I want to first say I had to tone down my nickname for CheapTickets.com, as it was originally something more harsh, and I don't want to face repercussions for posting this.
So here's the breakdown of what happened when I was attempting to buy my brother's plane ticket:
I got an email a few days ago from my bank:
Important Notice to ******** ******** Bank Customers
May 25, 2011
Greetings!
Recently, there have been an unusual number of debit card fraud cases reported at ******** ******** Bank as well as other institutions. We want to reassure our customers that our data systems have not been breached and all data stored with ******** ******** Bank is safe. The number of accounts having fraudulent activity remains relatively small and we are taking every available step to prevent further fraud.
It is important to always monitor your account for any fraudulent transactions and report them to ******** ******** Bank immediately by calling (***)***-**** or visiting one of our branches. If you discover fraud after business hours you can call the toll-free hotline at 1-800-***-****. Fraud that is reported quickly can help us prevent further fraud and allows us to replace your funds as soon as possible.
Always be aware of people around you when using ATM machines, watch closely when an employee swipes your card and guard the numbers as you enter your PIN. Rest assured that ******** ******** Bank is committed to doing everything we can to prevent identity theft, debit card fraud and all other sources of financial crime. If you have any questions about debit card fraud or other suspicious activity, please call us at (***)***-****.
We appreciate our relationship with you and look forward to serving you in the future.
Sincerely,
******** ******** Bank
So I glaze through it, not really giving a shit. Anyway, Friday/Payday rolls around. Time to buy my brother's plane ticket. I went online to buy it at CheapTickets.com. My debit Mastercard transaction did not go through. Denied. I called my bank, and they checked on some things, and as it turns out, since CheapTickets' payment processing center is in CA where some credit card fraud happened, all transactions out of CA are being denied and flagged as possible credit card fraud, and they could not override it.
The bank tells me to come in and get a Visa Gift Card that usually costs $5.99, but they are waiving that fee for customers getting caught up by all the bullcrap. I drive up there, talk to the VP of the bank, and get a gift card for the exact amount of the plane ticket. I go to work and try to buy the plane ticket online, but since it is a gift card it has no name, address and telephone number registered to it. I tried to submit the payment 3 times, and all 3 times it was denied. So I called the CheapTickets' customer service people. They told me to call the bank and get my name, address and telephone number registered to the card. I called the bank, and they told me I would have to call the number on the back of the card.
I called the 1-800 number on the back of the card and got the balance on the card. It was $6 less than what it should have been. I called the bank back to let them know this, and was told that every time I attempted a transaction at CheapTickets.com (which was a total of 3 times), it was placing a $2 hold on the card that would go away after a few days. They told me to call CheapTickets again and get them to remove these holds. I called them. They could not. They called my bank to get them to remove the charges, and was told by the rep that they could not give them any of my information, and could not 3-way me into the conversation so I could provide my information to approve of this. They were told to give me the merchant ID and to have me call the bank back to have them remove the holds.
I called the bank and they told me that they couldn't do this. All they could do was move more money onto another Visa Gift Card and let me try to pay for the ticket using 2 cards. I was told to call CheapTickets to have them tell me if this could be done. I called them and they could not do it, that they could only process the transaction using 1 card. At this point I am about 30 notches above extremely pissed off, and I told them to transfer me to someone with stroke, like the Vice President of All Big Cock, to get this pushed through somehow, that I was buying a motherfucking ticket somehow before I got off the phone with them. After 4 attempts at being transferred, I was finally put through to a supervisor who basically told me I was screwed. He could send me a $25 travel voucher, but the airline was charging the price, not them, and there was nothing they could do to make it cheaper so that it would go through using the Visa Gift Card. The $25 Voucher would not apply to the price of the ticket either. The flight was through Delta Airlines, so I told them to get a Delta rep on the line so we could get this bullshit worked out.
I talked to the Delta rep, and after another bunch of bullshit it STILL would not go through using my debit Mastercard, and since the Visa Gift Card had those holds it didn't have enough money on it to cover the transaction, and they couldn't do the transaction using 2 cards, and there was no way to keep the flight locked in without paying for it.
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
By this time, I had been on the phone close to 3 hours and had a massive fucking stress headache. I had cussed at God knows how many reps and I really wanted to kill somebody. I just wanted to buy this damn plane ticket and get it over with.
I called the bank, and told them I was fucked 3 ways from Sunday, since neither the bank, CheapTickets.com, nor Delta Airlines could do anything to push this through. After another bunch of bullshit, we finally arrived at this solution:
I went to Expedia.com and setup the flight on there, because fuck CheapTickets, they're never getting my business again. One of my supervisors, who banks somewhere else and doesn't have any trouble buying shit anywhere ever with his debit card, paid for the ticket. He would only do it if he was given the cash pretty much right away for it. I wrote him a check, as instructed by the VP of my bank, for the amount of the ticket - the new updated ticket cost less, but had more stops to it. The ticket I originally wanted was no longer available at the price I wanted to pay, but I still wrote him a check for the original ticket amount and told him to keep the overage as payment for helping me with this bullshit. The bank closed at 6 PM and he got off work at 6 PM, but if he hauled ass to the bank and rang the doorbell at a special door, they would let him in and cash that check for him. He took the Visa Gift Card with him to give it to the bank VP so that she could hold the card for a few days till the holds went away, and she was going to cancel the card and use it to replace the money for the check I wrote my supervisor. Since this whole thing was going to cause me to overdraft, they waived the overdraft fee in advance.
He paid for the plane ticket, and headed off to the bank. I thanked him a lot for this, and I thanked the VP of the bank a lot as well, for dealing with me as I struggled to buy this ticket.
I am still shaking from the stress of dealing with this bullshit today. I have a huge headache as a result. I will NEVER use CheapTickets or Orbitz again - I guess Orbitz is the parent company of CheapTickets, as I got an email from Orbitz for a $25 Voucher after dealing with CheapTickets' customer service people. I don't usually have stress, and I don't like having to stress over something like buying a damn plane ticket. All I know is that I cannot wait till I get home so I can go to bed and put this behind me.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
