United.com sucks
Oct 9, 2004, 1:26 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: AS MVP Gold, Delta Silver, United Plat, Marriott Titanium, Hertz 5*, National Executive
Posts: 69
United.com sucks
I know, I know, this has been written a bunch of times here, so I will keep it brief, but I am angry.
Was working on booking a 14-day advance fare to get my wife out to visit me, had a flight all selected, went through the process, clicked purchase at 11:50pm.... after about a minute or two, got the dreaded red trianlge around an "!" but it said that my itinerary was being booked... to please wait. So I waited, but I didn't see anything happening. Now, at 11:55pm, clicked back to rebook, clicked purchase again, and again got a pause of 1min., then a different error message (no triangle) saying that the flight may have been booked and going back and hitting purchase again might result in double bookings, but to go back and check my trip information to make sure that I had entered everything properly (this doesn't make any sense if I'm not supposed to rebook). Anyway, you guessed it, by then it was midnight, new fare popped in at double the original fare, and I have no saved trips, and no confirmation e-mail. So, I'm SOL. Called the United.com customer support, they say they can't get the fare back and that the problem could have just been that the fare changed and wasn't avail. due to seat avail. (but then shouldn't it just tell you that ie: fare has increased $X amount, do you wish to continue -and why two different messages?). But no, it is my fault, I don't know what I'm doing, no acceptance of failure, no appology.
So, we know "they" read these posts... why do they continue to have such a crappy Web site represent them to the world?
(for the record, I book all my flights online, never have any problems on NWA and AA -or Spirit or flyi for that matter. I've booked with United.com several times before, found the site clunky, giving wild fares -like $13k + from WAS to DTW- but I never had a complete failure like tonight.)
Was working on booking a 14-day advance fare to get my wife out to visit me, had a flight all selected, went through the process, clicked purchase at 11:50pm.... after about a minute or two, got the dreaded red trianlge around an "!" but it said that my itinerary was being booked... to please wait. So I waited, but I didn't see anything happening. Now, at 11:55pm, clicked back to rebook, clicked purchase again, and again got a pause of 1min., then a different error message (no triangle) saying that the flight may have been booked and going back and hitting purchase again might result in double bookings, but to go back and check my trip information to make sure that I had entered everything properly (this doesn't make any sense if I'm not supposed to rebook). Anyway, you guessed it, by then it was midnight, new fare popped in at double the original fare, and I have no saved trips, and no confirmation e-mail. So, I'm SOL. Called the United.com customer support, they say they can't get the fare back and that the problem could have just been that the fare changed and wasn't avail. due to seat avail. (but then shouldn't it just tell you that ie: fare has increased $X amount, do you wish to continue -and why two different messages?). But no, it is my fault, I don't know what I'm doing, no acceptance of failure, no appology.
So, we know "they" read these posts... why do they continue to have such a crappy Web site represent them to the world?
(for the record, I book all my flights online, never have any problems on NWA and AA -or Spirit or flyi for that matter. I've booked with United.com several times before, found the site clunky, giving wild fares -like $13k + from WAS to DTW- but I never had a complete failure like tonight.)
Oct 9, 2004, 8:25 am
#2
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: VA, USA
Programs: Marriott LTT, United Club Life Member, UA *S
Posts: 995
Originally Posted by swdcflyer
So, we know "they" read these posts... why do they continue to have such a crappy Web site represent them to the world?
Nov 4, 2004, 2:39 pm
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: AS MVP Gold, Delta Silver, United Plat, Marriott Titanium, Hertz 5*, National Executive
Posts: 69
I thought you'd enjoy an update on the great United.com...
Well, an e-ticket itinerary was never posted to the "my itineraries" section of united.com, and a confirmation e-mail was never sent to our e-mail account. BUT, you guessed it, a ticket had been issued, or at least showed up on my cc statement.
I have now been on hold for an hour between United.com customer service and the refunds dept. United.com says they can't "see" the reservation because it is past travel dates, sent me to refunds. Shaka in the Chicago refunds dept. says that she can't offer a refund 1) because it is a non-refundable ticket 2) because I never changed the ticket prior to travel date. When I pointed out that no one from United ever told me I'd purchased a ticket, she was unphased. It wasn't until I asked her what her name and dept. was that she started cooperating a bit. She kept saying though that she couldn't issue a refund without me getting auth. from customer relations or from united.com customer support. Well, I pointed out that they had sent me to her. I finally got her to agree to conf. us all in together with united.com customer support, but somewhere in the 8+ minute hold time she dropped off so that I was on my own again with united.com customer support, which couldn't view my record!
Lori with United.com customer support understood my problem and wrote up a file on this for customer relations. But she says that she doubts that someone will get back to me until next week.
Just love united.com !!
(This is really too bad, I flew one of my best flights domestically ever last night on an SFO-IAD flt 190, the flight was smooth, the service was great, drinks served up every half hour, everyone very friendly.... the people in the air are trying... to bad they have no ground support)
Well, an e-ticket itinerary was never posted to the "my itineraries" section of united.com, and a confirmation e-mail was never sent to our e-mail account. BUT, you guessed it, a ticket had been issued, or at least showed up on my cc statement.
I have now been on hold for an hour between United.com customer service and the refunds dept. United.com says they can't "see" the reservation because it is past travel dates, sent me to refunds. Shaka in the Chicago refunds dept. says that she can't offer a refund 1) because it is a non-refundable ticket 2) because I never changed the ticket prior to travel date. When I pointed out that no one from United ever told me I'd purchased a ticket, she was unphased. It wasn't until I asked her what her name and dept. was that she started cooperating a bit. She kept saying though that she couldn't issue a refund without me getting auth. from customer relations or from united.com customer support. Well, I pointed out that they had sent me to her. I finally got her to agree to conf. us all in together with united.com customer support, but somewhere in the 8+ minute hold time she dropped off so that I was on my own again with united.com customer support, which couldn't view my record!
Lori with United.com customer support understood my problem and wrote up a file on this for customer relations. But she says that she doubts that someone will get back to me until next week.
Just love united.com !!
(This is really too bad, I flew one of my best flights domestically ever last night on an SFO-IAD flt 190, the flight was smooth, the service was great, drinks served up every half hour, everyone very friendly.... the people in the air are trying... to bad they have no ground support)
Nov 5, 2004, 12:19 pm
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: AS MVP Gold, Delta Silver, United Plat, Marriott Titanium, Hertz 5*, National Executive
Posts: 69
could it be they read this thread?
Well, within two hours of posting my last saga, and getting off the phone with helpful Lori, I received a phone call from United saying that they were refunding the full ticket price and e-mailing me a $50 electronic certificate.
I just got the certificate.
Good of them to clean it up, and I figure $50 is about what it was worth in time and frustration on this.
Let's hope they just fix their site, I like the airline.
I just got the certificate.
Good of them to clean it up, and I figure $50 is about what it was worth in time and frustration on this.
Let's hope they just fix their site, I like the airline.