When trying to purchase a flight ticket on Cheaptickets.ch and selecting payment as bank transfer, it asked for our online Banking user ID and then asked to submit the banks account's password directly on their webpage. If instead, it would have directed us to our bank's website (like any other website would), that would not raise red flag. This sounded very strange so we decided to pay through paypal although it was 7 francs more. After the payment was completed, we got the booking number back and then the popup on the website indicated that if the ticket doesn't arrive in one hour in your inbox/email, we should contact their customer service. It never did. We emailed their customer service many times and even posted on their facebook page but got no reply. Its been three days so basically it doesn't look like we are getting any ticket or our money back.
We have bought a flight ticket from them once before without problems. But at this time, it seems that the money is lost and their customer service is non-existent. Calling them is 70 cents a minute and based on online reviews, it seems that it won't do any good either.
Did we just got scammed and are there others here who have similar experiences?
I'm wondering why anyone would consider a bank transfer as payment for an airline ticket instead of a credit card. AFAIK, you have zero protection with a bank transfer, whereas with a CC you can get them involved for any disputes.
Back on-topic - OP, you have a few choices - pay the 70 cents a minute to hopefully not lose more money, or send a registered letter. Alternatively, get PayPal involved to help resolve the dispute.
I guess that if the web site is capable of presenting a bogus online banking login screen, it also capable of presenting a plausible looking PayPal login screen.
Probably, PayPal will know nothing about your transaction, and you should be thinking of changing you PayPal password, if you still can that is, and if not, contacting PayPal directly using verifiable contact details for them (not from the cheapflights home page)
I recently had an issue with them also, resorted to calling them and it was resolved within a few minutes on the phone. I had the same issue as eticket was never emailed. the customer services person emailed it to me whilst we were on the phone.
I then checked the airline website to confirm that it was in fact booked, all good.
You should DEFINITELY open a dispute in Paypal. No messing about - just DO it. I once had something similar with the shop website owned by the son of a very famous Swiss racing driver who died in the 60s-70s. I paid by Paypal and after 3 weeks nothing arrived (the shop was based in Fribourg, so packet post would have taken 2-3 days at the most). I had sent emails after 10 days, then another, then another - tried to phone but the number was invalid. So I opened a dispute in Paypal. He didn't reply to their request for an explanation and they credited my account with the full sum.
In addition if the company is charging 7 Fr more for Paypal payments - does it say that on their website ? Because if it does, you can report them to Paypal for that as well, because Paypal regulations for businesses state that you are not allowed to "publicly" charge extra for Paypal payments, i.e. you can't say "Paypal fee: 4.5%" but you CAN call the fee something else, such as "payment handling charge".
Yep, me too bought tickets on this site and travelled without any issues. It might be a technical glitch. Once I tried calling them and yes, they are NOT based in Switzerland and emails take a while to be returned, But in general positive experience for me.
Business now-a-days is forced to cut costs or go out of business. Customer sevice run out of asia etc. And to be very frank if I was running this business I would have crap customer service too so that I dont have to deal with, certain types. Like a "firewall" that shields the business from time wasters. Who wants to spend hours every day dealing with a bunch of sheep asking silly questions?
I mean no dissrespect to the OP because in some cases this "firewall" is overdone and getting through to get service is next to impossible.
Offices by a large are a complete mess. OK there are exceptions but who can say to me that the entire business world is NOT in despirate need of good managers?
Just bear this in mind when issues arise and its customer service time. High turnover and brutal requests by the manager/owner to ignore when possible. Not good but this is the way it is. Many people just stress out and give up trying to get their money back or solve issues. Wrong approach. Dont take it personaly and push through the "firewall".
I have to say I've always found them wonderful to be honest and have booked two trips already this week with them and likely a third next week.
I tend to only use credit card though as this gives me a bunch of other insurances from my card company to complement my trip, Maybe using other payment methods are just not well handled by their back end systems.
I will say e-mailing them is a little slow on feedback but calling them will always get it sorted out quickly.
Some examples of this was where we were looking at a flight that had an odd connection and they very nicely explained everything about how it would work and what we could expect in terms of protection and risks. The second occasion was when I was booking a trip home for my grandfathers funeral and made a mistake with the booking return date, I realized immediately and called them and the very friendly english speaking person fixed it in about 3 minutes for me.
I know it feels painful to pay to call for support on your purchase but each time I've done it I felt I got my moneys worth.
Just bought tickets from GVA to MNL about 2 weeks ago. Everything went smooth and I got the best deal according to Skyscanner. I got the tickets in my email in about 30 minutes.