Business ProfileforK2 Travels

I am writing in respect of a credit card Agent *** (agent reference *************) charge of $2500.20 by K2 Travels/ARC Services. 1.I never solicited any services from K2Travels/ARC and I did not authorize a payment to K2Travels 2.No services were rendered by the merchant to me - I never actually received any services of any value from K2Travels. The service they alleged to have provided were fictitious and/ or not solicited by me. 3.The merchants charges had no basis and not related to any service they provided 4.The merchant misrepresented that they were ***** Airlines and what the charge was for no services were ever provided.On July 2, 2022 I booked 4 flights (for myself, my husband and my two minor children) to ********** from ******* on ***** Airlines. I made the booking online via my Chase Ultimate Rewards Travel account. I generally use Chase Travel as my travel agent for my flight bookings and not third - party travel agents. The total cost of tickets booked through Chase was over 3K and these were fully refundable tickets.On July 8, 2022 I noticed that my daughters passport was soon to be expired and would be valid up to a few days after my return flight. I wanted to confirm what was ***** airlines policy around this for the country dest***tion. I went online and found what purported to be a website for ***** Airlines customer services. I had no reason to doubt its authenticity as it appeared to be a legitimate site for *****. I called the customer service number listed and the operator who answered confirmed that this was ***** airlines and she could assist me. I explained my query regarding my daughters passport and she said that in order to assist me she needed to bring up my booking. She asked me to provide my name and my booking Confirmation number received from Chase Travel. Unfortunately, I provided this to her. I later learned (by investigation by the real ***** Airlines) that unbeknownst to me, and without my authority, the phone operator used my name and trip number to log into my account on the public ***** Airlines website to cancel and then reinstate the flights that ***** had booked for me.In response to my query about my daughters passport, the phone operator (after pretending to check my flight) then said to me that there was problem with my flights and that I would not be allowed to board the ***** flight. When I asked her to explain, she said that ***** Travel did not ticket my booking correctly and ***** has to cancel my flights. I was alarmed over this and said I would need to contact ***** travel to resolve. She responded that because my outboard flight was *** few days, ***** would not be able to make any changes and only the airline, *****, could make changes to my ticket at this time. She said that the only way to resolve this was for my flight to be rebooked. She created urgency and alarm by telling me that my flights were being cancelled as they were not ticketed correctly by Chase Travel and ***** only had a few seats left on the flight in question and I needed to rebook.A this point we lost phone connection, however the phone operator quickly called me back, indicating again that this was ***** Airlines calling back. I have never heard of K2 Travels nor have I ever reached out to them for services I first learned that this was the merchant that billed my credit card after investigation by my Bank on November 16 2022. The payment authorization I provided was to ***** Airlines and not K2Travel. At no time in conversations with the representative did they indicate thatchy were an agent, K2 Travel and nowhere or on any documentation or authorization provided to me by the merchant did the name K2 Travel appear as being the recipient of such charges. The reference to K2 Travel was omitted on the forms provide to me by email. The authorization I received from them by email (attached) listed the payee as 'ARC/Airline charge' received by email (attached) - the phone operator indicated that I would be receiving a payment authorization by email for the ***** airline charge and that I should not worry that it says ARC, because ARC is just a payment platform for receipt of the '***** Airlines charges. I would never have payed $2500. to another third party travel agent to rebook flights when Chase Travel is my travel agent and Chase Travel already made my booking. I relied in good faith on the merchants representation that they were ***** Airlines and the $2500. payment was a ***** Airlines airline charge for ***** to rebook my ticket correctly.The merchant secured the payment authorization from me by holding themselves out as being ***** Airlines when they were not. They mis-represented what the charges were while holding themselves to be ***** Airlines, they claimed that this was what they (***** Airlines ) required as a fee for rebooking flights correctly. The merchant in question never provided any service to me in consideration of the purported fees. They without my knowledge or authority used my ***** Airlines customer website log in information to access my existing booking, when there was nothing wrong with my Chase Travel booking in the first place. In any event, there were no airline charges payable and the merchant cannot explain or provide any documentation for what service they provided for the amount charged.The phone operator later called me the same day (7/8) and said there was another issue with my flight and needed me to text her copies of my and my familys passport pages and other personal information. I got very suspicious and refused to provide this information. At this point she got very irritable with me. Another ***** agent called me later on 7/8 and also tried to make me believe there was another issue with my flight and tried to solicit more money from me. I asked him if he was calling form ***** airlines and he confirmed yes. I hung up and went to my ***** Airlines app and called the number from there. I was able to speak to an actual ***** Airlines representative who confirmed the following:1.There was nothing wrong with the booking that ***** travel made on 7/3/2022. It was ticketed correctly and ***** would not bar me from travelling on the flight date as the merchant indicated.2.***** did not make any changes to my flight and that ***** did not cancel my booking due to it being ticketed incorrectly as the merchant had indicated.3.***** indicated that someone logged into my account on *****.com using my name and trip ID to cancel, and then reinstated the same booking made by Chase Travel. That there was no travel agency activity other than by ***** Travel. That there were several seats on the flight as of 7/8/2022 and there was no major difference in the fare from when orig***lly booked by ***** Travel. No booking was made by ARC/K2 Travels for me - my orig***l booking by ***** Travel was still the same with no new booking. 4.That there were no ***** fees payable and ***** did not require or receive any rebooking/change fees or other similar fees. That ***** did not receive any airline charges by any agent on my behalf for $2500. ***** indicated that this fee had no basis given my orig***l booking was in good standing and further even if a changes need to be made, given my ticket type and current flight details, there were no ***** fees applicable. ***** confirmed that they did not cancel my flight due to invalid ticketing by ***** Travel as the merchant had indicated to me, nor did ***** or the merchant make any new booking for me. I also confirmed with Chase Travel on 7/8/2022 that my booking was valid and in good standing. The merchant from ARC/K2 had simply sent me the exact details from my orig***l Chase Travel booking using the information I had provided to her.After speaking with ***** Airlines and Chase Travel, I contacted the merchant on 7/8/2022 using the number they had called me on and advised them of my discussion with the real ***** airlines I told them that they were not ***** Airlines, that there was no issue with my booking and I did not want them to take any action with my information on my behalf. I demanded they refund the amount they had charged pretending to be *****. They kept insisting that they were ***** Airlines and that my Chase Travel booking was not ticketed correctly and needed to be actioned in order for me to travel.I repeatedly contacted them asking them to rectify the charge. They indicated that they could not find my booking. When I told them that I was going to file a police report and report them to them to the consumer affairs agency, the merchant then agreed to issue me with a refund this was on 7/9/2022 after calling them and complaining several times. They did not honor this. The merchant went on to send me what purported to be a booking confirmation from ***** Airlines on 7/17. I consulted ***** who confirmed that there was actually no new booking made by any track agency since my orig***l booking by ***** Travel on 7/3. The merchant misrepresented themselves as being ***** Airlines, took action to cancel my booking without my authority and then use this to generate a sense of alarm, provided ***ccurate ***** airline information and charges, thereby obtaining an authorization from me for services they never actually provided. The representative charged me, holding themselves out as ***** Airlines and never provided any service to me. The phone operators used subterfuge, harassment and scare tactics on me to obtain a payment authorization and I fell victim to this. I suffered significant emotional and f***ncial distress due their actions.They have not refunded the charges despite my request.