Shortly after making a online hotel reservation with Orbitz charges started showing up on my card acount from TLG Great Fun. It took me almost 2 years to get to the origin of these charges. One lucky day I finaly managed to reach a customer service repesetative at TLG Great Fun on the phone. During this conversation the repersentative disclosed that my personal information was dislosed to them by Orbitz. With that information they just started helping themselves by making charges to my credit card. I did mamage to get to speak to a customer service suppervisor whow did refund 12 months worth of charges, which he claimed was all he was authorized to do and that I would have to contact TLG Great Fun for the balance of my refund for services I did not authorize. As of today that has not happened. It appears that that may not occure which still leaves TLG Great Fun with profits at my expense. I want cunsummers to be aware of these types of scams before they do busnisse with with companys that conduct themselfes like this. Below is all the corospondence I have had with Orbitz about my conserns over their busnisse practices.


Response (Resolution Department) 04/08/2009 01:17 AM
Hi Mr. Mauritz,

I apologized for the delayed response but as you know even supervisors are entitle to have day offs/ rest days.

I respect your opinion if you believe what previous customer says but if you will go back online you will verify your self that all were optional and you will be clearly informed. In booking a reservation online it is important for you to check all the details specially terms and condition as every reservation and promotional offer has one. Our website doesn't have any capacity to book or chose what you don't like to have. It is our customers free will to chose everything that was offered online like reservations, dates of travel, whether you want to have an insurance or to subscribed to promotional offers. As what you chose to have, the website will then forward your request to necessary department / supplier to work on the reservation that you wanted. These customers who are claiming of fraud chose not to exercise their right to be informed as every terms and conditions were laid down online for our customer's awareness. In agreeing to purchase, that means you agreed in those terms and condition provided by Orbitz and the supplier specially. Admit it or not, there are customer who just do the clickings in the web site without taking time in reading the rules of the reservation in which is very very important as this is equivalent in knowing your rights. In your case, there must be a box or radio button that you clicked online the reason why third party such as Great Fun got an access in your account.

Terms and condition in the web site were carefully made by lawyers in a way that all customers will understand. That means Orbitz, won't take any single chance in violating your rights such as providing these confidential information to a third party. Again please take into consideration that even our agents cannot see these information. Orbitz is a well established Travel Agency and that there's no need for to do such " selling of information" just to earn money. WE can do it the right full way.

As customer service, we are trained to act for you as customers without violating any rules/terms and conditions of reservations. In everything we do there are pros and cons that we need to take into consideration. As a business entity were not looking into profit alone but of course on how to take care of our customers and that is how Orbitz established its name in the industry. There are just cases that customers, even if we already explained what was done, what we can do and not, are still hard to please and as you know we cannot just try to please and please customers as this will make rules nonsense.

I hope, I am able to explain our side regarding this matter and again I can only guarantee the security of your account in our end but not if you are the one who chose to provide this information to a third party (example: just like in subscribing to promotional offers).

Thank you.

Sincerely,
ZOE
Customer 04/07/2009 02:45 PM
Hi There; I can not believe that I did not receive a speedy response as in the past. I am truly at awe. Could it be because of the link I had sent you to discredit the response's stating I had made the purchases from TLG Great Fun instead of the truth of the mater that Orbitz was responsible for the obtaining my personal information. I will not go away just because you don't reply. To help you with you replies there are some additional links below to let you get an understanding about how I and other
customers feel about Orbitz. /URL removed/ (/URL removed/) HTTP://WWW.TRAP17.COM/INDEX.PHP/RESERVATION-REWARDS-SCAM_T56496.HTML (http://www.trap17.com/index.php/reservation-rewards-scam_t56496.html) http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/scam-c137244.html (http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/scam-c137244.html)
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g187867-d565108-r22246059-Hotel_Antenore-Padua_Veneto.html (http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g187867-d565108-r22246059-Hotel_Antenore-Padua_Veneto.html) http://www.frommers.com/community/forum.cfm?plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3ATips+Tools+and+DealsForum%3A0EE96879Discussion%3A0EED59F0&plckCategoryCurrentPage=0&plckShowLatestPost=1
(http://www.frommers.com/community/forum.cfm?plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3ATips+Tools+and+DealsForum%3A0EE96879Discussion%3A0EED59F0&plckCategoryCurrentPage=0&plckShowLatestPost=1) Should you need more personal testimonials about Orbitz I will be more than glad to help you out. Hope to Hear from you soon Thomas Mauritz 615-364-8988 YESTERDAY'S E-MAIL (4/6/2009) Hi Again, I can appreciate the fact that you are protecting the company you are working for. I
understand how damaging complaints like mine are and that Orbitz is going to do everything it can to discredit such claims. I am sending you a link so you can see for yourself my case is not the only case were my information was disclosed to a 3rd party. Please do take the time to read what other Orbitz customers have experience. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/orbitz_mwi.html (http://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/orbitz_mwi.html) Please do let me know what you think after visiting the link
above. I can also send you several other links if you wish! Regards Thomas Mauritz 615-364-8988

----- Original Message ----- FROM: Orbitz - RRD Escalations (mailto:[email protected]) TO: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) SENT: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 10:37 PM SUBJECT: Credit Cards and Billing [Incident: 090316-004783]


(https://faq.orbitz.com/cgi-bin/orbitz_faq.cfg/php/enduser/[email protected]&p_next_page=myq_upd.php&p_iid=5070174&p_created=1237225417)


Credit Cards and Billing

RESPONSE (RESOLUTION DEPARTMENT) 03/31/2009 06:27 PM
Hi Thomas Mauritz,

I hope I could provide a favorable answer to that, however it is impossible for Orbitz agents to provide your credit card information to a third party as we cannot even see your complete card number as was mentioned yesterday agents can only see the last four digits of your card. Great Fun can only charge you if you happen to subscribe in one of their promotional offers online as that would be the time for them to have an access to your billing information. If I am not mistaken you can call them and request for the subscription to be cancelled of course. If they happen to charge you for something you do not approved just advised them to cancel, that way your records with them will be cancelled too. I'm really so sorry but I myself is not aware of how Great Fun operates and this is the least that I know regarding Great fun offers as per experience from the requests that I've handled from customers as well.

Hope this will help as what I can only guarantee is the security of your account with Orbitz. Even hotels and airlines though they are collecting the amount of the reservation from customer's account directly, charges are done via our system and if you call airline or hotel if you happen to have a reservation for a flight or hotel you can verify with them that they do not know your credit card information as much as our agents do.

Hope this will enlighten you regarding the safety of your account.

Sincerely,

ZOE
CUSTOMER 03/31/2009 01:45 PM
I can appreciate all your security to protect the information of Orbitz customers. With all this in place how did TLG Great Fun get my account information from Orbitz?
RESPONSE (RESOLUTION DEPARTMENT) 03/30/2009 05:09 PM
Dear Orbitz Customer,

Thank you for contacting Orbitz.

WE just receive your forwarded concern regarding your credit card information. We do apologize for your inconvenience however on the part of Orbtiz, we strictly do not provide any confidential information to third party as our agents don't have any capacity to even see your complete credit card information, it is masked in our end and we can only see the last four digits for security verification. To safeguard your account with Orbitz we always conduct account security verification and we are very strict in implementing this procedure specially with third party callers. The information that was loaded in the system are only for Orbitz use upon your permission and approval and for us to be able to charge your account we need to get the security code of said credit card. With Orbitz, we can assure you that all information in your account is very safe. Our customer service people are strictly instructed not to make any modification regarding personal details in your account such as your email address as this is the only way for you to log in in your Orbitz online account even with our customers request.

For further assistance in this matter please don't hesitate to call us in our customer service hotline or just send us an email.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

ZOE
Customer Service Supervisor
RESPONSE (EMAIL CUSTOMER SERVICE) 03/30/2009 02:36 PM
Dear Orbitz Customer,

Thank you for contacting Orbitz.

I understand you feel that Orbitz sold your credit card information to someone who has withdrawn money from your account.

I have forwarded your issue to a supervisor. They will review and respond as soon as possible. I apologize for any inconvenience caused and appreciate your patience while this matter is examined. When we do learn of a problem, Orbitz takes immediate action to prevent any future disappointing experiences for our customers.


Sincerely,

Alex
OrbitzTLC Team

Orbitz - Travel Well
www.Orbitz.com
CUSTOMER 03/30/2009 02:30 PM
Thank you for replying to my customer concern. I don't really fell like spending the phone time with customer service. The difference between what the actual hotel charges were and what I was charged by Orbitz doesn't matter. What does matter is the fact that Orbitz gave or sold my card account number to some one how started helping themselves to my money. I have posted a statement of my personal experience with consumer affaires so others can read about my experience as an Orbitz customer. Have a Great Day
Tom Mauritz
RESPONSE (E-MAIL CUSTOMER SERVICE) 03/16/2009 01:15 PM
Dear Orbitz Customer,

Thank you for contacting Orbitz.

I understand you are not satisfied with the services of Orbitz.

I would like to apologize for the inconvenience you have encountered.

Due to the detailed nature of this question, I must ask you to call Orbitz Customer Service at (888) 656-4546 from the US and (312) 416-0018 from outside the US. Our Customer Service Agents will be happy to answer all your questions.


Sincerely,

John Smith
OrbitzTLC Team

Orbitz - Travel Well
www.Orbitz.com
CUSTOMER 03/16/2009 12:43 PM
I made a reservation back in October 2007 with Knights Inn at Bay Saint Louis, Ms. with Orbitz. The charges at check out were $100 less than what Orbitz charged to my account. Where is the "Hover Craft" Still waiting. In addition Orbitz signed me up for Fun Stuff something I never approved. I finaly managed to get in touch with a real person at Fun Stuff today to stop the charges to my account. Is this the way Orbitz operates. You can only imagine how I feel about Orbitz and what I tell my contacts
Customer 04/06/2009 02:55 PM
Hi Again, I can appreciate the fact that you are protecting the company you are working for. I understand how damaging complaints like mine are and that Orbitz is going to do everything it can to discredit such claims. I am sending you a link so you can see for yourself my case is not the only case were my information was disclosed to a 3rd party. Please do take the time to read what other Orbitz customers have experience. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/orbitz_mwi.html
(http://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/orbitz_mwi.html) Please do let me know what you think after visiting the link above. I can also send you several other links if you wish! Regards Thomas Mauritz 615-364-8988
Response (Resolution Department) 04/01/2009 05:13 PM
Hi Mr. Mauritz,

As I've mentioned to you, there is no way that we will and we can provide this information to Great Fun otherwise you subscribed to have their promo's online. If Great Fun is saying so, I can guarantee that no agent gave this information to them. They got it from the system as you subscribed to have them sent you promos and discounts. They have terms and conditions in subscription and as they are the partner of Orbitz, we provide our customers this information online. Once you chose to subscribe to them they will automatically have your billing records as this is your decision to devulge it to them. No agent can do such without asking your permission and without asking you of this information as agents do not have any access to it. Please make sure of the information you are getting from Great Fun as this will affect our credibility in keeping up records.

Thank you!

ZOE
Customer 04/01/2009 12:55 PM
Hello, Here I go again to explain to you what happened. I have testimony from a TLG customer service representative that they obtained all my personal information from Orbitz after I made a hotel reservation. What every safeguards all of you are outlining in every e-mail is "Bull". They got my full name, mailing address and card account number from Orbitz. Who are each and every one of you trying to blow smoke at. Have a Great Day
Response (Resolution Department) 03/31/2009 06:27 PM
Hi Thomas Mauritz,

I hope I could provide a favorable answer to that, however it is impossible for Orbitz agents to provide your credit card information to a third party as we cannot even see your complete card number as was mentioned yesterday agents can only see the last four digits of your card. Great Fun can only charge you if you happen to subscribe in one of their promotional offers online as that would be the time for them to have an access to your billing information. If I am not mistaken you can call them and request for the subscription to be cancelled of course. If they happen to charge you for something you do not approved just advised them to cancel, that way your records with them will be cancelled too. I'm really so sorry but I myself is not aware of how Great Fun operates and this is the least that I know regarding Great fun offers as per experience from the requests that I've handled from customers as well.

Hope this will help as what I can only guarantee is the security of your account with Orbitz. Even hotels and airlines though they are collecting the amount of the reservation from customer's account directly, charges are done via our system and if you call airline or hotel if you happen to have a reservation for a flight or hotel you can verify with them that they do not know your credit card information as much as our agents do.

Hope this will enlighten you regarding the safety of your account.

Sincerely,

ZOE
Customer 03/31/2009 01:45 PM
I can appreciate all your security to protect the information of Orbitz customers. With all this in place how did TLG Great Fun get my account information from Orbitz?
Response (Resolution Department) 03/30/2009 05:09 PM
Dear Orbitz Customer,

Thank you for contacting Orbitz.

WE just receive your forwarded concern regarding your credit card information. We do apologize for your inconvenience however on the part of Orbtiz, we strictly do not provide any confidential information to third party as our agents don't have any capacity to even see your complete credit card information, it is masked in our end and we can only see the last four digits for security verification. To safeguard your account with Orbitz we always conduct account security verification and we are very strict in implementing this procedure specially with third party callers. The information that was loaded in the system are only for Orbitz use upon your permission and approval and for us to be able to charge your account we need to get the security code of said credit card. With Orbitz, we can assure you that all information in your account is very safe. Our customer service people are strictly instructed not to make any modification regarding personal details in your account such as your email address as this is the only way for you to log in in your Orbitz online account even with our customers request.

For further assistance in this matter please don't hesitate to call us in our customer service hotline or just send us an email.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

ZOE
Customer Service Supervisor
Response (Email Customer Service) 03/30/2009 02:36 PM
Dear Orbitz Customer,

Thank you for contacting Orbitz.

I understand you feel that Orbitz sold your credit card information to someone who has withdrawn money from your account.

I have forwarded your issue to a supervisor. They will review and respond as soon as possible. I apologize for any inconvenience caused and appreciate your patience while this matter is examined. When we do learn of a problem, Orbitz takes immediate action to prevent any future disappointing experiences for our customers.


Sincerely,

Alex
OrbitzTLC Team

Orbitz - Travel Well
www.Orbitz.com
Customer 03/30/2009 02:30 PM
Thank you for replying to my customer concern. I don't really fell like spending the phone time with customer service. The difference between what the actual hotel charges were and what I was charged by Orbitz doesn't matter. What does matter is the fact that Orbitz gave or sold my card account number to some one how started helping themselves to my money. I have posted a statement of my personal experience with consumer affaires so others can read about my experience as an Orbitz customer. Have a Great Day
Tom Mauritz