A family in Chile has got nothing to eat

[Ute42]

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In another thread a rather sad story has been developing over the past couple of days. This is a long story, I'm cutting it down as good as I can.

Monika in Chile is renting 3 places through airbnb in Chile but she doesn't get paid by airbnb. She started reporting about her problem on sept. 19, adressing  @Catherine-Powell  , to no avail.

Due to COVID she had to close her places on march 20 and reopened mid of august. Monika did get paid from airbnb untill the end of August, but ever since no payment. Monika says she and her husband have lost their jobs due to COVID, couldn't rent the flats and now she's not reveiving money for the completed stays.

Monika has listet a breakdown of outstanding payments for 19 stays, totalling apprx 2400 USD.

Monika has been calling and writing with airbnb every day but nothing. Unfortenately Monika's financial situation has gotten very difficult so in september she had to ask friends to lend her money to pay her bills. „We have two little kids - we can not sleep at night, worried about how to pay bills and buy food when you keep all payouts for 5 weeks“.

Meanwhile as it looks Monika has maxed out all financial resources:

• „Yesterday we were considering for me to go back to London (Monika lived there for 17 years) to find any job as here will be impossible now. We used the credit card limit and now we have nothing left. …. My 9-year-old girl heard this conversation and cried asking me not to go to London and leave them.
  
  It breaks my heart. Once while talking to airbnb , my girl took the phone and asked them, please pay my mum money“

• „Electricity bills, communal charges bills, internet bills etc etc . why, what we have done, please Airbnb pay us all money, we have nothing now, please“

2 days ago Monika received 72,000 CLS = apprx. 90 USD from airbnb. „At least I could buy some food today“ Monika wrote. But the remaining 2400 USD+ remain unpayed.

As I said this is a pretty long story, for details pls start reading here:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Customer-service-updates-payments-and-more-in-the...

and continue to read there:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Customer-service-updates-payments-and-more-in-the...

The conversation starts on page 10 and continous to page 11.

This is Monika's airbnb profile Picture: Monika , Domingo, Kyara and Maia

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I've been getting real emotional over this story. Obviousely I cannot contribute anything to all these payment details, but I have decided to send 100 Euros = 120 USD to Monika in Chile so she can buy more food for her family. In order to do so, today I have set up a Western Union account for international cash payments.

What I'd like to find out is:

• How hard is it to send Money to Chile in the 21st century?

[Alex893]

Sounds like fantastic progress. Sounds like she can now buy some food and pay at least some of the bills.

[Lizzie]

Hello @Monika-And-Domingo0 ,

I'm pleased to hear that you are seeing more movement with the payments now, but once again I am very sorry to hear you are still waiting for some of your money to reach you. 

I am still in conversation with the Payments team and they have told me that all the payments are in process to be delivered to you now. I am currently trying to find out when the last payment is due to be paid out, so at least this will give us a timeframe to work to. I imagine what is happening is due to the amount of individual payments, they will likely arrive at slightly different times. Your Transaction History, may be able to tell you more details on this at the moment.

I can only imagine the worry you have been going through during this time Monika and I can only apologise for the time it has taken to get this sorted (I know we aren't quite there yet, but we will be soon). I know it's no consolation, but this issue hasn't been a simple one to get to the bottom of and so it's hasn't been as simple as not paying out the money. I understand this is still very frustrating though. 

Myself, Katie and Sergi are not members of the Support Team, we are Community Managers and the CC isn't a dedicated Support channel, but we always want the best for our community members and will always try to help to support hosts as much as we can and this is why we have been working for some time now to try and get this resolved. 

I will keep you posted, but I'm very hopeful all your money will be with you very soon. I will give you an update tomorrow, if not sooner. 

Thanks,

Lizzie

[Monika-And-Domingo0]

Lizzie ,

@Lizzie 

why you are blocking my replies with updates ?? 

Monika

[Super47]

Huge thanks to @Ute42 for starting this thread to highlight Monika's plight, and for her kindness and generosity. Without Ute's actions, Monika's story would have remained buried in the midst of all the other unheard and unresolved complaints and grievances that flood yet another epic Airbnb/Catherine Powell thread that promises much, but delivers little to nothing.

On behalf of all hosts who ever were, will be or currently are being deprived by Airbnb of money that is rightfully theirs - a massive thanks and respect also to @Monika-And-Domingo0 for having the courage and tenacity to speak out (and to keep speaking out) until their voice was finally heard. I know that Monika has found having her family's private business aired in public to be excruciatingly embarrassing - as we all would - but by being brave and determined enough to share her story, she has shone a glaring spotlight on (and hopefully, opened a few eyes to) the reality of the misery, hardships and suffering that are inflicted every day of the week on innumerable hosts worldwide, as a direct consequence of Airbnb's never-ending 'system failures' and systematic mishandling of host payouts.

2020 has been a horrendous year for the majority of hosts - particularly those who rely on their hosting income to support their families and keep a roof over their heads - and unfortunately, the truth of the matter is that Airbnb itself has compounded and massively exacerbated the unbearable stresses and hardships for innumerable hosts across the globe, by gifting their (our) guests with a tsunami of unwarranted refunds, by regularly leaving hosts out of pocket through flatly refusing to hold guests accountable for damaging and thrashing our homes, and by wilfully neglecting to rectify their ongoing (and historic) missing/withheld/delayed payout debacles. This is fact, and we all know it's fact, and only by more fearless hosts like Monika having the balls to kick up holy hell about it, will Airbnb ever be forced to curb their abusive and exploitative ways. 

And by GINORMOUS coincidence - coming straight off the back of possibly the worst 3-6 months in the company’s history as regards relentless reports of hosts payouts going walkies, amidst a variety of other host-punitive financial anomalies - here's the very latest update on how Emperor Bri and his mega-rich sugar-daddy investors are doing.. bang on the button to update their filings and just in the nick of time for that all-important, life-or-death IPO prospectus. 

 

cc. 

@@: @Sarah977 @Super47 @Branka-and-Silvia0 @Sharon1014 @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 @Colleen253 @Heidi588 @Cormac0 @Helen3 @Mary419 @Alex893 @Inna22 @Emilia42 @Emiel1 @Paul1255 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Super47 

“Report a third quarter profit”

Amazing how $1,000’s of unexplained back charges added to hosts payouts (debts) and not paying hosts can boost those balance sheet numbers isn’t it?!

Really... Quite a coincidence!

[Monika-And-Domingo0]

Hi

Airbnb is blocking my replies! I can not update yo here what they have done to us last night 

Monika 

[Colleen253]

@Monika-And-Domingo0 That had better just be a glitch! Private message one of us.

@Ute42 @Super47 @Sharon1014 @Sarah977 @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 

[Monika-And-Domingo0]

@Lizzie 

@Ute42 @Super47 @Sharon1014 @Sarah977 @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 

**

From yesterday night we are getting emails from the automated email address of Airbnb that about bank transfer reversal ( two of them ) asking AGAIN to update our bank details. Today YOU Airbnb put on our payout account notes to remove existing default payout account and add a new one as details are wrong and you can not make payment. We got 3 emails from this automated address that: it is time to be paid but your bank details are wrong. We just yesterday got payment from Argenper for 121.000 CLP for the last booking in October. 

We will finish in a mental hospital or even worse.  SEND us missing payments - I have already written booking numbers and amounts you still need to send us for August and 2 bookings in Septemeber.  

I am keeping adding new payout details ( the same and you have them ) and you will be over and over telling me that they are wrong and can not do the payment ( payments we do get recently because of all hosts they are helping us here )  YOU know that Jenell from your payment department - anybody) does not reply to our daily messages? 

Monika

**Personal information hidden

[Super47]

Ah, you managed to post at last, @Monika-And-Domingo0! Sometimes it's a bit of a challenge, to say the least 😉

Just to add here that the several payouts Monika has already received all arrived between 5th - 13th October - to the same bank account into which she's always been paid by Airbnb, using the same bank details that have always been on her Airbnb account.. which she also updated on Sept 19th with exactly the same bank details once again, when requested to do so by Airbnb.

And now they want her to update all the same bank details yet again, which they say can take 5 days to process, before they release her payouts, to the same bank account they've been sending her payouts to all along. Confused? Imagine how poor Monika's head feels! 😉

The payouts already received relate to Sept and Oct, and a single missing from March. The still missing payouts are from August and late Sept, so no continuity, rhyme or reason to this at all.

The 'member of the Payments Team' that Lizzie mentioned is 'assisting' Monika in an earlier post, has gone to ground and has not responded to any of Monika's emails in almost a week (not that she was of any assistance anyway) Nor has any other member of the Payments Team - or any team - responded to her in all that time. 

The amount still outstanding totals close to $600. 

[Monika-And-Domingo0]

Dear All,

We got an email just a few minutes ago that another payment was released. Please note that we have not done anything to our payout account details - nothing as we are waiting for Airbnb explanation. So when we got this email, I went to my account and I got frozen! 

The Airbnb added 45 min ago new payout account with default status. We have not done it! 

My god- if they added it, they can remove it or change internally details. WE HAVE NOT TOUCHED ANYTHING in the payout account as we were waiting for Airbnb reply about all those messages we got last night. 

**

@Lizzie, this is far too much what you are doing - who gave you permission to add a new payout account? What did you put there? 

We are now very scared, really, we have now no control of anything. 

cc. 

@@: @Sarah977 @Super47 @Branka-and-Silvia0 @Sharon1014 @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 @Colleen253 @Heidi588 @Cormac0 @Helen3 @Mary419 @Alex893 @Inna22 @Emilia42 @Emiel1 @Paul1255 

**Personal information hidden

[Lizzie]

Hello @Monika-And-Domingo0,

I am sorry for all the confusion and mixed messages you have received from your account. 

I can confirm though, that the action the Payments team are working on are in order to try and get the final outstanding payments over to your account as a matter of priority. So hopefully the work they are doing will actually help to release the remaining payments to your account.

This is the latest update I have from the team at the moment, but as soon as I hear more I will update you.

I hope this helps a little. Speak soon.

Lizzie

[Sharon1014]

@Super47   Kinda reminds me of big pharma doing clinical trials in the poorer more vulnerable countries where ppl have less capacity to kick up a fuss if things go wrong and because those ppl are desperate for the cash.  And yes, gosh what a coincidence that ABB turns a profit just in time for the IPO.   At whose expense I wonder.

[Super47]

@Sharon1014

"And yes, gosh what a coincidence that ABB turns a profit just in time for the IPO.   At whose expense I wonder"

I'd say we all know at whose expense by now, @Sharon1014. And I believe your analogy wouldn't be too far wide of the mark. Fortunately, Monika has excellent English (and an MBA), so she's been in a much better position than most to be able to fight her corner and stand up for her rights, but one can only imagine how many distraught hosts there must be out there who are trapped in a similar nightmare, without the skills or resources to even try and resolve it. 

[Sharon1014]

@Super47   Wall St Journal article headline snippet, does give one cause to wonder just how solvent or otherwise the company actually is.  How on earth could a company this size be so near-death broke, pandemic or no pandemic.... with absolutely nothing set aside for rainy days and heavily indebted to the sugar daddy investors.  Screams mismanagement to me.  The fish rots from the head down..... 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Sharon1014 

This is turning into more of a Disney facade as events reveal. It's all up-front stating "we're doing this.." "and spoken with them.." and still nothing happens -no substance.

Really.. If the outstanding payment is $600 @Catherine-Powell  should just pay it out of her weekly expenses.

Reality check.