airfare.com AirFare.com - Incompetent & Deceptive Business Practices - bethesda, Maryland

Stay away from this agency - they are completely incompetent and are not willing to help once they have  have your money. 
I purchased a ticket to travel to South America at a decent airfare - I saved (I thought at least) about $ 100 compared with all of the other flights advertised on kayak.com.  First problem was that the first email from them notified me that there was a problem with my credit card and that I needed to call them in order to have the ticket issued.  I then realized that I had put the wrong CCV number on their form, so I thought, no big deal.  I called and was transferred to two other individuals before this was cleared up - I was ready to cancel the ticket purchase at this point (and I should have in retrospect) as I had then wasted 45 minutes clearing this up.
Three days later, I realized that I had to reschedule the trip for a week earlier and called AirFare.com to have this completed - I know that there is ordinarily a cancellation/change fee and was certainly willing to pay it since this was a change that I would be requesting.  After sitting on hold for an hour over the course of three phone calls (you tend to be disconnected when you are on hold after 10 - 15 minutes) I was then informed that if I wanted a change, I had to fax them a change form, and a front / back of my credit card.  Having changed flights in the past directly with the airlines, this should be a simple action - it was obvious that this was going to be painful.  I faxed back all of the information and then called to see how long it would be before the tickets would be reissued.  Again, on hold three times... another 45 minutes of wasted time.  No answer.  I work full-time and could not devote anymore time to this that day but sent off an email requesting action.  Next morning, no email answer, I called and was on hold again, spoke with several agents, who kept shuffling me to the next person.  Finally, I spoke with the customer service manager (Patrick) who told me that changes took three days - I asked why and he said that is how long it took - if I had booked this thru the airline they would have changed it within 10 minutes (I know because I have done it in the past).  I then explained that I had changed the day of my departure because another person was now coming with me and until I knew that I could change my ticket, the other person could not purchase their ticket (at this point my new departure date that I was requesting was in five days).  No satisfaction was coming my way so I demanded an answer and was told that i would have an answer with two hours (it was 11AM at this point) - at 3PM (4 hours later) I called again  and was told that there was no way that I would have an answer before 6PM.  At 7PM I called again and was told that I would have an answer before midnight.  At this point, I have calculated that I have invested about SIX hours of time on the phone trying to get this ticket changed and reissued.  Midnight came and went - at 1:31AM I received the following email

> Dear customer,

> rgarding your change request we did check for you with the airline and we got the response that the ticket is non-changable and non-refundable please advise that you will have to use this ticket otherwise you will lose your money .
>
> Thank you for booking with Airfare.com

> Airfare.com Team

> To speak to a live agent Call 1.800.AIR.FARE (247-3273) or 703.379.1777

In the morning, I called the airline directly - they said that since the ticket had been purchased thru airfare.com, that I had to make any change thru them also.  I then explained the above scenario and then they were more than happy to help me.  Fifteen minutes later the ticket had been changed and reissued.

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY - FRAUD and INCOMPETENCE