EXPEDIA RIP OFF


Folks I don't normally go off on a subject like this, but my experience with Expedia is a slap in the face. They must view their customers like cattle, just dumb enough to fall for anything. When you book a hotel with Expedia, beware. While any hotel will allow you to cancel your reservation, with varied time clauses from 48 to 72 hours, not Expedia. They charged me $25, 99 for a cancelation that I made, six weeks prior to staying at the hotel. When I questioned them on this, this was Expedia's explanation.


"Expedia negotiates special arrangements with our partner hotels to guarantee the lowest prices available. In order to continue offering these great rates, we need to charge a $25 change/cancellation fee. But that fee allows us to bring you the best possible hotel rates in your future travel."

Germaine

Expedia.com Customer Service Team


Well, I thought I would see what kind of savings that the expert negation team at Expedia had achieved to justify this claim. This is what I found. I compared a booking for December 18th, with the Marriott in Budapest. Going directly through the Marriot web site, my rate was $165.39, or 130.00 Euros. Through Expedia

Expedia itinerary number: 125807849353

Hotel confirmation number: 86626669

Reserved for:

Dennis Maroney Hotel: 2 adults Deluxe Room 12/18: $164.81 per night

Hmm, now I really feel validated, and assured that the expert negotiation team of Expedia has actually saved me .58 cents! Folks, please get the word out, under no circumstances use Expedia for hotel bookings. We have been a very active customer of Expedia for the past three years. They do not give any customer appreciation points and will jump at the change to gouge you for any nickel or dime they can get away with.


Expedia's response to my .58 cents savings was:

"Unfortunately, we are unable to process your request for a refund on the cancellation fee. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused you and would like to assure you that every reservation is important to us".

Meredith

Expedia.com Customer Service Team


Hmm, what is important to Expedia is squeezing every cent from your wallet!

Expedia is heavily advertising a $200 coupon they promise to give you if you "book and travel by January 3 2009" .

They set January 3 as the deadline, which is of course the Saturday of the New Year's weekend. Does this sound like you have to take the first leg of a round-trip by January 3, or you have to complete your whole trip by January 3? The ad doesn't specify. I called customer service and wrote emails to clarify, after I spent over $2000 on my ticket. Well, they meant, "complete travel by January 3." I thought it seemed preposterous to say "book and travel by January 3"--how could you travel by Jan. 3 if you hadn't also booked by January 3? And how could you book on January 3 for travel that day, considering it's the last Saturday of the holiday season?

I think Expedia is purposely obfuscating the travel deadline, and purposely set the deadline for travel a day early so they don't have to give coupons to people who can't get a flight on Saturday and have to travel on Sunday; and they still get the sales to people, like me, who thought if they meant "complete travel by Jan. 3" they would have said so.

I purchased an airline ticket online through Expedia.com. The airline made several changes to flights that I could not accomodate so Expedia told me that I could get a refund for the ticket. I made my original call to request the refund on August 4, 2008 and at that time I was told it would take a "Billing cycle or two to receive the refund.

After more than a month I contacted Expedia since I had not received the refund. At that time I was told it wuld take two to three billing cycles to receive the refund. As of today, October 30, 2008 I still have not received the refund. I called today and was told it would be three to four billing cycles to receive the refund.

This is completely unacceptable to take three or more months to receive an electronic refund. I discourage everyone from using Expedia.com to purchase tickets.

I was not informed that the air bookings I was making on Expedia was to be in American dollars - not New Zealand dollars.
The charge was $270.30, which when converted to N.Z. dollars, and service fees and conversion charges added, came to $465.54.
I have contacted Air N.Z. and their charge for the same flights is $368 - so I have sustained a loss from a travel agency which claims to offer huge savings.

I booked a hotel room through expedia. 2 days later i found out my card number had been stolen, and over 1000 dollars put on my account, on top of the hotel charge that was 233.00.
When i got to the hotel, they had NO RESERVATION for me. Expedia had never booked it for me, and the hotel was full.
I've never had such a horrible experience while traveling before. I'm trying to figure out now how to get a refund on the hotel room that they never booked for me. I've already called the fraud dept of my credit card company for the other charges that i did not authorize.
DO NOT USE EXPEDIA.COM!!!