I am writing this report with a sombre heart such that my fellow human beings would not have to go through what I have gone through by using Expedia.com. This in in regards to an original itineary number xx980 for travel from Dubai to Goa with Hotel booked on the Expedia.com three days back. I am an Indian National residing in the UAE and had planned to show my girlfriend who is an Estonian my country India.
Things were looking rosy and I was looking forward to take my girl friend to my home country India and have a relaxing holiday around the beaches of Goa. Things started shattering as I was informer that my girl friend would not get her India VISA before our scheduled travel on the 14th March night out of Dubai.
Expedia.com advertises clearly of their ability to help changes with a reasonable cost involved with enough time in hand. I started contacting Expedia.com on their US call centre number on the 10th of March around 6.20 pm local time in Dubai and was on the phone with them till 10 minutes back i.E. 11.50 pm March 10th with only a dinner break in between.
It all started with the regular questions the girl handling the query sounded Asian and helpful and after enough explanation and holding the phone she finally understood what I was looking at and she could make the changes however things had to take a different course and my line snapped after 30 minutes of chatting with this beautiful girl to my dismay, this was just before she could authorize the transactions. Now I am back to ground zero as Expedia.com employees do not send mails of the query response leave apart calling back.
The whole story starts with another call another courteous handler and another set of confusions and new questions, I had the same instructions and same request which this person could not take care of even in 45-50 minutes of the call and the line snaps again.
The third time the third call handler gives me a toll free international number which was charged to me when I dialled on the same number and to no good.
The fourth call the biggest and the most cumbersome of all, this call handler was putting me on hold for durations as if I was on a hotline with him 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 60 minutes passed away and no result and finally I asked him to do things one by one and hence we started all over again with changes to my flights schedule and after 15 minutes of hold and understanding of things he did get the changes made charging me US$ 310 (US$ 618 original cost of the tickets). Now comes the best part I had booked 5 room nights at a reputed hotel at Goa for a total sum of US$ 980 from the 15th of March until the 20th of March. My request was to shift the dates to 18th march until the 23rd of March. So the story telling starts rooms not available for the particular room type for the last 2 days and hence he suggested me to book a room on a higher category for an additional US$ 580. On this I suggested him to book me on the same category for the first 3 days and the higher category for the remaining 2 days for the additional cost of US$ 232. He could not understand the whole logic and then he started telling me that he could not help me as the rooms were only available at US$ 274 per night. Now check the match US$ 274 * 5 room nights totals US$ 1370 out of which US$ 980 has already been paid so the additional cost is only US$ 390 plus US$ 20 Expedia Charges. On deliberating on the subject for another 35-45 minutes the guy could get the logic. The so called travel consultant advised me that he could not make the changes on the system without charging me US$ 580 and asked me to authorise the cancellation of my existing booking and to get a new booking done. The boy had a point and to save any more hassle I authorise the same and thus my hotel booking is cancelled. Now I have US$ 960 as credit with expedia.com and I need to get my new booking done with US$ 410 excess payment. The boy now starts throwing a fit stating that I can't consider the US$ 960 as a credit as it would be sent back to my card account and I had to make fresh payments of US$ 1370 on my literally the guy he agreed to charge the difference amount and proceed with my booking and started complaining that my card did not authorize when I had around US$ 500 balance in my card. I kept on requesting him not to transfer the funds back to my card account as it takes 3-4 weeks here in Dubai for reversals. I even agreed to pay the difference at the Hotel upon check in and he did not hear anything and snapped the line. The only good thing this guy did was to provide me with a case id for a reference.
The fifth call was made and immediately the handler put me on a 20 minute hold to supposedly find the guy who took my earlier call. Now the sixth call was made just to hear that the funds have been authorised to my card which would at least take 7-10 working days now I have no hotel booking, no money the best they could do was to give me a coupon of US$ 100 against the phone calls I have made.
I take all this as a bad day and then restructure my mind and I had to book hotels in Mumbai used the same card for US$ 300 on Expedia.com and it authorised immediately, now the best part comes I go on the hotels in Goa to check the availability of rooms in the same hotel as my earlier booking and to my horror and surprise the same rooms that I had booked for my earlier schedule are available for my new dates of stay. I was shocked and stunned with disbelief with what Expedia.com has done to me and how they have tried to fleece an innocent customer like me.
The whole process was so grusome that at the end of the day I felt like ending my life. I felt that the people sitting on the other side of the phone are not there to help but to cheat you as you are at their mercy for the changes and thats what they did cheat, cheat and chaet.
I am ready to provide all details and clarifications if anyone wish to file a suit against Expedia.com
Best regards
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