I recently booked a room using the Expedia.com reservation system. When I got to my destination hotel, they could not find my reservation. I called Ex and they said that they had faxed the information to the hotel. The hotel could not find the fax. On a 3 way call the manager of the hotel spoke with the Ex rep and they talked for approx 10 minutes to finally get things situated, she didn’t know I was on the phone. The Ex reservationist had told me the hotel was sold out but had 2 more rooms when I booked. The hotel manager told me the hotel was nearly empty and I could have just walked in off the street and rented a room easily. I also found out that they charged me $30.00 per night more than I could have gotten the room for on my own.
My complaint is Expedia sucks major A$$. They even yelled at me when I spoke to CS after I got back home saying they offered a service and I shouldn’t complain about paying for the service I received. I hope my $60.00 is embezzled and the company will be belly up soon. Karma.
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Welcome to the victims of EXPEDIA’s club (Click on my name/URL to read how they tried to scam me 1254.95 U$D and failed…..miserably).
JOhn on July 8th, 2008 at 7:37 am | Link
I use Expedia to find prices. Then I book directly thru the hotel. It’s the same price 99% of the time.
I stopped using Expedia for this very reason. They kept overcharging me for rooms I found I could get like generalzod said on my own. Fun to use their website and research for free then get a deal without using (paying) them for it….
Lynette on July 15th, 2008 at 4:55 pm | Link
Not only do they scam us for hotels but flights and rental cars. Their biggest scam is offering cancellation insurance then telling the customer it will take 30 days to receive a credit to their credit card. Funny, Expedia didn’t wait 30 days to charge and receive their money on our credit card but they want us to wait 30 extra days to get a credit. It’s just wrong and they lost our business including my companies business forever. Good to hear others are getting the middle finger from Expedia so I don’t feel so alone.
LB Long on December 26th, 2008 at 9:14 pm | Link
you do know that the hotel can just easily change their rates, right? you mentioned that the hotel manager said that they were nearly empty. that’s probably the reason why they lowered their rates — to get more people to book with them. i’m sorry if you got an incompetent agent - you could have dialed again and gotten a diff agent or you could have asked for a supervisor.
meredith on May 20th, 2009 at 10:53 am | Link
Meredith,
Again Expedia was in control of hiring, training and supervising those in positions requiring thoughtful and efficient customer service. In my businesses we take responsibility when we make mistakes. Here, Expedia refuses to take responsibility. The customer shouldn’t have to keep calling back until someone does the right thing for that customer.
I do agree with asking for a supervisor who may have done more so that point is well taken except now the customer has wasted more time on an issue that was all Expedia’s fault.
The point is Expedia was supposed to be doing what it promised which was book the reservation that was paid for and the customer gets what was bargained for. No more time investment on the customer’s part. But, Expedia caused a great deal of time to be expended sorting out the mess they caused then kept a $30 per night bonus. All this goes against professional customer service and probably cost Expedia a lot more money in the long run. And yet another customer. It’s easy to lose customers but hard to get them to do business with you. Last, I’ll give you this old saying, “You can take a man’s money, he can make more money, but when you take his time, you take a part of his life.” That’s the true cost to this customer and everyone else who has to wade through the Expedia trouble-shooting gauntlet.
LB Long on May 20th, 2009 at 12:14 pm | Link
No where on the expedia site does it say that they are a “non-profit” company. They work with the hotels to book multiple rooms. If the hotel “manager” or clerk adjusts the pricing on any given day it can end up lower that what you pay anywhere.
The issue is that Expedia gets a bad rap on things involved with the travel industry, based on the fact that most people do not read or understand what they are actually buying..
Good saying is ” BUYER BEWARE”
jeremy on May 23rd, 2009 at 12:11 am | Link
Caveat Emptor meaning Let the Buyer Beware. You got that part right. The buyer has to beware of Expedia and those trained by Expedia to handle issues on the part of Expedia. The bottom line is, that taking care of customer satisfaction is key to repeat business. The profit motive is undisputed. But to maintain profit requires positive customer service. So, what’s it worth for a company to keep a customer? Again, it’s easy to lose customers but much more difficult to acquire and retain them. As of this writing Expedia’s stocks have dropped over 15%. Maybe that percentage of disgruntled customers who got nickel-and-dimed would be welcome now? Expedia still makes a lot of money for it’s execs and shareholders but who knows what will shake out of all this.
LB Long on May 23rd, 2009 at 11:54 am | Link
My name is Martha E Delgado; I just became a member of expedia but unfortunately had my first bad experience. I and my family took a trip to Puerto Rico, the planes were ok but the booking with the hotel was very wrong. When I started looking for hotels I decided I was going to book with your service and saw the different options, so I call to ask about the Hilton Suits the girl I talk to told me it was a two bedroom suit, we even spoke about being double beds on both because I ask her if it could be two beds on one room and one bed on the other room and she said that both rooms had to have the same kind of beds, that was four beds, two and two. This worked out perfectly for us because we are a family of five so I book with her. We got to the Hilton and our surprise was the suit was a one bedroom suite with only two beds and a sofa at the entrance of the suite. That wasn’t what I was told and it wasn’t what I booked nor what I needed, I spoke to the manager but this was what expedia book for me, he told me to talk to you and try to work something out so we could be change to a two bedroom suit. The lady to whom I spoke after speaking to an agent was not at all help and was very rout, the only answer was if we didn’t want it we could look some where else, it was 11 pm and this was already paid for, the hotel manager told us that we could paid the difference but that was double the price we already paid, our stay was for 10 night and 11 days, that would be much more that what I planed with time when I book for this vacation.
We had no odder choice but to stay in that small for us suit because it was our first time in Puerto Rico and had already a budget to spend on our vacation. I just became a member of expedia thinking that this was a serious company and that your agents now what they are doing, but with this bad experience I can not have confidence in expedia . I and my family travel every year, is a family vacation every summer and I planed every year in advance, this is the first time I did it thru you and it turn out to be the worst.
martha on August 25th, 2009 at 4:51 pm | Link
More of the same I guess.
Expedia is supposed to be competitive and yet I’ve just paid $747 for a flight that I’ve just seen on Zuji for $450 (same plane, same time.) If it had been only something like $50 dollars difference then I would have shrugged my shoulders, caveat emptor and all that, and moved on.
As it is, the difference is a rip off to all of those using Expedia.com. I tried to complain the day after getting confirmation and they tried to invoke small print that said I hadn’t complained in time. I phoned them and they tried to fob me off with an Expedia voucher. I refused and told them I wished my complaint to go higher.
My emails requesting a report status on my complaint are now just ignored. So I am making sure everyone knows about it.
Woowoo on November 21st, 2009 at 6:37 pm | Link
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expedia is the best!
I am an elite plus customer and everybody there is just nice!
I mean al the agents really know how to deal with angry customer as you!
I love expedia!
That is the best travel agency in the world!=)
casey on May 2nd, 2010 at 8:22 pm | Link
Worst Customer Care. A cheating company which refuses cancellation charges even for valid medical reasons.
User on June 9th, 2010 at 7:41 pm | Link
I hate Expedia now and will never use them again. How could hotel booking that is over a month away, non-refundable of course, be $100 a night MORE than if I just booked at the Hotel website directly? And with the Hotel Website reservation I could have cancelled up to the day before.
The agent at Expedia was not very helpful and was reading from a script. This is how Expedia makes money. Bad deals, hoping you don’t look around. Are they all that way?
John on August 18th, 2010 at 12:41 pm | Link
To whom it may concern,
Re: letter of complaint
I am writing to complain about the dreadful level of service that I recently received as an Expedia customer. I was promised a call back in order to resolve this issue and this action has not been taken so I am left to relive the experience writing to you.
I am expecting that Expedia will investigate this thoroughly and inform me of the outcomes as to how and why this happened. I also expect to be refunded for the flight that I paid for as Expedia didn’t honour the booking that I had paid for which caused me considerable duress.
On 15.03.10 I booked a flight from London to Mytilene via Athens with Expedia in order to attend a wedding. The initial booking was made for the following itinerary:
27th May 2010 London to Athens – Departing 22:15
28th May 2010 Athens to Mytilene – Departing 04:00
01st June 2010 Mytilene to Athens – Departing 07:10
01st June 2010 Athens to Mytilene – Departing 09:15
On 13.04.10 I received a barely understandable voicemail informing me to call Expedia urgently regarding my flights. I called back the number that they had requested but I could not provide the reference number as the message had been poor (English and call quality). I found my original booking reference and called back immediately due to the apparent urgency at a time really inconvenient to me. The man that I spoke to didn’t listen to me at all. He explained that I had to change my flight times and kept repeatedly saying ‘Maam, I have a great solution for you’. He didn’t once ask what a ‘good solution’ would look like. I explained that I was attending a wedding on the day that I arrived and that his ‘great solution’ didn’t work for me on that basis. This is interesting as I later found out that there was no need to change my flights at all. Six ‘great solutions’ and about 20 mins (on my phone bill) later, he booked me onto suitable flights. I then received a confirmation email of my new flights.
One 27th May 2010 I checked in at LHR on my flight to Mytilene via Athens (along with my luggage). When I arrived in Athens, I went to the Aegen desk in order to check-in to my onward flight (as requested) and was informed that they could see my booking but the agent (Expedia) had neither confirmed nor paid for the flight. They requested that I check with the Olympic desk (as per my original booking in just case). I checked and there was no booking with them. I then returned to the Aegen desk. They told me that this was not a rare situation with Expedia and that I needed to call you. The only number that they could get was a number in the United States. I had less than an hour to rectify this. It was the middle of the night. Firstly I was calling from my UK mobile to the United States office as it was the only number that they had from Athens (I will send you the mobile phone bill as I couldn’t use their phone) and secondly the voice recognition would not recognise my British accent so I had to speak in a false American accent which was embarrassing. After circa 10 minutes on hold, I spoke to a lady who was very apologetic but unable to help. I explained that I was in the company Aegen staff who could see my booking and that it had not been confirmed. Once again, your agent did not speak good English and time was of the essence. Expedia could not identify me using any of the following; my name, my booking ref, my passport number, my email address (x3), or my bank details. After just under one hour on the phone, your representative informed me that I needed to speak to a supervisor. I requested not to be put on hold at all and that I would wait on the line. I was sure that I would now miss the flight and not make it to the wedding. I was tired, frustrated and anxious. I am a regular traveller (also in developing countries) and have never experienced such frustration and incompetence. I was kept waiting as there was no supervisor available to take my call and no acknowledgement was made of the urgency. I was then put on hold. Eventually I had to hang up as I was feeling very anxious and was clearly going to get no support and miss the flight. Then Aegen informed me that I would not make it on to the flight. They also expressed that there should never have been a modification made to my flight as there was space on my originally booked flight (which I had also now missed). This only fuelled my frustration.
I eventually gave up and purchased a new ticket on a later flight (I will send you the receipt for reimbursement). Both Aegen and Olympic Air have insisted that I push for further compensation for the stress caused. Catching the later flight resulted in an €75 taxi to my final destination on top of the flights. I had the additional inconvenience of having to trawl through ‘lost luggage to retrieve my case.
The knock-on effect meant that I did not have a holiday. I did not know whether my return flights were confirmed. I spent my free time that weekend waiting in places where I had a phone signal in order to remedy this debacle cause by Expedia. I had to forsake activities that I had paid for in order to ensure that I could get my return flights that would. My holiday was entirely ruined. I spent hours alone in a hotel making and receiving calls at my cost. To add insult to injury, I was than informed that I had never checked-in and LHR and that I was affectively a ‘no-show’. This was not true. I was on the flight. I have the boarding card (which I will send to you). The final day and night of my 3 day holiday was spent alone in a hotel (that I wasn’t staying in) waiting for Expedia’s calls (who were still struggling to resolve the situation). At approximately 11pm the night before I was due to fly back on an early morning flight, I received a call to say that they had found my details and provided a new booking reference number. I then had to pay another €75 taxi to the airport as I had missed the last bus.
I was informed that Expedia would follow up on this issue and resolve my complaints. I have still not heard from Expedia months later and cannot wait any longer.
Please send me the address to where I can claim on my expenses. Details of my supposed flights are below.
I will await a speedy response (my contact details are as below) and I hope for an acceptable resolution which will compensate me for not only the anxiety caused but for the financial loss.
Please let me know what you require in order to make a claim for compensation. My holiday was ruined as most of my time was spent attempting to identify myself with Expedia who I had paid and flown on one of my booked flights.
I will not hesitate in taking action against Expedia through formal channels and share my experiences with relevant online spaces/bogs or with my network of frequent flyers. See below for my booking details.
Yours sincerely,
Rachel on September 12th, 2010 at 11:00 am | Link