Cranky Customer

After I cancelled AT&T long distance service 2 years ago, I got a bill for $.70. I am not about to write a check for $.70 and put a $.37 stamp on it, so I went online to pay the bill.

AT&T would not accept my payment, because it was less than $1.00. I called customer service and made the payment over the phone.

Next month, I got a past due notice for $.70 and the payment was never deducted from my debit card, so I went online and paid $1.00. Every month for the last 2 years, I get a bill from AT&T, telling me I had a credit balance of $.30.

They have probably spent $100 trying to save a few cents on processing a payment of less than $1.00.

I swore off (and at) Expedia many years ago when they still issued paper tickets:

I set up and paid for a trip, they emailed me when the tickets were allegedly mailed but they never showed up. After talking to numerous people and waiting "in case it was delayed", which took me to like a day before the trip, I tried to get them to re-issue the ticket or otherwise fix the problem. Nothing doing, they said: once the ticket was mailed they were done. I even got the airline on the phone and someone there fairly high up the food chain was willing to reissue directly to me if Expedia would confirm the original ticketing and they'd work out the details later. Nothing doing, they said: "we mailed out the ticket and we're not obligated to do anything further, it's the customer's problem now, not ours." I pointed out that a travel agent should help and was smarmily told "Expedia is not a travel agent, we just book reservations and sell tickets." Come again? I ended up paying twice for that blasted ticket (never did show up.) and never, ever again used Expedia and have talked many others out of using it also. It'll be a long, long time before that bad taste washes out. Even when the problem could be fixed with no cost and minimal effort on their part, they refused to help or even act like they gave a damn. I travel a lot -- but not through their systems will I ever book anything.

In 1999 I was 20 years old and traveling to England for six months. I was travelling by myself and was already nervous about that. The flight from Detroit to Newark went more or less smoothly after some confussion at the airport (not Expedia's fault), but once I got to Newark and went to check in with my paper ticket at the Virgin Atlantic counter for my flight to London, I was informed that there was no record fo my reservation in the system. After about 20 minutes of panic, the ticket agent put me into a seat on a different flight with the same times because I did have a paper ticket in hand that said I was supposed to be there. My time in England went fine until it came time to return home.

My original return ticket had me landing in Cleveland from Newark at 9:45 and catching a flight from there to Detroit at 10:30. The flight was a little late out of Newark, and we arrived in Cleveland at 10:15 only to learn that the last flight out of Cleveland left at 9:30. Apparently, Expedia had changed my flight information in their system, booking me on a flight that left while I was still in the air out of Newark, and they never e-mailed me or tried to reach any of my contact information. I was panicked! Luckily the airport put me up in a hotel for the night and got me on an 8:00 am flight the next day, but the experience made it very difficult for me to trust Expedia ever again. They made my first international flight and my first time travelling solo a complete nightmare.

I wil never again use Expedia! The arrogance and obvious distain for their customers is infuriating.

I booked a motel a few weeks ahead, planning it to be the 2nd stop on a 2 stop trip. On the 2nd day, headed for the 2nd night motel, I had a car overheating problem and which would tie me up for the day.

I called the motel to cancel. I was told it couldn't be cancelled and after much conversation was told to call Expedia.

I explained the problem and asked for a refund or credit for the motel for that night. I would be able to use it the next night instead.

In no uncertain terms I was told the motel had to be cancelled 24 hours before the reservation date.

I eventually spoke with 3 different people and all of them were arrogant and completely unsympathetic.

There was no desire to help in any manner. It only cost me $100.00, and after some of the other stories, I consider myself lucky.

I will NEVER even go to their website again.

Expedia isn't the only one that suffers. I booked travel for my elderly parents on Travelocity; somehow they ended up with three reservations on two different flights. To their credit, they emailed me to inform me of the problem. The trouble started when I got a customer service rep that could barely understand English -- he cancelled the wrong reservation leaving them on different flights (they MUST travel together as they are elderly). Of course Travelocity wouldn't do anything to fix the situation so I ended up spending $100 for a rebooking fee to get them on the same flight, working with the airline this time.

Recently I was going to fly to China. Travelocity had the cheapest fare so I threw caution to the wind and decided to purchase from them. Well .. turns out the flight was fully booked at that fare (something the other web sites apparently were aware of), so when I tried to book it on Travelocity the $1200 fare suddenly went to $3600! Unravelling the other plans was a hassle. To make it worse, three days later they still were claiming that I could get the $1200 fare. Bait and switch is supposed to be illegal isn't it?

Expedia and Travelocity have both lost my business. I gave then each an extra benefit of the doubt, one more time than uaual. The third screwing was the charm. Orbitz will not get a third chance, two was enough. They are all history.

Orbitz Orbitz Orbitz! Used it many times, never had any problems.

The trouble started when I got a customer service rep that could barely understand English -- he cancelled the wrong reservation leaving them on different flights (they MUST travel together as they are elderly). Of course Travelocity wouldn't do anything to fix the situation so I ended up spending $100 for a rebooking fee to get them on the same flight, working with the airline this time. --Rob

The reason this happened to you is because Travelocity fired all its American customer service reps in order to reap extra profits by passing their customer service off to India. Travelocity does not care enough about its customers to ensure that the customer service is in the language their customers speak.

Rob, perhaps you could write a certified letter to the CEO of Travelocity and try to shame him/her into giving you back your $100. Be sure and state that it is Travelocity's fault as their customer service representative could not speak English. I have had good experiences with complaining to the top and have gotten money back when going through the conventional channels failed.

I only use the mega-travel monsters for finding my flight plan. After that, I book with the real airline offering the route. Why, you may ask? The rates may be the same but the penalties are less with the real airline. I found this out when I needed to change a ticket with Travelocity. They would have charged me $120 to change the ticket but their computers were down. They connected me through to the real airline which only charged me $60 for the flight change.

A lot of you people just let Expedia abuse you and do nothing about it. The guy with $3600 fare to China - there is a Truth in Advertising law, that says that they must sell you the product for the price they advertise. So you call them and you speak to the manager, and the manager of the manager, and so on, be firm and get what you need.

Warren with the $25 fee - you should not let the client service rep speak to you this way - immediately ask for her name and demand to speak with her manager. If you totally disagree with the $25 charge, reverse it when your credit card bill shows up - that's the beauty of the credit card!

Same goes for the guy with lost paper tickets - you never received the product you paid for, so you have been defrauded; reverse the charge!

You have to stand up for yourself and for the sake of all of us let your problem be heard by more people than a minimum wage call center rep - complain, write letters etc. Research for the proper way to complain to the regulatory bodies (here in Canada one can complain to the Ministry of Consumer relations, ombusdman, and many other places). Create them a discomfort that they created you.