Last night, while buying a ticket on US Airways’ site, the final payment step would not complete. The screen instructed me to try again and then instructed that if the problem continued call the ticketing 800 number. I did, and was charged $25 for ticketing by phone.
Even though I repeated the online price three times and explained my situation and the Web outage to the ticketing agent, I was charged the $25 telephone purchase fee. I only discovered the “error” when I went back into the site a few minutes later to change my seats and saw the final price that had been charged to my credit card.
I immediately called the ticketing telephone line again and complained. I asked them to back out the $25 fee. I explained: Calling your telephone line was not my choice; it was at the direction of the site.
This new agent listed to me and told me that he would have to check with a supervisor. After about three minutes, he returned to the phone to inform me that he had checked my record and the first telephone agent had noted that I specifically agreed to being charged the $25 fee — a bald-faced lie. (Anyone who knows me or reads my columns, knows I would never accept such a charge.)
Obviously, this is not the end of the story. Eventually, I worked my way up to a supervisor who reversed the charge “as a courtesy.”
Hidden fees are one thing, but lying in order to fabricate fees seems a bit beyond the pale. Anyone with similar experiences about discovering fees never explained or that have mysteriously appeared on credit card bills, please comment.
In the meantime, when doing business with US Airways, check your receipts and reservations carefully. Their nickle-and-diming is getting downright dishonest.
