Expedia are doing my head in. Help

[malumbu]

Not booked a package tour since a coach trip to Austria in the 1980s. Do it all myself. So when I found a cheap package on Expedia to Greece changed the habbit of a recent life time.

It appears the package is simply the flight, which I could have booked myself, and the hotel, which I could have booked myself. Not sure if I saved anything.

So then I find it doesn't include the transfer. Well more fool me, there was me thinking a holiday to Tinos actually got me to Tinos.

And now I find that we arrive too late on Mykonos to get the ferry over to Tinos for the first evening.

Asked Expedia to sort it all out, but they don't seem to want to do it. There was nowt on their terms and conditions or info about any of this. I even phoned up the call centre before booking but they were evasive about transfers. It seems dumb for their system to give me a hotel/flight package where we simply can't get to the hotel on the day of arrival.

I sadly get embroiled with the odd complaint, but finding Expedia pretty slippy to deal with. Any views eg perhaps how to go higher up the organisation rather than unhelpful one liners from their staff at the call centre.

Ta everso

[Applespider]

Good luck. They screwed me over about 8 years ago over e-tickets that magically turned into paper tickets that didn't arrive before we travelled. All the documentation I printed before we left said they were e-tickets until we got to the airport. And then when I went back to look at the webpage, Expedia had changed it. We had to fork out for new airline tickets (thankfully it was a US internal rather than the transatlantic) and they wouldn't do anything about it.

Prior to that, a friend had a problem where Expedia's system got two Holiday Inns confused and booked us into one on the other side of Berlin. Thankfully Holiday Inn sorted that one out for us. Now, I avoid them and their subsidiaries like the plague - I told customer services that I'd never use them again, and I've stuck to it.

I don't hold out much hope for you but wish you luck.

[malumbu]

They've just told me to speak to their bloomin call centre. I just wish they would take responsiblity and sort it. Then I would have a nice thread saying how impessed I was with them. It just seems to be a press the button booking system rather than actually adding any value and support. It would have been easier to have booked the thing myself in the first place.

I had a couple of problems with Eurostar, more than ten years ago and very recently. They were excellent in sorting it out both times, and the first time upgraded the party to first class throughour.

BA once got me back from India FOC and I wasn't even booked with them!

So it is not a case that all organisations dodge responsibility or wont help.

[Annette Curtain]

Maybe the guy from lordship lane carpets could help

[malumbu]

You are not even vaguely funny. Go get a life will you.

[SCSB79]

malumbu Wrote:

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> You are not even vaguely funny. Go get a life

> will you.

A troll not liking being trolled. How amusing.

[giggirl]

I've used them for years and they've been OK. My chief reason for using them is that they give lots of cash-back if you go through Quidco (typically 10% on hotels, which is worth having).

I had a problem a few years ago and was given the run-around by "customer services",so I went into their UK corporate head office, which is at 42 Earlham Street (just opposite the Donmar Theatre), and insisted they sort it out, which they did. They don't publish that address anywhere and there are no logos outside the building. They really really don't like unhappy customers turning up at there. I politely told their receptionist that I was fed up of being on-hold so please get someone with a pulse and a brain to come and speak to me. My problem disappeared instantly.

I do still use them because I think generally they're good, but I don't go on package holidays as a rule.

They have recently started to automatically leave the insurance box ticked when you book travel with them. I loathe it when people do that - it's such a scam. You can get a refund but it's hassle.

[Annette Curtain]

malumbu Wrote:

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> You are not even vaguely funny. Go get a life

> will you.

10

Or a Zagat's 30

Lovin life btw

Edited to add Zagat's score

[malumbu]

Giggirl

Many thanks for your helpful suggestion. I'll got there tomorrow.

I got the CEO and somebody else high up from Googling. There is some good stuff on line, but I suppose they really are doing nothing more than pairing up flights and hotels, not a true package. I was suprised when I got two bills, one for Easyjet and one for Expedia. They even charged me more than Easyjet's normal booking fee.

I'll report back.

[Annette Curtain]

malumbu Wrote:

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> I got the CEO and somebody else high up from

> Googling. There is some good stuff on line,

> I'll report back.

You are internet GOLD

[malumbu]

Is there an echo?

I spoke to my friends in Lordship Lane Carpets, and then Hamptons International, but they were not much help.

So.... Expedia have moved from central London.

So dear readers, here is a tip, write a complaint letter. Don't do it on line, or phone up the call centre, write.

Following this they kindly phoned (I was now a priority case) when I was out but didn't leave a message. Ditto with an e-mail.

So I visited the HQ which is now a plush office at the Angel.

They eventually explained that they were only an admin office and that my complaint was being handled in Las Vagas as I was now a priority. I even had a nice chat to the Navada office. Expedia told me that they hated social networks giving out their direct line for London as they then got inudated. I explained that a complaining customer was a discerning customer, (OK not always true) and that good customer service paid great dividends through word of mouth. I hope Michael O'leary is reading this.

Anyway, back to my quest. They eventually phone me back at home. And take half an hour going through the options. They only had one option, which was to put us up in a hotel in Mykonos overnight (three times the price of the island we were going to). At Expedia's cost I hasten to add. Why that took half an hour I'll never know.

So result.

Then I get an e-mail a couple of days before we depart saying that the second hotel has cancelled our reservation and to ring a free phone number in America. This time in Texas. I try to explain in a controlled manor our predicament. There is what seeems to be a 30 second silence, until I realise that is the pace they talk at in Texas. Enventually I find that this is an admin error from Expedia.

So, rather than my hols sorted out at a touch of a button, this took hours. Lesson is book a flight early with Easyjet, then go to the Lonley Planet and to check on accommodation and book that independently as well. As I have done for most hols in the last 15 years. And if I had done this early would have saved me a grand.

[Annette Curtain]

It all sounds very exhausting, I mean i'm exhausted just reading the whole thread

You'll be needing another holiday to get over this one, tho i'm sure you'll be letting all concerned know that

Good luck, let us know how much/what you squeeze out of them

( you helped yourself to all the soaps, gels and coffee sachets tho, right? I mean that's a given. That said, i'm inundated with unworn showercaps & those flat origami slipper thingy's from round the globe )