I decided to purchase our airline tickets to Stanford in December. After putting them in the cart, filling out the passenger information form, and entering my credit card, everything changed. In bright red text at the top of the screen it said something about the prices of the flight changing and my total went from $535 to $750!! I opened up another window and sure enough, the rates for the exact flight I was booking, increased in price. Just. Like. That.
Since it refused to let me purchase my tickets at the lesser rate, I decided to call customer service. The kid on the phone said "sorry ma'am, nothing I can do. Unless you click purchase, they are not guaranteed."
I was persistent. It was not right. After 10 minutes, he finally gave me a number to customer relations, but they were only open for 15 more minutes and they wouldn't be able to help me anyway. Seriously.. where do they find these customer service reps?
The lady in Customer Relations said "There is nothing I can do. I'm sorry that you are frustrated." Fast forward 20 minutes of me stating my point and the lady telling me the same thing.. "There is nothing I can do to help you. You can fill out a form to file a complaint."
Background info.. I worked in customer service call centers for more than a few years. I know there is always someone there that can do something. When she realized that she was 10 minutes on the phone past closing, she put me on hold to see what she could do.
"Ok Ma'am..what were the dates and times of those flights?" Funny how she could all of a sudden help out. She booked us flights for the dates we needed and charged me the $535 that I was in the process of purchasing. While I was grateful to be done with the conversation, I don't understand why she didn't just do that in the first 10 minutes of the phone call.
I got my email confirmation and she has booked us on flights that had a "layover". As Owen would say "Oh geez!"
I called back this morning and the sweetest guy answered. He said "let me change those flights for you, which ones did you want? .... Ok, that's done, did you get the confirmation? .... Have a great one!"
Next time you book your airline tickets online...
Type REALLY fast because the rate may go up before you click purchase and if someone says "there is nothing we can do to help you"... so not true.
I'm glad that is over. Now it's time to book the rental car, hotel and arrange oxygen delivery.
Friday, October 1, 2010
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8 comments:
This has happened to me and is so frustrating! So glad it is all worked out but I bet you had a stress head ache after that!
Good for you. An hour on the phone with incompetent sales reps may not seem worth it, but you'll be happy for those extra $ you saved! You go girl!
If everyone had your persistence in getting things like that fixed the world would change for the better. I can't believe what companies get away with.
One guy on the phone even said,"Maam you'll have to call us back with that information.I said,"I'm on the phone now with you ,can I just give it to you? He fumbled and said Oh,yes.
He was just trying to get out of the extra work or really dumb. ;(
Hope today goes better for you.
Crazy. Just crazy. I can't believe it costs 500$ to go on such a short trip to begin with! I can get from NY to FL for less than that round trip.
Goes to show what persistence can do. I get to do that sometime in the future with my insurance company. *Sigh*
Way to stick to your guns! Hardy is so awful when it comes to Customer Service Reps. Like you, he knows there is always someone around who has the authority to fix it if you complain long and loud enough. Good work.
When I was booking a flight for my brother to come home from Beijing (he's teaching there), we found a great price, $865. Same thing happened..I was entering info, and when it came time to purchase, it was $2400!!!!
After a night of swearing at the stupidity of it all, we logged on again. Surprise, surprise, the ticket was back down to $865. I typed fast, and was able to get the good rate!!
Hi. Just curious if you have ever looked into Angel Flight for your travels to Stanford: http://www.angelflight.org/
Our daughter may go to Stanford for her next heart surgery and we plan to look into this free flight service for individuals traveling for medical reasons.
Wow, I never knew. Way to be persistent. Still praying for you and thinking of you every day (even though I haven't been in blogging land to know what has been happening).
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