Here is the letter I wrote to Expedia and their PR person. Have yet to receive a response (6 days and counting...):

Dear Erik Blachford,

I am writing in regards to my pre-package vacation/honeymoon (confirmation number XXXXXXXX), which was canceled on May 29, 2011. The reason for the cancelation was due to my fiancée having a medical emergency.
After shopping around, Ian and I decided to go through Expedia to book our honeymoon, and we had looked forward to traveling to Costa Rica. A friend recommended Expedia, after using it herself, and it seemed to have great rates and good service. Unfortunately, in late April Ian fell ill. We were advised by a doctor to postpone our trip. Since we were not sure when Ian could travel again, we decided on May 29th, 2011 that we needed to cancel our honeymoon. At the time, I spoke with a woman on the phone (I believe her name was Dianne). She advised that she would process the cancellation of our trip. She then explained that it could take up to four weeks to receive the refund. She also informed us that there would be a $500.00 penalty, which we were able to claim through the Travel Insurance.

I called in around June 12, 2011 to see if there was any additional action needed to be taken, but was assured by the person on the phone, that everything was processed and “taken care of”.

I was a bit anxious to receive the money back, considering it was collecting interest on our credit card, and we were (and still are) in the midst of planning and paying for a July 16, 2011 wedding ourselves. I called again to check up on the process of this case today, Friday June 24, 2011. This time, the gentleman with whom I spoke, did a little investigating and found out that there was an error; a miscommunication between Expedia and Air Canada (the air service provider), and that the refund had not been processed. He also informed me that it could take an additional 2-4 weeks from June 24, 2011 for the money to be returned to us, which at this point would now be up to 7 weeks of interest paid on a trip that we cannot even take, and had canceled on our end on May 29, 2011.

At this point in time, the stress was overwhelming, and I could no longer process my thoughts clearly. I ended my phone call with the Expedia employee, and decided to call my sister. She took over and called back to explain the situation again. Eventually she spoke with Jodie at the pre-package department, who not only could clearly explain the situation but also provide some exceptional customer service.


I understand that there was some miscommunication between Air Canada and their policy to not release a refund until the commission that they paid to Expedia, is paid back. I also now know that procedures may be changed because of my case, as Expedia now knows that Air Canada will not process a refund until Expedia pays back the commission they received from Air Canada, as explained by Jodie. She also explained that I could potentially have the refund sitting on my card well before the additional 2-4 weeks as originally quoted.

I just want to express that I find it unacceptable to have a customer, who did everything correctly, wait and pay interest on a service that we are unable to use. Had I not called today, I would still be waiting as no one followed up on the delay in the processing of my refund.

The refund we are still waiting on is worth over $3000.00, which when planning a wedding is a considerable amount of money. We were hoping to do a ‘staycation’/honeymoon in Canada sometime in August, and were planning on booking through Expedia again, once Ian knew his medical schedule. Unfortunately until we receive this refund we are not able to book anything.

The customer service that we have received has been mediocre at best, until Jodie. At one point, at approximately 1 PM today (June 24), I called to ask for the president’s or Ombudsman’s name & contact information, only to be put on hold while the gentleman who answered the phone looked up this information. After waiting 7 minutes, which I timed, I was disconnected by someone on Expedia’s end, without receiving any contact information. I also tried to email and ask for the contact information for the CEO or Ombudsman, but the reply I got back was “ Dear Megan Triebe,

Thank you for contacting Expedia.ca

Unfortunately, we are not allowed to provide you with such information. If you have any concerns regarding an itinerary, please send us an Email through "[email protected]"

Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions. Our Customer Support Representatives are available to assist you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. “

The only reason I have some of this information now is because of Google.

After this experience, let me assure you that you have not only lost my business for good but I will be letting people know of the difficulties that we faced, in a period in our life that has not been easy. When planning a wedding, the honeymoon is supposed to be the easy part – something to look forward to. Unfortunately, this has not been true for myself or for Ian. The trip was not canceled because of something Expedia did, but in a time when we were facing enough stress as it was, Expedia just added to it.

I look forward to eventually receiving my refund.


Megan

Worst company ever!

will never book vacations thru them, booked vacation return on one day they just rebooked another return day for me, transport from airport to hotel was not included or offered during the booking, but gladly charged to my visa over the phone when was calling about other problem.

spent 4-5 hours on the phone with Indian guys twice customer rep hang up on me during the conversation, one of them started to laugh i was pissed as *** was not able to speak with manager or supervisor, i think i know all of them now by name

Booked my shuttle, while was calling to make sure they did, found out they didn't!!! but charged me for that .

Plus it says on the site no charge for 1st bag at the airport(clearly stated) couple of hours later i figured out there was charge of 25 $ for a 1st bag imagine !!!

WORST COMPANY EVER WILL TAKE LEGAL ACTION AGAINST THEM

I called the 1-800 number for Expedia to check about booking a trip to Cancun that I saw online. The price online said 50% off. The agent told me that if I wanted to book at that price I should do it now so that I could lock in the good pricing. I told her I didn't have all 10 people in my parties full names (as appears on passport) and birthdays. She told me it would have to be exact or would void the tickets. I told her I could get them on my other phone if she could be patient and wait on hold while I called for a couple of them. She kindly agreed to hold while I called. Long story short after over a hour we get all 10 people listed and everything lined out on rooms, how many per room, price etc. She then takes my credit card number. She tells me she has to put me on a brief hold to confirm the credit card. She then comes back on the line to tell me it is confirmed and in the middle of talking we are disconnected. I keep thinking she will call me back since she has my phone number and e-mail address - nothing! So I call back and am first told they can't find any information on me so I ask to speak to a supervisor. I'm then told that she did find my itenerary but it had not been booked yet and the deal I got is now off (5 minutes after I almost had it booked) I told her that didn't make sense. I did look online while talking to her and it wasn't showing up anymore. Then I ask what would it cost extra and then she told me they didn't have enough rooms at that hotel. Then magically we get disconnected as well with no call back. Very frustrating experience!

Worse experience with Expedia from the getgo, my VERY 1st actual trip ANYWHERE and it was ruined!! I requested to speak with a supervisors manager because of the lack of incompetence by the company and empathy in regards to my situation, got hung up on not once, not twice but 5 times!!! What is this all about??? I am utterly disgusted with Expedia and KNOW that I will NEVER use them again

I booked a holiday through Expedia.ca and had a bad experience at the hotel (Bluebeards Castle, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands). As compensation a Supervisor from Expedia issued a travel Voucher to my Expedia account ( I was told the only condition was I had a year to spend it). Later I decided to use it to book a flight and was told it was valid for holiday packages and hotels only, not flights. I spent 2 hours on the phone, was disconnected once and had to go through the entire booking again. When asked to speak to a supervisor about this I was put on hold for over 30 minutes. Finally I gave up.