I’m gonna start this out with 2 quick things here: 1) I officially break up with United Airlines now, and it’s all due to their lack of customer service. Which is sad, because their actual product of flying people from point a to b is pretty excellent. When you suck at helping your customers, though, it tends to skew their judgement.
But on a more positive note, which also brings us to #2), I LOVE American Express! :) Who first TOOK my phone call, with a live human being on the end (miracle!), and then actually DID something when I had a problem. (They’re disputing a charge for me, which United Airlines states is not theirs, even though it literally says “UNITED AIRLINES” on my credit card statement – wtf?)
It took me a total of 15 mins from start to finish to get helped w/ Amex over the 2 HOURS it took w/ United Airlines to NOT help me. Unless you call “you’ll have to go back to Expedia and ask them why you’re getting charged this $75” being helped? Once I actually got a live person on the phone, of course. Their toll-free number is a landmine of robots, and if it weren’t for my awesome Twitter angels I wouldn’t have known you have to hit ZERO three times in a row to get to a person! How ridiculous is that? Did you know that they’re even automating reservations by phone now? It’s crazy…
And don’t get me started on their refund department. They put you through to a voice mail, which then tells you to go online and fill out a form or send them an email. Which I fell for during the first hour of this ordeal. Want to know how fast they’ll get back to me? 7-10 business days – IF I’m lucky:
“Normally we respond to requests within 7-10 business days. Our volume of refund requests is very high… There is no need to send us another email unless it has been more than 14 business days since your original email and you have not had a response.”
Customer service has gone down the $hit hole, my friends. And it’s not only United Airlines, as we can all attest. I get that companies having to be efficient, but at what expense to the people keeping them in business? How can you justify pushing someone off for 2-3 weeks when those are the EXACT customers who are pissed off to begin with? And who’ll then turn around and tell all their friends (and blog readers) just by how much? It really doesn’t make sense to me. And scares me about our future with technology too.
However long I have to put up with these idiots though, I’m not giving up on my hard-earned money. I don’t care if I have to sit on hold for another 4 hours straight – if you’re gonna dip your hands into my pockets, at least have the courtesy to tell me why you’re doing it. I don’t mind people accidentally charging me – we all make mistakes – but don’t make it worse and then put up a 101 roadblocks in the way so I can’t even ask you about it. That’s just bad business.
We’ll see what United comes back with once my dogs at Amex sniffs them down… for now, at least, it’s credited :)
—————–
PS: Have you had a run in with United, or another airline, when it came to wrongful charges? How did you end up resolving it?
PPS: More importantly, why don’t companies RESPECT their customers any more?
UPDATE: Forgot to mention, I called Expedia too and they say they have 100% not charged my card for $75. They have no record of it, and only charged me for the flight that they were supposed to have. This $75 came directly after a $25 baggage fee (which was correct, even though that always sucks), so it has to be something on United’s end.
UPDATE #2: Check out this video on United, haha… Don’t go breaking people’s guitars! (Good find Michael C)
(Photo by cliff1066™, labeled by J$)
Get blog posts automatically emailed to you!
There is a big problem nowadays with customer service. Products can be difficult to differentiate at times so many times how I am treated will determine whether a company can keep my business. You would think that companies would get it, but many don’t. Too bad.
If American Express hadn’t stepped in already, I’d recommend seeking out Christopher Elliott (the Travel Troubleshooter…http://www.elliott.org/). Good luck!
I’ve never had an issue with wrongful charges for an airline…just lost baggage (boo!)…and I honestly think Customer Service is going to crap because most of these companies believe the vast majority of people will use their product or service regardless…I mean, Wal-mart isn’t winning any customer service awards (at least the ones in my area), but it’s still hella busy and I still go if I need something on the cheap. :/
I’ve only had to call on them them for one item related to a bogus “cleaning” charge from Budget Car Rentals but American Express Customer Service was absolutely the best. Very professional, fast, kept me informed of status. I can’t say enough good things about their handling of my issue. If only every business would follow their pattern. Best of luck on your resolution.
Buy your ticket through United.com, not expedia, orbitz, etc. United has a guaranteed lowest price guarantee through their website, so if you find your ticket on expedia for less (doubtful, since expedia only queries the airlines’ website for tickets anyways then adds on a “convenience fee”) they’ll give you 20% off your next flight. Also, once you buy a ticket on a third party site, United customer service has no incentive to help you. Any problem you have is with Expedia until the day of your trip.
Also, the fare classes sold on those third party websites are junk. Read the fine print, and you’ll see that by buying a ticket through one of those websites, you pretty much sign away any and all rights. Sad but true.
One more thing: The charge most likely IS from expedia, the description of the charge is United Airlines, not the payee.
I’m not trying to defend United one bit (trust me, I’ve flown with them for 10 years, averaging over 100,000 miles a year, and I’m about ready to give up on them). However, with any airline you have to know how to play by their game. Everything about the U.S. airline industry has been a race to the bottom (customer service, performance, quality, onboard entertainment, etc.) and every company is fighting for an extra dollar.
As consumers, we’re willing to pay $5 for a cup of coffee at the airport, but we complain that our roundtrip ticket from NY-LA costs $300. Seriously, the average ticket cost in 2011 is about half the price it was in 1970 (after adjusting for inflation) while the aircraft, safety, maintenance, fuel, and pretty much everything else has gone up almost 500%. I’m not saying I want ticket prices to go up, but be realistic about what to expect when you’re underpaying for a service.
Oh yeah… United sucks!
My wife was heading back home after a trip and checked in at the airport. The United ticket agent told her that she couldn’t check in for her connection. Really ridiculous, but not a huge deal, the layover was 1.5 hours, so plenty of time. That is, until the first flight was significantly delayed. By the time she got to the connection, w/ 15 min to spare, the gate agent told her that she wasn’t checked in at least 1 hour before the flight and her seat was given away. They had rebooked her on a flight 4 hours later. She explained her case, no apology, no food voucher, nothing.
I called and complained repeatedly. They did give us a travel voucher, but it had to be redeemed in 90 days. Also ridiculous. Not to mention I had to go through 6!!! different customer service layers to get to someone who would do anything at all.
Needless to say, we haven’t flown United since.
Oh, I’ve long had a love hate relationship with United. For the same basic reasons as you. They often have good flight options, but the customer service is not so hot.
I had good customer service with Virgin Blue in Australia. Southwest has insanely good customer service too! Not always the best flight times, but typically the best flights:price ratio.
Nothing gets my blood boiling quite like poor customer service. I hate talking to a machine so I usually just hit 0 until something happens…has been pretty effective in the past.
I love AMEX, they seem to really care about their customers. I don’t know why more companies don’t follow their example.
I have never had a problem with United, but I also have never dealt with their customer service. And I HAVE to use United when I visit my mom, because there are no other options from here to there.
On the other hand I had one big problem with American express when I made a payment and the site wouldn’t let me schedule it. When I figured that out I called them instantly to see if I could cancel it and no one would help and were rude. I assume they. Couldn’t do anything about it, but they could have at least explained why I couldn’t schedule my
……cat jumped on my phone
At least explain why I couldn’t schedule the payment, because I was giving them a large amount of money to pay it off.
I totally get that. I’ve had a few issues with spas just adding $10 to the final charge, just for the heck of it I guess. It’s happened twice at two different businesses. I sign the receipt, making sure that the total and tip are clearly marked. But inevitably they showed up on my credit card record as $10 more. I disputed them both times with Discover and they were swiftly fixed. :)
My current anger is towards Comcast. Apparently even though I took my router to one of their offices, they are still charging me as it not being returned because I didn’t return the router to the state where I got it from (which was never noted on anything I signed). I have the receipt proving that I returned it to Comcast, so apparently it means they’ll give me back my money at some point. We’ll see.
I swore off United last month when I had a similar issue. I’d booked a flight through United in June, but couldn’t make the flight due to a medical emergency. They charged me $150 to ‘cancel’ my ticket (cancel=convert my ticket into a travel voucher equal to the price of that ticket, good only at United). I booked my makeup flight through United Reservations within 3 weeks of the flight – while they were the cheapest originally, for the make up flight they were about double the price, but I didn’t have much of an option given that I had to use the travel voucher to get reimbursed for it by my employer. When I went to file an expense report with my employer there was an extra $75 charge. I have to account for the full charge or my employer won’t reimburse me. I spent several hours on the phone trying to talk with a United representative, but they couldn’t figure out what the charge was. They offered me a travel voucher, which didn’t do me any good with my expense report and I wouldn’t take because I’m never flying them again. By searching on their website I eventually figured out that if you book an award ticket within 21 days as a General member through United Reservations you get a $75 fee. I decided to assume that this is what it was and included it in the expense report. Dealing with United was an expensive waste of time and I will never do it again.
People aren’t putting up with lousy customer service anymore, and these companies are likely to be bankrupt in a few yrs…
I had trouble with CheapTickets.com. I had a refund due and when the “2-4 weeks” they told me it would take for turnaround came and went, I called and they tried to tell me I wouldn’t get a refund, but a credit. I was not happy. My father, an old campaigner, told me to write my congressman (thank you Adam Schiff) and POOF! A check came in the mail within the week.
I should NOT have to write my congressman to receive what is mine. Go gettum J$
You are not the only one with United problems. Check out Dave Carroll: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo
Sorry to hear this happen. I’ve never had any issues with United, but I can see why folks consider the airlines among the worst businesses in the US.
@cashflowmantra – It is too bad, because they’re forgetting we’re PEOPLE! Not robots like the ones answering their phones…
@Steve – Interesting! Never been to that site before, I’ll check it out – thanks :) And yup – Amex is currently poking them for me.
@Ken Wilson – Yes! I’d be one happy camper if every company had American Express customer service. They’re quickly entering my Top 3 favorite financial companies ;)
@Brendan – I hear that brotha, I’m totally cool w/ the prices I pay for travel :) I’m getting good at finding the best rates since I’m flying every 2 weeks these days. Which is why I really like Expedia actually – I don’t have the time to directly go to every airline depending on where I’m flying to (since most travel is on behalf of my Love Drop project, which changes the state we go to each month). I’m not hating on United though because of fees or costs or anything, I’m pissed at them because they refuse to help me and it takes sneaking around to talk to a live actual person.
@tom – That’s sad, I’m sorry to hear that man. Gone are the black and white days of “the customer is always correct!” Haha… though of course back in “those days” there was pisspoor service too ;)
@CityFlips – Yeah, I hear great things about them too! Just don’t get much chance to fly them due to the areas we’re usually hitting. Almost worked for Jet Blue too ;)
@ShoeGal – Haha, that seems to be the trick :)
@Ginger – Cuz they don’t priortize it. Or their directors/investors don’t prioritize it. Customer service really isn’t that hard to do, but you have to have the time and money to fund it right or it’ll just do the opposite of what it’s set up to help! Like w/ United.
@LB – Huh, yeah that’s not good. I know that when I want to pay my bill down w/ 2 separate payments, I have to wait 24 business hours to schedule the 2nd one which is pretty annoying… but not sure about your case, sorry to hear :( (and funny about your cat! haha… ours makes me do that sometimes too ;))
@Carolyn – Oh man, don’t even get me started on Comcast. They’re always rated at the top of bull$hit customer service! I can’t stand the thought of calling them, which is why I haven’t done so in the past 4 months even though I’m pretty sure we’re getting jacked w/ billing… damn. Now you’re reminding me that I need to just do it! Haha… hope you get your credits back! :)
@Rebecca – YES!!!! That’s what they kept telling ME too! (Or at least one of the reps I kept talking to).
@Emily – Sad, but very true!
@Peliroo – What? Wow. I’ve never had to write a congressman before… I mean, plenty of times where I could have, but jeesh. Good to know it works! :)
@Michael C – Hahahahaa… I’m so updating my post w/ that, thank you good sir.
@Million Mile Secrets – Yep. So good thing masters like yourself can get the awesome benefits you do! Makes up for it a bit, eh? :)
I’ve had amazing customer service with AMEX (Canada), and MBNA (Canada), ING Direct, and Amazon.
Major corporations really need a customer service overhaul. It is pretty awesome that your credit card company will stand behind you and fight the good fight. More reason to put everything on credit :D
Hey J. Money,
I completely agree with you! I follow the same method, but when it comes time to book, switch to the specific airlines website. For example, here’s what I do:
-Use http://www.yapta.com. It has the best and quickest interface (IMO, of course)
-Find the cheapest/best flight for you
-Go to that airlines’ website and book the exact itinerary. It WILL be the same price, or cheaper (because you’re not paying the convenience fee).
United CS sucks, especially if you don’t have at least 3P status. Even then, it’s okay at best.
Wonderful clip.
Why don’t companies respect their customer anymore? Because the people who deal with the customer are lowly paid employees in a call center and the rest of the company never meets the customer anymore. Dealing with customers has been relegated to outsourced call centers.
And because most companies are being run by overpaid a hole CEO’s who get their money anyway.
I’ve had issues with United and extra little booking fees. I just pass along the information to my dad (who’s a super traveler) and he uses the fact that he’s a super traveler to get it fixed. Annoying that they have no respect for us “smaller” clients.
Omigosh! Just this morning my aunt was telling me how she spent 4 days (FOUR DAYS) in an in-between zone because they had crew not show up, planes get broken, people on standby cutting in front of her, AND them not paying for her hotel during these four days. She was trying to see her two kids only TWO states away (it’s not like she was even trying to go cross country or anything!) Her kids were both going through cancer treatment and she needed to see her children ASAP.
She hates United now and I have never flown with them because of her horror stories. I’ve flown AirTran only so far because they have lots of flights between DC and here for me going to school and it works wonderfully.
Customer service in the USA, and wherever else they off-shore it to for their own “convenience,” and not our actual needs, has deteriorated to an unbelievable level. It’s happened across so many industries and businesses, many which used to be well-respected. I can only see it getting worse before it gets better. I hope that the coming wave of baby boomers can somehow galvanize change. I try to make a point of shopping locally whenever possible, and I tell them so each time. I’m mindful that I do have some power and control over where my money goes.
Bad customer service, and I’ll name names: Bankers Life for my father’s long-term care insurance. It took my brother and I months to get this turned around for them to actually pay, send a check for the right amount, and do so in a timely manner. In this day of streamlined automation everywhere else, you’d think they would have a nice and easy process, but no, they really don’t. Very aggravating.
GOOD customer service: USAA! Used by our family for decades (father is retired Army), and have zero complaints. Don’t know if they offer LTC, but I’d certainly start my search there when the time comes. I happily use them for all my insurance, my credit card and a chunk of my investments.
Airlines I’ve loved: Air France, and Midwest Air, with their nice, clean, and easy-to-navigate hub in Milwaukee. Way easier to fly them from Mpls to DC and more comfortable (just 2 seats in each row), than a crowded, 3-abreast Northwest/Delta flight. And warm chocolate chip cookies. I think they’ve been bought out, so may not be as good a situation.
OK, I’ll add United to the list of airlines I’m boycotting.. the list now consists of Delta and United.. It’s cool cause I tend to go for American anyways! :D
I can best you! Jenn-Air and Whirlpool. I won’t go into details, as once I get started I can’t stop. Bottom line… 2 ranges ($5,500 each) have a problem. One has been replaced, and the problem still occurs. EVERY phone call to customer service has been initiated by me. Even now that I am dealing with the Executive offices of Whirlpool.
Repair attempts that took 3 weeks to schedules, parts were always on backorder. Incomplete repair orders being given to service companies, etc… Tomorrow is the ‘big’ day. I am supposed to hear if they are going to buy back both ranges.
In general though, customer service doesn’t mean anything to very many companies. WHy should it? You can say you will never fly United. But they are partners with so many airlines, you may end up on one of their planes anyway. And the businesses know that. Sucks to be the consumer sometimes.
I’ve been dealing with United, American and Expedia for 15 days now, after I was double-charged for my last-minute (not inexpensive) trip down to San Diego for the BlogHer conference. Added to this hassle is the fact that I carry a credit card with an extremely low limit – keeps me in line – and the double charge has actually put me over the limit, so my credit card company (Capital One) went ahead and charged overage fees. Of course, when I disputed the charge with Expedia, they said to call United, United said to call American, American said to call Expedia back (but were genuinely apologetic, at least); and Capital One declared the disputed charge a 3rd party disagreement because apparently the service was provided to me.
Because I used two tickets? At the same times? But only got one purchase confirmation? … it’s bananas, and has totally swayed my vision of online booking.
I’ve usually found United to be one of the better airlines– though that’s an awfully damned with faint praise comment. I think that USAir, American, and Delta are worse. I used to love flying Southwest– but they don’t service where I currently live.
Way back when Spirit was raising their luggage rates from $5 to $10, I attempted to pre-purchased my bags online at the $5 rate and the site was down. I was told (via the page) that if I printed the page out and took it the luggage counter I could still get the rate – all of this was on the page – which I printed out and took to the counter. They refused! I had to pay full price. I was SO MAD that I called and talked to a manager and they repeatedly told me that they had no control and each ticket counter was different. So, after I arrived at my destination I called their CORPORATE office and left a voicemail of my situation and told them – flat out – that if my bags were not comped on the way home that I would call “Ruth to the Rescue” on a news station in Detroit (my home-base) and let them know how shotty their business was. Miraculously, I arrived at the ticket counter to go back home and their “system was down so I didn’t have to pay.” HA! Take that!
@Brian – Hah! Exactly. Huge fan of credit card usage when done properly ;)
@Brendan – Oh, interesting – I didn’t know that. At that point if I know what I want, it wouldn’t be that hard to just go and book it at the respective site at all. I’m gonna try that the next time, thanks :) (unless I get too lazy, which is entirely possible… but one time I’ll def. try it! haha…)
@Gerard – It’s true about the service reps getting paid crap, to then have to deal w/ OTHER people’s crap day in and day out. I was in the industry for years, and some of my ex-colleagues were the WORST people to have as your cs rep. They weren’t all that nice in person, nonetheless to strangers! Haha… But I still think you could hire the right people, and set a good atmosphere where everything flows a lot more smoothly. IF you can get the CEOs/directors/etc to allow you to actually DO the job right, ugh.
@Jenna, Adaptu Community Manager – Haha, that must be nice :)
@Melissa – Ouch! That just plain sucks, I’m sorry to hear that :( I’ve been using Airtran a lot too, to visit my boy out in Milwaukee, but the only thing I hate there is that they fly out of that rattier 2nd terminal at National, haha… and I always forget and then I’m running late and realize I have to HAUL IT 1/2 mile away (or at least it seems) just to make it to the counter in time ;) My fault for always cutting it close, but stil – jeesh. It’s always the cheapest though, so I deal.
@Carol in Mpls – Yeah USAA!! Always at the top of my list for great companies with INCREDIBLE customer service. I’ll be paying them a visit to their main headquarters out in San Antonio next month, I’ll tell them you say hi :)
@L.G. – Haha, eventually your list will be filled to the brim ;)
@rainbowfish – They can still treat customers as human beings, whether that’s “good for business” or not. It’s just a matter of respect. But man, sucky on those ranges! Esp at that level of cost, my goodness. I hope it all worked out okay!! Let us know, okay? :)
@Zoeyjane – Woahhhhh, that is crazy!!! And so sad that they could actually think that you’d buy two tickets for the exact same thing?? Haha…. looney tunes. That’s an interesting situation though (a shitty one, but an interesting one). Will you update us on what comes of it all? I’m sure you’re not the only one fighting this nasty battle! Bleh. Wish you lots o’ lucky my friend! At least you had a blast at BlogHer :)
@davesnyd – I used to love Continental (and *worked* at Continental) but now it’s combined w/ the devil ;)
@Kerry – Hahhahahaha no way??? And what the heck is wrong w/ their systems, my gosh? Haha… that is all too good :) Thanks for sharing Kerry. It would have pissed me off too! Esp when it says everything right there in writing, wtf?
@J.Money, we can indeed hire the right people. But there will always be the problem of distance between the CEO and the real customer. And customer support being put in between them so that the CEO will not be bothered.
I’m starting to vote with my feet… Literally
Lately I’ve been trying to promote the POSITIVE experiences i’ve had with companies… and sending them thank you notes… and good marks on social network sites…
and I’ve been refusing to spend my money where people are not appreciating my business.
I hate poor customer service. It drives me batty. The worst two experiences I’ve had have been with Chase Bank (which is why I’m no longer with them, even though they tried to convince me to stay and I was like sorry, you can’t treat me like crap every single time I have an issue, charge me ridiculous fees, “accidentally” close my account and then tell me it was my fault and I had overdrawn (which I had not done), and then still expect me to stay with you) and with AT&T (who opened my account in a different state and then when I called to ask why it wasn’t working yet, made me go through resetting up my whole account, overcharged me for like four months, spelled my name wrong and told me there was no way to change it). I haven’t even tried to change to my married name with them, since it took them 3 hours on the phone with me bouncing from department to department to correct the spelling of my name.
I’ve had some pretty bad experiences with Continental (soon to be United after the merger is complete) so I know where you’re coming from. That said, I’ll be avoiding using United or Continental again in the future if I can.
I steer clear of United if ever possible… especially when it comes to flying through Denver.
Throw an overtired and sick 10 month old, a family funeral, a delayed international flight which turned into mechanical issues, which turned into 4 hours on the runway (with no food, water, and screaming baby), turned into an offload of all passengers (finally!), then a captain begging us to get back on (yah right), and then being asked to pay $4.00 per diaper when I ran out (for the extras they had for situations like this)! No, thank you.
To make it all so funny (now)… we were flying on comp tickets for the horrible service we received on a previous flight. The comp flight was worse than the first. We spent the night in an over priced hotel with no luggage taking turns waiting on hold to talk to some woman in India who hung up on us four times throughout the night. Fell asleep while on hold and woke at 5:40am with the phone on my pillow and a rep offering us a flight at 6:30am for a charge of course.
Whatever, United. I will avoid you at all costs!
@Gerard – Yeah, it blows. But a man can dream ;) And/or copy Zappos!
@South County Girl – YES! I like that, a lot. Esp the spreading of POSITIVE messages & thank yous :) I try to do that a lot too, but ever now and then I have to share the hate to do some good poking!
@Melissa (Miss Lissy) – OUCH. That would drive anyone to insanity! It really is a shame too. If only they can be dicks to others who are dicks, and leave the nice people alone and help much faster ;) haha… THAT would be funny.
@Joseph – Oh man, I used to work at Continental and even seeing what I saw there sometimes makes me shiver… esp when it comes to handling bags. Reps just don’t *care* all that much, it’s sad. Esp in the NYC areas, they hardly have any regard for other people’s belongings.
@Robin – NASTY!!! WOW. That IS kinda funny (now) that your comped trip was worse off than your first! haha… that just plain sucks, I’m sorry to hear it! :)
Customer service with airlines has gone to hell in a handbasket since 9/11. I’m a full time driver everywhere. Once, someone purchased a gift for me – YogaToes. The airlines STOLE that, as well as a bunch of nice, new things I had. American Airlines at that… they lost my bag….. had it on another flight, and then after all was said and done delivered it 2 days late and had missing things… Oh I filed a LARGE written Bitchety Bitch letter after that!
I bet! Did you get any compensation at all from them? I know the odds are good that we’ll lose bags at some point in our lives (no one’s perfect) but I hope they at least do their best to make up for it. And customer service agents are supposed to be working for US, the customers, moreso than their employer, but obviously that’s gone out the window…
United Airlines did the exact same thing to me. I was trying to by tickets to go on leave from Dallas to Minneapolis because my brother is returning from deployment and their website said the transaction wasn’t going through and to try again so I tried again a couple more times. Nothing was working so I ended up getting my ticket from Cheepoair and I got a ticket no problem. I looked at my account later and I was charged every single time I tried and it said it couldn’t go through. Called them up and after an hour of being on hold they had no prove of it and put me on hold again. As soon as they came back on the line they disconnected me. I called my bank and disputed all the charges and got my money back. United Airlines will never have me on their flights again.
Wowwwww that is horrible!! And so frustrating, isn’t it? That not only did their system mess up all those times, but then that you have to go through SO MUCH hassle just to get it fixed! Or in your case disconnected on, jeez…. messed up for sure, I’m glad your bank got it all squared away for you though :) At least they want to keep your business.
UNITED SUCKS…They delayed my flight from 8:01 to noon saying the plan should be here by 11:30, it might have been but it took the 11:37 flight to Houston, we were screwed…then, the plan should be here 1:15, 2:20, 3:24, then 6:54, then 7:54, then 8:09, then cancelled.
Same experience with AMEX, they were awesome, she said the hold time is 20 min, will call back and at 12:37 PM she booked me on a US AIR flight whcih was awesome because by the time 5 PM came, nothing was left to get me to sooner to New Orleans…UNITED SUCKS.
oH YEA, THE MANAGER SAID, in my opinion, just my opinion, you should make alternate arrangements because that flight could be cancelled…this was like 3 or 4 PM….he gave out over 20 hotel tickets…
THEN, we find out why, their performance metric is how many flights get cancelled, does not matter if it is delayed…it’s all bullshit as two other flights left on time to Houston and my flight was not listed on the board in the afternoon..why not tell people United Sucks…
Hey,
I’m glad I came across this. I’m currently dealing with United Airlines myself, here’s what happened…
I paid for a flight to Australia February 26th and I guess this transaction was being authorized through all the airlines I am traveling through. Air Canada put the money back as United took it back out…only 2 days later they took an additional $1200 leaving me $-715. I only knew because my card was declined at the grocery store and when I looked at my online bank statements I saw it was United Airlines. Naturally I called them and they said they didn’t see that in their system (lies). I call my bank and they investigated it and said I would have my money back in 2-5 business days (which would be 5-10 actual days). I still can’t get a straight answer out of them of why it happened, I can’t even get a formal apology.
I wish there was more I could do.
I’m sorry to hear :( Best thing is to just keep on top of them and be persistent until you get the results you want. It’s annoying as hell, but we’ve gotta look out for ourselves, eh?
This happened to me today. I made a payment to change my flight and then was told I had not payed even though the united charge was in my bank account and and I had a receipt from United. They then proceeded to reimburse me the amount I payed and tried to charge me a higher amount. I insisted that charging more than advertised was unfair and they took back the original payment they had reimbursed (although they should have given a sort of compensation for the trouble).
Did not use United Airlines service for years, maybe more than 10 years.
Today I found in the last credit card statement 4 transactions for United tickets purchasing for the total amount $3000+.
Immediately disputed those transactions through the credit card service fraud department.
Disrespectful business.
Ugh!!
That’s probably not United’s fault though – someone probably hacked your c/c info and just happened to purchase tickets with it through them…
Sucks either way though 🙃