Hello,

The STA Travel Office at 52 Grosvenor Gardens in Victoria is misleading customers with their advertising. I was told by the customer service clerk that they had the "cheapest" deal on holidays. They also have many posters offering refunds for lower pricing. On this basis, I booked a holiday.

When I got home, out of curiousity, I searched and found a holiday with the same parameters I stipulated for £200 less.

STA Travel are saying that because it is for a different 3 star hotel, that they will not refund me the money. I said that I did not specifically ask for that hotel and that I was given false assurances. The manager told me that I should not have trusted anyone in the first place.

I think I deserve a full refund and an apology for having my time wasted. They have refused.

I am a frequent traveler, and I used to always choose STA Travel whenever I booked a flight because I liked the student tickets they offered on their website. As I booked my last flight, I made a mistake and called STA Travel to change the flight. All I got was an arrogant response that STA Travel does not rebook flights, and that the airlines I booked with would say the same thing. All I could do was cancel the flight and book a new one (the fee was almost as high as the ticket itself). I immediately called the airline and heard the complete opposite. The airlines told me that they have no access to the ticket, and only STA Travel can change the flight by calling the airlines. I was shocked when the airlines told me that STA Travel was probably trying to get rid of me or just too lazy to rebook the flight. After several calls and written complaints, the customer service finally said that they could change the flight, but by then all the flights on the date I needed were gone. In the end I had no choice but to cancel the flight. It cost me just as much or even more that if I would have booked directly with the airlines. I chose that it is not worth the money and hassle to ever book with STA Travel again.

I booked my ticket with sta travel in Canberra for Mexico to leave in January and return at the end of June. I paid 3060 dollars for the ticket; equivalent to 6 weeks of pay, working full-time. I arrived in Mexico without a problem, and it wasn't until my trip home that the problems began.
First of all I arrived at the airport 3 hours early to catch my flight from Mexico City to LA- 'i'm sorry miss we have no record of you booked on this flight'-
'no i booked this flight in September you must be mistaken'
'No we have no record of you on any of our systems.'
I arrived back at the house i was staying in and had to wait until 9 am Australian time to call sta travel.
'No your ticket here is different to the one we have'
Eventually the emplyee said because the mistake had been on the end of sta travel.
He told me he'd call me back but eventually i called 5 hours later.
He could get me a flight from mexico city to LAX. The ticket from LAX to Sydney was a little more dodgey and he gave me a confimation code with Tahiti airlines saying if i called them- they would know what i was talking about.

I got to LAX and was flying Tahiti airlines through Tahiti, New Zealand and Aukland-
I went to Tahiti Airlines where they said without the paper ticket from my travel agent they couldn't let me on board the aeroplane. Crying by this stage.
I went to Quantas where Ali an employee found the cheapest online rate for another ticket, let me use his mobile phone to call my parents and phoned Tahiti Airlines. We were unable to phone sta travel as it is not open on the weekend.
My dad bought another ticket for 1140 US dollars. And after being stranded at the airport for 13 hours i got home. The next day we compiled all the documents we had into a formal complaint we mailed to the branch of sta travel. A email was returned by the emplyee in question that it was not his fault,
then we added the email to the complaint which we sent to head office.
'We will get bac to you in 3 weeks time' Nothing, and its been five weeks. The behavior of sta travel has been disgraceful towards my family and I. I frequently travel to Mexico, but never would i book anything with them again. I would recommend no one ever makes the mistake of trusting them with any sort of travel arrangments, or duty whatsoever. They have no concern with customer service.