Living Social travel deals beware

Blackburnb

I purchased a 3 night Berlin deal in February through Living Social and it got very messy. We hadn't received the details as outlined in 3 working days so we contacted living social who said someone would call us. We were called clearly from a call centre in India which kept cutting out which was frustrating to begin with. Then we were told that very differently from what was advertised it wasn't direct flights to Berlin but it was actually flights from Dublin - Cologne on to Berlin and from Berlin to Heathrow to Dublin leaving us with only about a day in Berlin. I obviously wasn't happy as this was not at all what was advertised and requested a refund. They were quite aggressive on the phone and said we couldn't get a refund because we had "confirmed" it on the phone. I hadn't confirmed anything because I was rinhing to get the details but they refused then tried to sell me all these extra's - up to €200 EXTRA to get direct flights. I went mad on the phone insisting on a refund and being refused very aggressively!! Couldn't get any good of them (secondary agent) and hung up to contact living social. Over about a week or two we had no response from living social whom I had contacted by phone, direct email and through the help section of their website. We had no response from Living social at all in regards to wanting a refund, not even an acknowledgement! . After doing more online digging (I know, I know, should have done this before I booked) it seemed some holidays did actually exist but most people had just cancelled and lost money after the cost rose astronomically (an extra £700 in some cases). Assuming we had lost money one way or the other we managed to get the company down to an extra €60 only for direct flights.

In the end, we were booked on real flights and there was a hotel booking for us (we contacted them directly to confirm) and we did have a nice time in Berlin.

BUT right up until we got the information to check-in 2 days before we really thought it was just a scam and we had just lost €420. We had decided to book something like this as a cheap, stress free break without all the planning but the stress of thinking we had been scammed and feeling so stupid for using living social in the first place really took the good out of the whole thing for us.

I had used living social many times for weekend breaks and goods etc and thought they were reputable. In the end, we paid an extra €60 (down from an extra €200) to get what was advertised and we lost the breakfast that was supposed to be included! I am most shocked that living social never contacted us to even discuss our wishes for a refund. They just ignored us!!

Will never, ever use Living Social again and I would warn anyone off. Even if, like me you have used them before and thought they were reputable because they aren't! Once they get their money theyou don't care

mloc123

Living social were sold off about a year ago. I am not sure who bought the European side of it, but this might explain why it didn't match your previous experience using them.

Blackburnb

mloc123 wrote: »

Living social were sold off about a year ago. I am not sure who bought the European side of it, but this might explain why it didn't match your previous experience using them.

That's good to know mloc123. Might explain the huge difference! Thanks for posting