Justfly.com investigated by Better Business Bureau
BBB has received 51 complaints and 1,449 inquiries about Justfly.com since March
If you're on the hunt for discounted airfare, the Atlantic Better Business Bureau is warning people to stay away from Justfly.com.
The third-party airline ticket issuer's website lists a Prince Edward Island address, but the BBB says the business isn't actually located in Summerside and it has its mail rerouted to an unknown location.
The bureau says it has received 51 complaints and 1,449 inquiries about Justfly since March 5. Most complaints come from the United States, but they're also coming in from British Columbia and Alberta.
Justfly has responded to five of the 51 complaints.
Peter Moorhouse, the president of BBB Atlantic, told CBC News the bureau is trying to work with Jusfly, but the company has not responded to many of its inquiries.
"In many cases, the company just hasn't tried to work things out and hasn't tried to make a good faith effort to resolve that situation with the customer," he said.
Some of the complaints include:
- The quoted price is different than what the customer's credit card is charged.
- Passengers' names are misspelled, resulting in more charges to change.
- The travel date and times are different from the original booking.
- There's no emailed booking confirmation as promised.
- Being charged more for a cancellation fee than what was originally quoted.
Other complainants reported that when they called Justfly, they were put on hold for "excessive periods" and some were eventually cut off.
The Better Business Bureau says it believes Justfly is connected to the website Flighthub, which has had its accreditation revoked by the Better Business Bureau of Eastern Ontario.
"In that case, there were the same kind of complaints, the same nature of complaints, and there's also a similarity in that the name of one of the people responding to complaints," said Moorhouse.
"We think there's actually a connection between the two companies and they may be one and the same. But we don't know."
He said Justfly is not an accredited business and, at this point, would not qualify for accreditation because of their lack of response.
Moorhouse said there are a few things consumers can do when buying airline tickets through a third party, such as looking for additional contact information. He advised checking with BBB for details on a company's track record on reliability and responding to customer concerns.
"If a company is only accessible online, you're putting yourself at significant risk if there's no other way to get in contact with them," Moorhouse said.