“Buenas tardes, quiero comentar que he tenido una mala experiencia de gestión de parte de el proceso de contratación de una habitación en Santiago de Compostela a través de su página. Hice la reserva, efectué el pago a través de su página y no dieron con la habitación indicada. Ahora solicito la devolución del pago de la habitación que hice. Lo he solicitado pero no tengo respuestas, solamente correos automatizados que me ofrecen alternativas. Mi código de reserva es el siguiente. ID #902592. Solicito la devolución inmediata”
“Annulation à cause d'un stage annulé (dû au covid) et aucune compatissance, 450€ de réservation du premier mois + 450€ de "caution" + 39€ de compte premium non remboursé (total 939€) alors qu'ils vont relouer les chambres après, ils n'ont aucune pitié pour les étudiants. Une caution est censée se rendre quand il n'y a pas de dégâts, là je m'attendais à au moins récupérer celle ci, mais non rien du tout, et la propriétaire me dit qu'elle perd plus que moi alors qu'elle récupère mes 900 euros sans me loger. Je n'ai jamais vu ça, c'est inadmissible je ne recommande absolument pas !”
“Terrible service.
1. The website does not let you change your email address
2. They provide no refund, even though their software is problematic
3. I paid 35 euros for a listing, that nobody can email me about it and they refuse to refund me
4. Very slow response time
Get your act together.”
“This is an odd but highly stressful situation where my landlord could not kick out his previous tenant before my arrival. He failed to inform me knowing that he still had time to inform me the situation before my arrival. He did not pick up his phone nor texts promptly. However, he did offer me to stay in his flat. I stayed in his flat for 2 weeks, hoping that I would be able to move-into the the accommodation I have booked. The issue was not resolved and it is not likely that the landlord will give me a refund, especially not after he told me that he'd need me to pay for the whole month. Erasmusu did not offer help as a moderator, the matter was not taken care of immediately. Not only did I lose the agency fee that did not serve the purpose, but also 790 euro of rent for a tiny room that I stayed for two weeks (but not the accommodation I booked for itself). I will not be using this platform to book for accommodation in the future and I will not recommend this platform either.”
“They even try to take advantage of people now during this pandemic where borders are closed, flights canceled, plans are falling through, etc. Everyone is repaying clients, except of course Erasmusu who tells you to just postpone your trip! WTF, we are talking about? Repay people their money, you scammers!!!!”
“They Dont follow the rules. They say they will refund if the landlord agree with that. But even tho the landlord agree with it they dont give the money back.
FOR YOUR OWN SAKE STAY AWAY FROM THEM.
But i am sure of one thing. This company maybe kept alive for this time, but your days to get to an end are counted. Worst of luck to you all but most SPECIFIC TO YOU........ EMILIO NIC.”
“Avoid, please...
I have to warn all of you despite all the good reviews that they have on trust pilot that this is the worst ever rental company. I guess that unless you have any sort of issue with your reservation they are fine in the terms of their customer support etc. as being nice with the clients...but once you have to rely on them to sort of complicity they are a nightmare. The level of irresponsibility and their stupidness is of the highest quality.
There are so many other good rental middleman companies that you can use in these days...”
“Do not book there - they scam people! And delete reviews!
I booked a room and shortly after that I got a notification, that this room is actually not available. I asked for the money I already paid, but did not receive an answer. Instead of the refund they gave me another room and shortly after (!) the booking I received a message, that I need to pay monthly bills (90€) extra (!), which where not mentioned on the website. I cancelled within 24 hours (like they write in their terms and conditions). They wont pay me my money back. I needed to contact lawyers, my bank and different commissions. Furthermore I reported the case to the police department. Now I am waiting for the result of this process. I informed my university in my home-country and hope, that people wont get scammed anymore.”
“It’s a very insecure service.
Moving to Turin, I needed a place in emergency so I booked a room, but I failed to see it was a shared room because information is poorly displayed.
The landlord didn’t answer so I couldn’t move in.
They take your money right away without even getting in touch with the landlord. So now I’ve been in Airbnb for a week, unable to get the 309€ I payed them back.
Avoid if possible.”
“Erasmusu is trying to remove my review on other websites, so I will write it again here.
This is an absolutely horrible company, trying to scam you by making up their own rules and hoping you fall for it.
After I made (and payed) my booking via Erasmusu, the landlord cancelled. Erasmusu refused to give my money back because they stated that i violated their terms and agreement by giving my email adress, which I gave AFTER I already payed them. If the landlord had confirmed, nothing would have been wrong but now he cancelled, they refused to give my money back.
It took me a lot of emails and contact with a lawyer to get at least the rent I payed back, but they are still trying to keep an administration fee. That is not only annoying, rude and in violated with their own terms, but also absolutely unlawful. I will continue to work to get my remaining money back, because these practices have to be stopped.
I recommend NOT to work with them and if they do try to scam you, do not give up too easily and inform the competent authorities about it.
Note: the booking was cancelled, Erasmusu decided to confirm it themselves after it was cancelled and without my permission.”
“Even ex-employees admit that this website is a scam and doesn't care about the law (as seen in Glassdoor reviews) :
they scam people... Since I stopped working for them I got so many messages of people that are super angry with me! the reservation got canceled and they never received any money... Also; they ask people to put positive reviews on Glassdoor so never believe the 5/5 comments; these are comments from themself ;) Watch out from snow white aka blanca.
There is no challenge and nothing interesting for someone who is looking for commercial. They ll ask you impossible target every day and increase the number everyday because nobody achieve nothing. But if you don't achieve it doesn't matter because nobody stay there. The salary is minimum and the management team has no experience. The company only use free tools and tell you "doesn't matter about legal rules".”
“This company is just a big fraud! They keep deleting my review from Trustpilot, as they do with all negative reviews. And then I get shitty answers like this one :
Erasmusu's reason for reporting
Good morning Danielle,
We have been checking your case and indeed your booking has been confirmed and indeed every step of the confirmation of the booking has been informed to you. (Yes indeed, until the booking was confirmed and till they got my money they were very responsive, once they had it and problems occurred not so much though anymore)
The bookings trough Erasmusu are safe as we keep your payment until you confirm your arrival or sign the contract and the profiles have been verified by us. (They are not safe and the verification is just a lie, which they even tell you themselves in their terms and conditions were it clearly states: The Company assumes no responsibility whatsoever regarding the verification of the identities of the Accommodation Provider. So straight up lie.)
Also, the 2 months deposit was written in the advertisement, as it's up to the landlord to ask for it and we provide this information before the booking has been done. (True, and paying a deposit is pretty common when renting a place BUT not when the owner demands you to pay this before signing the contract or even having seen the place. That is just a clear sign of a Scam)
Everything was alright with your booking and the accommodation was there waiting for your check-in so we didn't really understand why you didn't want to start your stay. (Absolutely not! The owner pressured me to pay him 1200 euros upfront without having signed a contract, that is not normal at all. So no the accommodation wasn't there waiting for me, I doubt this place even exists)
The owner is verified and we have been working with him for a long time. All owners ask for a deposit because the payment of Erasmusu is sent after the arrival of the student. The owner has the right to request it and Erasmusu has reassured you when you asked for advice.(again just straight up lies. First because as I said before their Terms of Use say the opposite. Second the owner didn't even trust you either and told me it was his first time working with their platform. Third, if he is such a long time and trustworthy client of theirs, how come they removed his advert from their website till this day? Fourth, no advice was given to me, they didn't even reply to my mails anymore once they had my money and once I got an answer it was not a helpful advice but just blaming and shaming me and accusing me of scheming with the owner somehow...)
According to the Terms of Use that you have read and accepted before booking, it is stated that: once confirmed, the booking is not refundable unless the owner accepts the cancellation. (Which he did and even showed me, but you still refused to repay me) In the last case, Eramsusu can proceed with the refund of the rent of the first month, but the Service Fee is not refundable.
However, Eramsusu understood that you had great doubts about the functioning of the page and you probably found another accommodation that you referred to. For this reason, and since the only intention of Eramsusu is to help, Eramsusu proceeded with a full refund for you, even if the system would not allow it. (I am forever grateful that you allowed me to get my OWN money back for a service that I did not receive, what heroes you are indeed)
After receiving this courtesy from Eramsusu, we regret to read these words, in fact, we helped you in every single step. (NO YOU DID NOT! and I doubt you ever do)”
“Total rip-off! Only seem helpful until they get your money, after that you are on your own. Anything that goes wrong once you paid them, they won't care at all. None of their Landlords are verified. Some might be honest and good people, but you have NO guarantee at all. If you are unlucky you will run into trouble once you get in touch with the landlord and Erasmusu won't help you with that at all. They don't care since they already have their money and refuse to give it back to you. SCAM!”
“(The following review I wrote it on Trustpilot which was deleted by the erasmusu team. Please do read carefully.)
Apparent illegal actions
I booked a nice room in a house in Varna. It was exactly what we needed for my brother who was moving there to study. Everything was ok until the landlord picked him up from the airport and told him "You know what they have made a mistake on the site and have used a different address close to your university but the house is actually more than 30 km from the university.". Hence, my brother never moved in that house. First of all, I searched I didn't even find any buses to the university.
First of all, here we have a very well prepared scam. The flat was booked by my brother and I did not have a look at it before hand. On the date my brother booked the room there was this title "House for rent in General Kantardjievo village, around 10km. from the sea resort Albena.". Now that I visited the web site there is this title "House for rent in General Kantardjievo village, around 10km. from the sea resort Albena and 34 km. from the center of Varna.". Of course, the company will try to justify themselves by saying that the title was the same. However, my payment receipt proves me right. Me and my brother have never been in Varna before so we have no idea where the resort Albena is. And I guess no new student that has never been in the country has any idea. So we relied on the address which was the following Address: ул. „Михаил Колони“ 1, 9000 Варна Център, Варна, България as well as the map that showed the house really close to the university. Of course they did not bother to change the address, why would they.
According to the law, this is false information which is considered a feud when money is involved.
But the story does not end here. It has been a week that I am trying to contact the company and they keep ignoring me. So obviously, this is not a case of a exhaustively busy company providing bad services to one of the costumers, which is understandable and happens. This is clearly a case of a company that provides false information in order to scam a buyer, receives the money and when the buyer gets back to the company to demand their money back they disappear.
About 5 minutes ago, just by chance the help centre replied (probably because I was not logged in my brother's account). I wrote that they keep ignoring me and that I need to cancel a booking. So what happened? Some Rubben send me an e-mail of some Alessandra (the one who was responsible for our booking and her e-mail is no where in our e-mails) and he said I would have to contact her. Not to my surprise, I did not even manage to copy paste the e-mail since once he sent it after 20 to 30 seconds all the messages in the help centre were deleted as if it was magic.
So this is a complete feud I lost 239 euros from no where.
No there are two possibilities. 1. either the company will reply to this with justifications of a person who is trained to scam or 2. they will delete this review claiming it as an offensive content with abusive language (as they have done already with other reviews).
Thank you in advance Erasmusu,
Miss P
(their response to my review was as follows)
Good afternoon,
We kindly remind you that erasmusu has the right to report every review which attempts against the terms and conditions of this platform and our name as a company, especially with strongly defamatory statements as found in this review.
We are sorry to read your words, but we would like to clarify some points:
The address in the ad has not been changed and the title shows clearly the distance to an important spot in the city. Of course it is understandable that the student is not familiar with the city, but there are tools to help himself with that and virtual maps, alongside with our private message chat in which the accommodation provider can be contacted prior to the booking to have all the important information.
The system has received a big amount of emails from you and that is why these have been blocked or categorized as spam. However, my colleagues in charge will contact you to help in this matter.
Thank you very much for your understanding.
Best regards,
The erasmusu team
(First of all, I have to make it clear. I waited a good of three days to get a response from the first e-mail I sent. So there is no chance that all of my e-mails showed up in the spam folder simply because I patiently waited before bombarding them with e-mails. Why the rest of the excuses do not make sense is clear in the discussion below. When I read their response I clearly died laughing because I expected that they would present some silly argument to contradict the actual truth. I so much expected that they would try to blame me for their unprofessional actions. So after they deleted my review and responded that Alessandra who is supposed to be responsible for my booking e-mailed me.)
Good morning,
This is Alessandra from Eramsusu.com I'mmin charge of your booking.
It seems you are not happy because of the address of the accommodation, please check in the ad the location and the address.
Dear Peter,
Could you kindly confirm the correct address is:
ул. „Михаил Колони“ 1, 9000 Варна Център, Варна, България
Best,
(my response to this was once again a whole text basically telling them that their arguments do not make any sense at all.)
Dear Alessandra,
Thank you for your e-mail, finally. It is never too late, they say.
I kindly ask you to check where you have pinned the address on Google maps which is also under the property's advertisement.
Also as you very well state in the title of the advertisement, the house is located in General Kantardjievo whose postcode is 9150 (I just searched for it). Interestingly it is not 9000 as you state in the address details? So, you apparently know the house is in General Kantardjievo but you ask the landlord to verify an address with a different postcode? Could you please explain how can this make sense?
At this point I should kindly inform you that it is my legal right to get the reimbursement since I invested in a property with false details provided to me. Furthermore, the company has been extremely unprofessional so far. I have to inform you that a series of events such as avoidance of communication with the costumer, not providing direct helpline contact details after you get money for your services can be considered a feud attempt which therefore implies that the sum of the company's actions in this case can be judged as illegal. On the top of that, I find it purely unethical to do everything possible to justify your company's mistakes in order to avoid a costumer's reimbursement rather than check carefully the information you provide to them.
To recapitulate, your are exempted of any charge when the resulted incident is provoked by the buyer. When the details you provide about the product you sell do not correspond to the actual product you are obliged to pay back the amount of money you receive. False information in this case is particularly apparent and I have additional proof from the documents I have collected so far. Hence, I once again ask to get paid back the amount of 239 euros I paid for false services.
Kind regards,
M P
(so apparently they try to cover their illegal actions trying to put the blame on me)”
“False advertisement!
So you think you're booking a verified apartment, because yes, the advertisement says so. Sorry to disappoint you... because when reading their Terms and Conditions about apartment bookings, you will notice that it says "We do not endorse, support or warrant the truthfulness, accuracy or reliability of the information that appears in the adverts (...)" and
"The Company assumes no responsibility whatsoever regarding the verification of the identities of the Accommodation Provider (...)". Well in that case, what does verified even mean for you? This is just false advertisement in my opinion and what they do is trying and trick young students that think they are getting a serious service helping them to find and book a place in a foreign country (since this website targets Erasmus students and such).
Furthermore, they state that "the non-conclusion of the rental contract between the Accommodation User and the Accommodation Provider is not (a) sufficient condition for a potential return of the Booking (...)". So even if you don't get the apartment that you signed up for you will still need to pay them for their "services", which at this point I don't even know what these are really. Because having unsucessfully tried to book a place through their website, I know that once they get your money they won't do sh** anymore, even if you run into problems with the landlord. So really what are people paying you for?
Even when you try and claim your money back for legitimate reasons, as the once they even list themselves in their Terms and Conditions, they will just not reply to you anymore and if they do they give you non-answers that don't apply to your situation or are just plain and simple lies!
In my eyes, this company is a joke and is nothing more than a front to try and trick people out of their money (students and landlords apparently).”
“Very bad customer service
In short: Very unprofessional handling by the staff, poor customer service and if any problems occur with a booking, you will be the one that needs to prove why you deserve your OWN money back! Wouldn’t recommend, BE VERY CAREFUL!
What happened and why am I saying this?
I made a booking of a VERIFIED Appartement and even got contacted by a pre-bookings agent, because I wasn't sure to complete this booking right away, saying that if I needed help or assistance they would be glad to advise me about the procedures and kept reassuring me that their verified system was safe and landlords have been previously contacted to make sure everything is fine. And just in case that something does go wrong they would assist me with any problems. Here is what I was told: “We have verified all these landlords and also we will keep the payment safe until you arrive or sign the contract. Once you confirm that everything is fine, we will send the money to the landlord.”
I decided then to proceed with the booking process and immediately got a mail saying that the landlord was contacted and they are now awaiting his confirmation. Indeed the next day I got a positive answer and the landlord and someone from the bookings team got in touch with me saying that my booking was successful and that I could now exchange with the owner, which I did. The same e-mail also specified that “If the landlord asks you a payment before your arrival, please let us know before doing it.”
So I contacted the owner who told me that he doesn't trust this website and asked for one or two months’ rent in advance as a deposit which I would need to pay directly to him before signing anything or even getting there. Obviously, I found this suspicious and proceeded to signal the problem with the Erasmusu bookings team, as they even said to do in their confirmation mail. But then I get NO reply anymore from them! I contacted them multiple times asking them to assist with this matter or cancel my booking and refund me the payment I had already made, but all I got was RADIO SILENCE! The least they could do is to acknowledge receipt of the mails, reassure clients and tell them that they will look into it!
I find it very unprofessional for a company that is supposed to make money providing a service for clients to not get in touch with people when they express legitimate concerns. They are very quick when it comes to you spending your money but once it comes to problems and refunds they really take their time. I understand if they are busy and that such matters need some time to look into, but at least reassure your clients that you are doing something rather then not replying at all.
Finally, after writing a LOT of e-mails, contacting them through their Facebook page (which in the end worked way better), and having posted some negative reviews of them on different platforms (which they tried to delete systematically) and trying to call multiple times (unsuccessfully), they finally got back to me saying that they couldn’t help me since the landlord accepted my booking, even though he had canceled it already (he send me proof of that indeed). I told them again that my booking was canceled by the landlord and asked for my refund and repeated that I was concerned about sending any money without signing a contract. I was then told that I was right not to pay anything without signing a contract (I know, obviously!) but that since I was “talking bad words about them” (as they put it), I would only get a partial refund. This is, of course, unacceptable and I told them so. Since when is complaining about poor customer service something you need to pay for?
(BTW, at the same time, they also contacted the landlord again telling him that given our behavior (mine and his) we both wouldn’t get ANY money back. This is an email they send him but didn’t even inform me about. The last I knew was that I was getting a partial refund as said above, but then in the meantime their story changed and now somehow I was not getting any refund.)
Having at some point exhausted that route (seeing that I wouldn’t just take this ridiculous excuse) they now accused me of scheming behind their back with the landlord and get his place without having to pay a commission fee, which is absolutely not true! I had already signed another contract with someone else entirely at that point (not through their website of course) so how could I be staying at 2 places at once and also why would I even want to do that? But since I was the one being “investigated” (their words), I had to send them proof that I rented another apartment, and finally had to threaten them to get a lawyer involved (guilty until proven innocent I guess…).
So even if I did eventually get my money back, this whole process took hours and days and only was resolved because I insisted A LOT. They didn't tell me what they were accusing me of or informed me of their process and what was going on (maybe hoping I would just give up?), so I didn’t even really know how to proceed to get my refund. I get that they are busy but this is not a way to treat clients. They are the one trying to get paid for a service they offer, not the other way around.
In turn, I wouldn’t recommend their services. I had a bad experience and it cost me a lot of time and nerves and almost money. If you want to spare yourself the same trouble, in case a booking goes wrong, then be very careful. Don’t just take my word for it though, but please read other reviews rating their service as poor or bad and I suppose you’ll see I’m not the only one having had a bad experience.
Just to be very clear and not have my review removed again (which they previously did and keep doing), I am NOT accusing Erasmusu of being a scam website, I’m just recounting my personal experience with them and voicing strong concerns when it comes to their customer services and the way they treated me like some sort of “criminal” because I dared to ask for a refund, having had legitimate concerns about the seriousness of the landlord. And all of a sudden I am the one being “investigated”? I just really don’t understand how this is ended up being my fault. I was completely transparent with them and even forwarded them my conversation with the landlord. Why would I have done that if I was trying to scheme behind their back? Beats me….!”
