I will not go into the entire history of my story here. I will instead recount the errors, misrepresentations, and undeniably bad services that led up to me never again using Expedia.
1. Their website. It gave information so confusing for a price, that even the Expedia sales tech didn't understand it. He actually went through all the trouble of giving us a "better" price from their own website, apparently not realizing that it wound up being the same price. We wasted our time. Speaking of Expedia's customer service...
2.incompetence. Thanks to the sales team, we somehow wound up getting double booked. After calling to confirm, they neglected to tell us that we had somehow bought an extra ticket, in part because of how the website works. For FOUR months. Yes, for four months, not only were we in the dark as to why Expedia was charging us so much, but Expedia themselves didn't know, & didn't tell us until it was too late, because...
3. Expedia doesn't do refunds. That's right. Expedia told us flat out, they don't return the money. Of course, they DID blame the airline, the bank, even us for their very obvious mistake of overlooking the little fact that they double booked us & misinformed us on price. Delta wasn't nice about it either, but it all started with Expedia, and ultimately ended with them. At this point, I don't want anything from Expedia. They can keep the money they took from me, because me and my big mouth are going places. The internet, my friends and families, strangers on the street, social events and gatherings, and car/t-shirt adverts are just the beginning of plans I have to make sure you and yours wouldn't ever want to use Expedia. I have already given them much opportunity to "make it right".
There are actually many more reasons why I would never use or recommend any service through Expedia. But it's pretty scary to read other people's nightmares, too: From being given wrong information about the hotel they'll be staying at, to being stranded in a country they're unfamiliar with. It's inconvenient at best, scary and dangerous at worse. A regular travel agent would be able to help you out in a situation like this. Expedia has a hands off approach, the less they deal with you after your booking, the better.
Do yourself a favor, book direct. Don't use online travel services that may not actually give you a better price. Even if it does, if something goes wrong, you'll find yourself in a world of headache that's not ever worth it, and may wind up costing you more because of it.
Oh, and also save yourself from places like Hotels.com & tripadvisor, they're owned by Expedia. As I mentioned before, their website is filled with incorrect information, and these are no different.
One more thing: Typing the words Expedia Customer Service or Expedia reliability brings up a mountain's worth of bad reviews. I have never seen a company with so many hate/review sites attributed to it. Would you really trust a company with so many unhappy customers, one that forces you to worry about the fine print, and would eventually give you a bad customer experience?
Http://techcrunch.com/02/14/expedia-sucks/
http://www.costaricatravelreview.com/id31.html
http://www.my3cents.com/companyOverview. Cgi? Code=54
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/26119/thinking_of_using_expedia_to_buy_airline.html? Cat=9
http://travelsitecritic.com/reviews/1/expedia/#comment-542
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