I hope that this information may reach the ears of someone who cares about customer service and is willing to do something about it as Expedia won’t and ignores its customers’ correspondences.
On November 24, 2009 I booked a hotel reservation at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport Hotel for a total of $131.75 online with Expedia.com. Due to extreme weather conditions including snow on the 5 free way and dangerous winds and rain on the 101 on December 12, 2009, our trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco had to be cancelled. We called the hotel to try to reschedule to a later date or cancel the reservation and they were very sympathetic and willing to help but we were advised that the reservation was booked under Expedia and we would have to contact them in order to gain approval from them. Upon contacting Expedia, they refused to do anything about it and insisted on charging us the full amount even though we did not stay at the hotel. Because they were unwilling to do anything, we filed a dispute with our credit card company. Visa investigated the issue and sent a notice to Expedia.com for mediation. Expedia was given a full 45 days to respond to the dispute but according to Visa, they received no response from Expedia.com and the case was then closed. We received a notice from Visa stating that our account had been credited the full amount and the case solved.
The case was closed and there was no problem until on June 21, over 6 months later, we received a notice from Expedia’s collections agency, RMS, billing us for $131.75. Upon receiving this notice, we sent RMS a letter stating that we do not accept this charge and that it had already been disputed and solved. We also send a handwritten letter to Expedia regarding the matter. Both letters were met with zero response from either company. RMS simply sent another 2 collection notices with zero explanation and Expedia ignored our correspondence.
On July 27, 2010, we received the third collection notice from RMS that read, “You have not responded to our previous request for payment of this account which was placed with us for collection.” In fact, we had responded via certified mail on July 7, 2010. Due to the lack of response from both RMS and Expedia, we called Visa to help us track down someone from Expedia. Shelly with Visa helped us get Edwin C., in customer service, from Expedia, on the phone. When asked why Expedia was sending Collections Notices despite the case already being closed, Edwin responded that the hotel had charged Expedia, and so Expedia is charging us. Shelly and I asked to get the collections notices to stop as the dispute had already been settled and Expedia had sent no response to our dispute. Edwin stated that he was only able to process reservations in the past 6 months and since this dated back to 2009, he was unable to change anything. Expedia did nothing to respond to this issue until 6 months later – ironic, since their customer representatives are “unable” to process anything past 6 months.
Edwin connected us with Mario, his supervisor. Mario gave us the same response and said that it was out of his hands and he was unable to address the matter, so he patched us over to Expedia’s corporate branch. At corporate we spoke to Daria. We have been loyal Expedia customers for years and years and have heard many horrible stories regarding their customer service, but I didn’t believe it until today. When asked why a collections agency was sending us notices and harassing us, she said that Expedia needs to get paid. When I told her that no services were rendered and we did not stay at the hotel, she insisted that they did everything they could to advocate a refund from the hotel on our behalf. To this date, we still have no proof of this and furthermore, the hotel was willing to help us as individuals but refused Expedia? It makes no sense. When questioned about their lack of response to Visa, Daria curtly responded that the people who handle those claims are in a completely different department and that she can’t speak for them. Being a part of corporate means that you’re responsible for all departments of your company, including those that deal with credit card claims. In no universe is zero response acceptable whether it’s to another business or a customer. On both accounts, Expedia has proven their lack of professionalism. They failed to respond to Visa, the most widely accepted credit card agency in the world and a loyal customer. Daria offered no apology and no real answer, just that it wasn’t her fault. When I asked her to address the issue, she said that it was out of her hands and that there is nothing that Expedia can do about it. If Expedia is the one who issued the account to RMS then it’s their doing and they can do something about it. I did not appreciate being lied to and patronized.
She then suggested that I contact the collections agency to address the matter. I then advised her that I had already done so in written form through certified mail and only received another bill with no explanation other than I “didn’t” respond. At this point she had interrupted me several times on top of being rude so I then asked her if there was someone else at Expedia that I could talk to since the collections agency and Expedia at large don’t respond to written letters and there was nothing she could do about it. All I got was excuses and finger pointing at other departments with no apology. When I insisted that if she couldn’t help me resolve the matter that I would like to speak with someone else, she hung up on me.
It’s a laughing joke that Expedia says they offer great customer service. I thought they were a great company, but I’m just disappointed in their response – or lack thereof. They’ve offered zero help on all accounts and have ignored our written letters. They did nothing when the account was disputed and waited 6 months to send a collection agency to harass us. Not only have they wasted countless hours of our time, they’ve also lost this family’s business. If a written letter of complaint doesn’t get through to them, I’m not sure what will.
Frankly, I’m just disappointed with Expedia and I will no longer book through them. Not only do they not care about their customers, they have zero accountability. We were unable to keep our reservations due to impossible weather conditions and received no help from Expedia. This really goes to show that Expedia doesn’t care about its customer’s interests at all. We would have been happy to reschedule our stay to another date or even a credit to our account but it seems Expedia cares more about making a dollar than customer service. Daria was rude and I’m appalled that Expedia would hire someone like her to work at corporate. It is completely unprofessional to ignore all correspondences from both Visa and their customers and then wait 6 months to send a collections agency after us – after which time they supposedly have no control over the issue. Their business practices are questionable, at best, and this family will no longer be using their services. Their slogan says, “Where you book matters.” Yes, I agree – anywhere but Expedia. The service industry thrives on customer service first. Obviously this company has got it backwards.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I hope that this letter and our negative experiences with Expedia will one day get them to change their habits of poor customer service.
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