“Extremely Disappointing Experience with Travelstart – Avoid at All Costs
I had a truly frustrating experience with Travelstart, and I feel compelled to share my experience to warn others. My ordeal began when I booked a flight through Travelstart and, due to unforeseen circumstances, I had to cancel it. This led to an even worse situation: a delayed and unresolved refund process that has now dragged on for nearly a month.
After canceling my flight, I was issued a refund voucher by Qatar Airways for the unutilized ticket value of ZAR 16,223.74. The instructions I received from Qatar Airways clearly stated that I needed to contact Travelstart to process the refund. However, this is where the problems began. Despite reaching out to Travelstart multiple times and following up consistently, I have received no assistance or resolution regarding the refund. It’s incredibly frustrating to be stuck in this endless loop with no end in sight.
To make matters worse, I’ve received no acknowledgment of the serious issues at hand. I’ve filed a formal complaint and provided all necessary documentation, including the refund voucher, but Travelstart has completely ignored my requests. It feels as though my money has simply vanished, with no clear explanation or apology from the company.
The complete lack of customer service is astounding. Travelstart’s team is unresponsive and unhelpful, leaving customers stranded with unresolved issues and no recourse. This is not only highly inconvenient but also feels like a breach of trust. As a customer, I expect a certain level of professionalism and promptness when dealing with financial matters, yet I’ve been met with nothing but silence and frustration.
This experience has been an absolute nightmare, and I will never be booking through Travelstart again. Their lack of transparency, failure to fulfill their obligations, and overall poor customer support have destroyed any trust I had in them. I would strongly advise anyone considering Travelstart to look elsewhere for their travel needs, as this company has proven to be unreliable and unprofessional.”
“I made an error on the spelling of my surname on booking, they then charged me for a new full amount for a new ticket plus R1799 for a name change. They didn’t even bother to send me a ticket after the name change. They went on to tell me the refund process for me R47000 ticket is 6 to 8 weeks . They didn’t even bother to tell me or communicate I had to keep on calling for a response. Word service will never book with travel start again.”
“Only if I can rate them negative star I would. The story started when I requested a quote to change my return flight from Phuket to one way flight to Budapest.
I received a quote of 13k that I need to top up on my return flight price ticket. Understandably I requested for refund quote so I can weigh my options boom their thirty for robbery shows up
Please be very cautious with their Refund methods.
1. I request a refund quote that expires in 48 hours on 2023-05-03 below are the details:Please find the refund quote below:
Service fees AND Travel Extras: 275.09 (non-refundable)
Fare AND Taxes: 10045.45
Airline Penalty: 4088.50
Refund admin fee: 800.00
Refundable amount: 5156.95.
I called the airline to find out about their penalty against my flight ticket (gave them my ticket number and security check)
Their response was that THEIR PENALTY IS R1817.97at the moment against my ticket
Bare in mind on the email received from Travelstart it has the following paragraph
“Travelstart cannot be held responsible for changes and/or updates being made to airline policies. Nor are we able to override a decision made by an airline to amend their policy.”
It seems they have override the Penalty fee of the airline. The airline did advise they haven’t made any amendments in regards to their cancellation penalty in the last 48 hours
How did Travelstart reach to R4088.50 is beyond me.
I called them back today 2023-05-04 (within 48hrs of previous quote) to inform them of their unethical and immoral practices
I received a revised quote below is the message:
Please find the refund quote below:
Service fees AND Travel Extras: 275.09 (non-refundable)
Fare AND Taxes: 10045.45
Airline Penalty: 2294.50
Refund admin fee: 1000.00
Refundable amount: 6750.95
Randomly the Admin fee went up by R200 and airline penalties went down
This irrespective that their Refund admin fees can not change as per quote within 48hours time line
All messages I received from travelstar with above information has below signing off.
Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any further queries
Best regards,
Sangeetha at Travelstart”
“Despite being a 3rd party agent, Travelstart uses another 3rd party agent, Cartrawler for car hire bookings and they are thus able to rob people in pure daylight because one party just pushes fault to the other when there is a customer dispute. Excellent fraud strategy!”
