Travelocity Charged Me Despite Free Cancel and Pay At Property Option

Making a hotel reservation via Travelocity proved to be somewhat annoying. The listing mentioned "free cancel" and "pay at property," hence I assumed I was safe should something come up. But my card charged the moment I confirmed the booking. That raised serious concerns already. The reservation became a big fiasco when I tried to cancel. I spent hours chatting with several customer support agents, each one either sent me copy-paste responses or moved me to someone else. Nobody adopted actual responsibility for the problem. Finally I gave up and lost money on a room I never even visited. To be honest, this all destroyed my faith in Travelocity. I absolutely advise against booking via them once more as I will not be doing.