This morning, I woke to over $900 missing from my bank account. And in my panic, I start scrolling through the activity on my app only to see a very infuriating reversal on a dispute I submitted months ago for a flight I never got on. The dispute was for Kiwi.com, a booking company that I attempted to use when I was traveling back home from China during COVID-19.
About Kiwi.com
Kiwi.com is a travel booking site that promises you can organize your travel plans the way you want to while avoiding the many hurdles you might need to overcome when booking your travel. It was founded by two men and has since expanded to 600 IT developers. The site reportedly averages 100 million searches per day. The site hasn’t yet surpassed a decade of existence.
You can read more about how they work as a company and their response to COVID-19, by going here.
My Refund Update – Status as of 12/17/2020
I received 2/3 of my refund on 12/17/2020, after trying all of the methods below. Keep in mind, everyone’s method of getting their refund back varies. I managed to get mine after filing a formal complaint with the Department of Transportation. But that may not work for everyone. Be sure to try all avenues and hit all your bases when trying to get your refund back.
Be sure to try all methods below.
My Incredibly Kiwi.com Refund Experience
Now I admit, I didn’t research this company before purchasing my ticket. I was desperate to get home and had already faced two other canceled flights. When I booked with Kiwi.com they promised the flights would be guaranteed and if not, they offer a guarantee to support you should you get delayed or cancel, see the bogus guaranteed here. Less than two days after I booked my flight from China to the US, the flight was canceled due to issues with a connecting flight.
I was then met with their sorry excuse for a refund policy.
I applied for a Kiwi.com refund using one of their many refund options and waited. One month went by… then two, then three, then four, and then five. Now I’m here because Kiwi.com has deemed my ticket “non-refundable” displaying that I had “traveled” on this trip.
I started my journey home on May 16, 2020, not April 2020. I have screenshots, tickets, blog posts, and photos to prove it.
For the next few months, I furiously contacted Kiwi.com to address a few things:
- Where is my refund?
- Why is my booking saying that I traveled?
- Why wasn’t my booking fully canceled when it was canceled by the other carriers?
When I finally got a hold of someone at Kiwi.com about why it appears I traveled even though the flights were canceled, they told me, “The airlines know you didn’t travel because you didn’t check-in. Don’t worry.” I took their word for it, even though they were far surpassing their promised refund date.
Then this morning, I decided to check out my Kiwi account to view my booking. When I discovered the ticket had been deemed non-refundable, the pop-up insisted it had sent me details regarding my non-refundable purchase, yet I haven’t received any notification about this nor the reason why it wasn’t refunded.
The Kiwi.com Refund Policy
While many might just look at this site like booking.com or Priceline, this site has a sketchy refund policy that causes more stress than it alleviates. They will provide you a refund based on your circumstance and in some cases, they will make you pay them to get a certain kind of refund.
It has been over 5 months since I have seen my refund as a result of COVID-19. Originally, when I had requested a refund, they promised it would take up to 3 months to see anything.
Kiwi.com offers three types of refunds to their customers in the event that their flight is canceled. In some cases, you actually have to pay them money to get a refund. Like, what? In most cases, you are highly unlikely to receive a full refund and are more likely to receive a partial refund.
THOUSANDS of Dissatisfied Customers
Thousands of people have attempted phone calls, emails, and literally, any sort of human correspondence with reps regarding their Kiwi.com refund and have been ignored.
So they took to Twitter and Facebook to comment on whatever blogs Kiwi.com is posting (attempts to look good I guess) to voice their disgust for the less than mediocre customer service and the refund policy.
If you mosey on over to Kiwi.com’s Facebook Page, (which very shockingly has over 490k followers, which I don’t understand), you’ll be able to feast your eyes on the comments spitting with dissatisfaction and anger over the Kiwi.com refund process.
I’d like to mention, that a lot of Kiwi.com’s responses defer blame to the airlines and their refund policies. A convenient way to avoid any accountability around this mess they’ve created by leaving booking options open during the COVID-19 crisis.
Here are some comments along with Kiwi.com’s social media managers less than stellar and quite aggravating responses:
These responses and their attempts at reputation management is just a myriad of weak and empty apologies that really don’t provide a solution. I truly wonder what they are even doing over there to actually please the hundreds of customers they’ve upset.
What You Can Do From Here as a Kiwi.com Customer
If you’ve been affected by the asinine experience regarding your Kiwi.com refund, don’t stop voicing your upset. Times are hard, but we CANNOT let corporate companies like this get away with taking funds that we rightfully deserve back.
1. Contact The Airlines in Your Booking
If you haven’t done this already, or you’ve attempted to contact anyone at Kiwi.com to get help, call the airlines directly to address the booking you made. If they have not refunded you or have already deemed your booking non-refundable, ask them why.
2. Call Your Bank Directly to Dispute the Charge
Contact your bank and talk to a person. Don’t try and dispute your charge via your banking app or online. Talk to a human person and tell them that thousands of people still haven’t received their refunds from Kiwi.com. Ask your bank to PLEASE visit the Kiwi.com Facebook page when investigating the dispute so they have tangible proof that thousands have not been paid by this company.
Additionally, it’s harder to dispute a charge or reverse a dispute if when they are dealing with the actual human and not just an account.
3. Submit an Official Complaint with the Department of Transportation
This was the method that ended up working for me. A few weeks after I filed the complaint, I got an email from the Kiwi.com rep saying my refund was on the way and they were still working on the last portion of obtaining my refund. She detailed that the Department of Transportation reached out to them with the dispute
If you are feeling like things just aren’t moving, trying filing a complaint and see how things move along from there.
See links below to DOT sites where you can file a complaint.
- US Department of Transportation
- EU Department of Transportation
- Canadian Department of Transportation
- UK Department of Transportation
- Still trying to find other links to DOTs around the world… bear with me.
4. NEVER Book With Kiwi.com Again and Tell Your Friends To Do the Same
One way to bring a company to its knees so they can change is to stop support their business. Do not endorse them. Shout to the rooftops that this company cannot be trusted, at least right now. They have handled this COVID-19 crisis poorly and too many have been taken advantage of. They need to change how they conduct their business and they won’t be able to do it if we stay silent.
Denounce them as a travel booking site.
5. Leave A Review About Your Experience
Sitejabber is a place where you can leave a review about your experience with Kiwi.com. I encourage you to visit the site to leave a review about your experience so people considering them are forewarned.
6. Sign This Petition
Over 10,000 people have signed this petition already! Be part of the change and visit this website to sign the petition!
7. Join the Facebook Group and #KiwiScam
Thousands are already working together to fight Kiwi.com’s thievery. Join the group to see how you can help support each other in getting your money back!
Also, be sure to follow #kiwiscam on Facebook and Twitter.
8. File a Complaint with FTC
Escalate this to every place you can imagine! You can go to the Federal Trade Commission’s website and file a formal complaint about Kiwi.com’s scamming. Just visit the website here to file your complaint.
P.S. I’m SO Sorry You’re Going Through This
My dearest traveler, I am just as frustrated as you, but we will get through this unbelievable trickery if we work together. Just hang in there, keep fighting, and don’t give in until you get what you deserve.
Please leave a comment if you feel there is any more support we can offer each other during this fiasco!
