United Airlines played a dirty trick on my ealier this year. I'm sorry this is sorta long; I wish I could come up with a quicker way to ask this question, but hopefully after reading you will understand.
I admit, I did accidentally attempt to purchase a ticket - by phone, I called United directly - right before payday, not realizing that my direct deposit had not happened yet, so the transaction was declined. As soon as the lightbulb went on, I said, "Doh! Sorry, never mind!" And that was that. I even got an email to the effect, "Your transaction was declined, if you do not call us back with another form of payment within 24 hours, your reservation will be cancelled." I took no action.
I got paid a couple days later and bought a ticket from a different airline, because I found a better price.
Imagine my shock when, about two weeks later, I got a text notification to CHECK IN for my United flight. Yep, the one that the transaction was declined, the one that I never called back with a different form of payment. They went ahead and re-submitted my transaction TWO DAYS LATER, after the email confirming it had been declined, without me calling back, without my permission, and since my direct deposit had happened by that time, the transaction went through. But since I rarely check my email, I never saw the e-tickets, and now the time window for refunds was long gone. They refused to refund my money, nearly $700.
When I failed to get anywhere with them, I called my bank, and they initially agreed with me and refunded my money, but a few months later they inexplicably reversed their decision and took the money back.
This situation has had me in tears, and I have given up ever seeing my money again. A credit does me no good because I will drive, take a bus, or walk before I will ever fly United again, they can go straight to you know where.
I did some research, and spoke to a real person that audits PCI compliance, and they said it is not in violation to keep credit card numbers and 3 digit codes for a period of time, as long as it's in an encrypted database, so, incredibly, that is allowed.
I found some federal agencies to complain to, but nobody is going to help me get my money back. Can you guys help me with this? Am I the only person in the world this has happened to? I spent literally days and days googling and never found another single incident like this. I had to stop because it was seriously stressing me out.
It's not just about the money; what they did is WRONG.
arbitrarily-random7 karma
United Airlines played a dirty trick on my ealier this year. I'm sorry this is sorta long; I wish I could come up with a quicker way to ask this question, but hopefully after reading you will understand.
I admit, I did accidentally attempt to purchase a ticket - by phone, I called United directly - right before payday, not realizing that my direct deposit had not happened yet, so the transaction was declined. As soon as the lightbulb went on, I said, "Doh! Sorry, never mind!" And that was that. I even got an email to the effect, "Your transaction was declined, if you do not call us back with another form of payment within 24 hours, your reservation will be cancelled." I took no action.
I got paid a couple days later and bought a ticket from a different airline, because I found a better price.
Imagine my shock when, about two weeks later, I got a text notification to CHECK IN for my United flight. Yep, the one that the transaction was declined, the one that I never called back with a different form of payment. They went ahead and re-submitted my transaction TWO DAYS LATER, after the email confirming it had been declined, without me calling back, without my permission, and since my direct deposit had happened by that time, the transaction went through. But since I rarely check my email, I never saw the e-tickets, and now the time window for refunds was long gone. They refused to refund my money, nearly $700.
When I failed to get anywhere with them, I called my bank, and they initially agreed with me and refunded my money, but a few months later they inexplicably reversed their decision and took the money back.
This situation has had me in tears, and I have given up ever seeing my money again. A credit does me no good because I will drive, take a bus, or walk before I will ever fly United again, they can go straight to you know where.
I did some research, and spoke to a real person that audits PCI compliance, and they said it is not in violation to keep credit card numbers and 3 digit codes for a period of time, as long as it's in an encrypted database, so, incredibly, that is allowed.
I found some federal agencies to complain to, but nobody is going to help me get my money back. Can you guys help me with this? Am I the only person in the world this has happened to? I spent literally days and days googling and never found another single incident like this. I had to stop because it was seriously stressing me out.
It's not just about the money; what they did is WRONG.
View HistoryShare Link