GT
Greg T

1 reviews | Active since May 2018

23 May 2018, 09:22

Dishonest and Deliberately Misleading Advertising

When booking a car the very first page that comes up shows in bold letters what is for "free". The very first one is Cancellation marked in big bold letters. Once selecting a care the second screen that comes up shows included for Free, Theft Protection, Third Party Liability, Cancellation, Amendments. Again free cancellation in bold green to catch your eye. However this is purely deliberate dishonest advertising as when trying to cancel I first tried with Hertz to cancel only to be told they could not do it for free and I should contact Travelstart. One gains the clear impression they had been down this road before and wanted nothing to do with it. I then tried phoning Travelstart where they dropped me like a hot potato referring me to Cartrawler, obviously a 3rd party Travelstart have a arrangement with to handle cars which you have no insight into when booking with Travelstart. These people clearly have had these queries many times and despite talking to a senior manager Mr Dermot are experts and lying and dishonesty. Although one can read the tone and know they know it misleading they simply nauseatingly refer you to the terms an conditions. Mr Travelsrat and Cartrawler the mater is simple - as stated above the interface the user sees when booking clearly and body advertises on the screens you would us to book that cancellation is free. It is does not pass the reasonable man test to expect a user who is simply doing a booking and has all the info he/she needs to make a booking in front of them to have to read terms and conditions down to the bottom of the 21st page to see that Free Cancellation in fact does not mean free cancellation. Face it you know and I know you are misleading and dishonest and you have had this problem repeatedly. Its simple, take it of of your 2 front pages on the login screens and stop misleading the public or do the right thing and let free mean free. My free cancellation cost me R753 which was more that 2/3rd s of the fee paid already, certainly not free. I shudder to think what Your "free" means for theft protection, a potentially much more serious issue than cancellation. Users of Travelstart be cautious this is not my first experience, nothing advertised for free is in fact free. In my case Cancellations be it a simple date change or a total cancellation for cars or air travel are for free as advertised boldly.

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Replies (1)
Travelstart
Travelstart's reply23 May 2018, 11:42
Official

Hi there Greg,

Greetings from the Travelstart team and thank you so very much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to write to us.

As we do try to be customer centric and although there was a delay I do wish you would accept my apologies. Although not a resolution to your query or an excuse, we are sometimes limited to the conditions that come along with vehicle bookings as we proactively work as a bookings portal. We understand your frustration in the matter, and while we realize that we cannot undo the frustrations caused we do hope you understand that all information is provide at the time of booking and again as we are an online portal we do urge all clients to double check their terms and conditions at all times.

Again our most sincerest apologies Greg, I have sent this to our development/marketing team to also review as again all comments/concerns are always taking into account.

Kind regards,
Dino at Travelstart