My wife bought airline tickets through Airfare.com AKA Wholesale Travel Center. The web site gave her a quote and stated she had to pay $20.00 extra to have paper tickets sent via FedEx. We did not want to pay extra for paper tickets but the site did not offer the option for an e-ticket. After waiting over a week for the tickets she called Airfare.com AKA Wholesale Travel Center, she was told the tickets were issued as electronic tickets. When she inquired about getting a refund for the paper ticket she was told they would not refund the money because they were charged more than the $20.00 by the airlines for the e-ticket.
I called Airfare.com AKA Wholesale Travel Center back and at first was hung up on by a customer service agent. When I called back I spoke to Tom Ext. #313 who told me I had to email customer service with my complaint. I asked Tom why do I have to email costumer service when I am speaking to customer service? He said he did not know, that's just how it's done. I told Tom I would not email customer service just so I can get the run around I wanted to get it resolved now. Tom said he would transfer me to accounting because he could not do anything. Tom put me on hold for 5 minutes. When someone finally picked up the line I asked if this was accounting. The person on the other end said his name was Andy Ext.#214 and he was a supervisor with customer service.
I explained the situation to Andy who told me he knows all about my case. Andy then proceeded to explain to me what happened after we purchased our ticket and received our receipt and confirmation from Airfare.com AKA Wholesale Travel Center which stated we were being charged "$20.00 to have tickets sent to you via FedEx". Andy spent a great deal of time explaining to me how air travel works and what happens at the gate and with security and rambled on about things I have a great deal of personal knowledge of because I have traveled a lot in the past. Andy told me the paper ticket charge was for our infant because he did not have a seat and would be traveling in our lap. Andy told me things have changed recently and airport security now requires all parties traveling together with the same itinerary must have the same type of ticket and the airlines charged him more than $20.00 to issue a e-ticket for the infant.
After Andy explained in length about his problems with the airlines I asked Andy a question. Did this change just happen or has it been going on for a while now. Andy told me this change happened a while ago but the systems are not updated yet.
Then it was my turn. I explained that we have a receipt and confirmation. This is a contract between two parties and the contract explains what responsibilities each party has agreed to. We pay for a service they provide the service.in the receipt it clearly states what the $20.00 fee is being charged for. Since they are not providing that service we want our money refunded for that service. I told Andy although I feel bad for him about his problems with the airlines, he has known about these changes and it was not a surprise to him. If we had been informed in the beginning about the exact and real charges Airfare.com AKA Wholesale Travel Center would be charging us we could have made the choice of what ticket agency to go with and been happy to pay any charges we were informed of up front. As it is his dispute with the airlines is his problem, my problem is I am being charged for a service I am not receiving and want the money refunded. Airfare.com AKA Wholesale Travel Center can update their website to reflect the changes and inform the costumer. Airfare.com AKA Wholesale Travel Center decided they would rather mislead the costumer.
I explained to Andy at Airfare.com AKA Wholesale Travel Center what happens after we pay for our tickets and enter into a contract with them is just part of doing business and what he has to pay is the cost of doing business especially if he knew in advance this would occur. I told Andy I just refunded customer money for a product she was not happy with, even though I did not manufacture the product and have nothing to do with the performance of the product. I paid $58.00 for the product and after I refunded her the money I lost $44.00, that's part and cost of doing business and keeping a good name in the community.
I think Andy understood where I was coming from but at the end of the conversation he told me "we are not going to refund the money"!
I am sure this company is doing this to other customers and refusing to issue a refund for services they agreed to provide but do not provide.
The $20.00 is not going to break us but companies can not do business this way. If you know about something that will affect how you do business with a customer than you have the obligation to inform the customer UP FRONT and follow through with your promise to deliver a service.
Airfare.com AKA Wholesale Travel Center State of Maryland ID # ADR99
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