Expedia

Anyway, today, I called Expedia and spoke to an agent named Zee. The case of these cancelled flights was difficult because they said "British Airways operated by Qatar Airlines," plus, my parents already flew to their destination (so the ticket was half used essentially). So, two airlines were involved. This was a big juggling session between the two airlines. In any case, Zee tried very hard and spent a few hours trying to get a refund for the cancelled ticket. Ultimately, she had to refer me to her supervisor, whose name is John. He was able to get my the refund to both flights, before which he calculated the refund and let me know in advance. I am very pleased with their customer service, and people like them will elevate the customer service of Expedia.

Like me he expected the amount due to be the same as on his reservation. I've spent hours on a live chat trying to get this resolved. I'd just like to know what went wrong. We finally got some kind of $200 deposit refunded but we still paid $118.36 over what we expected. I'd just say beware. Might be better to deal with a reputable car company. Oh, and I plan to review the car rental company too.

Now comes to where my experience became really, really bad. Things had calmed down enough in the world that I felt it was time to use my flight credit, and rebook my flight to Brazil (they're one of the few countries that doesn't have any travel restrictions for Americans). When I called in to use my flight credit (as this was the ONLY option to do so), it took me OVER TWO HOURS to rebook my flight. Sure, the representative was outwardly courteous, and nice during the interaction, but the fact I spent (LITERALLY) about one hour and forty-five minutes of that time on hold, was absolutely ridiculous.

The representative kept telling me that there weren't flights "available" (even though there were multiple ones on their own website). Oddly enough, when I protested they suddenly became "available." There was a slight difference in flight cost, so they took my payment information, and processed my payment...and that was I all. Or, at least, that's what I thought.

That was a week ago, and this morning I happened to be checking my bank account before I went to the supermarket, and I noticed a couple hundred dollars more in the account than there was yesterday. I could not figure out what it could be, so I started going through the history on my account, and it dawns on me... I'm not seeing the charge from Expedia anymore, from a week ago, for the flight difference cost. I check my reservation on the Expedia website, and...it doesn't show anything has changed. It still has my original flight dates from earlier in the year in April. So, I do what any normal person would do... I called Expedia to have them check it out.

And this is where things spiraled downhill faster than anyplace with which I've ever had to deal. The first gentleman I spoke to from Expedia customer service seemed nice enough. However, after he'd had me on hold for over a half hour, without any sort of check in, I began to infer something must be wrong. He then checked in with me after I'd been on hold for about forty minutes, and told me that there had been a problem with my payment. For some reason, he said, my rebooking was kept in a "pending" status by Expedia, so it had refunded me back my money after a week. He then put me back on hold for about another twenty minutes. When he came back he told me they could "fix" everything, but that in the week since I'd originally booked my change the ticket price had increased another $570 dollars, and that I needed to pay this in order to rebook my flight.

From here, I can only describe the representative as rude and argumentative. I replied to him that I agreed I would pay the amount I was originally quoted the week prior (about $200 dollars) when my payment was taken, but I refused to pay anything more. Moreover, since the fault was entirely on Expedia's side, that I didn't see how asking me to pay for a mistake they made was in any way appropriate. The representative, in no uncertain terms, told me that even though it was their mistake, I had to pay the additional $570 dollars. I refused, and asked to speak to a supervisor. He put me on hold (ostensibly to get a supervisor), and then hung up on me after twenty minutes.

I then called back two more times. Each time I had to wait over thirty minutes just to get a representative on the phone, and each time they put me on hold to get a supervisor AND hung up on me. I'm now on the phone again, waiting for someone to pick up the phone, so this can be resolved. I have wasted over four hours of my day so far, and I still have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to show for it. This is THE worst customer service experience I've ever had IN MY LIFE. If I'm not able to resolve this on this phone call (which seems highly likely), I'm going to try again tomorrow. And, after that, if the same continues (which also seems highly likely), I will simply book a flight directly with the airline, and then pursue whatever legal action I can against Expedia, as well as file complaints against them with the Department of Transportation, and the FTC. This entire experience has been absolutely RIDICULOUS!

Then they have the audacity to point their finger at United airlines and told me that I need to call them and ask them to release the funds. I called my bank. They told me that there was nothing that they could do and that I needed to call Expedia and tell them to release it and Expedia will do nothing to attempt to help me. There was two charges of $3,350.40, another charge of over $500 and another charge of almost $600. The $500 and the $600 charges were reversed immediately from Expedia. The two charges for over $3,350.40 haven't been touched and according to my bank they show no sign of any reversal to be done. So now I'm in a position where I have almost $7,000 missing for my account and nothing can be done about it. I sure as heck can't turn around and try to book again even directly through an airline because the money isn't there any longer.

The fact that they don't take this seriously or take their responsibility of this happening is absolutely devastating. Especially in a time we're in the middle of a global pandemic and people's money is more important than ever with so much uncertainty. I'm asking is there anybody that knows who I can go to or where to post this that they can be exposed and then maybe they'll step up and do something if for nothing else to save their own name. I have contacted Channel 8 on your side, Fox consumer affairs, attorney general, senior crime stoppers and the FTC. I’ve blasted them on twitter and FB and their own FB page.

They themselves (Expedia) still at this very moment will not do anything and will only say sorry for the inconvenience and if money is not released in SEVEN business days to call them back. They act as if it’s a $10 mistake they have made. Hopefully I will get somewhere with the people I have contacted. I was also able to find CEO and Directing manager email and contacted them with ZERO response!