I am filing this report on behalf of all the hard working citizens out there that are considering online airline ticket purchasing. Be warned "cheaptickets.com" are a big ripeoff. Do not waste your time or money.
My husband put in for his vacation at work. We then had to get flight tickets for our trip. Like many hard working Americans, we wanted the best deal for our money. We spent hours online researching airline fares and making phone calls. After many hours of reviewing, we found www.cheaptickets.com to be the most reasonable at a cheap price... Or... So we thought.
We found a round trip flight that was available for our dates. After the website confirmed availabilty, I filled out all the information online (from what airport we would be leaving, what airport we would be arriving, the exact dates, how many travelers, there names, yado, yado, yado.
After filling out all the information, I came to the purchase tickets section. I put in my information, hit "purchase tickets". As soon as I did, it confirmed that my bank transaction went through. I waited to receive my flight itinerary with all my information when a message came up " tickets are no longer available".
I thought, how odd, it already confirmed ticket availability way before I put in my purchasing information! Did I just purchase tickets that don't even exist??? The answer is YES. I called my bank to find the $2,100 ticket purchase transaction went through. I then proceeded to call cheaptickets.com
Boy, let me tell you, what a circus ring that is! They are not located in the U.S. A, but, in the Philippines. There "supposal customer representives" spoke broken english, would put me on hold, then eventually hang up on me. Thank you so much outsourcing!
I called back and spoken to another "representive". He asked me for my flight confimation number, I explained to him that as soon as I hit, "purchase tickets" I did not recieve any kind of confirmation numbers, only received a message that these tickets where no longer available. He then informed me
"you do not have tickets for this flight". I said " I know", "thats why I have been trying to call and talk to someone about this ordeal, "my account was charged, but I do not have any tickets" he then told me my account would be refunded in full within 24 hours.
As you all can predict, 24 hours came and went, no money refunded. My husband, being a cop, informed me to tape all the conversations with every rep I would speak too. I took his advice and taped all the conversations. Then
continued to call cheaptickets.com
I called again and talked to 7 different customer reps, every single one told me a different story. Some said it would take 30 days to get a refund, other said 60-90 days for a refund, a few put me on hold for 30 minutes at a time. I explained my story over 20 times to so many representives, one had the nerve to tell me "hold on mam" covered up the phone, said something in a different language, then I could hear others around him laughing. "Mysteriously" I found myself once again being disconnected.
Everytime I would call and ask to speak to a supervisor, they would give me a big run around and not allow me to do so. Finally, after the 7th call, a rep finally put a supervisor through. She told me this is a normal procedure for the company to automatically charge your card, even if the flight is no longer available. I then asked her why not first confirm 100% the flight is available before the company charges your card? Her response " we do this to hold your seats if the flights are available".
She had many excuse, and kept changing her story. First she said " it was not a charge" it was a "soft charge" and I would get a refund. Then she said put me on hold for 3 minutes, came back on the phone to tell me she called the bank, the money has been refunded. HMMMMM, I said mam, hold on one minutes, I quickly called my bank with my cell, and was told by my bank that there is no record of any conversation, and, the money has NOT been refunded. I got back on the phone with this supposal supervisor and she then said oh, well our systems are down, you might have to wait 30-60 days.
Needless to say... I purchased tickets that I do not even have. What I did receive from www.cheaptickets.com was: a big headache, money missing from my account, double talking customer reps where some cant even be understood, 2 very disappointed little girls who just wanted to see nanna again.
Whoever reads this, please never do business with these people, pass this message on to everyone you know. My friends think I should send the recordings of the conversations to the Oprah or Dr. Phil show. I think thats the best route to take to make sure all hard working American Citizens like yourselves are informed of this horrible scam.
Kelly
Syracuse, New York
U.S.A.
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