Skyauction.com Beware airline ticket auction rip-off! And rude New York employees!! Internet

Skyauction.com advertised a round trip flight from Los Angeles to London (England) with a min. bid of $20on Virgin. When you scrollaround and find the small print there's $595 in "Fees". Okay, so deceptive and suspicious but the bottom line is it's still about $300 cheaper than anyone else online.

You can bid and also set a bid limit. I did this. Someone else (I assume a travel agent) competed against me. There were 1-8 tickets available. I only wanted 1. I re-bid and set a limit that would total $720 (incl. the "Fees") if I won. I won.

I had a question before booking my dates. There's no phone # anywhere on the web site (if that's not a "red flag" waving frantically?) Anyhow, I emailed. The auto-response said someone will contact me soon. No one did. I sent another email. Another auto-response and no contact. I went to the CEO's blog (http://blogs.skyauction.com/ceo/) and let him know what crappy service I was getting as a 1st time customer.

A few days later I get an email providing a phone # that I could call. I call and Mellissa is the typical rude New Yorker trying to talk-over the customer. She offers me the flight on 3 different airlines--great! I ask what the winning bid was. She says $912 !! When I explain that I can get that from any online site and I won at $720 she says I can cancel if I want.

When I ask for clarification she gets defensive and makes little effort to conceal how little she wants to help. I end up talking to a manager, Maxine. She is just as rude and impatient and uninterested in listening. I ask for the bid history to be sent to me while we are on the call. She declines saying she'll send it after we hang up. I say, ok, then what's your direct line and I'll call you back. She refuses to tell me.

At this point I have lost patience and want nothing to do with this company or the kind of people they employ to represent them.

Sean
long beach, California
U.S.A.