Orbitz.com - charged $ 30 cancellation fee - and $ 20 additional fee to cancel paper tickets and get e-tickets

# 14 for April 17, 2003

Complaints.com received the following on April 16, 2003:

From: Clark, Leigh Ann [Email User]

RE: Orbitz.com - charged $ 30 cancellation fee - and $ 20 additional fee to cancel paper tickets and get e-tickets

I purchased 2 airline tickets through Orbitz...immediately after I hit "purchase" I realized I was getting paper tickets and not e-tickets. There was a $20 paper ticket fee and a $10 service fee. I had no problem with the fees,I was concerned with getting the tickets in time. I was driving to FL in 3 days and need to tickets by then. So I called Orbitz and was told that there is no way to guarantee they'll be there - basically I was screwed if they didn't show up. SO I hung up with the inept customer service rep and called back to talk to someone else. The next rep said, oh just buy another flight, I will cancel this one since it has not been ticketed yet. I had made it through the small window of time. I asked if there were charges for the flight and was told "no." When I checked my card today they did charge me $30 for the transaction, in addition to the $20 for the new purchase. So I called them thinking it'd be easy, simple mistake. Boy was I wrong, after waiting on hold for 45 minutes I was told I agreed to the charges by hitting "purchase." I can't believe they are charging me for paper tickets they aren't even printing or sending to me!!!!!! Of course the tickets and fees are non-refundable but then why wasn't I charged for the ticket - because they can't get away with that but they can get away with $30 here and there. After getting heated because I was getting no where I wanted to know who could do something for me, evidently the manager had no power and she didn't have a manager there, so I had to call headquarters. So I asked her name (I was speaking with a manager at that point) and she just said her first name and she wasn't required to give out her last name, so I asked for her ID number then or something to identify her, she said no and then wouldn't even tell me what location I was calling. She told me to call headquarters to resolve the charge issue. I called the number she gave me and it was the same place I had just reached her. The entire thing was so frustrating. I have contacted the credit card company...wonderful American express and the charge has been removed and it is being disputed. I can't believe they want me to pay a fee for this.