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Wholesale Flights

Wholesale Flights review: Bait and switch 47

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7:00 pm EDT
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Service Sucks and they are a total bait and switch operation. They will give you a really low fare on their website and ask you to call. I called them and the first thing I was asked if I was ready to buy tickets today! Apparently they would not spend time looking for tickets if I was not ready to buy today. I was ready.. so I said yes.. next thing he asks is if I've checked any prices . I thought the job of the agent was to check prices for me and not ask me for prices.. but anyway.. I said I had. So he then asks me what was the price I was seeing and which airline. So I gave him the ballpark price I was seeing online. So he does some checking for a couple of minutes and says that he cant find anything for that price and says that the lowest price he can find is almost double of the price I saw. He then says.. can we go to the website where you saw the price and both look at it! I'm like.. hello I called you because you are the travel agent supposed to look for prices and not because I want you to tell me how to search online! I told him that.. and he says he's trying to "help me"... and then he decides that he cant con me and asks me to call back when I want to buy tickets! DO NOT USE THIS AGENCY.

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47 comments
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SimplyUpset
Goleta, US
Feb 07, 2010 5:48 pm EST

I also bought a ticket with them in January 2010, had similar experience as described in other posts where the advertised price is much lower than the quoted price when you do call them. Still, I foolishly bought the ticket from them, gave them my credit card number, faxed back the ticket release form with my signature, and one day later received a confirmation phone call from the agent that they've received the ticket release form and have issued the ticket for me. At the time I thought, "wow, what a nice company, they took the time to call me to confirm as opposed to just sending me an email confirmation".

3 weeks later I happen to want to make a change to my departure day, so I called them. And they told me that they could not find my ticket and that I do not have a seat on the flight. I was completely shocked, because I could have gone to the airport on my original departure date and then found out that I have no seat! This was totally unacceptable, given that I have received an e-ticket from them and also a personal confirmation phone call. Then they promised to fix this and finally quoted me a new ticket which was $400 over what I had paid for back in January. I asked that they must honor the original price but they refused and was absolutely rude over the entire episode. I ended up emailing them a formal letter saying that I do not give them permission to charge my credit for any reason. But I feel uneasy enough that they have my credit card information, so I ended up cancelling that credit card and have my credit card company issue me a new card with a new number.

Long story short, here is my advice to all of you regarding this company:

1) When you think that they are giving you extra personal attention because they would pick up the phone and call you several times regarding your flights and confirmation, it is because they DO NOT want to send you emails which could serve as evidence and documentation if you ever want to pursue legal action.

2) If anything goes wrong with your flight ticket, you are basically screwed, because they are likely a semi-scam operation, so there is no amount of reasoning or logic that you can give them which will make them act in a honorable manner. I spoke to my agent Frank Krimotat and his manager Josh, and both are complete ###s.

3) Your best bet is not to go with them. Whatever discount they can give you is not going to be worth the trouble of having to deal with them later on. Their discount is not significant if you are willing to do a bit more research online. And honestly, do not trust any of the positive comments about this company. Remember that there is generally less incentive for happy customers to come to complaint sites like this one, so they are probably posted by their employees. Trust your fellow traveller who are reasonably upset about their experience with this company to take the time and write/post negative reviews.

I'll be posting this same comment in any complaint boards that I can find.

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smithsich
Burlingame, US
Jan 03, 2010 7:22 pm EST

I just called them and they were very pleasent to deal with. Spoke to one of their agents and booked a last minute ticket to Beijing. Sorry to see you guys had a bad experience, but I just had to say a good word since Im a happy customer.

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John S morris
Daly City, US
Dec 31, 2009 12:44 pm EST

FRUAD, SCAM, AND BAIT AND SWITCH

These three words best describe wholesale-flights.com. i was searching for a ticket to London when i came across them. the prices on there website were obviously fake but i wanted to double check. Then when i tried to call, i got hung up on after about 30 seconds. I had to call 3 times just to get to some one that would talk to me, There service sucks ! I spoke to the agent who found me a better deal than i could find, so I decided to buy the ticket(Bad Idea). After i gave him my credit card while i was waiting for some confirmation email so i decided to shop around for a bit more sites. Then i came across 1800flyeurope and i found the price there was 300 below what i was getting with that scam wholesale-flights.com so i called the agent back and i told him i don't want the tickets any more, he replied that they were issued and confirmed. After reading some reviews online i decided to call my credit card company to stop any and all charges then i called the airlines to double check if my ticket was actualy issued and it was not. they wait to issue the ticket until the get some Ticket release form that dose nothing but lock in the sale between ripoffee and ripoffer. I came real close to getting ripped off but after reading forms online i'm safe and sound thank you forms

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Beachan
Redwood City, US
Dec 22, 2009 7:16 pm EST

SCAM, FRAUD, ABSOLUTELY UNRELIABLE.

My husband and I bought tickets from them to the Philippines. First, the price quoted on the website ($998) was not the price he quoted on the phone ($1188). After giving him my credit card number to lock in the price, I received a confirmation email with the flight information; however, that too was not what was said on the phone (2 stops and not the promised 1 stop). Attached to the email was a mandatory Security Form, which when opened, was yet another price difference ($1250). I emailed him about this, and he said that the taxes were higher than what he quoted me and that he had no control over the taxes. Once I sent over the Security Form, I emailed him and asked if he was sending me over the tickets and he didn't respond. Being concerned I called NWA and they said that they flight was indeed confirmed, so I thought the guy was just a flake, but at least he got me the tickets.

Long story short, we arrived at the airport ready to go, and the agent says we don't have any tickets. The tickets were confirmed but never ticketed, and if we wanted to purchase them it would cost us $6000! I called the guy back (Greg) and he said that he tried to "contact" me - of course there were no emails or phone calls from him- and that the tickets were now gone. After speaking to him and his useless manager who insisted that I was lying and that it was my duty to contact them to make sure the tickets were purchased, I ended up hanging up and rebooking with Orbitz.

Called the CC company to stop all charges from them, which were pending... Full on scam. Don't be suckers like we were.

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thep
, US
Sep 30, 2009 8:57 pm EDT

i did the exact thing the other people...i got the run around too and he was really rude about it.

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EagerTraveller
London, GB
Sep 24, 2009 5:34 pm EDT

Worst company ever. Stay well away from them. Bait and switch plus tons of other dubious practices. ALso they have a sister company called whole-sale Fares which is the exact same kind of operations.

Avoid at all cost

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nickie86
San Francisco, US
Aug 07, 2009 3:01 am EDT

Just bought a ticket to rome save about $250 on the ticket. Agent was nice. Good luck