Terrible service, apathetic, arrogant and unapologetic

<p>We used STA Travel to purchase our international flights for our recent trip to the US. Whilst in the US we needed an emergency date change on our return flight as we had a massive scheduling problem. We received a response on our emergency email (sent the 23rd, which they deny despite proof that it was delivered), 4 days later on the 27th after following up with them multiple times. I understand it was Christmas but their store was open on the 24th and surely it wouldnt have taken them hours (they were open from 9am to 3pm) to assist us? In short after numerous international phone calls and emails we did not have a flight home. Imagine the prospect of being stranded in another country, I was incredibly anxious and did not enjoy the last 4 days of our long awaited holiday. If my husband did not have additional credit to fall back on we would have been living in an airport with no way of getting back to SA. I believe that had they been at all concerned about service, we would have received a response by at least the 24th of December and we could have easily arranged flights home with a penalty fee and no stress. But service is a word STA does not recognise or understand. We have requested we be reimbursed but they will accept no responsibility, arguing that their pathetic service is exceptional and it was our own fault we need to deal with it, that we were difficult and should be satsified with what they were able to come up with. Please do not ever use this agency, if you have an emergency while travelling you will be on your own. Rather do your booking directly through the airline or use a reliable, reputable travel agency. I have to date not received a call from any STA representative. The fact that they do not respond to Hellopeter complaints is a perfect example of their service standards.</p> <p> </p> <p>PS: They only purchase a certain amount of seats with an airline, so even if the airline has availabilty you will not get a flight if STA doesnt have seats on that flight. We could have purchased new tickets on the airline we used, for any of the dates from the 31st but they couldnt accomodate our date change because they had no seats left for those flights.</p>