I Saundra Colley Purchased 3 airline tickets 1 for Benny Colley, my husband, Devon Colley, my son who is 11 yrs old & Patrick Savoy, his team mate who is also 11yrs old totaling $1108.50 from Spirit Airlines: Record locater # LJYHMC on April 10th with my Bank of America Visa Debit card. Departing from Las Vegas, NV to Orlando, FL with 1 Stop in Ft. Lauderdale for 11 July. Departing at 11:35 pm arriving 8:30 am (next day) 12 Jul. Returning 20 Jul leaving Orlando 3:00pm arriving Las Vegas 10:45 pm with 1 stop in Ft Lauderdale. The trip was so my son could compete in the state wide Nationals Basketball Tournament in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Six days later April 16th Spirit Airlines sent me an email notifying me there have been changes to my flight. The change was to the 2nd leg of my returning flight on 20 July the time was by 15 mins.instead of leaving 3:00 my flight was leaving at 2:45pm. I had no problem with that. Then less than a month later May 15th they changed the same 2nd leg flight time again another 40 mins. So instead of the 3 individuals departing @ 3:00pm. They were leaving @ 1:05pm. 1 hour and 55 minutes earlier. Per the emails I kept receiving they stated at your earliest convenience please contact us at the toll free # 800-772-7117 to confirm your new travel plans. I called that toll free # from May 19th-22nd 2008 until I finally got someone on the phone on May 22nd 2008.
May19- 22
I called the toll free # time after time back to back day after day and could not get anyone on the line til May 22. When you call the toll free number and press an option any option the phone will disconnect. This happened numerous times back to back, day after day. I could not believe this was happening. Or when you finally get thru and put on hold the line will keep you are on hold for hours. I would call during my work hours and I could not be kept on hold for hours at a time so I had to hang up and keep trying. This happened to me for 3 days straight until finally on the May 22 I was on hold for 1 & hrs when someone finally came on the line. When I spoke to the agent and explained that I have been trying to get in contact with them for the last 3 days and all the trouble I had getting in touch with them and finally telling her that the frustration of trying to contact them and the constant time changes on my flight was not conducive to my travel plans because the travel is for a Nationals basketball tournament in which leaving 2 hours early would possibly be in conflict with a basketball game and did not want to chance missing the flight. That was the purpose for reserving a mid afternoon flight time. She of course apologized for the changes and all that I went thru the dropped calls and the long wait and said she understood as I respectfully requested a refund from Spirit Airlines. She stated that this was no problem she said she submitted the request and that I should get my refund within 7-14 business days it should be refunded to the Visa that was used to purchase the card. I received an email from Spirit Air stating that the following itinerary has been cancelled.
Hanging on to the promise that I was getting my refund back from Spirit Airlines; on June 3rd I purchased another set of tickets for the 3 individuals with Southwest Airlines for $1240.50.
Friday, June 6
Two weeks has gone by and I still have not received my refund back so I called the toll free # again getting the same results as before: dropped calls after you press any option; I tried this several times, then finally getting put on hold for several hours. Finally someone gets on the phone the agent then pulls up my Record locator #. That is how they identify you. Once I explain that I am calling to follow up on my refund I start to get passed around to different agents and put on hold for 40-50 minutes at a time. When I ask to speak to a Supervisor they refuse. I asked one agent for the corporate office # because I was not happy with the level of service that I was receiving this is unsatisfactory, this whole ordeal is getting way out of hand and someone needs to know what is going on and I cant believe that this airline operates like this. 1 agent told me there was no number and gave me the address. I hung up and called right back to speak to another person after being on hold for another 45 minutes. I asked another agent for the corporate office number and she gave it to me. Then I spoke to another agent who said my refund was denied because the change was less than 2 hours. Then I spoke to another agent who said oh no your refund is processing give it another 7 days. Your 14 business days are not up yet I asked her are you sure because the last agent said it was denied. She said no it is processing you should get it in 7 business days. I said Ok thank you. I received another email stating that my flight was cancelled and this email at the bottom indicated that a refund will be refunded back to the visa that was used to purchase the tickets. Visa: -$1108.50. I got off the phone with the agent and immediately called the corporate office # and pressed an option and low and behold the phone disconnected several times each time just like the toll free # did. If you did not have a specific ext for a person there is no getting thru. I kept trying and pressing any option hoping to get thru to anyone and needless to say I wasn't able to get to anyone at all.
Tuesday, June 17
June 17, was my 7 business days later. I called back getting the same results only worse. There was a series of dropped calls before finally getting put on hold for 1 hr & then the call was dropped. I immediately called back and was immediately put back on hold for another 40 minutes. I of course got another agent and had to explain my situation all over again. This time it was a guy he was cordial and I expressed at this time again my frustration and stress with this airline and everything that has been going on and I immediately wanted to talk to a Supervisor. He put Supervisor Haley on the phone. I explained everything to her in detail from day one as to what was going on and she said she understood and she agreed that what I had went through was very unsatisfactory and agreed at this point I should get my money back for all the trouble I went through. She said she processed a refund for me and gave me a conference # 50556828. She gave me her ID # 7540021. She also stated that she apologized for the service they don't have many call center workers that is why it is it is so hard to get thru. This should change next week. The airline is getting more call center workers and it should alleviate the long waits to get thru to the airline. Hopefully things will be getting better here. This is her last week at Spirit Airlines; she is getting a new job at United Airlines. So right then and there I had no faith in really getting my refund back. I asked her if she could send me something in writing via email I thanked her for her assistance. She said I should get my refund to the Visa debit card that was used to purchase the tickets within 7 business days. I thanked her again and got off the phone. I received the email and at the bottom in the notes it did state: BEEN DECLINED ONCE BUT PLEASE PROCESS REFUND// BEEN ADVISED BY AGENT WHO CANCELLED THAT REFUND WILL BE PROCESSED// Visa - $1108.50
After reading that I really had no faith that I was getting my money back but I still had hope and waited at least 5 more business days before I called again.
Tuesday, June 24
I called back to check on my promised refund from a Supervisor this time. Started calling at 9:30 am Pacific Time. I was on hold for 1 hrs. I had to hang up. 2nd call on hold for 2 hrs had to hang up. 3rd call 3:30 pm Pacific time on hold for 20 mins agent answered the line I gave her my record locator# she said OH! OH NO, I NEED TO PUT YOU ON HOLD she never came back I was on hold for another 40 mins. Someone else picked up the phone and asked me could they help me. You could only imagine how I feel right about now. I of course for what seems like the 30th time explaining to the agent I am calling to follow up on the refund that was requested for me by a Supervisor this time and first she told me, it was denied because the change was less than 2 hours. Then she told me she couldn't see it because they as reservationist can only see so much. Then she said it is still processing. Then she said it is up to accounting so give it a couple of days. I said Miss which one is it; you said 3-4 different answers. She said give it a couple of more days so here they are again still giving me the run around. So after about 15 minutes I get off the phone.
Wednesday, June 25
The next day my mission was to keep trying to call and hopefully get to someone in the corporate office because I just could not believe this was happening and I feel I was truly being treated unjustly. I was making numerous calls to both the corporate office and I even called the toll free # back in an attempt to maybe get to a Supervisor again I couldn't get to no one. Finally fed up I got in my car left work and drove down to McCarran Airport here in Las Vegas, NV I made up my mind I was going to the Spirit Airline Check-in counter someone was giving me some answers. I left my office at 11:35am and arrived at the airport and parked and got to the Check-in counter approximately 12:50pm and there was no Spirit Airline representative around or in the Airport. I called the courtesy phone and confirmed that no representative was in the building and was this common and the operator confirmed that if they have no flights they don't have to be in the building. I just could not believe it. At this point all my stress and frustrations got the best of me and all I could do is stand there and cry.
June 26
That evening at home my husband & I got on our home computer in an attempt to find out information on Spirit Airline on the internet about telephone #'s for the corporate office. We found several sites about Spirit Airlines that didn't shed any positive light on them as a whole. I found out from one site: that I am not the first person that they promise refunds back to and don't actually do it. There are numerous other negative sites about them. I found useful information from the site above on how to get thru to the corporate office so on June 27 I called the Corporate office # 954-447-7965 and finally got thru on ext # 1118 to Belinda and she passed me to Carolina Lopez in Consumer Affairs. I spoke to Carolina finally a person in a position to help me and finally hear what I have been going thru the last month and a half. Someone who can finally bring some closure to this bad situation. Well after I explained everything to her she basically told me: I don't care what you was told! And who told you what! You are not getting your money back. You have a credit for a year and basically the tone she used is whether you use it or not is your business. Point blank. I was like WOW! This is how you allow your Airline agents to treat your customers. Your Airline takes my money, make changes my flight, the customer service is below standards, your representatives & supervisors flat out lies to me for a month and a and made false promises to me and this is how YOU treat me. This is how you conduct business? She said they are allowed to make changes to flights as long as they are within 2 hours and I should have read the terms when I purchased the tickets online and there was nothing she can do about it. And I stated that I was doing up a letter and sending it to the local TV stations in Florida and the corporate office and she said I just want to let you know if you send it here, the letter will be coming to me and I will be sending it back to you with the same response. All I could do is hold the phone with my mouth open and say WOW. Because her demeanor was like you could do what you want to do I don't care. I could not believe this is the kind of treatment I was getting after the horrible treatment I had already been getting from their Airline from the beginning of this issue in the first place. She asked me, was there anything else she could help me with I said, no I confirmed her name was Carolina Lopez and she said Yes and I hung up the phone.
Monday, July 14
In summary: I feel this whole situation could have been avoided if Spirit Airlines would have been upfront and honest. If the agent would have said Ms. Colley sorry about the changes to your flight if you read the agreement we are allowed to make changes within 2 hours. If this is not convenient for you perhaps we can find something else for you to fit your needs. If you cancel you will not receive your money back you will only receive a credit. Then the decision would have been mines to make. Spirit Airlines caused me much undue stress, frustration and financial hardship that I feel could have been avoided if they were just upfront and honest instead of lying and stringing me along for a month & a half. The way they treated me was far below anyone's standards and I think their actions need to be made aware of. I don't have an extra $1108.50 to just throw away and I have to take it as a loss because I will never fly with Spirit Airline ever again after the way they have treated me and I want everybody that I know and everybody that they know to know how Spirit Air treats their customers because after further investigation apparently I am not the only one and not the first. We even came across a website where Ben Baldanza himself sends an email to his employees that encourage awful customer service. I want the world to know how Spirit Airlines treat people who patronize them. Even if they would have offered me a voucher for a next flight that would have been some kind of peace offering but NO! They treated me like I did something wrong. Unfortunately I found out too late that the airline cares about no one but themselves. There are numerous negative internet sites about this airline and I should have researched it first. I am a hard working woman trying to take care of myself and my family paying bills and trying to make ends meet.in this day and time where everything around us is going up except the paycheck and we are forced to do more with less. It is getting harder and harder. And this airline robbed me with no ski-mask and a gun and it is just a shame. Going to Basketball Nationals is not cheap. It cost a better part of $4500.00 for a week for each family. This year some families had to send their child with other families because they could not afford to go this year. Because of the blatant disregard for human concern and treatment from this airline you have put me in unnecessary financial hardship that could have been avoided by just being honest.
Saundra
Las Vegas, Nevada
U.S.A.
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