I'm very dissatisfied with the paid services of bestfares.com. If you haven't been there, it purports to hold a tremendous value in insider information to anyone that travels. For your $49.95 annual fee, you get a package of stuff and a monthly magazine.

After living through the first year, I still haven't got everything I paid for, and I have come to question the real value of this subscription.

I've cancelled my automatic renewal and fired off the below complaint. Take it as you will...

Mr. Tom Parsons
Best Fares

Please cancel my automatic subscription renewal that has already been charged to my credit card and credit the funds back to the card.

I am very disappointed with your services.

1) I have asked twice for my "free" copy of Insider Travel Secrets during the past year. No book has ever arrived, even though I was assured that it was on the way. I guess I'll never get what I supposedly paid for...

2) Your travel agency services are very restrictive, and this is mentioned nowhere in the materials. Upon prodding your agent (who could barely speak understandable English to begin with), she mentioned that she could only book fares on 4 or 5 airlines - even though the itinerary I had in mind was significantly less with another carrier. After 20 minutes of frustration with her, I had to call a "real" travel agent to get the deal that I had uncovered myself.

3) The discounts and other special offers in your membership kit are readily available elsewhere to anyone with just a little travel savvy. Packaging them up is a service, but not worth your fee.

4) Your website contains probably 75% of what winds up in the magazine, so the actual magazine itself is of little value. It's cheaply printed and really boring to read.

5) The "touted" subscriber-only offers are more hype than substance. I've tried to book four of them and been shot down every time for various reasons. Not much value if you can't get them...

I can go on, but I'm sure if anyone reads this, they get the point. As for Tom Parsons, you should spend more time actually running your business than plastering your face all over TV. You're ignoring the people like me who actually pay you money.... and now regret it.

I plan on sharing this experience with other web-savvy travellers so they can avoid the same trap I fell into.

Sincerely,

Kevin Howard