Monday, February 8, 2010

Expedia.com - How bad can it be?

I booked a flight and hotel through Expedia.com several weeks ago to attend a training seminar in Texas. I live in the DC/Baltimore area and we had one of the top 10 snow storms of all time come through here on Saturday, Feb 6, 2010 (just 2 days ago). I was to leave on Sunday around noon to head to TX. On Saturday night I check the American Airlines web site and it said the flight was cancelled. BWI was closed, and from all the reports I could find they would be closed until mid-day Monday! We called AA and asked them what options we had and they said the earliest they could get us out of BWI was Tuesday. Our seminar starts at 8am Monday morning and we were told that if we can't be there on time Monday morning then we can reschedule for another seminar they'll be having in May. AA was kind enough to refund 100% of our money.

I hop onto Expedia's web site and cancel my hotel. They tell me that I will be charged one night's fee for canceling the night before I am to arrive. I said OK and cancelled. The fee is about $89. Then I get to thinking that this kind of sucks, since this is an extraordinary circumstance and my flight was cancelled, airports are all closed, etc, so maybe Expedia would give me a break. I submitted a form on their web site for customer service. I receive an email the next day (Sunday) saying they can't help me via email and I should call to talk to them. So I call today (Monday) and explain whats going on and ask if there is some way I could get the $89 fee waived. She basically told me if I had called them Saturday night that I could have gotten it waived then, but its too late now. They're able to check with the hotel to get it OK'd if I call on the phone. She was saying this fee was a policy of the hotel (which I found out later is not true). She was looking into it for me. Then she hung up on me!

So I'm getting a little pissed now. Its not the $89 really, its the way Expedia is handing my customer service. So I send them an email again, asking if they would please look into this for me because I called as requested and you hung up on me! They reply with a friendly email saying they're sorry they hung up on me but I have to call them again.

I called the hotel in Texas and they were very pleasant. She put me on hold and checked with the general manager and said that she sees my cancellation in the system but can't do anything to help me. The fee is an Expedia charge she said, and I have to talk to Expedia about that. She suggested in the future that I book directly with the hotel chain since that allows them to do a lot more to help me out in these situations. I had called the hotel a few weeks ago before booking (it's a Fairfield by Marriott) and they were just as nice and helpful back then. Must be that southern charm.

So, I called Expedia one more time. I got one of the most useless customer service reps I have ever encountered. I gave her my "case number" and she spent some time reading the case information - probably about 2 minutes - while I waited on the phone. About the time I figured she'd probably read my case info and understood what was going on she begins to explain that she doesn't see a hotel on my itinerary. I explain that's because I cancelled it. She asked for the cancellation number. I told her I was looking at the email that I got confirming my cancellation and there is no cancellation number on it. She says that's impossible - there has to be a cancellation number. I told her there are all kinds of other numbers on the email, but no cancellation number. She says there is no record of my cancellation or the $89 charge. I told her I was done with Expedia and would never be dealing with them again. She asked if there was anything else she could do for me, I said no, and we hung up.

So be aware that Expedia prefers that you work with them over the telephone via voice instead of using their web site. I find this kind of strange since they're described as "an Internet-based travel reservation website" here on Answers.com, they were started by Microsoft and they describe themselves as "the world's leading online travel company". They have a wonderful web site, which is why I always used them for my trips. But this is the last time I'll be using Expedia, Inc for anything. I can get the same hotel and airline rates going just about anywhere else, including directly to the hotel or airline. I always knew this, but used Expedia because it was nice to have all my bookings in one place and their site worked so well.

I am stunned by how bad Expedia's customer service has been. Once I got to the end of this blog entry I decided to search around for other people's experience with Expedia. Boy did I find a bunch of pissed off people! I found ratings for Expedia on Rate It All and was amazed at how similar these people's experience has been to mine. One person said, "Never use this company, their customer service is the worst I have ever come across." Boy, I could not agree more!

Check out these other sites too:

I know you could search for about any company as popular as Expedia on the internet and find lots of people that are pissed, but when you find their experiences mirror your experience then you have to believe there are some problems over at Expedia.com. Good luck!

0 comments

Labels:

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)