Went onto expedia.co.uk this morning to try and book a holiday to Barcelona (flights + hotel). Tried to pay one grand on debit card (maestro).

The transaction did not complete - expedia have a problem getting live flight information from the airline i was flying with. ended up buying flights direct and getting hotel from expedia (paid for on credit card)

Went onto my online banking to find that i was one thousand pounds down but there was no account of it. Rang the bank who informed me that expedia had pre authorised the funds. They gave me an authorisation code to go back to Expedia with which i did, only to be told it will take altlease 3 days before the funds are released. Its less than a week until i fly!

So now i have no money to go shopping for the holiday and im worried i wont even have the money whilst im actually there.

Rang Expedia back to speak to the customer services manager. A guy called Gareth Quigley based in Ireland. He was pleasant enough but absolutely useless from an action point of view. Basically said nothing he could do, there was no one else that would be able to do anything, and that Id have to just wait. Made no attempt to compensate me in any way or even make a goodwill gesture.

Im absolutely shocked at how they can do this with no warning that they pre authorise the funds and that there could be a hold on the funds if their systems fail during the processing, as happened here.

Rang my bank hoping they could cancel the auth. NatWest are usually really good with customer service, they spoke to their authorisation centre who said it was out of their control. Whether true or not, its still Expedia's mistake that im suffering for.

Im just so angry that they do not give a toss about what they have done and how it has impacted me and my holiday. I cant even afford to buy a camera now. This is the holiday business they are in - synonomous with stress free relaxation. The irony.

I have seen a similar post on this forum called "Expedia have swallowed my money for 4 days"

I will contact that author but i wanted to know if anyone has any specific advice that will help me. I just want something in the way of a token gesture of their sincere apology for the stress and inconvenience they have caused me and the sacrifice i am going to have to make.

Thanks in advance for your help

Billy

You have had exactly the same issue as I had Billy - the flights!

In my case I got "lucky" in that after half a dozen calls to the customer service people we got a decent chap who did all he could to assist. It helped that my wife spent ages on the phone to him and got chatting and built a good dialogue with him. Full details here;

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/holiday-companies/111195-expedia-have-swallowed-my.html

For all that and the free holiday, I have never and will never ever use Expedia again. The more people realise how they operate and the risks involved the better.

The problem for your bank is they have authorised that money and they can not then unauthorise it. If the bank could what's the point to anyone of them authorising in the first place? My beef is with Expedia who can get authorisation in an instant from the bank but then the Expedia systems have no means to unauthorise the money when it goes wrong. All that happens is they don't take the money and the auth codes expire after 3 days.

Only suggestion I have for you and anyone is make a pain in the ass of yourself by telephone. Write down detailed notes on times of calls, length of call and who you spoke to - maybe mention that your writing to Caroline Cartellieri and considering BBC Watchdog or the Sunday Times Money matters.

Then if all else fails write to the head women :- Caroline Cartellieri who is the CEO of expedia UK. The address is

Expedia.com Limited

7 Soho Square

London

W1D 3QB

Hope your able to enjoy your holiday

as i was an expedia employe in customer services (until recently leaving, as expedia is currently in the process of cutting 200 + jobs to open them in india), i do understand the process that happens with a pre authorisation, as soon as we learn of the pre authorisation and are contacted by the customer with the pre authorisation, expedia cannot access the money as it has been pre auth'ed it goes to a merchant banking account (think limbo), the customers bank does not have it and neither does expedia, if calling on the phone to book the travel advisor will tell you of this and get you to notify your bank, hopefully you get the irish office, as they know the expedia system fully inside out as they have been with expedia for 6 years, unlike the two newly opened contact centers (who will promise the customer everything they require especially if it cannot be done or on offer through expedia - i know as have had to mop up their mess on several occasions - thanks sighthill and bangalore expedia franchises!) we then automatically fax the bank telling them we have not accepted the funds and do not hold them, the bank then credits the money back into the customers account which thanks to the banks takes up to 5 days - and yes those are working days, 9-5 mon-fri, whereas our working days at expedia are 24hours a day 365 days a year! if WE could put the money instantly into customers bank accounts WE would, at the end of the day its a lot easier than having someone scream down the phone to you untill it has been put back into the account up to 5 WORKING days later, thank you banking system, and thank you expedia for making so many people in my area jobless in the current economic climate, purely to save a few pennies in your billion dollar global company!! it sure wont be worth it in the long run with the amount of write-off's from the new centers thanks to their mistakes.

thomas cook is the way foward.

A pre auth isn't as simple as that.

Most banks that take 5 working days for the money to drop back simply don't do it for data protection reasons. Much like an expedia agent wouldn't touch an account holders account without speaking to the account first.

A lot of banks look past this and drop the money back in straight away though when they get confirmation it won't be taken.

Anyway, Expedia could easily introduce a system whereby an agent can simply cancel a pre auth at the click of a button... t'wud be too simple for them though.

I tried to book a multi-destination flight from London Heathrow to New York, New York to Las Vegas and Las Vegas to London Heathrow. I went through the booking process online, submitted my card details and was then told that my order could not be processed due to one of the flights not being available any more. I tried with a different flight, and the same thing happened. I rang Irene in customer services department and she informed me a block had been placed on my debit card. I therefore rang LloydsTSB my card provider, who told me that in fact Expedia had taken the money for these flights out of my account. I rang Expedia back to be told that my flights had not been booked, and when I enquired about the money they told me they had requested no money, and nothing had been booked. A gentleman in customer services then gave me an authorisation code to give to the bank, that supposedly would release the earmarked funds on my account. I rang back the bank who told that what this man had told me was simply not correct. The bank had no access to earmarked funds, and regardless of any “authorisation code” could not release any earmarked funds. This gentleman had lied to me. I was then told by my bank, that in order for them to have an authorisation number and be able to release this money, they must have a record of my booking. So I called back expedia who ensured me that if I tried again through one of their representatives it would go through (with the previous money being returned in no more than 3 hours which the bank have since told me is a minimum of 72 hrs), so I tried it again and surprise surprise it happened again (which apparently is a 1/17000 chance for it to happen once, let alone twice) (I also hasten to mention that the representative herself attempted to book the holiday whilst not on the phone to me, and entered the wrong flight dates, which would have cost me £1431.54 if they had gone through!). At 9pm at night (nine hours after I started my conversations) I was finally assured that a manager would call me the next day.

The following day obviously no call came and after arguing for 2 hours I am now £3000 down and have only been offered a £50 voucher! I've finally got through to a person called Kevin Hayward who actually seemed to be helping until he told me he would call me back after 10 minutes (it's currently an hour later and still no call).

UPDATE: After a 3rd day of phone calls, Kevin offered me £140 to cover my expenses (phone calls, loss of earnings etc.), a £200 expedia voucher credited to my account, and £300 compensation directly into my bank account.

As you can see it’s definitely worth persevering. Don’t give up, just keep calling!!!

I went searching on google to see if anyone has had the same experience as me and low and behold I found this forum and looks like expedia hasn't changed a bit! Booked $5000 trip through expedia only to find a preauthorisation amount of $5000 taken from my credit card, plus the actual cost of the trip! So I have been missing $10000 from my credit card for 17 days and I ring up expedia and say hello my preauthorisation has never dropped off. All I get is a so sorry I will contact your bank and request the preauthorisation be dropped off. 2 days later im still waiting and hoping my funds will clear. What a ridiculious system expedia, don't charge customers twice for one transaction.

Hello and welcome to CAG. Sorry to hear about your problems with Expedia.

I notice you mention paying in dollars - we are a UK website.

Best, HB