- Report: #1230506
Complaint Review: smartfares - Internet
-
Author Not Confirmed
Why?
smartfares
Internet, USA
Phone:
858-256-7282 or 877-251-1
Web:
smartfares.com
Categories:
Business Rating:
(0)
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good?
smartfares Traveler Help Desk Deceptive about flight cancellation refund Internet
We booked a flight on smartfares but needed to cancel. We called only to inquire about any fees since if it was cost-prohibitive to cancel (if they were going to charge a lot), we would go ahead and take the flight. The person on the phone spoke English very poorly and it took us several calls to get an answer which was that it would cost $85 a ticket to cancel the two tickets but we would have a $694 credit. But when the cancellation email came, it said that we would also have to pay $200 per ticket to rebook plus any fare differences (wow, are there never any cases when the new fare is cheaper?).
Do the math now: We are only promised a credit just above $100 for tickets that were almost $800. No one would cancel a flight if they knew they were basically going to be out practically every penny. And the promise of the credit even seems iffy ... though the amount is hardly worth bothering with anyhow.
We think the poor English speaking is part of the ruse to take all your money if you cancel because the language barrier ramps up the risk of confusion for sure, but in our case, the extra $400 charge was definitely not known to us at the time of cancellation. But seeing the tons of complaints online about ticket problems, including constantly changing fees and tickets never bought with the money they were given, I'm not sure we ever had tickets anyhow. It may be the tickets were never purchased anyway.
As I write this, my husband is calling United Airlines. Whether they can help us or not, we want to be a cautionary voice against buying tickets except directly from the airline. UA may have some interest in this since this sort of thing is basically stealing from them. Also, we'll call our credit card company in the morning to see if we have any recourse that way.
When we got the cancellation email today and saw the additional $400 that would be charged, we called the customer service number and he basically said that's just how it is. When I got angry and said you people are criminals and hung up, he called my cell back twice and now I'm wondering if I will be harassed till the end of time. Hard lesson, but lesson learned.
