Just not answering their phones or e-mails

1. Made a booking - Credit card could not be verified (a perfectly working credit card), so I had to do an EFT, foregoing the travel insurance payment by credit card would have provided me with. - Okay, a minor irritation.

2. My flight was CPT-JNB-DOH-ATH on Qatar. The first sector CPT-JNB was on a codeshare agreement with BA/Comair, who went bankrupt in between me booking and flying. Any effort to contact Travelstart to change the booking to CPT-DOH direct (as offered by Qatar Airways, who could not re-issue the ticket as it was originally issued by Travelstart) was unsuccessful: At least 7 contacts on their official contact form on the website went unanswered. Contacting them by telephone resulted in holding times of more than 30 minus each time, and often resulted in the call finally been dropped without the chance of speaking to an agent. Direct e-mails were not answered.

3. In total desperation I personally went to their corporate headquarters in Cape Town. I got offered a cappuccino and my problem was dealt with efficiently by "Brendan" in the call-centre telephonically and to my total satisfaction within 40 minutes, and I left with a replacement ticket CPT-DOH-ATH in my pocket.

So, the last part was great - but why did it have to take one whole week and endless frustration before that??? And I see that Travelstart does not even respond to the Hello Peter reviews by other customers.This is the last time I have dealt with Travelstart.