Victim Location 95136
Total money lost $1,176
Type of a scam Travel/Vacations
I booked a flight for 4 people on Friday night (~$1000) and received an email immediately saying that my order has not been confirmed and that it may take up to 72 hours for it to fully finish booking. My credit card had a pending charge for the amount. Between then and today, I called 3 times to ask about the status, since I have booked many flights over my lifetime and have never experienced this. It was really fishy. They kept telling me to check my email on the 20th (today). EXACTLY 72 hours after my booking, I got an email saying that my payment never went through and my appointment was cancelled. I called again to see what was going on. The woman said that my payment never went through and they could not book my flight. (Impossible) I called my credit card company using my husband’s phone while still having them on the line and confirmed that the $1000 indeed had gone through. I asked to talk to a GoToGate supervisor and they asked me (4 or 5 times in between holds) to call back later instead of waiting because it would take 30 mins for the supervisor. I told them I’d wait each time. It took less that 10 in total to get the supervisor, so the fact that all they wanted to do was get me off the phone made me even more skeptical. The supervisor said that the payment was not received and that the money taken from my account was being refunded and it would take 2 or 3 days for the refund to get to me. I kept asking “how can you refund something that has never been charged in the first place?” And also, “how come this has NEVER happened to me with any other online payment? Credit cards are instantly approved or denied!” He said that there are “cookies” from certain websites and began defining cookies to me. Sounded like he was reading a script! He kept repeating the same excuses every time. Finally, I looked up GoToGate reviews on google to see if other people have had the same issue and they have. There is a Twitter account full of stories about how they were scammed by this company. I asked the supervisor for HIS supervisor and he told me that he’d be available in 4 hours. This is what I’m pretty sure they’re doing since others say that they never received their refund.
I believe they put the 72 hour “hold” so that the money is no longer a “pending” charge on the credit card. Then they say your flight has been cancelled and you were never charged. If challenged, they deny that the money was taken from the account at first, hoping you give up. But they eventually tell you that you will be refunded in 2 days. Then you call in 2 days and they blame it on your bank. Then they keep telling you to call back in x amount of days until you give up.