After I finished my Appalachian Trail hike this summer I returned to a friends farm in Florida where I stayed for a few days. I booked a flight back home through a company called Vayama and subsequently wished I hadn’t. There followed 3 months of emails and phone calls trying to get back £320 after they cancelled my reservation and refused to refund my money. After 3 months of pulling my hair out I finally lost my temper with them tonight and sent them the following email. Please excuse the occasional swear word, I hope you enjoy, and please forward / share / pass on to show what are a truly shockling company this is with monumentaly diabolical customer service.
Enjoy!
Email reads:
David,
You can’t see a ‘specific reference to the vendor whose services were used’?
– ‘Vayama’ is noted under ‘Item Title’ just over half way down the statement I just emailed you.
You also do not see the ‘associated amount of charge?’
– Try looking under, strangely enough, ‘Total Amount’, or indeed ‘Item Amount,’ again on the statement I just emailed you.
Let me just run through the cock up off a service your company has managed to implement since September:
– Flight booked over the internet, paid for despite being very dubious as to why Vayama were offering British Airways tickets for £320 when BA themselves wanted £1000.
– Email received from Vayama within the hour advising reservation had been cancelled because ‘My credit card could not be authorised in time’, despite the obvious fact that it had in fact been debited immediately after the booking was made, a credit card booking takes seconds to complete David, why do Vayama require more than an hour?
– Email also advised refund would be made within 72 hours – this despite the very obvious fact that if my card was not debited, why were you offering a refund?
– 72 hours later refund not received.
– There followed 2 months of calls from Vayama personnel, most of whom I couldn’t even understand. Most of whom did not have a clue as to what was going on, most of whom asked me for the number of my bank, most of whom either told me my card had been debited, or told me it hadn’t.
– Several 3 way calls between me, a member of your staff and a member of Paypal who confirmed on several occasions that the money had been debited from my account.
– Several 3 way calls between me, a member of your staff and a member of Paypal Credit Card who also confirmed on several occasions that the money had been debited from my account.
– You come on board asking me for statements from Paypal that I have already sent and asking stupid questions such as your last email.
I really can’t be bothered with Vayama bullshit any more David. It has been clear to me from day one that the company you work for is in the business of taking people’s money under the pretence of reserving a flight seat and then either advising the seat has been taken but they can offer another at more cost, or if they really can’t be bothered, just cancelling it and holding onto the money for a few months. Do this to a few hundred people in a few days and that’s a nice little sum sitting in Vayamas account earning interest.
I’m been more than polite and forthcoming to you during our communications but now I really can’t be bothered anymore. The whole thing is a just a headache which takes up too much of my time which is better spent earning money to try and replace the money your company has stolen off me. Whilst, strangely, I do have a certain amount of respect for you as a person I want no more dealings with you whatsoever.
As far as the company who you work for is concerned, I have no respect at all for. I have more respect for someone like, how can I put this? I know, someone of trustworthy character like Hitler perhaps, who has recently admitted to being a serial paedophile, who pisses on his mother’s breakfast whilst she isn’t looking, mugs old age pensioners and shoots dogs just for pleasure.
Vayama can go and fuck themselves. Oh, and I posted on Facebook and Twitter.
No offence intended . . .
Sincerely,
Keith Foskett