Upvote:4
You asked for 'experience' - my refund from hotel.com was declined because 'they could not reach the hotel for confirmation' - they called two days in a row at the same time, which is 4am local time at the hotel. Then they ignored me.
I recommend to contact your bank / credit card company, and have the payment retracted, as 'the service was never delivered and the seller does not work with you'. This puts the duty on the seller to prove you owe them money - which they cannot prove.
If this was a credit card, that should be the end of the story; if it is a debit card, it might be more difficult ("never use a debit card for online payments").