GN
Guy N

1 reviews | Active since Jan 2012

29 Aug 2018, 14:52

End days for this type of travel agency.

Always saying they can better any price, I put them to the test. Got my itinerary from an internet site, Travelstart, the perfect route, timing and reasonable price. My wife took the print-out to the Gardens Centre branch during her lunchtime. They came back with a R200 saving, I thought it was a waste of time but let them carry on with it anyway. By the time she went back a couple of hours later that afternoon to pay, the tickets went up. Both tickets would now cost us a little over R10 000 more. There was some squirming and assurance that Flight Center always honours the price quoted. Then from that, they asked me to send a screen grab of the Travelstart site from my computer, but by that time the tickets started hiking on the site too. If I didn't waste time with Flight Centre I could have bought the tickets the day before from Travelstart. Besides wasting time and not doing what they said they could do, they turned the whole thing back on me implying that my screen grab was **** in order to fool them into believing my original lower price. All this even though they also had the original lower price a few hours earlier. That was the final insult to their insanely useless service. Besides the thought of making bogus screen grabs is something I would never have thought of while planning a trip, being dishonest on that scale goes totally against my every being. It's fitting how I always thought, when passing any Flight Centre, how cheap they look, they are the Wimpy bottomless cup of **** coffee of the travel industry. It's also the final nail in the coffin for any future dealings with travel agents, from here onward I'll carry on booking flights online.

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Replies (5)
Flight Centre South Africa
Flight Centre South Africa's reply29 Aug 2018, 14:59
Official

Dear Nevguy

Thank you for bringing your experience to our attention. We will be in touch with you directly to investigate the matter.

FCTG Team

Flight Centre South Africa
Flight Centre South Africa's reply31 Aug 2018, 13:25
Official

Dear Nevguy

Thank you for affording us the opportunity to look into the concerns brought to our attention. We sincerely apologise once again for the inconvenience experienced and trust that you will see the gesture extended as a genuine attempt to remedy the matter.

We wish you safe travels!

FCTG Team

GN
Guy N's update05 Sept 2018, 14:39
Reviewer Update
Your gesture was about as useless as the original experience, why did you bother?! Asking someone to pay 50% of said gesture and telling them to speed up their decision because of exchange rate issues is beyond comprehension. Then an hour or so later coming to your senses and saying you will cover the total price of the tickets, only to track down the cheapest tickets possible that would have us sitting in a train station for 5 hours waiting to take a 3-hour train ride after flying for 20 hours (20hrs due to your initial failure we had to reroute to another city). Once again I found the correct tickets available (this time the train) via the internet, which I sent onto Flight Centre (again) all they had to do was buy them. I trust the R816 saved purchasing the cheapest ticket of the day was worth it for Flight Centre's bottom line. Lastly please relay a message to the Gardens Centre branch that I will make my own bookings for next years Greenland trip that was discussed, who knows where I'll end up on that route if I left it up to them.
Flight Centre South Africa
Flight Centre South Africa's reply05 Sept 2018, 16:49
Official

Dear Nevguy

We regret that you are dissatisfied with the gesture extended. Feedback afforded to you has detailed why this option was the most suitable in terms of possible time constraints. We regret disappointing you and truly hoped that the gesture would be seen as a genuine attempt to rectify the matter.

We sincerely apologise once again for any inconvenience experienced.

FCTG Team

GN
Guy N's update05 Sept 2018, 17:19
Reviewer Update
I sent you the best option available, it had nothing to do with time constraints as the option I sent you guaranteed plenty of time with two more trains on the hour as backup. It was all about taking the cheapest option available to Flight Centre. You know you dropped the ball (again) so quit playing the sympathetic victim and keep walking, I have.