Am I eligible for chargeback after online agent is refusing to issue airline ticket that I paid for?

farazk86

Hi all,

I am just looking for some guidance here as I have no experience with requesting chargebacks as I have never had the need to request one.

But a few days ago, I was looking for tickets for my travel dates and found a ticket for my dates on an online booking website called viaflights. The price seemed reasonable for my dates so I went ahead and purchased the ticket and paid for it using my HSBC mastercard credit card.

I immediately got a confirmation email and in the email it was mentioned that this is not the ticket and an e-ticket will be issued within 24 - 48 hours. And if one is not issued by then then I should call this number.

So, after 48 hours, I got nothing, and when I called the number they basically told me that the ticket I bought is no longer available, as this was a promotional ticket and its not valid anymore. And I now have the following 3 options:

• That I would have to change my dates (which I cant do) and if I want to change the dates or buy a non-promotional ticket then I have to pay them an additional £200. This is more expensive than even the airlines own website.
• I can wait until my travel date and be kept on the "chance" list. I go to the airport and if there is any cancellation, they will let me board, but if no one cancelled then I will be refused boarding and only then will I get my full refund.
• Cancel the ticket and receive 0% refund, as thats our policy.

I refused to all three options and told them that I should be issued the ticket I bought and if it was not available then it should not have been advertised.

She said that this is our policy and that this was already mentioned in the "Terms & Conditions" that you check marked and said I agree to these when buying the ticket.

I checked the Terms ad Conditions and there is the following line there that applies to my case and what the agent on the phone was referring to, the subject to availability part I think: 

When we receive and accept your booking we will process it (subject to availability) and debit payment from you. From this point cancellation charges will apply. A confirmation e-mail and invoice will be sent to you. As soon as you receive the confirmation email and invoice, please check the details carefully and inform us immediately if anything appears to be incorrect as it may not be possible to make changes later. Any changes to the booking after it has been made will attract additional cost payable by you including charges of the suppliers as well as administration fee as applicable.

This is extremely dodgy and I felt like I was scammed, when I told the agent on the phone that I will request a charge back from my bank as you did not issue the ticket I bought, she got angry and started saying "dont threaten us, this will not help you, and you agreed to the terms and conditions".

What are my options now please, I want to be done with this and get an actual ticket so that I can book my holidays for that period. I will buy directly from the airline from now on.

But is my case eligible for a charge back? Should I call my bank? What proof would be required? Because when I told them on phone that I want these options in writing, she said that she cant do that..

Would appreciate any help and guidance please.

Thanks

Caz3121

you made a booking request to ask them to provide a ticket for £x (as per advertised) They are unable to do that so are not able to supply what you have paid for.
There are similar stories on TrustPilot (together with the obvious fake positive reviews.)
Advise your bank that you have not been supplied with what you paid for and request chargeback. Viaflights won't be able to demonstrate that they have provided a flight.

born_again

Be aware that you will not be able to do a chargeback till the day after the flight was due. Even then the company can contest, with the info they provided you with.

Westin

They are playing you.

You are not cancelling - they can’t provide the flight at the fare indicated and have told you such.

Check if they have actually charged your card. If they have then contact your card provider.

Use a reputable travel agent or book direct with the airline.  Nothing good will come of searching for cheap tickets on the internet and clicking on links to companies you have never heard of before.  

BTW, the 128 City Road, London address is a just a mail box/company registration address.

farazk86

Caz3121 said:

you made a booking request to ask them to provide a ticket for £x (as per advertised) They are unable to do that so are not able to supply what you have paid for.
There are similar stories on TrustPilot (together with the obvious fake positive reviews.)
Advise your bank that you have not been supplied with what you paid for and request chargeback. Viaflights won't be able to demonstrate that they have provided a flight.

Thank you, thats what I thought as well, as they did not provide me the ticket I bought. But do the T&C's quoted come into play here? Because they just told me to wait and "maybe" the ticket becomes available. 

I want to request a chargeback and end this connection with company. They said on call to wait and "maybe" ticket becomes available, and if not I'll go on the chance list. I want to request chargeback and send an email to them to tell in writing I am not interested anymore, as I dont want them to issue a ticket on a very slim maybe, after I have bought another one from the airline. But I dont want this email to appear as a formal cancellation request, which would according to them cancel and give me 0% refund.

 Can I tell my card company that they were supposed to issue within 48 hours, which they have not, and im not interested anymore and want to request chargeack.

born_again said:

Be aware that you will not be able to do a chargeback till the day after the flight was due. Even then the company can contest, with the info they provided you with.

Hmmm... even though they did not provide me the ticket and in the email they said an e-ticket will be issued within 24-48 hours? which has not been issued yet.

Westin said:

They are playing you.

You are not cancelling - they can’t provide the flight at the fare indicated and have told you such.

Check if they have actually charged your card. If they have then contact your card provider.

Use a reputable travel agent or book direct with the airline.  Nothing good will come of searching for cheap tickets on the internet and clicking on links to companies you have never heard of before.  

BTW, the 128 City Road, London address is a just a mail box/company registration address.

Wow, talk about scam companies. Yes, I have learned my lesson, this was first time something like this happened of them advertising tickets that are not even available. 

Yes, they did charge my card and it appears as a charge on my card in the HSBC mobile app.

Yes, but they have told me that verbally and will not give it in writing and are just telling me to wait till the date of departure. Would requesting a chargeback and emailing the company (as I explained/asked above in my reply to the first comment) be a reasonable way to go about this, as I dont want any email to the company to be misused for a cancellation request.

Thanks

Voyager2002

born_again said:

Be aware that you will not be able to do a chargeback till the day after the flight was due. Even then the company can contest, with the info they provided you with.

Why do you think this?

Voyager2002

farazk86 said:

Caz3121 said:

you made a booking request to ask them to provide a ticket for £x (as per advertised) They are unable to do that so are not able to supply what you have paid for.
There are similar stories on TrustPilot (together with the obvious fake positive reviews.)
Advise your bank that you have not been supplied with what you paid for and request chargeback. Viaflights won't be able to demonstrate that they have provided a flight.

Thank you, thats what I thought as well, as they did not provide me the ticket I bought. But do the T&C's quoted come into play here? Because they just told me to wait and "maybe" the ticket becomes available. 

I want to request a chargeback and end this connection with company. They said on call to wait and "maybe" ticket becomes available, and if not I'll go on the chance list. I want to request chargeback and send an email to them to tell in writing I am not interested anymore, as I dont want them to issue a ticket on a very slim maybe, after I have bought another one from the airline. But I dont want this email to appear as a formal cancellation request, which would according to them cancel and give me 0% refund.

 Can I tell my card company that they were supposed to issue within 48 hours, which they have not, and im not interested anymore and want to request chargeack.

born_again said:

Be aware that you will not be able to do a chargeback till the day after the flight was due. Even then the company can contest, with the info they provided you with.

Hmmm... even though they did not provide me the ticket and in the email they said an e-ticket will be issued within 24-48 hours? which has not been issued yet.

Westin said:

They are playing you.

You are not cancelling - they can’t provide the flight at the fare indicated and have told you such.

Check if they have actually charged your card. If they have then contact your card provider.

Use a reputable travel agent or book direct with the airline.  Nothing good will come of searching for cheap tickets on the internet and clicking on links to companies you have never heard of before.  

BTW, the 128 City Road, London address is a just a mail box/company registration address.

Wow, talk about scam companies. Yes, I have learned my lesson, this was first time something like this happened of them advertising tickets that are not even available. 

Yes, they did charge my card and it appears as a charge on my card in the HSBC mobile app.

Yes, but they have told me that verbally and will not give it in writing and are just telling me to wait till the date of departure. Would requesting a chargeback and emailing the company (as I explained/asked above in my reply to the first comment) be a reasonable way to go about this, as I dont want any email to the company to be misused for a cancellation request.

Thanks

Contact your card provider rather than being fobbed off by the agent...

You agreed with the agent that they would provide you with a ticket, but they have failed to do so. Clear breach of contract; clear case for chargeback.

DullGreyGuy

Voyager2002 said:

born_again said:

Be aware that you will not be able to do a chargeback till the day after the flight was due. Even then the company can contest, with the info they provided you with.

Why do you think this?

Because chargeback schemes have rules about how much time you have to give a merchant and, for example, if a parcel is 1 day late you cannot immediately do a chargeback as goods not delivered.

I dont have detailed knowledge of the scheme rules but have seen very few threads on chargebacks where born_again has been proven wrong (ignoring gestures of good will naturally)

Westin said:

BTW, the 128 City Road, London address is a just a mail box/company registration address.

Assuming we are looking at the same company they moved from listing City Road as their address in May last year, that said the new address they list is an accountancy firm's so not a vast improvement. 

Alan_Bowen

Owned and operated from India by the looks of it. People should never assume a co.uk business is based here but it makes it a lot easier to deal with if it is. 

saajan_12

farazk86 said:

I checked the Terms ad Conditions and there is the following line there that applies to my case and what the agent on the phone was referring to, the subject to availability part I think: 

When we receive and accept your booking we will process it (subject to availability) and debit payment from you. From this point cancellation charges will apply. A confirmation e-mail and invoice will be sent to you. As soon as you receive the confirmation email and invoice, please check the details carefully and inform us immediately if anything appears to be incorrect as it may not be possible to make changes later. Any changes to the booking after it has been made will attract additional cost payable by you including charges of the suppliers as well as administration fee as applicable.

I don't see their point from that bit of the T&Cs.. The bit in bold seems the most relevant, ie when you send the booking its still subject to availability. If available, they will accept, process and debit the payment. So if they have debited the payment I would interpret that as it was available so they should fulfull the contract and supply the ticket. Even if they say it wasn't accepted as unavailable, then they shouldn't have debited the payment per their own T&Cs, so now that they have inadvertently, they should return it. 

The rest just talks about if you cancel which you aren't doing. 

farazk86

Thanks for the help and replies everyone. I called HSBC and put in a dispute. It was a fairly simple process and they did not ask for any documented proof or T&C's documents as I thought they would. They said these will only be needed if the company disputes or challenges the dispute.

I also asked that I now have to book another ticket and dont want to wait for 45 days, and dont want them coming around and saying that "oops, our bad, here is your ticket" after I have purchased another ticket. The guy said that this is not possible as they had promised a delivery date of 48 hours and they did not deliver within that. So providing a ticket later is of no use.

I'll keep this thread updated about the outcome

saajan_12 said:

farazk86 said:

I checked the Terms ad Conditions and there is the following line there that applies to my case and what the agent on the phone was referring to, the subject to availability part I think: 

When we receive and accept your booking we will process it (subject to availability) and debit payment from you. From this point cancellation charges will apply. A confirmation e-mail and invoice will be sent to you. As soon as you receive the confirmation email and invoice, please check the details carefully and inform us immediately if anything appears to be incorrect as it may not be possible to make changes later. Any changes to the booking after it has been made will attract additional cost payable by you including charges of the suppliers as well as administration fee as applicable.

I don't see their point from that bit of the T&Cs.. The bit in bold seems the most relevant, ie when you send the booking its still subject to availability. If available, they will accept, process and debit the payment. So if they have debited the payment I would interpret that as it was available so they should fulfull the contract and supply the ticket. Even if they say it wasn't accepted as unavailable, then they shouldn't have debited the payment per their own T&Cs, so now that they have inadvertently, they should return it. 

The rest just talks about if you cancel which you aren't doing. 

Thank you, this clarification was very helpful