As many of the consumer complaints I've been parusing through, Expedia is trying to rip me off, probably as I write this.
My story goes a little someting like this; my cousin and I planned a trip to Boston with our husbands. We started on the 10 hour drive the day of our reservation, Novemer 11/06. When we were pretty much at the border we got a phone call of an unexpected death in our family. We decided to turn back. We had purchased some concert tickets that we were already losing money on, so we decided to try and cancel our reservations with the hotel we had booked through Expedia. I called the hotel and they told me that b/c we had booked through Expedia, we had to cancel through them as well.
Now, probably like most people, I did not read every bit of fine print, and also never expected that we wouldn't be going. I placed my first phone call to expedia about 9am. I explained the unfortunate circumstances to the "customer service" agent. She seemed nice enough and asked me if I would remain on hold whle she called the hotel. After some time, she came back on the line and told me that she was told by the hotel that it was not possible to cancel the reservation. Huh? This seemed cheeky at the time anyhow b/c I have travelled quite a bit and know that most hotels allow you to cancel your reservations with certain stipulations or lesser charges.
My cousin and her husband managed to get online as we were parked at a Starbucks. Hooray for Wi-Fi! They cancelled their reservation through the Expedia website, but still really didn't know if they would be charged or not. I called Expedia a second time and explained that my cousin was able to cancel online and were they absolutely sure I couldn't? Yes, they were sure I couldn't, they told me.
Fast forward to a week later. My cousin had sent a few e-mails, to Expedia and had also contacted the hotel directly. It sounded promising. The hotel said that it seemed as though we tried to cancel within our alloted timeframe. The hotel policy is: cancel 24 hours in advance and recieve a 100% refund, cancel before 2pm the DAY OF your reservation and pay only $30 USD as opposed to the full price of your room (ours were over $200 each). Okay then.
I got this information from my cousin, and decided to call the hotel directly and find out for certain that this was indeed their policy. I did, and it is. So now I am getting pretty ticked b/c I have to wonder why the Expedia agent told me it wasn't possible. Did she just get the wrong info, understand the info incorrectly, or was this all a sham and she unashamedly told me a big, fat lie?
Yesterday I called the hotel again and asked them if they had any record of me trying to cancel my reservation. The hotel agent said no, nowhere was there a record of this sort. I asked if he had a record of my cousin trying to cancel. Well yes he did. He said b/c she cancelled before 2pm, she would only be charged the $30 (let's see though what Expedia tries to charge her) but I was listed as a no-show so I would be subject to the full charge of the hotel room.
Now this made me livid, and made me wonder even more about if the Expedia agent really did tell me a lie. That she didn't even bother to contact the hotel, just put me on hold, painted her nails, got back on the phone and said "Oh I'm so sorry, it's just not possible".
I have now talked to 3 agents at Expedia, each one claiming to have put me on hold while they call the hotel to confirm their poilcy. Each time the answer from Expedia is the same; I had to cancel 24 hours in advance or I am subject to 100% of the charge. Now why am I being told one thing from the hotel about their policy and Expedia is being told another?
Well Expedia, in my opinion, was not admitting that the hotel is telling them if we tried to cancel before 2pm, we would just pay the $30. Maybe Expedia is still only paying the $30, but trying to charge us the full amount. I even spoke to a supervisor, finally, and explained the story and told him if my cousin could cancel with the hotel I should have been able to as well. He told me he would call the hotel persoally and call me back in a few minutes. He never did call me back at all, and I'm quite sure he hit coffee break instead of doing his job and calling the hotel.
No way. Uh-uh. This does NOT jive with me. This is ethically wrong and as a business, they should be giving the money back, but my guess is they won't. I argued to them that if my cousin was able to cancel, I should also be able to cancel being that it is the EXACT same situation, the EXACT same reservation and the EXACT same circumstances! That if Expedia had indeed told the truth, the agent would have cancelled my reservation and I should only have been charged through Expedia what the hotel was going to in turn charge them.
Well, long story short is I contacted my credit card company on the advice of my boss. I explained the situation, but for some reason my card has not been charged yet. I cannot block the charge, only dispute it once it is charged and Visa would then try to recover the money on my behalf, so the Visa agent, who was just great, suggested I cancel my card and they could re-issue me a new one within 3-5 business days. Works for me. I have never done that before, but I have also not been in a situation like this before either.
I don't even know why I used Expedia, and in the future I will make all my reservations directly and take the middle man outand NEVER EVER use Expedia again and tell everyone i know this story. The middle man is bad. They are only there to profit. They don't really care about the customer, and this is obvious in their lying, cheating and stealing ways.
I will update and let everyone know if Expedia did indeed try to charge us, but they were adament (and extremely rude) on the phone that we would be charged anyway.
Expedia LIES, CHEATS and STEALS from their customers. Please don't ever use them and tell everyone you know the same. They may be okay if everything goes according to plan, but we all know that this is not always the case, and if something goes wrong and you have to cancel your plans, they WILL NOT help you. They may lie to you and say they are doing everything they can, btu it is a LIE. They are not. They just want to take your money and keep on taking other people's hard earned cash as well.
Susan
Guelph, Ontario
Canada
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