Beware when buying airline tickets via travel agencies: The TicketNPost Horror story
Posted on July 1, 2008
When I was refused to board the plane last Saturday bound for Tacloban, the next thing that came into my mind is to buy a new plane ticket and refund the void ticket which I bought from a travel agency.
So Saturday late afternoon, I went to the Philippine’s largest shopping mall, Mall of Asia and headed directly to TicketNPost travel agency. TicketNPost is located at the south wing of MOA, just beside the SMX Convention Center. That’s where I bought my Manila –Tacloban, Tacloban Manila plane tickets last May 1, 2008 at 6:30PM The date and time of transaction is clearly printed on the Official Receipt.
The staff do not know what to do or handle my issue. I told her I need a refund because I was refused by the carrier to board the plane. I then told her that according to the airline’s system, my plane ticket was marked as CANCELLED. But who cancelled my booking? In the first place, it was already paid. And I do not have any plan of cancelling it.
The staff then repeatedly tried to check my plane ticket but she herself cannot find my booking on the airline’s system. I then pressured her to call her boss and inform her that I need a full airline ticket refund right at that moment.
The manager relayed the message that refund can only be settled Monday (that was yesterday), because they really can’t refund the money that Saturday afternoon.
So after an hour of pressuring them with seemingly futile results, I agreed to their condition to receive the refund Monday via bank deposit. I gave my bank details to the staff. Additionally, I also gave her my mobile number so that she would contact me once the deposit has been made.
I trusted their promise. But I warned them that I will report this matter to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) if they failed to pay me.
Monday June 30, 2008 came and no deposit has been made.
So I have decided to go back to the TicketNPonst travel agency in Mall of Asia today. But just before I head straight to their office and berate their staff, I checked my bank account again and see if deposit has been made. Zero, none, zilch. My ATM available balance is only fifty pesos.
I then head to their office thinking that this time, I should now be getting a full refund of my plane ticket. But I was disappointed one again. A sign on their door reads “OFFLINE, we will be back in a few minutes.†The door’s locked. To pass time, I went to an internet café and checked my mailbox for an hour. An hour later I went back the story’s still the same. No staff available. Locked doors and the hand-written sign taped on the glass door.
It is quite obvious now that TicketNPost is not willing to give back my hard-earned money. Their manager was not even willing to talk to me when I ask their staff that I wanted to talk to their boss. All they do is just do business and not care about the concerns of their customers.
They cannot even keep up with their promise to pay me via bank deposit. God, it’s only one thousand nine hundred plus pesos. But as a consumer, I have to make sure that I am getting my money’s worth.. After all I have the right to complain as part of the RA 7394 or the Consumer Welfare Act.
ARTICLE 52. Unfair or Unconscionable Sales Act or Practice - An unfair or unconscionable sales act or practice by a seller or supplier in connection with a consumer transaction violates this Chapter whether it occurs before, during or after the consumer transaction. An act or practice shall be deemed unfair or uncionscionable wh enever the producer, manufacturer, distributor, supplier or seller, by taking advantage of the consumer’s physical or mental infirmity, ignorance, illiteracy, lack of time or the general conditions of the environment or surroundings, induces the consumer to enter into a sales or lease transaction Grossly inimical to the interests of the consumer or gross one-sided in favor of the producer, manufacturer, distributor, supplier or seller. In determining whether an act or practice is unfair and unconscionable, the following circumstances shall
be considered:
c) that when the consumer transaction was entered into, the consumer was unable to receive a
substantial benefit from the subject of the transaction;
Now, I will be forwarding this post to the DTI to formally register my complain regarding this TicketNPost Travel Agency who looks like do not have any intentions of giving my money back.
So if you, your family, or your friend will be travelling, better inform them not to book tours or get their cheap airline tickets at TicketNPost or you might end up having the same situation like me.
This is the second part of a two-part story. Part of the story can be found here
Please forward this email to your friends, and family. Also I would greatly appreciate it if you can post this in online forums and blogs so that more people will be aware of what TicketNPost is doing.
» Filed Under Random Thoughts
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Comments
12 Responses to ”Beware when buying airline tickets via travel agencies: The TicketNPost Horror story”
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Being the husband of a travel agency operator, one thing I really want to say is that not all travel agents are like that.
However, you are right in pursuing a case against the said travel agency. I’m surmising it’s a case of gross negligence on their part, and even if ticket refunds takes months to process, you deserve the money you paid them back, right now.
Next time, samin ka na lang magpabook
inavtravel.com / inavtravel [at] yahoo [dot] com
Ang ganda ng pag-plug ni Jon ng business. Ehehehe.
Go do what has to be done, Eric. It’s your right to be reporting this so that the said travel agency learn that they shouldn’t be doing that to their customers.
As in may sign pa na “offline”, noh? Parang sinadya that they’ll be “offline” on the day you’re supposed to get your refund. And why can’t they even refund P1,900?
even though Php 1,900 lang yan, they need to pay you back. It’s their fault why that ticket was cancelled. go and report this said agency so that others will not experience what you have gone through.
(langit ya! super kailinit gd eh noh?! I mean, ara ka na sa airport tapos all of a sudden indi ka nila pa sakyon sa plane. kasohi kag pabayra sila aside from the ticket worth kay ang kahuy-anan pa sina ya di bla?)
i’m in symphaty with you. i will post this in my blog— gloria karlos from tacloban
the best ang pluging ni John.. hehehe Good Job Eric.
that’s sad! hirap naman talaga ang ganyan. i still recommend that we buy tickets from the airline office itself.
thanks for sharing this. although it’s sad that you have to experience this but im sure many people will learn from this experience.
i hope makukuha mo ang refund plus the explanation and a feedback from DTI.
YUp, you file a complaint para magtanda ang mga magugulang na yan.
This is horrible! I’m definitely sharing this in my customer service blog!
Any updates on this?
Hassle yun!
gamitin mo ang koneksyon mo at sirain ang agency na yan!!
Im having the same dilemma with American Express Travel. Im trying to follow up an 18K refund since March pa. It seems di nila alam kung saan ifa-file, puro sila follow up na lang daw ako..
Sir Jon, pano ba ang process ng refund? Hope you can shed some light to this. Thanks
any updates about this issue?
I experience the same thing last wee I bought a 2day advance booking flight Manila-Cebu at Robinson’s Ermita ( i forgot the name of the agency at the first floor). Anyways, when i went to the airport to check in, they told me they cant find my name on their system and it says my ticket is ON-HOLD. They asked me if I still have a balance to the payment, I said I paid in full. They told me to contact the agency and I freaked out and told them to contact the agency themselves since they have the registration and phone number. I had an important meeting that afternoon in Cebu. The supervisor told me to wait and after a few minutes someone send me a text message of my new reference number. Someone called and told me to give the ref number to the teller and that my booking is ok. A sigh of relief but only after I told the caller (someone from the agency) a lot of “nice” cebuano words that she didnt understand…..