Booked with faregeek - i know!

abbas5001

Hi all,

I am not a frequent traveller and i think i'm made a naive mistake. Went onto a flight comparison site and firm called Faregeek came out cheapest by a considerable sum. Went ahead and booked it but my uncle said he would pay for it and used his card. A day later i get an email asking me to send copies of my card and ID as well as fill out a form with my card details. I presumed this was because it was me travelling but the card was in the name of another person (my uncle).

So i emailed back and asked if the problem was the different name on card and if that was the case i could just pay with my own card. They replied yes i can do that but i will still have to send in all the 'anti-fraud' stuff and they said just reply to the email with your card details, cvv2 , expiry date etc which i find crazy that they want to take payment like that rather than via a secure portal. Also, the way in which emails are sent and replied to is not very professional.

Afterwards i have searched and seen there are tons of bad reviews for this company so regret it now but i have 2 questions:

1) Although them asking for all the ID and photos of my card sounds very unusual, could there be something dodgy about this or are they just being overzealous on the fraud front?

2) I don't have much confidence in them now and would rather book elsewhere. I imagine if i tell them to cancel they will give charge excessive cancellation fees. My uncle said his card has not yet been charged, nor is it 'pending' either. Is there any way i can ensure this payment does not leave?

Many thanks

Voyager2002

What do you expect to go wrong? I take it that you are happy to pay the agreed price for the air ticket that they offer.

What I would do is as follows, and this is because I have confidence in the customer service offered by my credit card (Barclaycard): I would telephone them, and record the call. I would ask the agent to confirm that my desired flight is indeed available at the fare quoted, and confirm the dates of travel (and any other details that are important to you). I would then ask to make payment by telephone, providing all card details and so forth, seeking to record the agent confirming that it was indeed booked. If they needed anything further I would offer to provide it by post rather than email for security reasons. And I would ask the agent to confirm the date by which I would receive my e-ticket.

In the event that the agent then failed to provide the ticket at the agreed price by the date promised, I would be in a very strong position to go back to my card issuer and have the transaction cancelled rather than waiting for a refund from the agent.

abbas5001

Voyager2002 wrote: »

What do you expect to go wrong? I take it that you are happy to pay the agreed price for the air ticket that they offer.

What I would do is as follows, and this is because I have confidence in the customer service offered by my credit card (Barclaycard): I would telephone them, and record the call. I would ask the agent to confirm that my desired flight is indeed available at the fare quoted, and confirm the dates of travel (and any other details that are important to you). I would then ask to make payment by telephone, providing all card details and so forth, seeking to record the agent confirming that it was indeed booked. If they needed anything further I would offer to provide it by post rather than email for security reasons. And I would ask the agent to confirm the date by which I would receive my e-ticket.

In the event that the agent then failed to provide the ticket at the agreed price by the date promised, I would be in a very strong position to go back to my card issuer and have the transaction cancelled rather than waiting for a refund from the agent.

Now i have checked the reviews i have seen people who have been asked for these ID requirements often find out they have been victims of identity fraud weeks or months down the line which seems suspicious. The payment has not been taken yet, if i cancel my credit card will this stop a future transaction?

Technically i would be breaching contract but now i am not getting good vibes from the company and they are based overseas so don't see them pursuing me for £700

Alan_Bowen

I agree the reviews are dreadful with people not getting what was promised, it looks very much like a former Greek/UK/New York agency that collapsed a couple of years ago owing the airlines £48 million if I remember rightly. Why you would book with a company three thousand miles away that appears to be a member of no recognised agency association either in the US or here is now a question that should have been asked before but I would call the airline first to make sure no booking exists. They will need your specific flight details, if there is nothing there then walk away and if a debit appears on anyone's account make a chargeback on the basis that no booking was made.

If you look at their website carefully they do have a CC authorisation form which they would expect you to complete and that of itself would not put me off but the reviews certainly would