My husband lives in Brazil and I in Canada, though he is a native of Nigeria. Recently, his grandmother passed away and he needed to travel on short notice to Nigeria for the burial. I phoned my credit card company and let them know I would be making a large purchase through Orbitz.com and purchased a ticket for him to fly in 5 days time. It took most of the money we had to pay for the flight. We received confirmations and updates from Orbitz, and had NO WAY of knowing what they were doing until he went to check in for his flight and found that they had voided his ticket. This was done withouth the courtesy of a CALL, EMAIL or notification of any kind. Also, mypre-paid credit card had been processed for the full amount.
Upon calling their customer service department, which required a total hold time of 1 hour and 15 minutes (my husband is standing in the airport the whole time PANICKING, not knowing what was going on) I was told that they believed it was a fraudulently purchased ticket because of my husband's nationality being Nigerian. They proceeded to explain to me that his name was "similar to someone who at some time had been connected with something relating to POSSIBLE fraud out of Brazil." It was not the same name, just a similar one, not the same passport or the same birthdate... not the SAME PERSON!!! My husband's family name is a very common one in Nigeria, and his passport CLEARLY shows all travel dates - this is, in fact, the first time he has ever left Brazil since arriving 5 years ago. He is a good and hard-working man, and was humiliated and treated like a thief for trying to go home and take care of his grandmother's resting.
They told me that my charges were immediately reversed on the 13th, but as of the 19th, it was still billed on my pre-paid credit card... as a result we do not have the means to get him home for the service. They did not even have the good grace to apologize for what they have put us through, and have yet to give me my money back. I will NEVER deal with this company again, and I have used them many times in the past.
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