www.booking.com/faq.en-gb.html?label=opensearch-plugin;sid=569c92ef4b8e46f7fd5990f994d12823 You understand that...
how can it be that they have no secure way to ensure the payment for reservation like giving a demo card to the owner where they have my card details secure and encrypted .
the customer guy also told me that you don't need to worry that he will do something with your details its like you are going shopping and buy with your card it is the same thing. and i answered it is not when i shop no one takes all my card details like CCV and also everything is done in front of me and i am also not saying that the owner will do something with my card but how is he going to store my details on his pc? in an excel file? on booking.com I guess everything is encrypted and secure but how would a private person store such sensitive data on his private pc at home??
really a bad way start my vacation
