Wholesale TravelCenter, Inc www.airfare.com Complaint / scam / ripoff by airfare.com Washington DC, Internet

TO AIRFARE.COM:

I rate airfare.com 0/10 for customer service, integrity, and fair business practices! I purchased a return ticket in July '12 for Toronto-San Francisco for $875.90 but unfortunately had to postpone my trip due to a personal emergency. I called last week on Thurs-09/20/12 to use my credit towards another return trip Toronto-San Francisco but have been getting a run-around, then got told I will have to pay $600(fare difference)+$350(penalty). I refused as I don't want to pay a total of $1800 (my initial credit, fare difference, and penalty) for a return ticket that is averaging $900-1100 on Kayak, Expedia, Priceline, Air Canada, and Westjet websites including airfare.com itself. I was told on Tues-09/25/12 that airfare.com will not help me and I will lose my $870.95 credit if I don't purchase one of the unreasonably priced ticket options.

Tired of waiting I booked a one way flight on Priceline Toronto-San Francisco for ~$350. I have spoken to several agents today to let me use my credit for half the original trip from San Francisco-Toronto but was told I will have to pay $200-400(fare difference)+$350(penalty) even far in advance. I refused again the going rate for a one way ticket from San Francisco-Toronto is between $300-500 on major travel websites versus the ~$1450 airfare.com is forcing me to pay or lose my credit.

I have spoken to at least 15-20 reps and no one understands me, hangs up, puts me long holds (30-45 mins), refuses to give an actual business address, asks me to call in the evening, and evening reps ask me to call next morning. Every agent has generic American names like Max, Thomas/David/Rex/Robert who somehow all have accents indicating a third world country. I googled airfare.com complaints and found poor reviews/ratings. I'm going to post my story on every site I can as airfare.com shouldn't be in business and strongly recommend everyone to stay away from airfare.com

Please give me my refund of $875.90 immediately or let me use my credit amount towards a new flight which is reasonably priced when compared to major travel sites like Kayak, Expedia, Priceline, Air Canada, Westjet, etc.