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This is about the Turkish airline BoraJet. I was going from Istanbul to Ankara via BoraJet, but when I arrived at the airport, the flight was cancelled by the airline. The manager of BoraJet told me that I could buy a new ticket from another company and that they would pay me the difference (which was >600% more than the original ticket).

I have sent them all the necessary documentation (receipt), but still haven't received any response (nearly two weeks later.)

Was I scammed by BoraJet?

What can I do?

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    Welcome to the site. How did the manager make the promise? Orally, or in writing? How did you submit the receipt? In email or in regular mail? Have you tried phoning the company to complain about the delayed response? – Revetahw Sep 22 '16 at 10:46
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    He cames and orally told us that we can buy another ticket plus he gives me their email adress where I can send account number and receipt of the new ticket. – Chymmi Sep 22 '16 at 13:03
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    @JoeBlow Turkish Airlines is very good and Pegasus is usually fine. Every other company is probably horrible. – JonathanReez♦ Sep 22 '16 at 14:28
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    @JoeBlow sounds like a fair statistically meaningful advice – Antzi Sep 23 '16 at 2:38
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    Two weeks is nothing when it comes to airline refunds, a few months is more common. Just keep after them. – user13044 Sep 23 '16 at 4:36
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+100

Here is a goverment site in English version that you can fill a complaint form. It is dedicated for passanger's rights.

The passanger rights regulations (sorry, I could find only Turkish version) says that you have the right of compensation, if I understood right, it is 100 Euro. Assuming that you provided them your contact information without fault, you are dealing with "MADDE-6" (the cancellation of flight) and it links to "MADDE-8" (the compensation).

Direct link to complaint form.

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    From what I heard from people had similar experiences, the govt forms etc don't work. Mailing them (physical mail, post, not email. Mail is for borajet btw) is a good idea tho. – Ave Sep 23 '16 at 16:08
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    Hello, this answer helped me ! I got contacted by the turkish government and then by the airline itself (about 1 month later) and they send me compensation. Thank you! – Chymmi Jul 19 '17 at 17:58
  • I'm glad to help you @Chymmi – Ayhan Jul 21 '17 at 19:19
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If you bought the ticket using a debit/credit card, the easiest way of solving the situation is to file a chargeback with your bank, stating that you did not receive the product you've paid for and haven't received any compensation. It should be easy to prove the flight was cancelled and BoraJet won't be able to prove they've arranged alternative flights, so you should get your money back.

In my experience filing a chargeback forces the merchant to react quickly, as they don't want to be penalized by the bank.

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    Asking for a chargeback for a payment done with a Turkish debit card will certainly not be "easy", if possible at all... – user1073075 Sep 22 '16 at 10:51
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    @user1073075 Turkish banks don't support chargebacks? – JonathanReez♦ Sep 22 '16 at 11:17
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    OP didn't just want a chargeback, OP wanted the difference paid - as promised. Doing a chargeback - assuming it works - still leaves the OP stuck with the difference. – Aganju Sep 22 '16 at 11:23
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    The issue is that that original flight was cheap compare to ticket that I needed to bought one hour before departure. So if I will get chargeback it will be like 15% of the price. – Chymmi Sep 22 '16 at 13:02
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    @JoeBlow This is still the issuing bank and not MC/Visa that does the process. MC/Visa don't deal with consumers at all. Also, instant chargebacks were always a service offered by the banks and is neither required by MasterCard nor Visa (at least not in the last one or two decades). In at least a few countries that's not common at all, e.g. here in Germany you wait at least a few days for chargebacks. – neo Sep 22 '16 at 21:07
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What can I do?

In addition to the answer by @luchador, keep contacting the airline, asking about the status of your complaint. In some countries you just send a complaint/request one time and then wait to be contacted again. That is not how it works in all countries. In many countries (including the one I live in) you often have to fight to get a proper response.

Contact them many times. Always ask for the name of the person you're talking to (and write it down). If you get rejected or stonewalled multiple times, ask to speak to their supervisor. (Also, if you get this far without being reimbursed: To answer your question: Yes, by that point this would per definition be a scam by BoraJet.)

Email a link to this question to BoraJet

If such repeated contacting and complaining doesn't work, email a link to this question directly to BoraJet and explain that it's written by you due to said case and the fact that previous efforts have failed. (You can also leave other negative reviews online and include them too.) Show them that their policy/cheating is having a negative effect, however slight, on their reputation. It's actually not as innocuous as it may sound. Imagine if this question hit the Hot Network Questions here and got 10.000 views. This question has now hit the Hot Network Questions here and has a lot of views and upvotes.

Also:

If [SE says] a question has 1,000 views it probably has at least 2x real world views, and potentially as many as 5x real world views.

It could end up showing up does now show up in Google when people search for BoraJet (and could even end up being is now the second hit for "is BoraJet reliable." (I tested this in incognito mode.) This is not something BoraJet wants. It's very bad publicity. BoraJet may actually take notice and choose to reimburse you, asking you to update the question.

You could even find what common searches bring this result up and include those links in the email.

As @Willeke suggests in a comment, you could also post a link to this question elsewhere online, like social media, travel related sites, etc. Anything to get attention to the case helps you when you've already tried and failed while contacting BoraJet directly.

It is, however, difficult. I'm assuming you don't have the name of the manager who promised you to pay for the ticket. (If you do, you can call customer care and refer to him directly.)

As @JonathanReez says, if all of this fails your last resort is indeed to complain to your credit card company and accept the 85% loss.

In the future, when someone makes a promise like this, ask to get it in writing.

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  • If you use twitter, you can tweet this question and have some friends re-tweet it, hoping it spreads further. – Willeke♦ Sep 22 '16 at 17:19
  • @Willeke Good idea, added to answer. – Revetahw Sep 22 '16 at 17:35
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    “It could end up showing up in Google when people search for BoraJet” – This question is already at place 19 for a plain Google search for “BoraJet” for me. – hfs Sep 23 '16 at 13:10
  • @hfs That is awesome! :) And for me, it's the second hit for "is BoraJet reliable" :) (In incognito mode, no personalized results.) – Revetahw Sep 23 '16 at 13:34
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    This is indeed the case in Turkey. Also try mailing them with a proper, legal complaint to the complaint department, and they should be legally required to check that. – Ave Sep 23 '16 at 16:09
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In my opinion you were likely scammed by BoraJet. While oral promises such as "the manager of BoraJet told me that I could buy ticket via another company and they would pay me the difference" are typically legally binding, proving that such a promise with such a meaning was made would be very difficult. From a couple reviews I found online about them this seem to be typical for this company.

What you can do is to file a written complain within the airline; make sure you have the record of it. Give them some time to respond. There is a small chance they would stand up to this promise, but I wouldn't count on that.

Next step you can try to sue them in a court. Not just for the promise, but also because your flight was canceled the last minute, you incurred additional expenses, and BoraJet is liable for them. Talk to a litigation lawyer before that to find out what's your chance the Turkish court agrees with you, and whether you're ok with that.

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    I've had a couple of situations where my letters were ignored or met with silly excuses for months, yet the first one with "CC: attorney general" on the bottom got fast resolution. If instead of attorney general, it was some Turkish official concerned about Turkey's image with tourists, I would predict satisfaction. Tourists are valuable. – WGroleau Sep 22 '16 at 16:38
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    @WGroleau: this depends on the airline. If you're dealing with (self-censored) Ryanair, for example, you can cc: the President, the Pope, FBI, MI6 and Mossad - and this won't change a thing. – George Y. Sep 22 '16 at 16:42
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    The airline may not give a hoot what we think, but if the government does, they'll react. Question is whether you can identify a person who both cares and has the appropriate clout. In Peru, steal from your neighbor, wrist slap. Steal from a tourist, 25 years in prison. In Turkey, what? I don't know. – WGroleau Sep 22 '16 at 20:14

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