This nightmare begins 5 days ago. Today is Wednesday, October 26th, approximately 3pm in the afternoon. I finally just made it home from Las Vegas after a horrible tireless, stressful and sleepless night and of course a 5-hour drive from Las Vegas to Oceanside, California.
On Saturday, October 22nd between noon and 2pm in the afternoon I decided to go online and use Travelocity to find a hotel flight last minute package for a business trip to Las Vegas. I went ahead and very surprised I found a round trip direct flight ticket on Spirit Airlines and 2 nights at the Paris Hotel for the amount of $347 dollars. How can I decline such an offer, I said to myself. I don't have to drive and can stay at a very nice hotel at the same time.
During the process of booking my reservation in Travelocity, the system wasn't allowing me to complete my transaction. At the end of my attempt says we are very sorry and are not able to complete your transaction at this time, please try again. I went ahead and tried again and at the end of my second attempt the system told me exact the same thing, we sorry you transaction can't not be completed at this time please try again later.
I decided to wait just a little, and proceed to restart my computer just in case my computer was acting up and decided to try once again. After my third attempt, the system once again says, "sorry your transaction can not be completed at this time, please try again."
At this point I decided to call directly Travelocity, and book with a customer service agent to avoid the opportunity of missing the great deal all together. By the time someone answered the phone after being on hold for a while, they went ahead and search for my package deal and not to my surprise the deal wasn't showing available any longer.
Well, I said, it looks like the hotel deal still available, can I at least reserve the room. They said absolutely! I proceed to book the hotel room at the Paris in Las Vegas and when the time to process method of payment came up, my card was declined. I said to myself, how can this be possible, I have over $1,200 dollars in my account and haven't purchased anything lately. They said, "contact your card because your bank would be able to help out."
So, I went ahead and call my bank. I told my bank what's going on with my card, trying to book a transaction for $182 dollars and my card was declined. They said, "no Mr. Morales I'm afraid to tell you that Travelocity charged your card 3 times for the amount of $347.75 so in total $1043.75 to be exact."
I said, no wonder I can't get the hotel booking done. My bank said, "Travelocity needs to call our merchant services department and clear the transaction so you can get your credit back into your account but they have to make the call themselves."
I call Travelocity, and talked to a customer service agent name Angelo, he was apologetic, pleasant and assured me that within 24 hours my account would be back in shape because they already submitted 3 different authorization numbers to credit back my account.
Within the same afternoon, I looked at my online banking and found no credits has been processed. I call them and they said, no worries the credits are already in the pipeline and would come through by tomorrow probably. I said well, that's fine I'll wait a little. So, not wanting to take chances, I booked the same deal on Hotels.com. I was able to find it, use the little money I got left on my account and got my reservation done and decided to do the 5-hour drive to Las Vegas instead.
After arriving in Las Vegas on the following day and checking into the Paris hotel, waited until that afternoon and look at my account around 5pm and nothing yet. I call Travelocity once again and explain my ordeal to about 2 different people. I asked for a supervisor, and they said I can't talk to a supervisor they are only available during the week until 4pm but assured me to give it time at least until Monday because my situation happened on a Saturday and sometimes takes a little longer.
I said, well today is Sunday, I'm in Las Vegas already so as long as I have my money back by Monday at noon I'll be ok. I went ahead and proceed with my conference in Las Vegas and business as usual and attend my seminars. During Monday, I took care of some clients and purchase little things in venues and trusted that everything was going to be fine.
Monday evening was already here and my money wasn't in my account yet. I proceed to call Travelocity and explain once again and they said, all we could do is already done, I should wait until midnight and it should be there for sure and by Tuesday morning I should have it.
At this point I continued being frustrated talking between my bank and Travelocity finding out the whole process as to how this is going to unfold and get me out of this mess. I started to be careful and not spending because I was going to extend my stay one extra night and wanted to make sure not to run out of money but, without not enough funds in my account they can't hold the room for another night.
Continued checking into the night until about 12:30am on Tuesday, and the money is not in my account yet. Went to all the conferences on Tuesday and by 1pm, I decided to make an executive decision and return back home. So, I call the front desk and requested an extra hour for late check out, packed my bags and drove to the gas station to fill my tank and drive home.
When I get to the gas station and attempt to process the transaction my card was declined again. I said, how can this be happening to me? I call my bank. No money. I called Travelocity, no help. I put all 3 parties on the phone involved and the bank can't do anything, they didn't took the money out of my account and can't control Travelocity systems and Travelocity already did all they can possibly do according to Enzo, the customer service agent that was trying to help.
At this point, I'm panicking, I don't know anyone in town. I'm 300 miles away from home with less than tank of gas, no money and no one I know to help. I became furious and all the frustration that has been building up to this point took over me. I was so upset that I couldn't concentrate well.
Drove to an empty shopping center parking lot and sat there waiting and thinking. Call Travelocity again and finally demanded a Supervisor because I wanted the headquarters address of Travelocity and when I asked for the name of the President and CEO finally they said, I need it to speak with a supervisor to get that information.
Oh well, well, so the supervisor I couldn't never get previously all of a sudden was one available. The supervisor came on the phone very apologetic saying all kind of things and I let her talk while I was trying to deflate my head full of anger, frustration and stress.
Finally I said, do you want to help me? Her name was Jenny, she said yes, how can I help you? I said, your system charged my account with over $1,000 dollars and I know the money will come back to my account but all I need is $75 dollars to fill my tank with gas and drive home, can you do that? She said, "so sorry can't do it unless your bank gets involve. She said she was going to call my bank and was trying to help but I already knew everything everyone has to say.
So I told her listen, " Jenny, I have to hang up right now because I only have a few hours of cell phone battery, very little gas and have to think quickly on my feet to figure out how to get out of this mess your system put me through. I said goodbye and hang up.
By then, all the meetings at the conference I was involved were finished. People I just met, were on the way to the airport to leave town, had no one in Las Vegas or back home to help out. My sister is back in New Jersey, couldn't help because they are 3 hours ahead. So, where did I end up the evening of October 25th, sleeping inside my car at the self parking lot of the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, yes you read it.
Worry all night, listening to people, cars, drunks, you name it, I heard it. And all because the inefficient and incompetent computer system Travelocity uses doesn't have the ability to reverse mistakes of transactions that were done without the completion of a purchase. So, what did I end up doing to fix my situation on the following morning after a miserable night.
I went inside the casino and used their restroom to wash my face and brush my teeth to get myself together. I call my sister in New Jersey because this morning obviously I still have no money on my bank account. She sent me $100 dollars via Western Union. I was able to put gas in my car, buy coffee at Starbucks and drove 300 miles home. Here I am home already, tired, still in disbelieve of what happened, very disappointed still and so upset and angry with your way of putting people through this and still can't find my way to rest because I wanted to have my mind with all the vivid experience to write this before I go to bed.
Oh by the way, today is Wednesday and still no money on my bank account yet. I worked in the hospitality industry for many years where customer service is a duty not a choice. I was very calmed with your CSR for as long as I could. I am very confident that is someone cares they'll find a way to reach me and I know they will apologize and I hope for your own sanity that the apology is genuine because the world is watching but here is what I know I'm going to do.
First of all, I will never, never, never, ever what so ever will use Travelocity services again. I know that without my business you'll survive and your top executives will still go home to their families and have nice lives because I'm just another angry customer, but I will create a blog on the internet talking about my story. I will spread the news via social media, twitter, every review site I can get my hands on and every way possible that I can amplify the word of mouth to others.
And yes my story would be told and hopefully enough decent people will hear me out and go to your competitors until you can find a way of changing your way of running your systems so you'll stop putting people through nightmares.
I am not rich financially by all means, but $1,000 dollars is a lot of money to me and when it disappears out of my bank account for 5 days or who knows for how much longer is my livelihood.
I have been using review sites for a very long time because I am a very good advocate of recognizing good people and good service all my life. Most of the time it is to talk about nice things about restaurants and the service community.
Here I am for the first time, living the situation that many consumers go through on a daily basis. I'm glad what happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas any more. Thanks to technology people can talk and share information so that's my mission to help others. As for you Travelocity management, if you really want to help me, fix it! Fix your system so my experience can spare future customers of going through the agony I have gone for the past 5 days and counting.