Expedia have swallowed my money for 4 days

[hisholinessthepope]

Tried to book a late holiday with Expedia today. Got to the booking, fed in my card details, next screen says we have a problem please call. I call, no flights available.

 

So I start again find something else, get to booking, fed in card same thing! I call, no flights Excel Airways slow at updating systems.

 

So being really dumb I try again but now my card will not authorise, strange. So I try another card but again a problem please call.

 

In the meantime wife calls bank why will you not authorise? because you have no funds cos we have authorised the first two transactions. They gives us the authorisation codes we call Expedia - it takes 4 days to unauthorise and "release" your money!!!!! Then I find out that third attempt has also been pre-authorised.

 

Now Expedia have £1650 of my cash pre-authorised on three holidays they can not provide and it will be 4 days before the money is available again from my bank! Both accounts have the money in but the available balances are £1650 less.

 

Call Expedia and needless to say they ain't interested. Requested three times today call from a manager - no call back. Obviously busy dealing with more people like me.

 

So have checked terms and conditions that you have to "tick" as you go through the process of booking. No where does it say we "pre-authorise" your payment then check if you can have the holiday.

 

So tomorrow will continue attempts to get hold of a manager. Will keep log of calls. Will make a complaint (for what it is worth). I suspect then next step will be to contact some newspapers (like Sunday Times money section). But have a feeling that only thing that will be left will be to threaten court action.

 

So what are chances of winning a case for compensation? My bank account now has £20 in it till Thursday, can not buy tank of petrol let alone book a holiday! The holiday I wanted to book was for next Saturday so thats unlikely to happen now.

[hisholinessthepope]

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[hisholinessthepope]

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[hisholinessthepope]

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[d1n48s]

Hi,

 

I'm having the same issues with Expedia. I booked a last minute family trip to DisneyWorld Florida at a cost of £1800. Expedia took a "pre-authorisation" amount of £1300 on the day of booking (Thursday) then £1800 the day after (Friday) as confirmation. Lo behold as I call into my bank to withdraw funds for spending money I'm told there is no money in the account. At first I thought I was the victim of some fraudster (I still do!) so I called my bank asap to block any more 'transactions'. They explain that both monies were called for by Expedia. I call Expedia and ask why they've taken over £3k from my account and am told by a nonchalant and arrogant youth that my money will be returned in 10 working days. I explained calmy that my holiday will be over in 10 working days and its bank holiday weekend, I need my money to change to dollars otherwise my family and I will not be eating on holiday let alone visiting Mickey. 'Ooops' I'm told "nothing we can do within 10 working days!". Consequently what was supposed to be the holiday of a lifetime for my family turned into a penny pinching exercise that led to many tantrums, tears and arguments (you try explaining to a 3 year old why they can't have cuddly Mickey because the $18 needs to be saved for food!!)

 

You are right in the fact that Expedia don't care. I've written two letters and both replies are a polite way of saying bugger off! However they are ATOL registered (not ABTA unfortunately) and they have breached my Data Protection Act rights (Article 1- ), my Human Rights Act rights (Article 1) and the 'Unfair Terms in Contracts' act because they didn't provide me with enough information to make a sound and proper decision.

 

If I have to take them to court these are what I will be citing as support for my claim for compensation (The cost of my holiday £1800):

 

_________________________________________________________________________________________

The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (SI 1999 No 2083)

Data Protection Act 1998, Principal 1: Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully, any further information which is necessary, having regard to the specific circumstances in which the data are or are to be processed, to enable processing in respect of the data subject to be fair.

Human Rigths Act 1998, Article 1: "Every natural or legal person is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions. No one shall be deprived of his possessions except in the public interest and subject to the conditions provided for by law and by the general principles of international law.

[hisholinessthepope]

An update, Expedia contacted me the day after my post. We then spent days on the telephone and the end product was I got 4 days in the sun for free! We were suppose to pay half the holiday but have been home a week and no contact by expedia so am keeping a low profile!!!

 

I have several things that might help d1n48s I will PM you.

[hisholinessthepope]

I have just emailed a link to this thread to Simon Calder travel writer for the Independant.

 

The life and travelling times of Simon Calder, independent traveller, travel writer and broadcaster

 

He did a piece on hotels preauthorising payments last week on the BBC, I have been told. Hopefully he will be interested!

[Felix 55]

Hi d1n48s,

 

It's unlikely court action will recover the full cost of the booking plus the amount they "pre-authorised" should they defend.

 

Try a letter to their director asking for compensation in line with the amount they held on your account.

 

let us know how you get on.

[hisholinessthepope]

Felix,

 

I have had a free holiday! No contact from expedia since I returned

[Felix 55]

Humm, you better hope Simon Calder doesn't contact their press office!

 

Congrats

[action007]

Hi guys!!

 

Both of you had EXACTLY the same problem as me!! They have pre authorised, not only ONE but TWO itineries of mine. "Site had problems with payment processing" I was told.

 

Low and behold when I ring them up they say I have to re-book the TWO itineries at a price of £1000 more per ticket and there are 6 of us going!!

 

okay, they can make a mistake with one itinery, but two?? Bank called me yesterday because they thought fraudulent activity was happening on my account - when actually both of these itineries were authourised at the price stated at time of purchase.

 

PLEASE CAN YOU HELP ME SORT THIS OUT WITH EXPEDIA!!

[hisholinessthepope]

action007,

 

Sorry to hear of your problem. Obviously expedia are no further forward than they were 5 months ago!

 

I would detail all that has occured and write to Caroline Cartellieri who is the CEO of expedia UK. The address is

Expedia.com Limited

7 Soho Square

London

W1D 3QB

According to the customer service people she always replies to all letters. And in my case that was true, I got an email form her to say she had contacted customer services and told them to sort it out and to get back in touch with her if not happy.

[Carriep]

Hi,

 

I work for a BBC1 consumer affairs programme called "Don't Get Done, Get Dom", in which presenter Dominic Littlewood attempts to resolve issues that have arisen between consumers and companies.

 

Having read your story, we would be extremely keen to hear from you to see if there is anything we might be able to do to help.

 

If you would like to talk to us, please get in touch at:

 

[email protected]

02072785052

 

Thanks very much,

 

Robert Gershinson

Don’t Get Done, Get Dom (BBC1)

[abarefootboy]

my bank COOPERATIVE are excellent here as they will CANCEL a pre-authorization on your card at your request. This way the money is immediately available again and can be reused. However, they do warn that if the money is lawfully claimed by the company taking the payment your account will go overdrawn by that amount. If the payment taking company have issued a refund though - this action is great.

[billyqureshi]

hi all

im just going through the same thing now, expedia cust serv manager is useless saying out of his hands and nothing he or anyone in expedia can do. bank (natwest, usually excellent) say its all down to expedia.

can anyone suggest a course of action? im a thousand pounds down for a few days, flying in 6 days. cant shop for the holiday, cant afford a camera either!

thanks in advance

Billy

[email protected]

[ezeepzee]

well how interesting,

i have been battleing for a whole day today with expedia, continental airways, and the Haliffax trying to work out where the £364.37 has gone from my account

Again, like the stories above a 'pre auth' ammount is suspended in my account, after they took the monies for the flight TWO days ago!

what a terrible system!!! I didnt realise that, in order to book a t £350 flight i have to have at least £720 in my bank account!

Due to this 'system' i have had to take out an overdraft on my bank account (which im being charged for) so other pending payments can go through.

Speaking to Expedia for 2hrs this after noon (not including the 3 times they cut me off!) apparetly it is an 'isolated incident' and they cant understand why a pre auth of such a high ammount has gone through

Of cause, with it being a saturday, i cant do anything now untill Monday morning!

They tried to offer me a £50 voucher. Why would i need it? Its not as if i would ever be using Expedia.co.uk ever again!

Anyone with any suggestions to how to take this buggers down would be greatly appreciated

regards

Andrew

[jcooper123]

Hi there. I know it has been a while since anyone has posted on this thread but I wondered how everyone had got on? I am in a similar situation due to expedias pre-authorizations. Luckily we managed to get money tranfered into our account 5 days later, as soon as we realised what had happened. However, in the meantime we got charged £70 by our bank due to being overdrawn. I have been speaking to expedia who seem unwilling to help at all, just wandering if you had any ideas???

[Dr Hunter]

Hello to all,

A year on and Expedia are no better, they have maxed out my and my girlfriends credit cards by trying to book the same trip 3 times. I notice Caroline Cartellieri has now left the company as has her predecessor. Does anyone know who now heads U.K operations?

Also, did anyone have any luck with court proceedings or media coverage?

Thanks in advance for any info.

[jcooper123]

Hi there, Eventually Expedia did credit us all the charges we had occurred as a result of them holding our money for so long. We originally called their customer services and emailed [email protected] & [email protected] who were no help at all, they just kept telling us it was tough!!! My husband managed to find the following email addresses: [email protected] & [email protected], I'm not sure where he found them or who they are but within 2 days of emailing them we had a call from a gentleman apologising for all of the inconvenience they caused and credited our account.

 

Not sure whether this will help you

[Dr Hunter]

Thank you very much for the info jcooper, our situation has been identical with brick walls being hit using customer service avenues then seas being parted when the press office and CEO emails were used. situation now seams to be getting resolved. Thanks again for that.

[jcooper123]

Glad it now seems to be moving along. For a company of the size its customer services is non existant. Let us know how you get on.

[Ryan Brook]

Removed.

Edited September 16, 2010 by Ryan Brook

[Ryan Brook]

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 Lloyds TSB 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!!!