Yep, I recently tried to cancel a refundable ticket I had bought through Avianca. Their only means of processing a refund is a crappy long web form that doesn't work properly and their support wouldn't do anything besides say "try again later" and refused to transfer me to a supervisor. So I called the credit card company and disputed ticket purchase with an explanation of exactly what happened. The credit card company's customer service was much more helpful and pleasant.
Chargebacks are super useful, but they aren't guaranteed and I try to avoid overusing them so that when you need them you know the credit card company will take you seriously.
I feel the same. I recently used my cc companies customer service to get issued a chargeback for the first time (Amex). It was simple and painless and I was presently surprised. It was for a information lookup service that never delivered the login credentials, had a non working cancellation form, and an infinite hold support service phone number (clearly in effort to make it technically possible but incredibly difficult to cancel before recurring changes were billed). A soon as cc support contacted merchant on my behalf, they immediately issued a refund. Nice to know it's a PITA for the offending merchant, sucks it can be abused easily.
Chargebacks are super useful, but they aren't guaranteed and I try to avoid overusing them so that when you need them you know the credit card company will take you seriously.