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Jennifer of Shelby, NC May 18, 2009
My husband booked a cruise for us and my parents with Carnival Cruise lines through Expedia in early March. It was a great deal because we wanted to go in October. We found a cruise online that matched up with my husband's vacation time at work. It was around 1720.00 for the four of us with 2 cabins. The agent offered us insurance for 25.00 per person in case we needed to change the date. We agreed and paid the 100.00 for the four of us in case anything came up.
I found out in May that my husband and I are expecting a baby. My husband called Carnival and they would not talk to us because we booked through Expedia. My husband called Expedia and we were told that we could not cancel (even though I would not be allowed on the boat in Oct. because you must be less than 24 weeks pregnant to sail and he couldn't take anyone in my place). Even though all the web sites clearly say you can cancel at 60-70 days in advance without any penalties (it doesn't mention the early savers ticket we bought unknowingly). You cannot cancel for ANY reason if you purchase this ticket. Even if they won't let you on the boat because you are pregnant they keep your deposit (mine was 800.00 plus a penalty fee of 50 per person...which was an additional 200).
So, I'm not allowed on the ship and have to pay them 1000.00 for no cruise. They did finally let me change the cruise. I was penalized for that as well. We had to pay a transfer fee and penalty fees of 50.00 per person. My total to move the cruise up 2 months was 620.00. The insurance I purchased to cover me if I had to change the date was a total racket. It doesn't cover normal pregnancy. So, it isn't really insurance to change the date or cancel as they tell you on the phone. The type of responses I got from Expedia were, "It isn't our fault your husband purchased the Early Saver Ticket". "That was his choice, not ours". Nice! Hal of Plano, TX March 28, 2009
My wife and I booked a vacation package with Expedia.com for one hotel but minutes later received an email stating that our reservations had been changed. We were deceptively led to believe that the hotel we selected would be booked only to find out that the hotel we originally selected was changed to another hotel located further away from our original request. The person I spoke to, Lexy, first told us that she could change the hotel reservations (even though it was Expedia's mistake) for a cost of 25, then said she could do it for free as a one time courtesy.
She then said her earlier quotes were incorrect and it would cost us over 1000 to change the reservations. After telling us that, we decided to cancel the reservations, all within 30 minutes of first booking them. Only afterward was I told that it would take up to 3 months to get my refund. That is totally unacceptable. I will now have to search for another vacation package only to be charged again for new reservations. If a company can collect the credit card revenue within 24 hours, I would expect that the refund could be executed within the same time frame. I requested immediate communication about this and an immediate refund that shows up on my credit card account within the next 24 hours. I have yet to hear back.
I will have to carry the charges for up to 3 months or pay an additional 2189.22 on my credit card statement. If not paide off, I will have to accrue addtional finance charges on this amount.
Linda of Dayton, OH October 12, 2008
Expedia inflated event ticket prices. Prior to booking my vacation package, expenses looked reasonable. My total bill added up to an enormous price after taxes and service fees. The event vendor site was selling the same tickets for the same event 15 less per ticket--without the service fees.
Expedia gave me tickets(vouchers which have to be redeemed 2 hours before showtime--what am I paying them for?)for the 10:30 show when I asked for the 7:30 show. After booking, I asked them to correct this and they said that they do not have tickets for the showtime I requested, although the vendor had tickets for all available showtimes.
Changes will not be made. When I asked them to give me tickets for my requested show time, Expedia only quoted no changes/no cancellations policy. Expedia will not give me an itemized expense receipt for the vacation package. They will only tell me the air fare expense. The hotel and event expenses are lumped together.
Aside from overpaying, the short weekend vacation will be spent redeeming vouchers (two shows and airport transportation voucher must be redeemed at 3 different venues) and trying to stay awake for late shows. We lose three hours when we go to Vega and the time change will compound the difficulty of attending a late show.
Ann of Leamington Spa, OTHER September 7, 2008
Problems with Expedia extend beyond the US. My husband is American and we both live in UK. He used to use Expedia for his US travel arrangements and we have used them here. Recently we booked a package - flight, accommodation & car. Our credit card was billed. The airline has failed to confirm the booking and we received an email instructing us to call Customer Service (at our cost!).
We have been attempting to do this, but every time the wait time is excessive and we give up - there is never an indication of anticipated call time. We have sent emails and just get no explanation of the problem, no alternative suggestion how to resolve the issue and no alternative direct phone number to call.
Interestingly, I called their new booking phone line and was connected almost immediately. Initially, the person was polite but totally unresponsive because we can only handle new bookings on this number. After some pressure they took details and agreed to contact Customer Service and have them phone our home within 24hours or email details of a solution. As I write - 5 days and several more aborted call later - I'm still waiting for a response. I suggest this experience is illustrative of a company where woeful customer service is endemic.
Stefan of Marina Del Rey, CA August 25, 2008
Expedia offered hotel on the Expedia website which is under reconstruction. There was (and probably still is) no note on the website indicating that the hotel is under reconstruction. Expedia employees were unable or unwilling to provide an appropriate alternative to the hotel initially booked. Following a telephone conversation with Expedia I was offered an alternative hotel.
There was a substantial difference in standards between the hotel initially booked (Fontainebleau, Miami Beach) and the alternative hotel offered (Miami Beach Spa and Resort), probably best reflected in a price difference on the Expedia website at the time of the trip of 249 (Fontainebleau) versus 79 (Miami Beach Spa and Resort) per night. Based on a 5 night stay I should have received a refund of approximately 850. However, the received refund was only 255.98 US.
I have still not received any of the 100 coupons as promised by various Expedia agents I talked to as a compensation for the trouble I went through. Expedia employees were unwilling to provide support with trip cancellation, flight change, etc. On the third day (after requesting an appropriate alternative) I was checked out of the hotel without notification and without my approval. Only by talking to the reception desk I was able to reverse the check-out.
I sent a letter of complaint on July 15, 2008. I have still received no response.
Paula of Little Rock, AR July 4, 2008
Purchased a vacation package through Expedia and also purchased the Vacation Waiver (not the Vacaction Package insurance). I cancelled the airline portion of the package and was told, through emails, that the airline tickets were nonrefundable but I could use the airline credit at a later date, I would be charged an airline re-issue fee but since I had the vacation waiver, those fees would be refunded.
Well, I bought airline tickets, through the original airlines and was charged 200 per ticket re-issue fees and 30 per ticket service charge fee. Now Expedia is saying that the re-issue fees are refundable.
I'm out 460 because Expedia assured me the re-issue fees would be refunded because I had purchased the Vacation Waiver that states if you change or canel 2 days prior to the start of your trip, all fees and penalties will be waived/reimbursed. If they had not reassured me that the penalties/fees would be reimbursed, I would not have cancelled the airline tickets.
Mark of Irondequoit, NY June 20, 2008
I booked my honeymoon promotion package via telephone through Expedia to Paradisus Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. The promotion was that I would be upgraded to their Spa Promotion for Two which included, among other things, a room upgrade to Ocean View (instead of the standard Garden View). This was confirmed by the customer service representative who booked this for me over the phone. I was also talked into getting the insurance plan which I was told would provide a full refund for cancellations of any kind made at least 24 hours beforehand.
I called the hotel and Expedia to confirm that the promotion package was being honored several days later and was hung up on, sent to erroneous phone numbers, and promised callbacks which never happened. They never honored the Spa Promotion for Two package the customer service representative ensured me I had booked; furthermore, the hotel said they had no reservation for me at all in their system! Naturally I cancelled the vacation package immediately. Now Expedia is holding the funds for the airfare and insurance price and refuses to provide full monetary refund; even though I had no confirmations from the hotel, or airline. Bottom line is, I was either lied to by their customer service personnel through the booking process and/or somebody dropped the ball on booking my 4000+ vacation package and I am left with only a partial refund.
Jeremy of Los Angeles, CA April 22, 2008
I booked a vacation package for my girlfriend and me to Oahu, Hawaii through Expedia. The trip was for 4 nights and 5 days and it cost 955.81 total. One day I decided to call Expedia to see if I could change the dates and also to find out how much it would cost me extra. The travel agent told me that in order to change the dates it would cost me an extra 911.25 - basically, another trip more. So I told her it was too much and I'd like to just leave it as it was. She said that was alright and next asked me if there was anything else she could help me with. I said no and we said goodbyes. A couple of days later I called again. This time around I knew that I really couldn't make the trip and wanted to cancel the trip altogether.
While talking to a travel agent, I found out that my trip dates have been changed. I asked the travel agent about it and she told me that a couple of days ago I had called in and agreed to make the change that I never did. In disbelief, I told her that there must have been a mistake and that I needed to speak to a supervisor. To this time, I had no doubt that the problem will be resolved right away. I couldn't have been more wrong. The supervisor basically said that in front of her there's a documentation (filed by the travel agent whom I had talked to) that said basically that I had agreed to make the change and to pay 911.25 more. Furthermore it said that I immediately changed my mind during the course of the phone call after she had already made the change to my trip. The documentation read that the travel agent told me that she had already made the change and it was too late. Then it said that the phone was hung up abruptly in the middle of the conversation from my end, providing no way for her to verify... I told the supervisor that I never agreed to the exchange and it was not how it happened. However, she insisted that I did agree to the exchange because the paper said so right in front of her. She said that no compensation will be provided, and told me that even if I were to cancel now, there won't be any refund, but cost me 225 for the cancellation. She was basically calling me a liar.
So in the end, I paid double for the trip because one of the travel agents had screwed it up and falsified the documentation on purpose to cover up her mistake. I don't know what extortion is if this isn't it.
Kishan of Vancouver, OTHER March 23, 2008
I booked through expedia for at trip to cancun mexico for a friend and I and everything was going good. I called back one day to find that my itinerary had been booked on a different account, under a different email, without my permission. This new account which I also did not have the password to, had created incorrect booking information as well. I called expedia back to ask for the account logins but they would not give it to me even though I gave all my credit card information. I decided to call back on the 22nd and they finally gave me my information. I found out that I had been given e-tickets but one of the other names had been misspelled. To make matters worse I was then told that their tickets were non refundable and that they were not allowed to make name changes.
Basically now I have spent 1000 for airline tickets and have no use for them because one of the names are incorrectly spelled due to expedia's agents, who receive poor training and customer service, I am never booking with expedia again.
Rohangiz of Ladera Ranch, CA October 10, 2007
I made a vacation package reservation to Maui with expedia for July 2007 for 9 nights.
We (2 adults, 2 kids) arrived at 10PM, the resort office we had reservations (Kahana Reef) for was closed, just a phone number (800/841-9776) to call for emergency and for new guests.
We called five times and waited; no one called or came to help us.
It started raining; it was very dark and we were in the parking lot, tired, hungry, cold, and cranky, very disappointed and did not know where to go and what to do.
We called Expedia's (800/397-3342), it connected us somewhere in Philippines.
I explained the situation and asked for help, they kept us waiting on the phone for over 30 minutes each time we called. When asked to talk to a supervisor, we were told that the supervisor was not available and not taking calls? and hung up on us.
A security patrol officer saw us waiting for a while and felt bad, so he tried to help us by calling his manager for help and then calling other hotels, and every hotel was full.
At 3AM we found a hotel (Lahaina Shores), just for one night, and the security officer asked us to follow him, the drive was 20 mints to the new hotel. We got to the rest @ 4 AM.
EXPEDIA's extreme, uncaring and poor customer service created such an unpleasant vacation for us, it felt like we were in a horror movie.
We planned months in advance and made full payments to have a fun vacation but EXPIDEA made our vacation a nightmare. Since then, no one from Expedia has called us to apologize or to give us an explanation. We were able to stay longer in Lahaina Shores and paid 2,375.77 with Citi credit card, on top of all.
I called and faxed the invoice to expedia and called later to fallow-up, I was told the higher management has to decide if they can reimburse us.
Expedia gave the worst service I've ever come across in my life.
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