Scammed in Baku
28th May 2019
It was a hot afternoon and quite a walk to where our apartment supposedly was, so we decided to get a taxi. The driver was a bit clueless, had no meter and had to call someone in his office for me to speak to. Despite that, he was still confused and it was then that a passing local intervened and very politely helped us and did not leave until we were safely on our way. Then the taxi went the wrong way, we got stuck for ages in traffic and he finally dropped us off quite a long way from where we should have been! We were dropped off at building number 63 and had to get to number 29. I started to worry that things were about to start going pear shaped when the building numbers went from 31 to 19 and then 25. There was no building number 29!
Efforts to call the apartment owner were initially in vain but then he sent a message saying he would be with us soon. We stood waiting outside by a high-end ladies fashion store and the staff invited us in to enjoy the aircon and even gave us a cup of tea! After 20 minutes we had a phone call from the apartment owner and were told it would be another 20 minutes as he was working. Well, you guessed it, the 20 minutes went by with no one turning up. By this time the owner of the shop arrived, asked me to call the apartment guy for her so she could speak to him. After that call, we were asked to stand out in the street as we had outstayed our welcome (which was perfectly understandable to be honest).
So, while we were waiting in the street, a guy turned up saying he had been sent by the owner because was still busy at work!! He then said in broken English that the apartment we had booked was not available as the cleaner had run off with all the keys and they could not get any contact with her! He seriously expected me to believe him!! He said they had an even better apartment but it was about 500 metres away. I just knew we were falling into a trap, but given that the stupidly high costs and lack of availability of rooms in Baku during the week because of the football, we had little choice.
Upshot is we ended up in a flea pit. yes, it had two bedrooms, a lounge, a kitchen and a bathroom.....but OMG. He wanted us to pay the same price as previously agreed for the original apartment, we refused. He said he need a deposit to cover for breakages...was he having a laugh, there was nothing there to break that was not already broken or about to fall apart! We refused to pay a deposit...he was getting irritated by this point. There was only one towel, he said he would get a new one (of course one never arrived), half the light bulbs were not working (there were hardly any windows in the place) and he said he would change them....how he was going to do this, we had no idea as the ceilings were 20' high and there were no ladders. The bathroom was way past a use by date...I never knew mould could grow so thick. The shower tray was cracked and did not look safe! The shower screen and the shower itself looked as if they had never been cleaned!
None of the bed side lamps worked, the furniture looked as if it would fall apart if it was touched. There was no toilet paper, no bedding apart from some rather well used sheets which I was hoping beyond hope were clean. I was so worried there might be bed bugs!
The guy left. Steve and me looked at each other almost in despair. It was already nearly 7pm and we were going to be late meeting our friends. To cut a long tedious story short, we decided very reluctantly to stay, but things were going to get worse during our stay....
Best thing we could do was to go and have some beers and try to forget about the 'shithole' that was going to be our home for the next 3 nights.
NOTE: I made the original booking through Booking.com who were less than helpful as they claimed I had cancelled the booking at the last minute when it was the apartment owner that had cancelled the booking. We heard that other people visiting Baku had had a similar experience to me. My advice, never book anything, even through a big company such as Booking.com when the accommodation is paid for an arrival. I think I always knew we were taking a big risk when making the booking.
It was a hot afternoon and quite a walk to where our apartment supposedly was, so we decided to get a taxi. The driver was a bit clueless, had no meter and had to call someone in his office for me to speak to. Despite that, he was still confused and it was then that a passing local intervened and very politely helped us and did not leave until we were safely on our way. Then the taxi went the wrong way, we got stuck for ages in traffic and he finally dropped us off quite a long way from where we should have been! We were dropped off at building number 63 and had to get to number 29. I started to worry that things were about to start going pear shaped when the building numbers went from 31 to 19 and then 25. There was no building number 29!
Efforts to call the apartment owner were initially in vain but then he sent a message saying he would be with us soon. We stood waiting outside by a high-end ladies fashion store and the staff invited us in to enjoy the aircon and even gave us a cup of tea! After 20 minutes we had a phone call from the apartment owner and were told it would be another 20 minutes as he was working. Well, you guessed it, the 20 minutes went by with no one turning up. By this time the owner of the shop arrived, asked me to call the apartment guy for her so she could speak to him. After that call, we were asked to stand out in the street as we had outstayed our welcome (which was perfectly understandable to be honest).
So, while we were waiting in the street, a guy turned up saying he had been sent by the owner because was still busy at work!! He then said in broken English that the apartment we had booked was not available as the cleaner had run off with all the keys and they could not get any contact with her! He seriously expected me to believe him!! He said they had an even better apartment but it was about 500 metres away. I just knew we were falling into a trap, but given that the stupidly high costs and lack of availability of rooms in Baku during the week because of the football, we had little choice.
Upshot is we ended up in a flea pit. yes, it had two bedrooms, a lounge, a kitchen and a bathroom.....but OMG. He wanted us to pay the same price as previously agreed for the original apartment, we refused. He said he need a deposit to cover for breakages...was he having a laugh, there was nothing there to break that was not already broken or about to fall apart! We refused to pay a deposit...he was getting irritated by this point. There was only one towel, he said he would get a new one (of course one never arrived), half the light bulbs were not working (there were hardly any windows in the place) and he said he would change them....how he was going to do this, we had no idea as the ceilings were 20' high and there were no ladders. The bathroom was way past a use by date...I never knew mould could grow so thick. The shower tray was cracked and did not look safe! The shower screen and the shower itself looked as if they had never been cleaned!
None of the bed side lamps worked, the furniture looked as if it would fall apart if it was touched. There was no toilet paper, no bedding apart from some rather well used sheets which I was hoping beyond hope were clean. I was so worried there might be bed bugs!
The guy left. Steve and me looked at each other almost in despair. It was already nearly 7pm and we were going to be late meeting our friends. To cut a long tedious story short, we decided very reluctantly to stay, but things were going to get worse during our stay....
Best thing we could do was to go and have some beers and try to forget about the 'shithole' that was going to be our home for the next 3 nights.
NOTE: I made the original booking through Booking.com who were less than helpful as they claimed I had cancelled the booking at the last minute when it was the apartment owner that had cancelled the booking. We heard that other people visiting Baku had had a similar experience to me. My advice, never book anything, even through a big company such as Booking.com when the accommodation is paid for an arrival. I think I always knew we were taking a big risk when making the booking.
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