Travelstart - DO NOT EVER USE THEM!

One only has to open any social media platform and see the hundreds of scathing reviews for Travelstart. Sadly I had used them before, and never thought twice about using them for end of the year flights. The booking process was quick and easy, and flights were confirmed - UNTIL we were back on the redlist and those flights were cancelled. The airline we booked with, Qatar, immediately cancelled all flights and we were sent an automated email from Travelstart asking if we wanted to press pause or initiate a refund. We opted for the refund (again an automated process) and in the fine print it mentions this could take up to a year to process. REALLY? Here's the clanger, Qatar has already refunded back to Travelstart, they just sit on the money and there's no way you can even contact them. Their call centre has been turned off, and channels of communication - I use that term very loosely - are via email or a business what's app account, which no one mans and no one gets back to you. Friends booked on the same flights, but were smart enough to use a different agency, and they were refunded in full 3 weeks after the flights were cancelled. I really do understand that they must be really busy at this time, but it's incredibly frustrating to know R72000 of my money is just sitting in their bank account, and all someone has to do is press a few buttons and do a refund. It's shocking to say the least, and quite frankly theft!