Gil
hilo,#2Author of original report
Sat, March 11, 2006
I first received from cheaptickets.com the following email on 3/9: "In reviewing our resources, I show that you are not registered with CheapTickets under the e-mail address [email protected][my email address]. "However, for further assistance regarding this issue, please contact CheapTickets Customer Service via phone at (888) 922-8849 or internationally at (615) 874-4304. " ------------------------------ That phone number is the same one I spent hours on with no results. I emailed back to cheaptickets the same day: "Someone there has my email address. At [email protected] [my email address]I received the following from [email protected] on 3/9 at 12:19 AM: [attached the initial 3/9 email from cheaptickets, asking me to call them about my 'reservation.']" ----------------------------- On 3/10, I received, in part, the following from cheaptickets: In response to your query, please note that each time you attempt to make a reservation, a soft charge is created. However, if the reservation is not completed, the charge will drop off within seven to ten business days if not sooner. A soft charge is a temporary authorization that will automatically drop off your account within seven days, if not sooner. A soft charge is when CheapTickets asks for funds from a credit/debit card company but does not actually charge the card. By doing this the funds are taken out of the available credit on the card but not included in the balance that you need to pay to your credit/debit card company. Soft charges 'Fall off' or are added back to the available credit after 7 - 10 days. For further assistance in this regards, you may call Customer Support at 1-888-922-8849 from the US and 615-874-4304 from outside the US. ----------------------- Okay, give them the benefit doubt that these charges will be dropped. But, having one's travel fund credit card tied up for 7-10 days with phony charges? Beware!!! But then, quite unsettling, I received yet another email, as follows, grammatical errors included: "In response to your recent e-mail, please note, it may be possible that some one else must have booked a reservation in your account. Please confirm that these details does not belongs to you. "However, for further assistance regarding this issue, please contact CheapTickets Customer Service via phone at (888) 922-8849 or internationally at (615) 874-4304." ------------------- "....it is POSSIBLE that someone MUST have....."??? So, here is a largely unintelligible email telling me to call the same number I already spent hours speaking to, where the person ('Karen') at the other end of the line could barely understand me, I could barely understand her, and from which nothing positive or productive transpired, leading me to email cheaptickets in the first place. This what is meant by a 'run-around.'