Ebookers Oh my God!!!!!
Discussion
Sorry for the length bear with it, priceless!!! this actually happend to me!! worth reading!
I wrote the following letter to the chief exec ebookers, I am still awaiting a response...
As most British like to moan but never complain I felt that I had to bring to your attention a matter which has, and will no doubt continue to, affect the financial performance of ebookers UK.
I write to you in the first instance as when I asked who I could contact re customer service and matters of policy I was told "you could send a letter but it won't make no difference".... As your phone system suggest you should be able to verify this on your recorded lines.
Before I continue let me set the scene for you:
Background information: I am a UK Citizen currently living in Tipperary, Southern Ireland. My son (*****) lives in Birmingham. On the 11th March 2005 were are planning a trip to Prague as part of his "stag do". All of the attendees are flying from Birmingham.
On Thursday 27th January at approximately 15.00 I went online to book myself a ticket,
from Birmingham BHX to Prague on 11th March 2005 returning on the 13th March 2005,
via the ebookers website. Previously as mentioned above I had booked 14 tickets to Prague for the same dates as part of my sons stag weekend. All the tickets were booked online with BMI Baby with no issues. As I would have to travel from Southern Ireland I was going to fly from Dublin to Prague but as the whole group was going from Birmingham I decided to fly with them, hence an individual ticket booking.
When I reached the part of your website that asks for your credit card information, I read the line which asks for authorisation if your billing address is outside the UK which mine is. It then suggests that if you do not have access to a fax (which I do not as Tipperary is very remote) that you can call the number stated and you will try to help. It is at this point things started to go very wrong....
I got through, after much transferring, to a gentleman called Andy Perth who, with a minimal grasp of English and very limited geographical knowledge, tried to take my booking. After nearly 20 minutes of spelling out my address and trying to get him to understand the problem I was facing he quoted me a price for the ticket of £164, roughly £25 more expensive than the quote online. I was not too worried about this and said fine please book the ticket. I then spent another 10 minutes trying to give my card details and when we got to the billing address he could not comprehend that I wanted the tickets sending to my sons address in Birmingham rather than being sent to Southern Ireland at a cost of £35 (he quoted). He then said he could do that if I filled in an authorisation form and faxed it back. The whole reason I phoned the number stated was that I did not have access to a fax!! I explained this to him and he said fine don't worry.He then, I thought, completed the booking.
At approximately 18.15 in the evening Andy's supervisor gave me a call to "confirm" details we then repeated the whole process above again! Needless to say I was starting to get a little frustrated now as Andy's supervisor continued to tell me I needed to send this authorisation form. I then again explained the situation and he said fine and quoted me a new price for the ticket £139 + charges = £159. I was then wondering had I been charged twice as I had been through this process earlier. Again, because everyone I was speaking to only seemed to have a rudimentary grasp of English, he failed to grasp my concern and just said it was fine and stop worrying.
I then logged on to my emails and had a receipt from Andy Perth for the amount quoted saying it was all 100% booked and non-refundable. About 15 minutes later I then had yet another phone call from Andy's supervisor saying he could not process the booking as he needed the authorisation form!!! Aaargghh!! By this time ebookers had billed my card.
After being put on hold (yet again) he eventually said that if I could not send the form they would have to cancel the tickets. I said "so basically if you do not have a fax or access to one you cannot book tickets via ebookers?" (I now question the name ebookers?). He said "yes".
What compounds this issue is that I find I have been penalised for not having a fax machine when you profess to be one of the countries leading "on-line" booking agencies? I also feel that this is a form of prejudice. Andy then said he could send the tickets to Southern Ireland at a cost of £15 (a lot different to £35). I frequently send 10 kilo parcels to Ireland at a cost of £36 and fail to see how a simple ticket envelope could cost £15 (unless ebookers has a policy of making money off the postage?). For the sake of my sanity I agreed anyway, and ended the call.
As a result of the above I do not feel my call was not handled by professionals. I also got the distinct impression that they found it amusing to keep repeating information and putting me on hold to see how long they could keep me on the phone without getting frustrated. Therefore I would like all the data you have re this booking on file, including customer comments by the booking agent, sent to me as part of the data protection act.
Please could you also answer the following for me:
I would like a satisfactory resolution to they way the call was handled
An outline of company policy and procedure when the customer does not have a fax machine
An outline of ebooker postage prices
As a UK call centre why did everyone I speak to fail to be able to effectively communicate in English?
If I do not receive a satisfactory reply to this email I shall take matters further. This will include. ABTA, Ombudsman, Watchdog and a posting of this letter to many influential internet investment/travel forums.
Whilst I understand the need to eliminate credit card fraud and protect yourselves and your customers, I feel the procedures for doing this need a considerable amount of attention.
I hope as an influential individual within this organisation you are able to tackle these issue and provide resolution to a share holder such as myself.
You may contact me on ******* or written correspondence to ******* (As I shall be in the UK for the next few weeks)
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter, I look forward to your feedback
Rant Over
I wrote the following letter to the chief exec ebookers, I am still awaiting a response...
As most British like to moan but never complain I felt that I had to bring to your attention a matter which has, and will no doubt continue to, affect the financial performance of ebookers UK.
I write to you in the first instance as when I asked who I could contact re customer service and matters of policy I was told "you could send a letter but it won't make no difference".... As your phone system suggest you should be able to verify this on your recorded lines.
Before I continue let me set the scene for you:
Background information: I am a UK Citizen currently living in Tipperary, Southern Ireland. My son (*****) lives in Birmingham. On the 11th March 2005 were are planning a trip to Prague as part of his "stag do". All of the attendees are flying from Birmingham.
On Thursday 27th January at approximately 15.00 I went online to book myself a ticket,
from Birmingham BHX to Prague on 11th March 2005 returning on the 13th March 2005,
via the ebookers website. Previously as mentioned above I had booked 14 tickets to Prague for the same dates as part of my sons stag weekend. All the tickets were booked online with BMI Baby with no issues. As I would have to travel from Southern Ireland I was going to fly from Dublin to Prague but as the whole group was going from Birmingham I decided to fly with them, hence an individual ticket booking.
When I reached the part of your website that asks for your credit card information, I read the line which asks for authorisation if your billing address is outside the UK which mine is. It then suggests that if you do not have access to a fax (which I do not as Tipperary is very remote) that you can call the number stated and you will try to help. It is at this point things started to go very wrong....
I got through, after much transferring, to a gentleman called Andy Perth who, with a minimal grasp of English and very limited geographical knowledge, tried to take my booking. After nearly 20 minutes of spelling out my address and trying to get him to understand the problem I was facing he quoted me a price for the ticket of £164, roughly £25 more expensive than the quote online. I was not too worried about this and said fine please book the ticket. I then spent another 10 minutes trying to give my card details and when we got to the billing address he could not comprehend that I wanted the tickets sending to my sons address in Birmingham rather than being sent to Southern Ireland at a cost of £35 (he quoted). He then said he could do that if I filled in an authorisation form and faxed it back. The whole reason I phoned the number stated was that I did not have access to a fax!! I explained this to him and he said fine don't worry.He then, I thought, completed the booking.
At approximately 18.15 in the evening Andy's supervisor gave me a call to "confirm" details we then repeated the whole process above again! Needless to say I was starting to get a little frustrated now as Andy's supervisor continued to tell me I needed to send this authorisation form. I then again explained the situation and he said fine and quoted me a new price for the ticket £139 + charges = £159. I was then wondering had I been charged twice as I had been through this process earlier. Again, because everyone I was speaking to only seemed to have a rudimentary grasp of English, he failed to grasp my concern and just said it was fine and stop worrying.
I then logged on to my emails and had a receipt from Andy Perth for the amount quoted saying it was all 100% booked and non-refundable. About 15 minutes later I then had yet another phone call from Andy's supervisor saying he could not process the booking as he needed the authorisation form!!! Aaargghh!! By this time ebookers had billed my card.
After being put on hold (yet again) he eventually said that if I could not send the form they would have to cancel the tickets. I said "so basically if you do not have a fax or access to one you cannot book tickets via ebookers?" (I now question the name ebookers?). He said "yes".
What compounds this issue is that I find I have been penalised for not having a fax machine when you profess to be one of the countries leading "on-line" booking agencies? I also feel that this is a form of prejudice. Andy then said he could send the tickets to Southern Ireland at a cost of £15 (a lot different to £35). I frequently send 10 kilo parcels to Ireland at a cost of £36 and fail to see how a simple ticket envelope could cost £15 (unless ebookers has a policy of making money off the postage?). For the sake of my sanity I agreed anyway, and ended the call.
As a result of the above I do not feel my call was not handled by professionals. I also got the distinct impression that they found it amusing to keep repeating information and putting me on hold to see how long they could keep me on the phone without getting frustrated. Therefore I would like all the data you have re this booking on file, including customer comments by the booking agent, sent to me as part of the data protection act.
Please could you also answer the following for me:
I would like a satisfactory resolution to they way the call was handled
An outline of company policy and procedure when the customer does not have a fax machine
An outline of ebooker postage prices
As a UK call centre why did everyone I speak to fail to be able to effectively communicate in English?
If I do not receive a satisfactory reply to this email I shall take matters further. This will include. ABTA, Ombudsman, Watchdog and a posting of this letter to many influential internet investment/travel forums.
Whilst I understand the need to eliminate credit card fraud and protect yourselves and your customers, I feel the procedures for doing this need a considerable amount of attention.
I hope as an influential individual within this organisation you are able to tackle these issue and provide resolution to a share holder such as myself.
You may contact me on ******* or written correspondence to ******* (As I shall be in the UK for the next few weeks)
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter, I look forward to your feedback
Rant Over
Had a problem with ebookers earlier this year, but they did actually sort it out in the end and sent me a voucher as way of compensation.
Essentially i was told there was no drop off fee for renting a car from Lyon and returing it Rome Airport. In reality there was a £700 drop off fee. Ebookers refunded me the £700 a couple of weeks later with a letter of apology signed in blood.
Essentially i was told there was no drop off fee for renting a car from Lyon and returing it Rome Airport. In reality there was a £700 drop off fee. Ebookers refunded me the £700 a couple of weeks later with a letter of apology signed in blood.
Ebookers refunded me the £700 a couple of weeks later with a letter of apology signed in blood.[/quote]
At least you got a letter I wouldn't of minded so much just that no one spoke English!!!and no one seemed to think they had done anything wrong!!
theres an intersting thread about something similar at Lastminute.com are they all out to rip us off?
At least you got a letter I wouldn't of minded so much just that no one spoke English!!!and no one seemed to think they had done anything wrong!!
theres an intersting thread about something similar at Lastminute.com are they all out to rip us off?
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