My Indian minions

[drscott]

Just spent an hour chasing down a charge from Travelocity for "insurance" (next to useless) on our upcoming trip to NYC/PA. I specifically removed the insurance when I ordered the tickets, and I remember being irritated that they were making the add-on the default, but here's $39.90 for it on AmEx...

Spent half an hour on the phone with Travelocity (really an Indian call center.) The first level attempted to deflect saying that since it had been over 30 days since booking, it was too late. The second level was very much slicker, and tried to overwhelm me with detail, the fact I had been sent an email showing the charge (buried far down in the statement), that a policy had ben issued and a number assigned (expensive operation, assigning a number!)

I told the slick gentleman I was not going to waste any more time with him since it would be faster to start a chargeback with AmEx. After I hung up, he called back and said they would reverse the charge and cancel the policy.

So naturally I went to AmEx and had that Indian call center dispute the charge. It would be foolish to believe a company that already shows it is not trustworthy. Despite their gay-positive marketing, then, Travelocity is now off the list of vendors I will use.

My Indians are better than their Indians.

Comments

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

I removed Travelocity from consideration as my travel vendor for many of the reasons you state. The best way to make a point is to be part of making sure their business declines.

[unzeugmatic.livejournal.com]

There's a column in the Business section of the Sunday Times called "The Haggler", and one week he wrote about what was apparently this identical situation. The man who was charged for insurance is somebody who as a sort of lifetime obsession does his own actuarial sorts of analysis and is somebody who would never take insurance like this, and, like you, specifically remembered being irritated and making a point of turning it down. He also checked his web confirmation -- which he had on file -- and it didn't mention this insurance. Turns out the insurance is a different company than whoever he bought his ticket from, so it wasn't on that statement -- it came later in a statement with a subject line that had nothing to do with travel insurance and got into a spam filter.

My recollection is that the company insisted the mistake is never on their part, that it's always on the part of the person who agreed to the insurance and that this man's story is unique. But you keep hearing this story.

The Haggler column has actually deal with travel insurance at various times, and the writer thinks it's one of the biggest ripoffs around, in the sense that the companies that offer it have a reputation for finding ways of refusing to pay out that defy common sense.

[pklexton.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a scam, and it does not speak highly of Travelocity that it is involved. You really have to stay on your toes. Last week Hertz tried to charge me for the "full tank" option, even though I specifically said no - fortunately they corrected it without a squawk. Then there was that online movie ticket scam a couple of years ago, where I got automatically signed up for some rewards program that billed a small amount per month to my credit card - I didn't even notice it for a few months, but it was so clearly a scam that they quickly credited the charge without arguing once I caught it.

And don't even get me started on medical billing ... the biggest scam of all.

[midendian.livejournal.com]

I just buy directly from airline websites... amazingly, airlines are less scummy than booking companies / travel agencies.