In Reply to: Bestflights posted by nottagenn on Wednesday, 26. March 2008 at 20:58 Bali Time:
Sorry - hate to pass it on but here goes
Flights on the net were from memory $995 each with taxes. Sounded good to me and we had 6 flights to book
Rang them and was told i could do it all over the phone instead of on the net - no extra charge so away we went.
She was extremely helpful, there was a bit of mucking around as travel dates were a bit different for half the people going but nothing was a problem and I actually emailed her thanking her and praising her for the service she gave.
This was Monday morning, paid deposit straight away. I WANTED to pay the whole lot on credit card. It was suggested to save me money that i transfer the cash into their account. I thought to save the credit card fees I would do that
SO a bit of "rigmarole" involved, had to sign some paper work and scan it - send back etc - all done Monday. Tues AM received the statements requiring full payment. No problem. Went to CBA which is where their bank acc was - paid the total money in to their account in cash at 2pm.
Wednesday 5pm - receive a message from them "urgent". I was told the taxes had gone up and i owed them $232 . Not happy Jan!! I disputed this obviously as i had paid everything in full the day prior. I was told if i did not pay these extra taxes I would basically not get my tickets !! So begrudgingly after a few heated phone calls I did.
I wasnt thinking too clearly at the time, because i was really ticked off at what had happened. 2 Days later i did all my calculations again and again there was emails and many phone calls. Emails were basically ignored. I realised they had overcharged me by $80.
I finally got a refund of the $80. The attitude from the manager was along the lines of "only a small amount of $$". That was never the point - the point was I had paid in full within 2 hours of receiveing their statement. Then to be told nearly 2 days later i owed more !!
I am sure that when the statements were issued, the taxes had already gone up and it was a mistake on the travel agents behalf. In fact I know they had - because I ended up ringing Garuda myself.
Their argument was that even though I had paid the money in at 2pm Tuesday here - it did not reach their bank account till Wednesday morning. That was their reasoning, they said taxes went up Tuesday afternoon and they hadnt received their $$. Not true - I went into the CBA and it was verified that the money went STRAIGHT into their acc.
I took this to consumer affairs. They say i am in the right and should go to VCAT. But that will cost me money and to top it off there is now a slim chance some travel dates need to be changed for my hubby and son. And guess what - apparently I have to do it through the agent I booked with - LOL - that will be fun.
So would i use them again - no. My gripe was the way the whole thing was handled. The fact they blatantly lied about the money going into their account really riled me.
It ended up taking up a lot of my time with phone calls/emails and I could have booked directly through Garuda for the same price. Didnt save a dime.
I am not one to complain normally - but I feel this warranted it
Sorry to write a story - but the only way to explain it properly.
Have a great holiday - I cant wait !!!!