American Airlines Refund rip off Tulsa Oklahoma

For 10 days, I have been trying to get a refund from American Airlines. I had a problem with the web site freezing up on me. I tried to purchase a ticket for my husband on June 18, 2008 and when I finished entering all the information and submitted it, the site froze. I waited 15-20 minutes to see if I received an e-mail confirmation and did not. So I tried again. Same thing. Waited 30 minutes this time and no e-mail confirmation. The third time, the ticket went through and I immediately recieved a record/reservation number. When I checked my bank statement, I had pending charges for 3 tickets. Now comes 3 e-mail confirmations all at once for all 3 tickets. I immediately called American and explained the problem. I was assured by the agent that when the pending charges dropped off my account, I would only be charged for 1 ticket as she cancelled the other 2. Essentiaaly she implied that this was my fault and not the web site. I should have called. Well, of course, I was charged for the 3 tickets. On June 23, I again spoke to customer service at American, even going through a supervisor, who told me that what I had previously been told, about not being charged, was incorrect. A refund would be issued and the refund had already been processed and the money would be credited to my acount on the 25th. Well, now it is the 27th, nd still no money! I have called the refund department for 3 days and over 100 calls, only to get the response "all agents are busy, call back later" E-mailed 2 times to refunds, once to AA Customer service and no replies. No matter who I am actually able to talk to, they give me the run around to call someone else. Talk about poor customer service! I live on disability and my husband on Social Security, so this $700+ is a lot of money. I am just thankful that the checks I had out didn't clear before my next SSI check was deposited. I can guarentee that American would not have paid for the bounced check charges had the checks cleared before they give my refund, if they ever do. Who knows how long I am going to have to wait. This is a rip off commonly known about companies holding your funds before refunding them, so they get interest on the money. Now I know that $700 isn't much to a big company like this, but think of the thousands of other people that this is happening to. They are sure fast enough, like immediately, charging you, but it takes them forever for them to send a refund to you. Somehow, someone, needs to put stop to these unfair practices.

Can you say RIP OFF, RIP OFF! Shame on you American. Your customer service is horrible, terrible, and down right non-existant!

Ozzie
Miami, Florida
U.S.A.