I was the victim of a fraudulent transaction while trying to book a round-trip flight on the Travelocity website. I am a frequent flyer and have used several travel websites like Travelocity, each time without incident. I am familiar with the booking process and the cost additive options. This was not a case of user error due to ignorance.
I went through all of the processing screens in which they request flight preferences, personal identification information, and finally a credit card number and expiration date. Once all of my payment information was entered and I had the confirmation screen in front of me stating the bottom line total (I did not elect trip protection as an added cost, so there were no other possible costs to be inadvertently added), I clicked on the option to authorize the website to charge my card the amount stated. The next screen showed that my credit card had been charged almost $100 more than the price that was stated on the previous confirmation screen.
I immediately emailed customer support, to which I received a reply telling me that they would need screen shots as proof of the change from the confirmed price to the charged price. This is a ridiculous request because that would require me to have anticipated their error and tried to protect myself in advance by taking screen shots of every step in the booking process.
I replied to their email stating this obvious fact and requested a refund for only the excess amount charged. They would not comply and said that I would instead need to call customer support. After spending over an hour of my time on the phone (more than half of which I was on hold for) with the supervisor who was speaking to the manager (multiple times at my request), they were still unable to issue a refund due to their "policy" that since flight prices are subject to change through the airlines at any minute, and Travelocity is subject to those prices, they would have to launch an investigation to see whether it was computer or user error. I was informed that I would be notified of the results of this "investigation" within 24-48 hours. It has now been one week and I have heard nothing.
My advice is to avoid this website. Their confirmation screen is not actually a confirmation screen, so once you hit that purchase button, the amount that they will actually charge you is unknown...
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