[Superman0671]

Hello all,
I am going to get right to the issue. On July 29, 2013 my girlfriend was on the Avianca website looking to purchase tickets for her parents to travel to Colombia in mid November. She needed to purchase two tickets flying on the same flight, same day, and same times for both parents going to Colombia. However, her mother needed to return after about 3 weeks to the US. (Dallas, TX. to be exact). Her father would be returning after about 2 months. They were going to visit his ill mother. So she was having trouble completing the transaction because the system does not allow you to set up this type of departure/return on each ticket as one transaction. So she decided to just purchase separate tickets back to back so that they could be at least on the same flights going to Colombia, then each would have its own different return date. The ticket for her Father went through just fine. She then immediately went through the process for her mom’s ticket. This time when she tried to process the payment she received an error that the transaction could not go through and she needed to call the Avianca Customer Service department. She proceeded to do so and while on the line with the airline agent she was told that it is a system glitch, and that she should just try it again since it did not go through the first time. She then proceeded to go through the process again, and this time it showed as successful. A few days later on Aug. 1, 2013 to be exact, while out for lunch she attempted to use her bank card to purchase the food. This is the same bank card used to purchase the tickets. It would not go through. The merchant stated that it is showing a error of insufficient funds. She was confused and surprised because she knew that there should be plenty of funds left to cover a $25 lunch. So she checked the bank account associated with the bank card, and found that indeed there were a total of three charges for Avianca airline tickets, one ticket for her father at a price of $820.90, and two additional charges for her mother of, $776.90 and $776.90. As you can imagine she was extremely upset, but figured that it would be easy to see the mistake because when purchasing the tickets you must input the travelers name, passport number, etc. plus ID matching each person would be required at check in and no one else can use the ticket. So she assumed Avianca would gladly credit the amount for the extra ticket back onto the bank card, because it clearly shows two different ticket numbers for the exact same dates and times purchased on the exact same day, for the same person, and roughly the same time. So she contacted the airline customer service department and was told that they would not refund the money because it was not their fault that she purchased two tickets. When she explained the series of events, the agent still was of not help. She then asked to speak to a Supervisor. (FYI She is Colombian, and speaks Spanish, so she called the Spanish Customer service line)The agent stated that she didn't need to speak to a Supervisor because what she had told her was the same thing any Supervisor would tell her and no supervisor was available at this time. When my girlfriend persisted, the agent got even more rude and belligerent. At this point she had had enough and hung up. She then cooled off a bit and decided to call the US/English side of the company. She was then redirected to the Spanish department, but an agent that supposedly spoke English. This was not the outcome, the accent was so bad that she could barely communicate with the agent. She immediately asked again for a supervisor. Again she was given an excuse. This time it was the supervisor was in a meeting. So she asked for another supervisor, she was told they are all in a meeting. She then stated was there no one that she could speak with because this was ridiculous. She was then told that a supervisor was available but that they only spoke Spanish...LOL so you know what happened next. My girlfriend responded back to the agent IN SPANISH saying; "OK that is fine I would like to speak to them because I speak Spanish!" Dead silence was what came next from the agent. After a few moments the agent came back with well actually no supervisor is here. How convenient all of a sudden!!! The agent then started to ask for information about names dates of purchase and times of purchase. This information was provided and the agent was again asked if they were going to let her speak to a supervisor. The agent didn't even address this question and proceeded to say that a refund or investigation form of some kind needed to be filled out online then a decision would be made in 15 days as to if the money would be refunded or not. So we filled out the form and submitted it. This is not acceptable. It was very easy for this company to take and accept a prompt payment and transfer of funds, but now that they need to and should return funds they want to take 15+ days. As I am in management at a worldwide technology company, in the Customer Service organization, I know intimately how this stuff works, and a refund via electronic transfer does not take 15+ days to process. You can take funds in a moment. You as well can authorize funds to be credited in a moment. It may take some time to show back up on your account, but the approval and processing is just as instant, or 2-3 days at max. My question is, based on the information I have provided, does anyone have any advice or direction they could provide from a legal aspect, because almost $800 just taken for nothing is not money we had to give away or can afford.

[azstar]

Dispute the credit card charge when your statement comes.

[jimworcs]

It's bordering on fraud. Query credit card and map out exactly the circumstances. You will win, but if you don't go to small claims. You will definitely win then.