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Customer service scam alert stay away

I purchased a too good to be true fare. My cc declined as a fraud flag. I still went through some fraud process with another card. They took my money and issued one of their tickets. Surprise to me the airline did not see me on their list. After being ousted back and forth I sent a pointed email pushing for my ticket to be issued. The email chain below is how it was handled. Beware. It is actually funny.

Adrian, This was always about the ticket being issued, not about payment. You got paid almost 3 months ago. The airline never confirmed the ticket until 3 days ago... I still do not think Chris will ever get this. I will be happy to share your response in defense of your company. But at this point I am going to post all correspondence on every website possible to show any one who cares to know exactly how much your company cares about and treats it's customers. I work in the service industry. I know a good employee when I see one. You took a bad situation and made it better. I am glad you are the manager. It appears you will be okay here. Thank you for your time. If you or your manager would like to call to discuss I would be happy to share best practices.

Sent from my iPad

On Aug 10, at 8:23 AM, wrote:

Next time, try using a credit card that works. That will save you some time. Also, your sarcasm is not lost to me and I see no humour in it. Please do not blame me for your inability to follow instructions. I did not tell you to use a faulty credit card. That was your decision. Whether your buying candy or airline tickets, if you use an invalid credit card, you will be required to use a different one. Is this lost to you? We could not take your money and therefore no tickets were issued. The tickets were issued after your payment problem was fixed.

Let me break it down for you nice and simple:

Invalid card, no money. No money, no ticket. Resolution of payment problem, access to money. Receipt of money, issuance of ticket.

Please note that the resolution to the problem above is primarily up to you and any time or effort wasted during this process is up to you. Perhaps you are suggesting I reach into your wallet and submit a new card myself? While this would certainly make the process go faster, I feel uncomfortable doing so and respectfully decline. Hopefully you will be able to sate your hunger for candy bars on your own without my holding your hand. Hopefully.

As a member of the legal team, I do understand the simplicity of your claim. I do not understand however, why you fail to see your hand in the problem.

Again, I would like to reiterate for good measure, because, well, it just seems necessary given your refusal to understand the basic concepts of the situation.

We didn't have your money. We couldn't issue your tickets. We now have your money, you now have your tickets. Did you think we would issue the tickets on credit? I apologize, but we don't work that way.

Did that work? I certainly hope so.

I am now considering this matter closed and require no further correspondence from you.

Did you think this was harsh? I have already submitted a complaint about myself to my manager. You know him as Adrian. I thought I'd save you some time.

By the way, you probably used Airfare.com's confirmation number with the airline. This leads to obvious issues and if you don't understand the ramifications of supplying the wrong confirmation number (it is a little bit like submitting an invalid credit card &something that seems to be lost to you), please contact a customer service representative and they will be happy to assist you. ChrisLegal & Policy Analyst1-800-Airfare x211

Original Message — Subject: Re: [FWD: Re: Urgent regarding your booking with airfare.com]From: Matthew * Date: Tue, August 09 9:05 pmTo: "" Cc: Waspy5150@yahoo.com

Very nice Chris. Your focus on the cc auth coming from a company my bank flagged and declined matter not. - the hoops I had to jump through to make payment were certainly an inconvenience but I chalked that up to airfare.com perhaps being a start up company. Later on I discovered you have been in business for quite a while.

But the heart of the matter was missed (and as a legal team member perhaps you would understand the simplicity of my claim). My apologies if I had not made it clear enough so I shall repeat it again. The inconvenience was the time is spent going back and forth like a ping pong ball between you and the airline. You said it was the airline. The airline said it was you. If the tickets were indeed purchased, why did the airline have no record. Any one can take some ones money and issue a 'ticket'. - I bought tickets from you, a travel agency or what ever your company represents itself as. - while your company said the ticket was purchased and confirmed, the airline had nothing. No record of purchase was found when we gave them the confirmation number you gave me. And obviously because of this, no ticket, confirmation, or seat assignment. - any other time I have purchased tickets online this has never happened. Normally I get the ticket, the airline shows record of me, confirms, and has a seat issued.

Lets break this down even further; when we buy something from an online vendor (let's simply say you sold me a Hershey bar). You are going to take my money, pay Hershey and they give me the hershey. So I call the company (Hershey's) and they say they have no record of any purchase thus no candy bar for me. So where is my candy bar Chris? Pray tell. You have my money. I have no candy. It makes no sense.

Thankfully, a customer service representative Adrian responded before you did and smoothed things over. The airline has confirmed there is a ticket and I am somewhat happy with your company's response and actions taken to make a bad situation better. Your response, well, your potential customers will come to their own conclusions.

I am sorry I was backed into a corner and thankful some one else handled this before you. I hope your company can use this as a coaching, counseling and training tool in the future to better serve your customers. Every one deserves this opportunity.

I just wanted my chocolate bar Chris. Nothing more.

Sent from my iPad

On Aug 9, at 9:09 AM, wrote:

Mr. *,

Please excuse me but I just received your case and can not quite understand what the issue is here. You seem to be particularly belligerent for reasons that escape me. From what I can glean based on the notes attached to your booking, you provided a card that was rejected by the airline multiple times, either through declination or simply due to the fact that they do not accept the type of card you presented. As such, we ran a verification process for another card you provided in order to ensure your identity in relation to the card. This method is employed by many internet merchants across the world (including financial institutions, such as PayPal), and any complaints regarding this process will fail to ring any alarms.

In order to help you I will need to understand just exactly what your complaint is. Are your accusations based on the fact that we inconvenienced you? Please keep in mind that instead of voiding your reservation and sending you on your way, we made upwards of five (5) attempts at working through the situation with you.inconvenience seems to be a 2-way street, here. Or is it the fact that your tickets were never issued (when they actually were)?

If you wish to work through this situation to find a solution, I will be happy to help facilitating matters. If, however, you wish to dispute the charges, I will respond to them with the facts. Your bank will agree that we in no way infringed upon your rights, and that we only did what was necessary given the situation that you presented to us.

We will not bow to the oppressive nature of your thinly veiled accusations regarding allegedly criminal behaviour and threats of complaints. We offered the best service we could for you and have full confidence in our defense.

I repeat: your tickets were issued and they are currently still open. If you wish to fight us I can not stop you. But I still do not see what the issue is.

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to working with you;

ChrisLegal & Policy Analyst1-800-Airfare x211

Original Message — Subject: Re: Urgent regarding your booking with airfare. ComFrom: Matthew * Date: Sun, August 07 6:59 amTo: "Airfare.com" Cc: "Waspy5150@yahoo.com"

Actually I will make this easier. After several reviews and a consumer report about your company i pasted below this will need resolution by end of day Monday 8/8 or I will simply dispute the charge as there have been no services rendered for my payment. I will also be happy to add to the lengthy list of negative reviews about your company and share my experiences with other travel professionals. I do not have time for these games and questionable business practices.By taking my money you have become my travel agent. Travel agencies are responsible for getting the ticket. I pay you. You pay them. They give you ticket to give to me. Very simple and not worth the effort I have gone through. Shame on you for taking up my time and energy over one of the most simple processes in business.

Http://usacomplaints.com/air-travel/airfare-com-wholesal/airfare-com-wholesale-travel-9ge5c.htm

Sent from my iPad

On May 28, at 1:35 PM, Airfare.com wrote:

Flights, Hotels & Much more. Dear Customer,

Regarding Booking Number: YQCENE

As part of the authorization process to verify your identity as the cardholder, and to help us protect you from credit card / or identity theft, we will attempt to contact your credit card company. Since this is sometimes unsuccessful, you can speed up the process by participating in our quick verification process. We ran a random amount on your card (under $5). Once either you or we verify identity of the card holder, your reservation will be complete. Please call your card issuer and find out the exact amount of this small pending charge and let us know that amount. Please click here to enter the amount. P.S.: Please note that this process is for verification purposes only and the amount will not be charged to your card. Thank you, Airfare.com customer service

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