Why did refund go to US account?

L.P. writes: Hotels.com promised us a refund for a hotel booking, but we have received nothing, even after many emails. I have called many times, speaking to a different person each time. It keeps saying it will return my calls, but no luck there either.

YOU were supposed to go on a cruise starting from Barbados, but because of the pandemic the cruise company cancelled the trip, and flight restrictions meant you could not get to Barbados anyway. This left you with a pointless hotel booking.

Hotels.com agreed in writing to refund $1,007 (£775), but where was the money? Staff told me the refund was made in June last year, but your bank and credit card statements revealed nothing. Hotels.com then told me it had emailed you details, but you received no email either.

It turned out your wife had misspelt part of her email address ages ago as ‘intetnet’ instead of ‘internet’ and that Hotels.com had not spotted or corrected this.

The final, strange explanation turned out to be that you have a dormant bank account in the US. The refund had gone there and, as the account was inactive, the bank had sent a cheque to you at an address in the US. A final twist was that the refund came from something called ‘Cheaptix’, so was never connected to Hotels.com in anyone’s mind.

Hotels.com is unable to explain who or what Cheaptix is, or why its refund carried that name.