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Report: #1186072

Complaint Review: TAM Brazilian Airlines - Nationwide

  • Submitted:
  • Updated:
  • Reported By: Wynn Uhr — Las Vegas Nevada
  • Author Confirmed What's this?
  • Why?
  • TAM Brazilian Airlines Nationwide USA

TAM Brazilian Airlines, TAM, TAM Airlines Brazil, plane tickets, flights, refund, refusal, go-around, wild goose chase, rude, endless cycling, cycle, non-responsive Online, with HQs on the West Coast ,New York , Florida, ... Internet & more

*Author of original report: I can't accept

*Author of original report: Final Outcome

*General Comment: Lucky!!!

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I've been waiting over 5 months for just over $500 from a confirmed, approved refund of a plane ticket for TAM Brazilian Airlines that I bought through Priceline. I actually can't confirm whether or not there has really been contact, because "the airline won't allow customers to listen in on calls to the refund department about their case."

When you call TAM, once you’ve navigated the phone menus and initial agents, which often with an absurdly thick accent in English that makes just getting where you need to challenging, the agent that is supposed to handle the issue treats you like you’re the one ripping them off, instead of the other way around. When YOU manage to calm THEM down, they then look at the situation, and tell you that company rules prohibit you, the customer, from talking to the refund team about your case; that it’s the agency’s job to contact them.

Only that according to Priceline, they call the number, are answered by a rude TAM representative that tells them they have to send an email, which is then answered with another email saying they have to call a number, and so forth, cycling on and on and on. While I can’t confirm that Priceline has made contact, because these communications about my case seem to be more secret than the NSA’s data collections, the Priceline agents seem to be much more genuine in helping, unless you’re lucky enough to get an exception with TAM.

In sum, a justified and approved refund for the unused return portion of a trip cancelled well in advance, with costs already calculated and penalties already paid, should NOT take over 5 months to process. Neither of these million dollar companies would consider giving $500+ loans out with 0% interest, without any means of contacting the ‘borrower’ directly. So as I poor bachelor, I certainly shouldn't be expected to either. TAM seems to think they can keep someone's money even if they don't render the service it was supposed to pay for, all without providing someone to even talk to the customer about it.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 10/31/2014 12:18 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/tam-brazilian-airlines/nationwide/tam-brazilian-airlines-tam-tam-airlines-brazil-plane-tickets-flights-refund-refusal-1186072. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
2Author
1Consumer
0Employee/Owner

#3 Author of original report

I can't accept

AUTHOR: - ()

POSTED: Sunday, May 24, 2015

Given the absurd lengths I go to try and understand all parties' positions, I can't accept a situation I've evaluated as wrong with an 'I'm lucky' attitude. The fact that airlines have managed to make unfairly gouging people standard, doesn't make it right, and actually means more people need to stand up against it.

Regarding the travel agents, I tried booking with human agents before booking with Priceline, and even with a "discount" for being referred, the difference in ticket price was between $500-$1000 more. I would happily pay  $200 to not have to deal with the nonsense I put up with, but since I didn't plan to change the ticket, and as a poor bachelor, the difference with humans (who understandably need to make a living) made that unfeasible. Obviously, given that the above price differences were beyond my means, I understand all too well your pain at losing the first ticket entirely and having them bend you over for the new last minute ticket. However...

In terms of airlines, a change several months in advance is quite different from a last minute change, even due to emergency. To be truly objective, while I'm sure your claim was honest, some consumers are pretty shameless (I wouldn't put it beyond some smart-allec to call a hangover an emergency), so in the case of last minute cancellations there's a grey area where, even if you imagine running the airline, you might have to have a general policy of refusing to refund non-airline caused emergencies due to the disproportional amount of trouble that would have to be invested in just pinning down exactly what constitutes an "emergency", verifying said emergency, recuperating lost income, etc. Ultimately, refunding a last minute change is a double hit to an airline company, who is losing the profit from the purchased ticket and other potential customers who might have flown. That said, I've never heard an airline justify what they did to you with the last minute ticket price...

I would love to hear from someone not in the PR department and who knows the industry explain why, if someone is willing to essentially help the airline by filling one of the last seats on a plane, the airline feels it justified to charge that 'fortune' you referred to. Flying an empty seat somewhere isn't profitable, and I can't think of any way that last minute purchases would do anything but help them make more on a flight (they have to have more than the amount of gas it would take to get the plane to its destination full, ditto with snacks and drinks, maybe hot meals could be a factor, but nothing to justify those $4K tickets for flights that normally cost a couple hundred). Finally, even if they are full, offering a $20-$300 voucher to a local who's willing to delay their flight usually works out (and would be a justifiable price difference).

Now, if you were asking for a full refund things would again be different, since making cheap last minute options available to flexible fliers might not help recuperate the loss to the point of making it profitable. That means we'd be asking a large business to not make as much money for the sake of a human emergency, which nowadays is unfortunately as unlikely as people going to the checkout person instead of machine at grocery stores, simply because those members of their community will be out of a job otherwise.

 

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#2 Author of original report

Final Outcome

AUTHOR: - ()

POSTED: Sunday, May 24, 2015

About 9 months after it all began and a couple more follow-up calls I was told by Priceline that they received the code they needed to process the refund. 4 months later (about 12 months since the simple verified request for a refund was started) I finally got the money back.

Big thanks to RipOffReport for providing a productive way to channel my frustration with these two companies, in particular TAM.

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#1 General Comment

Lucky!!!

AUTHOR: Tyg - ()

POSTED: Friday, October 31, 2014

 Sorry but YOU got lucky!! And I mean EXTREMELY lucky!!!!! Most airline flights online are PREPAID flights. I know that sounds funny but its the ONLY way those online travel sites get those low prices. Last time I used PL, I had a family emergency come up while I was on layover and had to purchase a whole new ticket and get back quickly. Fist, that ticket cost me a small fortune!!! Second the UNUSED portion of my ticket which was both ways was NOT refunded!! I was told the whole PREPAID blah blah blah!!! My point is that IF they are giving you a refund consider yourself lucky it ONLY took 5 months. Normally they just tell YOU NO!!!!! NO!!! NO!!!! NON REFUNDABLE!!!! PREPAID!!! Go suck a spike!!! So take what you can get and STAY AWAY from those online travel sites. There IS an industry that YOU can trust with your travel needs. Its called a TRAVEL AGENCY!!! Yes they STILL exist!!!! It JUST requires that YOU step away from the computer and GO talk to an ACTUAL human being.

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