NP
Neil P

1 reviews | Active since Jun 2018

12 Jun 2018, 17:35

Terrible service, error prone system and ridiculous add-on fees charged

I purchased tickets to Greece for myself and my girlfriend roughly in April. I got the ticket, entered details and there was no issue. With the date approaching and wanting to kick off the visa process, I had a look at the tickets. I noticed that I am referenced as a Ms (I'm a Mr) and my girlfriend as a Mrs (obviously not married). I've used travelstart once before and neither of these titles match the profiles I have existing on my account.

I am a very detail orientated person by nature but I can accept that I could have made an error on one of these tickets with regard to the titles. I cannot accept that I made the same error twice in one go on something so fundamentally simple, which I have been doing my entire life on any form filled out EVER! When I looked further into the scenario I found that previously, where my tickets were correct, the titles are presented as "Mr" and "Ms" whereas on my new, incorrect tickets they are all caps, as in "MS" and "MRS". This may seem like a small detail but putting one and one together, it leads me to believe that travelstart has made an error is my ticket allocation through automation or otherwise.

Naturally I want these details changed and have contacted travelstart to do so. Firstly, I was shifted from department to department and then waited 6 days for a response. Turns out that in order make the change they are demanding I pay for my entire flight over again, which they will refund once they are happy, a USD50 penalty fee for having incorrect details and a R1000 administration fee for them to re-book the flight. All to change "Ms" to "Mr" which I am almost 100% sure they erroneously did in the first place.

Travelstart may offer up a deal from time to time, but the useless after sales service and constant threat of having add-ons thrown at you, hoping for something to stick, really don't come near to the discount that you gain. I had a problem last time I booked where they tagged on roughly R600 a person for a ticket refund policy I had no interest in.

I won't be using travelstart ever again

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Replies (5)
Travelstart
Travelstart's reply12 Jun 2018, 18:21
Official

Hi Neil,

Thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to write to us, about your experience.

Our customer experience representative will be in contact with you shortly. Thank you in advance for your patience, we will come to a swift resolution for this.

Kind regards,
Lindi at Travelstart

NP
Neil P's update15 Jun 2018, 10:50
Reviewer Update
I got a call on 12/06/2018 promising to follow up on the morning of 13/06/2018. I'm still waiting, further contributing to my negative experience.
Travelstart
Travelstart's reply15 Jun 2018, 12:18
Official

Hi there again Neil,

Greetings and good afternoon. I have had a look and I see our technical has been investigating this matter, I am following up as we speak and will be in contact with you throughout the course of the day.

Again thank you for your patience.

Regards,
Dino at Travelstart

NP
Neil P's update21 Jun 2018, 17:14
Reviewer Update
I finally received an email on the 18/06 which Travelstart told me would be an audit trail that I had inserted the wrong details. Instead, I received the below that had been forwarded on from somebody's cell phone (very professional). [my name (caps)] [my surname (caps)] Ms Just text, no official report, and forwarded from someone's Huawei mobile, and what's more, inaccurate with respect to what's on my ticket as "MS" and not "Ms". Again, this sounds like a small detail, but it's not when you consider every other aspect is correctly reflected on my ticket (caps and all!) and my previous experience with travelstart, where everything was correct, showed "Mr" and not "MR". I have said the same thing to the Travelstart agent who emailed me and even sent screenshots of how my last booking differs from this one but after no response (today is the 21st of June), I'm forced to make it public.
Travelstart
Travelstart's reply21 Jun 2018, 17:59
Official

Hi Neil

Once again, thank you for taking the time to speak to me this evening. I do apologize that this has taken so long to have your query resolved.

As discussed, I have sent you an email, so if you could kindly forward me all the information that had been sent to you, I will follow up with our technical team and contact you by COB tomorrow.

I trust you will enjoy the rest of your evening, and I will chat to you tomorrow, once I have more information/ feedback for you.

Kind regards,

Melony at Travelstart