Dear Alitalia,
For the second time in as many months your incompetence has led me to share publicly my disappointment with your shoddy and questionable service. This time you have tricked me out of 300 Euros.
I booked a fully refundable, return fight from Tel Aviv to Cagliari. Before the first leg I called to cancel because I no longer needed to return to Tel Aviv. I was happy to either cancel the whole thing, or to just cancel to return (although I thought that might be unlikely). To my surprise, operator 814 told me that it was in fact possible to cancel only the return journey and that I would receive a refund of 630 Euros (half the original ticket price). I was delighted. The only thing, she said, was that I had to fly the first leg before the refund could be processed. I could simply call from Italy and I would receive 630 euros.
TO BE CLEAR: I WOULD HAVE CANCELLED THE WHOLE TICKET AT THIS POINT IF YOUR OPERATOR HAD NOT TOLD ME THIS.
On arrival in Italy I called as instructed and I was told that I could only have 300 Euros refund. I talked to 5 different operators who all told me different information (some said yes, some said no) and eventually I wrote to your complaints department who confirmed that, according to the policy, I could have only 300.
Let me be clear, again. I don’t care what your policy is. It is not my job to know your policy. It is your operators job to know your policy and it is your job to ensure that they don’t lie to passengers. As a passenger, I should not be expected to double check information received from your call centres.
I am now 300 euros out of pocket because of misinformation from your call center. Do you understand that? There is no other reason. If your call centre had given me the correct information, I would have cancelled my flight and received the whole 1,200 euro refund. But your call centre lied and now I’m out of pocket.
Please reconsider my case and refund me the 300 euros at your earlier convenience.
Best regards
Rob
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