Wow... While I don't normally write reviews on the negative side, this experience tops my all time negative experience chart and from the other reviews I've read of "Travel-o-S*tty", I'm not alone. So since I'm not in the minority of stories of horrible service and travel issues from hell, this is just to inform the public to AVOID doing business with this company.
I had used Travelocity in the past with minimal issues and they were always ready and willing to help me if there were some issues and face it, travel is hardly simple and devoid of problems every time... But in this case, issues stemmed from 0 customer service right up to down-right lies in order to get me off the phone and if I had not pushed the issues to be resolved, I would have not have been able to use the reservations I paid for AT ALL... No flight, no hotel, no car...
So here it is.
I first tried to book Flight Hotel car to Las Vegas for myself and significant other, Rick via their website... Should be easy, peazy, Right? WRONG. Went through the process to the point of selecting the car, but when I then selected a room upgrade, my entire online booking (which had taken 20 minutes) disappeared. I would have had to start from scratch but I decided against it.
"Easily fixed; I'll just call them and book it over the phone", I told Rick..."we'll have it in no time; It's Travelocity!"
The following is completely true and deserves honorable mention for worst service given in the history of bad service. I called and spoke with someone whom, to be nice, was not gifted for speaking legible English... A slight problem in communication led to me asking if I could speak with another agent... This one as English Challenged as the prior agent. Ok... Not much help there but what choice do I have? We went through the booking process and was told that I would receive confirmation email within a few minutes to verify the content of my travel plans. I waited for three hours but no email and I called them back; agent was rude and hardly helpful... It took 20 minutes to verify my email address which was discovered that they had it wrong. Well, now we know, so moving on... Email itinerary was sent again.
I received my travel plans which included a glaring misspelling of Rick's last name... Big problem as the name on itinerary must match ID at time of check in AND SOOOOO I called back. After an hour of explaining the difference between a "J" and a "G" in my partners name, and the multiple agents transferring me around to other agents for the no reason, the cancellation was made and trip re-booked. New confirmation Email sent... This time, Rick's name was correct, but MINE was misspelled. Another call and this one even more unhelpful than the last one.
I was told in a rude tone that they would have to cancel the entire booking again and charge me a name change fee of $95 (Note: This is the second time I'd called to have them fix their mistake and no "FEE" had been mentioned up until now.) I refused the $190 in fees; becoming quite putt off by the whole experience thus far, and I was less then friendly when I told them in no way was I paying for their incompetence. Luckily for them, they didn't push the issue of the fees after that.
Now, if that had been the end of the issues, I'd say that my story just contained some bland, slight incompetence and I would not be writing this review at all, but the bad news doesn't stop there.
I received my next email confirmation, this one containing my partners name ONLY!!! I was not even listed as travel companion at all...
ANOTHER call to Travelocity. This time, their rude tone was unmisstakable and they basically told me that it was my fault and that I had cancelled MY ticket bespite the fact that they still had all of my old itinerary in front of them in which, of course I'm traveling with Rick to Vegas.
Another few hours of rebooking which of course involved cancelling the itinerary and re-booking. Oi VAY!
At this point, having spent over four hours on the phone booking all of this, I'm tired, angry and needing a stiff drink! Not to be had, though... After waiting for hours, no new itinerary was emailed to me. As of this point, I'm not trusting that all issues will have been corrected. I need to see it in person. ANOTHER call and they said they rudely said they would send it out via email in a moment. They sent a ticket number which arrived hours later but there was no itinerary to check the names so I would have to locate my trip on thier website. I went to Travelocity.com, entered my ticket number and last name of my travel partner. Nothing under his name or my name, UNTIL I decided to check it with our names spelled wrong. Bingo... Found it. Here we go again.
I called to confirm that they had indeed cancelled the first itinerearies containing the mispellings because after all, They shouldn't be showing up as wrong if they had been cancelled, Right?
Another hour spent trying to verify our travel info which they claimed to have correct on their end. I had them read back thier version of my itinerary from start to finish to verfiy and they rudely explained that I needed to call the airline to confirm that my flight info was correct. No problem, I intended to.
I called the airline and confirmed my flights were correct. Thank goodness, but a call to the hotel found that no room was booked. I told them to try checking for a room booked with my name mispelled and what do you know? Systems confirmed a room under my name and Rick's name as being wrong... So, I explained that the names were incorrect and was told (nicely) by the hotel that I would have to have Travelocity call the hotel to officially change the names in their system. Argggggg!!!
I called Traqvelocity again, spoke with another extremely rude, non English speaking person who assured me that all my travel plans and names on paperwork would be in order by my trip date and that I should not worry about it. I assured her that I was not taking her word for it and urged her to call the hotel and change the names to the corrected ones. She put me on hold for 15 minutes, and then came back and told me that my hotel room was booked under the correct name and not to worry. I then urged her to call the rental car company to correct what I was sure to be a misspelled booking. She put me on hold again for another 15 minutes, came back and claimed to have fixed it all and I would not have to call back with any more issues.
I hung up feeling wrung out, called the hotel and shockingly, they had no record of Travelocity calling to correct the error in the names. I had them make a note on the account that the names were misspelled which to their credit, did without a problem.
Then I called the car rental. Can you believe it??? They had no record of a call from Travelocity to change the incorrect spelling and I had them do it myself providing proof of my identity via fax...
Disaster averted only becuase I didn't take Travelocity's word for it that they had done anything at all to help me. SEVEN hours of phone calls to Travelocity which did little nothing more than give me stress and anger! SCAMMING and LIES seem to be the order of business for them these days, so travelors be warned, you are in for a hellish experience if you deal with them.
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