This is with reference to my recent experience with Expedia. I should mention here that I had earlier used Expedia and it was a good experience, ’cos it involved no cancellation / changes to bookings.
I had recently made car reservation in the US, and paid a deposit online (via credit card) at the time of booking. The balance amount was to be debited 28 days before departure from my credit card. I had to cancel the car reservation, as my US trip had to be cancelled. I went online through a link provided in the booking confirmation mail and cancelled my booking. But did not get a mail confirming cancellation as indicated during the cancellation process. I did not pay my credit card bill, to ensure the balance amount when charged does not get debited.
I called & mailed Expedia customer care a xillion times only to get a response that they could not locate my booking!!! So obviously they could not figure out if my cancellation is confirmed or not. But there was one helpful lady who confirmed to be that she had logged into a different application and cancelled my reservation, and that I would get a mail confirming that. Later only I realised that she had done no such thing, and that it was a ploy to get me to disconnect the call!!
The saddest part is that after writing a note to an India Leadership Team member who promptly responded that he would help sort the issue, a lady called from Expedia office and as I was trying to explain the situation to her, the line got cut. I tried calling the no., but being a customer service no., incoming calls were barred. Its been a few days now, and am still waiting for her to call.
And as expected there was an attempt to debit the balance amount from my credit card. It was thankfully declined as I had purposely kept my bills unpaid, so credit limit available was low. I then linked up with a friend who had earlier used Expedia and he helped me cancel the booking by linking on to a different car reservation website, which does the car bookings for Expedia.
It is saddening that an international service provider has such pathetic customer service professionals. I really wish they had trained them better.
"Expedia : Making Travel Difficult" - has been my recent experience ...
Note : The review is only to jot down the unfortunate experience. Hence I have avoided mentioning names of the crappy customer service professionals who I had interacted with during this episode