[Update: 4:40 p.m. ET] Southwest Airlines has updated their Facebook page with information for customers affected by a computer glitch that has caused excessive credit card charges for countless people taking part in a 24-hour deal on Friday, and according to our readers writing in, during normal transactions as well .
"Information and update for Customers who recently experienced multiple bookings in error:
The overwhelming response from Customers who took advantage of our August 3 limited time offer launched to celebrate three million Fans on Facebook, created website performance issues at various times during the day. We realize that some Customers were charged more than once for the same reservation and we want to ensure you that we have all hands on deck, actively working to process refunds for any duplicate charges incurred.
Here is a status of those efforts:
First, we want you to know that we are working to identify duplicate bookings and charges and are proactively cancelling those additional reservations, actively processing refunds to the Customer. In order to process the refunds as quickly as possible, we have called in additional staff to support these efforts.
For those Customers who used debit cards and have received overdraft fees as a result of the additional charges, we will process a reimbursement for all overdraft fees that were caused by duplicate charges from Southwest for a single purchase. If you incurred overdraft fees, please fax documentation of those fees via a letter from your bank or a copy of your account showing the fees to 877-506-0154.
Southwest Airlines is committed to providing Customers with exceptional service both online and onboard. It is our goal to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and minimize any inconvenience to you, our valued Customers."
When Southwest Airlines offered a limited-time promotion on Friday to celebrate reaching three million fans on Facebook, it seems they accidentally racked up duplicate charges on the credit cards of their loyal customers.
The LUZ2LIKE promo code was meant to offer customers 50% off when booking a round-trip with their "Wanna Get Away" fares during seven specific travel dates in the fall. The promo, which arrived by e-mail to customers, only lasted until midnight on Friday.
On Saturday, their Facebook page was flooded with differing stories describing the trials, unresolved issues and even a few happy endings for customers trying to shake off the excess charges. Some lucky folks even posted that they sailed on through the process without a glitch.
When Southwest became aware of the problem, they offered a statement on Twitter, and a similar, expanded version on their Facebook page.
"Thank you for your excitement in taking advantage of the limited-time offer we shared today in celebration of reaching three million Fans on Facebook. Due to the overwhelming response, we experienced some site performance issues at various times throughout the day. We apologize to our Customers for any inconvenience and are proactively cancelling any duplicate itineraries that may have occurred."
Bobi Fox, a customer who wanted to take advantage of the promo code, shared her experience with CNN. She purchased directly off of Southwest's website.
"Customers who purchased tonight got no tickets, no confirmation, and many, like me, were charged on their credit cards repeatedly until credit card companies stopped the purchase process – some customers say they have been called by their credit card companies questioning fraud purchases," she said. " My credit card might be typical, my purchase was repeated 9 times (cost in excess of $2300 for a one pair of round trip tickets from STL to SLC). This is not unlike what everyone else is experiencing. Current wait time hold with Southwest customer service: More than two hours."
Southwest interacted with commenters to let them know that customer service representatives were working around the clock to help reverse the transactions and cancel the excess flights.
But that didn't soothe all of the complaints, and it seems that people are doing a lot of waiting - waiting for charges to be erased, flights to be cancelled and even ticket confirmations for the flights they want.
"I had $4000 limit on my card, I now have zero available because of 25 confirmations," John Seymour wrote on the airline's Facebook page. "I called when I was having errors, and the CS rep told me the website was slammed, and to keep hitting purchase and it would eventually go through. Looks like all of them went through.
"I waited almost three hours last night to speak to someone. Finally got someone on the phone, and I had to remember which specific flights I had picked so that she could look up the flights and cancel the duplicates. She had to send the confirmation for the one flight I did want twice before it ever made it to me. I woke up this morning to 25 or so confirmations, and 25 or so cancellation emails. The charges remain pending on my credit card, so I can't use that card to book my hotel room in Vegas for my trip. Thanks for ruining my Friday night. Wish I had never seen this deal. And I was so glad when you came to Atlanta...."
"36 confirmations," Bella Ventresca shared. "Over $7,000.00 in charges to my account, and 2 hours on the phone with SWA. I thought that this was just me, but apparently SOMEONE really dropped the ball here. PLUS it will take 7-10 days to process returns? Unacceptable."
One of the common threads of discord? Waiting on the phone for hours to speak with a customer service rep, and then being cut off the phone call when a human voice finally answered. The comments even spread to other activity on the page, like when Southwest changed their Facebook cover photo from the promotion to a banner showing the airline.
"The Flash Sale made a nightmare out of my day," June Wood wrote. "It just happened to be on a day that I needed to make arrangements but not one of the Flash dates. I was on hold the first time for 3 1/2 hours; then someone picked up the phone and click it was gone again. I tried numerous times throughout the day and evening I was put on hold again for 45 minutes. I was working on the booking from 6pm 8/3 until 2am 8/4. The reps seemed to be exhausted and not able to think clearly. Nice try but don't repeat."
Others were not amused when some Southwest fans began posting comments in support of the airline, such as "Best airline out there," and "I love Southwest."
"More disturbing than being charged $5000 dollars for a flight to Cleveland and waiting to see if I'm charged over limit fees as a result, is the number of people who are posting pointless "I love Southwest" comments or telling people not to be upset," Steve Kafkas wrote on the Facebook page."
"I'm a loyal Southwest customer, but at the moment I don't know that I would risk buying another ticket from Southwest. How about a statement with a few more specifics than "we're working on it" and that hours after the fact. For example, can people really cancel their flights online and get refunds? If so, why not post that here or on your website? If not, then tell people, because there are people suggesting it on this page."
Because of being charged multiple times, sometimes upwards of 30 separate occasions, customers complained that the strain on their credit cards for the unexpected charges had a domino effect on their finances.
"I was sympathic [sic] to the situation before I actually spoke with a rep from Southwest who said, there is nothing she can do...southwest will refund the charges when they get to it and it will take 8 -10 business days before I get my money back and now I have to call customer relations to get the overlimit fees back, and I was charged interest on the $1400 on the duplicate charges and I have to pay for the long distance fees to call customer relations as they do not have a 1-800 number...SERIOUSLY?!?!? Are you freaking kidding me?" Suzanne Worrell wrote in a blazing post.
"You guys screwed up, took MY money through no fault of my own and now you are telling me I have to work to get it back and I am gonna be out more money??? For a company that prides itself on customer service you guys are falling on your face!! I spent over 5 hours last night on hold just to be disconnected, I can't buy groceries or gas because you guys have taken all of my money and there is nothing you can do about it??? This is CRIMINAL!!! I get there was a glitch but compensate me, fix it, don't tell me I have to call someone else on Monday to get it fixed! I am so disappointed and angry at Southwest!"
People also complained in their comments about not receiving the LUZ2LIKE email promotion to even know about the sale, and that because of the glitch, Southwest should extend the promotion. Others immediately responded by saying they were lucky they didn't receive the promotion because of the charge errors that resulted for many of them.
Teri Landrum shared her experience on the Facebook page for how to try cancelling the flights online, but other users said that the site hasn't been working for them.
"Hopefully this will help someone – Go to southwest.com, log in to RR Account, click My Account link under "Hello Teri", click View All next to Upcoming Trips, click Cancel Reservation, Under Travel Funds, it should say "Refundable" and the $ amount." Landrum wrote. "Select "Request a Refund", then click Yes, Cancel. When you go to cancel the next one, make sure you select the next one in the list because the list doesn't remove your cancelled ones and when you have 17 to cancel, it can get confusing."
Perhaps the complaint that resonates the most is how Southwest's customers felt punished, rather than rewarded, for being fans of the airline.
"I appreciate your generous sale but this is the last time I will ever fly southwest," Christine Ylan Ho wrote. "Maybe you've made this mistake yesterday but the lesson here is how you've dealt with it, which is poorly. Good intentions but you should have been prepared to deal with the ramifications of charging thousands of dollars, especially to those who need access to that money to survive. Egregious really. IMPROVE YOUR RESPONSE TO THIS KIND OF CRISIS. I do not like your facebook page."
Readers have also written in, telling CNN that the problem is not solely aligned with the promotion.
"I bought a one-way ticket at the regular price, and got 14 confirmations and 14 charges on my credit card," Cathy Gallagher commented. "SWA hung up on me after a 3 hour wait. I am much more concerned about the national security implications of the problem than the overcharges. What kind of computer system can confirm me 14 times on the same flight? How do they know who is actually on those planes?"
Are you having issues with the Southwest promo? Let us know in the comments below. And if you are with Southwest and want to add to the conversation, our audience would like to hear what you have to say, too.
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I feel so bad, for all the people that got affected by this mess!
Joe, that's not what people did. You need to research this further.
I had 10 confirmation emails this morning and almost had a heart attack! I called SWA and used the dial option to purchase a new ticket...waited about 7 mins and then found a nice rep who helped me delete the duplicates!
Thats one way to end the quarter higher on the stock market eh?
Yet another reason not to use a debit card. With a credit card, you can call the company, tell them which charges are bogus, and it's not your problem anymore; it's between the credit card company and SWA.
Definitely a lesson learned. I am not happy about Wells Fargo with these either. Their fraud department will halt me at a department store by not approving the debit card transaction. I have to call and assure them it is actually me. I had appreciated this as catching any unusual spending practices. But how did 18 erroneous charges in a row run right past the Wells Fargo fraud department when a $200 pair of jeans at Nordstroms gets flagged? Does Southwest use Wells Fargo and Nordstroms use Chase or something? Where was the Wells Fargo fraud department when this was going on?
If 16 flight charges drains you of every last penny you have, you probably shouldn't have been spending 1/16 of your liquid assests on a flight in the first place.
You a dumb.
It's a checking account debit not entire assets. It's also not obvious unless you make a point of checking your bank balance after every use. I got only one confirmation email for a $10 business priority upgrade and nothing else. This is the ONLY reason I found out about the $2,380 overcharge on my account. Yes I can afford to have that money frozen for 10 days but why should I? I wasn't even part of this poorly planned promotion as I paid full fare yet correcting the error was my problem and not SWA who would make no attempt at expediting reversals (they sent those people home for the weekend)
Why is Southwest "REFUNDING" as if we erroneously purchased something. They should be "REVERSING" the erroneous charges. REFUNDS indicate that the customer made a mistake or received an unsatisfactory product and can take TEN days. REVERSALS would show up in your bank account almost immediately. Southwest's handling of this is theft! They have totally drained my bank account and want me to wait seven to ten days. These people should be brought up on criminal charges.
I wondered that also...they get to hold on to your money in the meantime...and the interest. Sound like a illegality to me!
The answer to your question is that Southwest had closed the department that makes bake reversals as of 5 pm on Friday. I suspect those people were called back in on Saturday when they finally started to reverse Bank charges.
Sorry that would be "Bank" not "Bake", let's just call it a glitch.
It seems to me that after this, SWA would do well to keep that office open on weekends, also.
Amen! Brother! I would only be speculating ( under line that word) that their stock equity will jump and pay debtors before they refund those unsuspecting bargain hunters.
Your Seriously gonna get all upset on the WORDING?!?!?! Refund, Reversing, IT ALL WORKS THE SAME! Get Over It!
Takes that long because they are probably up to their necks in paperwork and I will bet there's only a very few people authorized to sign off on the actual reimbursement.
Large corporations suffer from an inability to change how they do things rapidly even in a crisis. I will wager that there are more people assigned to damage control and PR spin than actually doing the authorizations.
I will also wager whatever system they used that did all this is so broken they don't really know who was overcharged and how much and which ones, so putting the records together is probably a nightmare of Lovecraftian proportions.
Southwest royally screwed me yesterday, having made multiple hits to my credit card for a flight from ABQ to BWI and maxing it out. So when I went to make a reservation on Airtran from BWI to PWM, they declined my card. Fortunately I could use my mother's credit card to get the AirTran reservation. Now I can't even use my credit card to buy gas when I get to PWM. If anything deserves a class action lawsuit, this one does. Any lawyers out there?
Go to the airport when you get to the city you are going to and talk to SW rep in person... insist on getting SW to give you something so you can buy gas or whatever you need. I'm sure they will. At the very least they should be able to give you free hotel accomidations which may help you out some.
I knew nothing of the promotion, had no interest in it at all. I booked a regular full fare round trip ticket on my Bank's ATM card, business account and was charged seven times with an overcharge of $2,380.60. ATM cards can not be refunded like a credit card, a point SWA did not make clear during the first day of the problem. I had to press a representative to get an expedited refund, cutting a ten day hold to 24 hours. Problem being I had to do all the leg work to supply SWA with information they should have had on hand but they closed the office that refunds bank charges for the weekend.
For those who suggest using credit cards some of us like paying cash for purchases and don't live on credit. No need for the smug commentary and no need for the weakness in the banking system which can't spot and stop an obvious overcharge... unless they like the overdrafts and interest fees they gather during the hold period.
In the end I was able to hook up with one SWA employee who was able to work out my situation via email. The proof will be in the pudding when I attempt to fly this Tuesday.
If this is happening to customers who booked a regular flight, with no promo code, it has gone beyond a promo glitch and has sped into a full blown debacle on SWA's part; a full-blown investigation of SWA's business practices is called for.
The web site should be re-vamped.
This is completely unacceptable!
Credit cards offer legal protection that a debit card does not. A debit card is like writing a check. A credit card is far safer in terms of protecting you when something like this happens.. I really suggest you get one, use it wisely and keep your debit card tucked away. You'll build a credit history also which a debit card does not do.
Or keep some cash in n old sock for when something lik this happens and your checking account goes south and laughs at you.
55 flights billed to my credit card – over $9000. Credit card company cannot do anything about it until I file something in writing. many hours on the phone trying to get it straightened out and elevated blood pressure. Was it worth the savings - absolutely not!
Can I go flying with you sometime?
So how many just kept hitting the send button.... repeatedly? "Umm, I got charged 25 times because I kept hitting the button... over and over and over and over... and now I am totally surprised I was charged for each time I hit the send button."
Yep! the send (return) key is like the pickle switch hand control on Jeopardy you just keep clicking away until you get an answer, ugh.
Thats one quick way to earn frequent flyer points.
TO EVERYONE,,,,,,old driller/w no tv is phillip he is yes wacked
Class action lawsuit.
I would start at 500,000,000.00 (Five hundred million) in punitive damages.
Plus actual damages plus attorney’s fees.
The term here is gross negligence. Fueled by gross incompetence.
On Southwest's part. PERIOD.
SWA is excellent at putting the screws to people. I think they should discontinue flying passengers and do nothing but haul trash....that is about all they are qualified to do.
Joe, get your facts right before you offer ill informed comments. You did not have to push anything multiple times to be overcharged. A single submission resulted in anything from 2 to 60 reservations. It appears any submission would book ALL available seating on the flight chosen.