[chummer45]

I booked a round trip flight from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Cabo San Lucas in January for my Honeymoon in August with Continental. It cost me a bit over $1400. In the spring, United took over for Continental (under the merger), and promptly changed my flight, adding a layover and not compensating me in any way.

The night before my scheduled departure, I tried to print my tickets online. I could not find my departure flight (although I could see my return flight), and called United's customer service line, which routed me to India. The representative informed me that an agent at United had, at some point, cancelled my ticket (and my wife's ticket) for the departure flight without telling us, giving us a refund, or scheduling an alternative flight. In short, he said someone at United screwed up.

Despite this, the customer service representative did nothing to fix this mistake. First, he offered me a United flight that departed an entire day after my original flight. I told him that was unacceptable, and asked them to find a suitable replacement flight through another carrier. The service representative (at this point the supervisor) refused to do so, and insisted that the only option for me was to book the flight that left the next day. The representative expected me to delay my honeymoon by an entire day, and refused to compensate me in any way for United's mistake or even look for comparable flights on other airlines.

I told them that I was going to keep my return flight tickets (which had not been cancelled), that I would buy a ticket for a flight departing on the 20th through another airline, and I would expect United to cover all of my expenses upon my return from my honeymoon. The representative said "of course," and assured me that United would compensate me for that ticket. He didn't give me a refund at that time, saying that United would "take care of me." ended up booking a departing flight from Detroit (a 3 hour drive from Grand Rapids) for about $750 - that I paid out of pocket.

Upon return, I called united's customer service line to get my departing flight ticket price refunded and additional compensation for the cover flight and my inconvenience. I spent exactly two hours and ten minutes on the phone, being put on hold for long periods of time. Apparently, the problem was (according to United) that an agent had converted my round trip tickets into a one-way ticket, but hadn't refunded the amount owed for my departure flight that was cancelled. The representative informed me that United's refund department had my information and would decide how much to refund me in 7-10 days. I asked, well, what about the replacement ticket I had to buy? She said that after that 7-10 days I would have to contact customer care to see if United will do anything beyond refund me the money that it indisputably owes me for cancelling my ticket. She refused to do anything to just get me taken care of, and instead told me that the only way for me to contact customer care was through an online form.

So, it was on me, the aggrieved customer, to fill out an online form on United's website. So I filled it out and was issued a case ID number from customer care.

A week later, nothing had happened - no refund, and no response from the customer care department. I followed up by calling the refund department, which informed me that the department had no refund request on record. So in other words, the two hours and ten minutes I had spent on the phone with united to get that refund processed was a complete waste of time.

I was beyond frustrated at that point. The refund department person kept me on the phone another hour or so trying to figure it out, and then ultimately he just walked me through filling out a "refund request form" on United's website. So in other words, he did absolutely nothing for me. I could have submitted the request form on my own without him. He didn't seem to understand that I called him to have this problem fixed - not to have him help me understand the refund request form on United's website. In any event, my refund was submitted electronically, and I asked him to transfer me to customer care. He said ok.

But, he transferred me to the "reservations" department instead. The reservations department told me that they could not help me, because I was calling about a ticket/flight that already happened. I asked to be put through to customer care, but she told me that customers were not allowed to contact customer care on the phone. My ONLY option was to submit a contact customer care request through united's website (which I had already done a week ago and received no response), and refused to give me any other option. I went ahead and submitted yet another electronic request to United's customer care department.

Yet another week later, I called again. I got through to a supervisor, who told me (for the first time) that customer care was backlogged, and would take 4-6 weeks to process my request. She initially refused to even contact customer care to follow up, because the "4-6 weeks hasn't passed yet." Again, she refused to give me a phone number to contact customer care at, because she said customers are not allowed to contact customer care by phone. I asked her to call them directly for me, which she did, and she came back and told me that customer care had said "they'll get to it when they get to it." She again suggested that I submit another electronic request to customer care over United's website.

By this point, I had spent over 4 hours on the phone with United, and had gotten absolutely nowhere. United was still holding on to over $700 that it should have refunded me the second it cancelled my ticket. And, everyone was telling me that the only department that could help me was customer care, and I wasn't allowed to call customer care. So, United's policy is that customers aren't allowed to talk to "customer care."

To make matters worse, the next day I received an email from United's refund department - my refund request was denied, because (according to united) I had used my ticket. I know exactly why United's refund department did this - because someone at United had converted my ticket into a one-way ticket (since we were using the return flight). I had been through this with every person in the refund department that I had talked to. They said they understood what the problem was, and would fix it, but again they screwed it up.

I'm back to trying to call United's customer service line. At this point, my advice is (1) don't fly United, if you can avoid it, and (2) ANY TIME you get a customer service representative from India, demand to speak to a person in the United States. Every call center person I have talked to from India is simply unable to understand what the problem is, and I have found that they have essentially no authority to do anything except for very ministerial tasks (such as processing payments, changing reservations, etc.) The United Customer service representatives in India will NOT help you at all, and do not know how to get you the assistance you need to address your problem with the airline.

So, as of today, United still has not refunded my money or compensated me in any way, nearly three weeks after my honeymoon. I am beyond frustrated. For an airline to cancel my flight without telling me, refuse to fix its mistake, fail to issue a refund for the ticket that it cancelled, then upon my return make me spend over four hours on the phone just to have a united repeatedly fail to do what it promised to do (and is required to do) is completely unacceptable. I have never been treated this badly by a company, and have never encountered customer service representatives who cared so little about serving the customer.

I'm going to call them once again today to try to get some resolution, but it seems to me like United tries to make it as difficult as possible to get any level of customer service, and their employees couldn't care less about solving the customer's problem.

[jimworcs]

Utterly ridiculous... you should just write a letter advising United that they have 30 days to resolve your problem, refund the ticket and costs or you will file in small claims court. You will win... United are absolutely liable. This is negligence and they are responsible. I doubt they will even defend this.

[Gromit801]

Three things you can try:

1. Small Claims Court
2. Your state's Consumer Protection office
3. Conde Nast's omsbudsman (they seem to be pretty good at getting results)

Hope you get all your funds back.