Expedia: are they starting to lose it?

Question

For at least a couple of years now, Expedia has been one of the first places I would turn to for booking my travel arrangements. In the past, I've always found them both efficient and competitively priced.

However, this morning, we tried to book a flight, and right at the end of the booking process, the website said that it couldn't complete the transaction because of a technical error and we'd have to phone their customer service centre.

Fair enough, I thought, no-one has a website that works 100% of the time. But when we tried to make the booking over the phone, they told us they would have to charge a 10 surcharge for booking on the phone. Pretty outrageous given that we were only phoning in the first place because their website crashed. Needless to say, we booked that particular flight elsewhere. I even emailed their customer service department and just got a factual reply saying "We charge a 10.00 per person service fee on flight only reservations made with our Customer Services team". No apology for trying to charge for something that was their fault in the first place.

Was this just an unlucky one-off, or have Expedia met the same fate of all those other wonderful companies that started small and were wonderful and then got big and crap?

Adam

Bert · Accepted Answer

You seem to think that they owe you something because part of their service was down, even though you did not pay for this service and it was just a free convenience.

So why should you get the telephone service for free when everyone else has to pay for it? Oh yes - because they made you do it. :-)

Scott2k5 · Answer

thats quite surprising. i have never had any problems with expedia.

it is normally the first place i look for hotels.

i use some other sites too. opodo (flights) and travelocity (hotels) are useful sometimes.

in your case, they shouldn't really have charged the 10. it just makes you less likely to use them again - that can't be good for business

Fred · Answer

My experiences are rather different but has put me off using them.

When choosing a flight or accommodation I've gone through all the inputting of details and of my credit card to be greeted with an increase in price. I felt it was sharp practice.

tarquinlinbin · Answer

My past experience of Expedia is that their prices are cheaper becuase when you book into your hotel, you end up with a crap room. I don't use them any more.

Remove antispam and add 670 after bra to email

Alec · Answer

don't surcharge credit cards. It's on their website and my  experience. Alec

Fred · Answer

I wasn't talking of credit card surcharges as such. One experience was booking a flight for 179.00, and after taking the trouble of wading through their site including entering credit card details was to find the "final" price was 250.00. That's one hell of a surcharge!

Expedia: are they starting to lose it?

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