Each week in Traveler’s File, we end the column with a standing list of travel-information resources that includes official avenues for consumer complaints. This week is no different. But the drawback of these avenues, good as they are, is that your complaint becomes a statistic; your problem is counted, yes, but your voice is not heard. And travelers just like you who most need the details, don’t get them–or didn’t until Internet sites created a grassroots network.
Browsing these Web sites could discourage even fearless traveler; it’s a hard thing to view a vacation purchase in the same harsh light as other day-to-day buying decisions. But as travel services become less and less personal, you’re better off knowing about the experiences other travelers have had with specific companies.
Here are three Web sites where you can submit you own complaint online and view those that others have lodged; and if the complaint has been resolved, it will be so noted.
www.airtravelcomplaints.com: Complaints are categorized by airline and by topics such as fares, meals, rude employees or mechanical problems.
www.ecomplaints.com: This is not just for the airlines; a multitude of categories covers interests as varied as, for example, banks, toys and lawyers. But six of its top 10 most complained-about companies are airlines. Under travel, you can search by company or industry and find grievances about filthy hotel rooms, rental car agencies that charged hidden fees and cruise lines that didn’t deliver travel documents. Problems about train and bus service are here, too, and–ironically–12 pages of unhappy purchases made over travel Web sites.
www.planetfeedback.com: Like ecomplaints.com, this site covers many industries, and in respect to travel tackles troubles beyond just airlines, though not as extensively as ecomplaints.com appears to. It takes more work than the other two sites to view individual complaints–a drawback–but makes up for it with a feature that lets you compare complaint/compliment graphs of companies within the same business.
–Toni Stroud
WHERE TO CALL
Airline complaints: Transportation Department, 202-366-2220, or at www.dot.gov.
Travel complaints: American Society of Travel Agents, 703-739-8739; or at www.astanet.com.
