Poor customer service, scamming
Complaint
Timothy S. Sepesy
Country: United States
Having read some of the complaints on this site, I am convinced people are being taken advantage of by Cheapoair. I've booked many flights on competitive sites without complaint. Fares and fees were as stated and were better or equal to what I could find on the actual airline sites. However this is not true with my Cheapoair experience. I too was contacted by email after going through the tedious process of booking a round trip flight, the email stating that the fare was no longer available for 2 or 3 different airlines. on the third try i thought i was successful in getting my flight booked, but received an email the following morning stating that the price requested for my itinerary had changed. The first attempt was in the $900 range, the second went up to $1125, and the third if I chose not to cancel was $1153. I was given the option in the email to cancel, forward a copy of the email to tkt@CheapOair.com to confirm authorization of the new suggested flight option, or call customer service for personal assistance. I chose to call customer service. I had trouble getting through but finally reached a customer service rep whose name I can't remember. After she confirmed the flights I had selected she transferred me to another customer service rep and I was immediately cut off. Again I had to wait to get through, explained what had happened to a woman named valentina, and she at least took my phone number to call me back in case we were disconnected. As I was talking to her, again I was disconnected. We are now nearly 40 minutes into the process. Not realizing I had been disconnected, another rep called back on my home phone (I was still holding for Valentina on this line) and confirmed the increased fare and flights. he stated that I would receive a confirmation email with ticket numbers in the next 30 mins. Having just hung up convinced my dilemma was over, I received another call on my cell phone form who I thought was valentiona, stating that she had confirmed the new price and fare. This whole process took nearly an hour. I felt very uneasy about what transpired, thinking I may be double booked, double charged,or both. I did receive email confirmation shortly thereafter at the new $1155 price. At this point I was wondering if I had been scammed into ever increasing fare prices. So I checked the Spirit Airlines site for the flights and fares for the trip I had just secured with CheapOair and found that the same flights are posted on their site for $727.56 a full 40% cheaper than what CheapOair stated was the best price!
Comments
The next morning as I wanted to select the seats I realized that for some reason the return was booked on January 29th instead of December 29th. I immediately called CheapOAir; the best option they offered was to change the return date at an additional cost of $798!! to cover the air penalty charged by US Airways and AirTran and the difference in fare. The agent was urging me to accept because the prices were rising fast… I had no more option than to accept this. He also told me that I would receive a credit by AirTran because I was changing the date within 24 hours. I am still waiting for this credit…
This additional cost results to be even higher than the full fare on the same destination that was proposed the same day by CheapOAir. I had clearly the impression to be fooled.
This same day I decided to consult the cancellation policy of both air companies:
• US Airways allows you to cancel any ticket (refundable or non-refundable) for a full refund (and no change fees and/or difference in fare) for up to 24 hours after purchase.
• All AirTran Airways fares are non-refundable (except Business Class) and a $75 fee per person applies to any change made after purchase, plus any applicable increase in airfare. Customers not sure of which flight they may want also have the option of placing unused airfare in a credit file for one year from the date of the original itinerary booking, for a fee of $75.
1) We asked to change the date of our return within 24 hours.
2) The first fare we paid was not refunded or either used for the second fare. We had to pay full price twice. And at 798$ we are far from the AirTran $225 ($75 fee multiplied by 3).
3) The difference in fares is void as shown on CheapOAir website for the same date and same destination.
We cannot accept to pay twice the fare in these conditions.
We already posted a complain and had no answer so far. We also called CheapOAir and were told that our case had been transferred to the “escalation department” and as such was no longer in the hands of the customer care dept. The agent said that all we had to do was wait a few days for a communication from escalation. 2 weeks passed.
As a result, not only we have not been refunded of any fees or fares but now our case is no longer accessible and we have nowhere to go or nobody to speak to. Is this called Customer Care?
My family 3 persons planed a vacation trip to China and Japan in last April and booked tickets for New York to China then from China to Japan then back to New York in cheapoair.com for $4,313.49 including tax and fee on March 6, 2011. However, the century disaster earth quake and tsunami was happen in Japan on March 11, 2011. Our plan to travel in Japan was interrupted. Therefore, we had to change our air tickets from China directly back to New York instead staying in Japan for travel then back to New York. We called Cheapoair service agent at March 15, 2011 and the agent said the ticket price from China either pass by Beijing or Shanghai to New York are much higher and we had to pay more $1,236.45 for the tickets change to Beijing directly to Newark, New York. When we received the credit card statement, we found out that $1,236.45 is only for the Cheapoair service charge! What a rip off charge from Cheapoair! The total new air tickets true cost was actually less than the old tickets total cost because we do not had to transfer ANA airline and stay a week in Japan, according to the Continental airline ticket document. Further more, the US airlines posted news that they eliminate processing fee for change or cancellation to Japan flights because the Japan earth quake event.
Therefore, I called and e-mailed to Pansy and Ray of Cheapoair to dispute the over charge service fee and return the negative difference between the new and old tickets, on March 24, 27, April 4, 6 no result answer until May 3, Mr. Ray called back to promise refund. Since the credit card charge was due on 4/28/11, following the normal dispute procedure I also filed the dispute document with all ticket copies, support document, e-mail and phone call record to my credit card company. The Airlines, Cheapoair and my credit card came up with correct result that I had the total refund credit of change ticket service fee and difference between new and old tickets, total $1,649.97 from my credit card. Therefore, the case was closed.
However, after seven month on 11/28/2011, I received the notification letter from Ruben on Behalf of Collection Department / Cheapoair telling me that I still owe them $1,649.97! I answered the Ruben with letter which stated the case was justice and was closed seven month ago by all parties. How can Cheapoair after seven month ask me give back the credit money directly to them without looking back the case original?! Mr. Ruben did not answer my question and keep sending me a “FINAL NOTIFICATION “ to “ LEGAL ACTION AND REPORTING TO CREDIT RATING AGENCIES AND TRANSFER TO COLLECTION AGENCY” which threatens and racketeers me to give back that my credit card credit money to them.
What a ridiculous collecting money method Cheapoair is doing! They do not follow the normal and legal dispute procedure but using threaten letter to racketeer the customer. What kind business is Cheapoair practicing now?
The fact above is telling: Cheapoair is cheap to its customer, but its service charges are not cheap! I rate Cheapoair zero star.
Long story short, they overcharged my credit card for a flight they claim that I had agreed upon. I absolutely did not agree on the charged amount. They did not take ownership of the fact that they did not email me the itinerary and I had only asked about it a week later as I assumed the confirmation would've been in my inbox (but had forgotten all about it until I saw the charge on my credit card).
I was not looking for a full refund, I was looking for a refund in the difference on what I KNOW I had agreed to pay for. After discussing the issue to 2 customer service rep, I talked to a manager (who took well over 1/2hr to get on the phone) and the extent of her sad vocabulary was 'I will not refund you' and 'did you want to cancel your reservation?' She did not even listen, she clearly had no idea how to fix any problems or she clearly could not have cared. I had confronted her on the numerous similar complaints and pointed out the obvious that their company needed to action these if they wanted to keep their company afloat. She didn't seem to care and said she had no control over what people put on line.
So, they don't read comments, they don't action complaints, and they certainly don't want to ever give your money back that is rightfully yours.
Dear Cheapoairs..eventually, the public will take these complaints seriously, just because you don't doesn't mean the public won't. I will do everything in my power to ensure NO ONE i know will ever book a flight through your site. I have never read so many complaints about a company scamming than I have with yours..I am glad I can add to your growing list of dissatisfied customers only to ensure that you don't scam another soul.
CHEAP O AIR is DESPICABLE, and FRAUDULENT, and refuses to make amends for THEIR [***]-UPS, and just cost my friend almost $1,000 to:
change her flight from a wrong date of departure
another day at the hotel
another car rental day
a missed day of work
a missed day of therapy
This would cost them about $200.00 to repair. We'd like to help them lose THOUSANDS if not potentially MILLIONS of dollars since the power of the people reaches so many via the internet.
And we are not ALONE:
https://www.google.com/search…
Just ONE of the many unhappy customers screwed by these unscrupulous, lying [***].
I am happy to help this morally just cause any way I can, and will do so by posting this on the below site as well as many others, or even starting one of my own.
Thank you for your support, and please disseminate freely.
Gary G.
(They cost me $500 for an equally moronic error on their part, only two years ago)
CheapOair.com
sm@cheapoair.com
Don't deal with this firm. They are a rip-off