Unexpected Expedia Cancellation for Washington Woman
Jennifer Billock July 07, 2017
A Washington woman booked a mountain resort for a family vacation but got a Holiday Inn instead.
Expedia just earned a new enemy in Holly Parsons from Washington state. She had booked a family vacation – four months in advance – to a mountain resort in Bend, Oregon. But just a few weeks before the trip, she got an email notifying her the reservation had been cancelled, without a refund of the $874 she paid for three nights.
She then struggled with Expedia, which she used to book the hotel stay, who refused to refund her because the cancellation was due to overbooking on the resort’s end. The company said in a statement to ABC that it was not liable to refund Parsons because the cancellation circumstances were outside Expedia’s control, pointing to the site’s terms of use stating they have “no liability and will make no refund” for something “beyond their direct control.”
Expedia eventually ended up compensating Parsons with $500 in Expedia vouchers and a reaccommodation in a Holiday Inn Express, after she argued with them for more than six hours over the phone.
“I was pretty horrified and disappointed,” she told ABC News. “I booked a beautiful vacation for my cousin and I at a mountain resort, and this feels like a total bait and switch.”
She was also not satisfied with Expedia’s customer service, or the compensation she was given.
“The process of being on hold for so, so long and dealing with multiple, multiple people and repeating myself – it was awful,” she told ABC. “I wasn’t receiving cash in return. I’m receiving vouchers to do business with an entity that I’m not sure that I ever would want to do – or ever would recommend to do – business with ever again.”
Expedia has since apologized to Parsons.
[Photo: Shutterstock]
Blame it on outsourced call centers. English is not their native language and the rest is history.
It's exceedingly hard to believe that Expedia failed to provide a refund when its provider cancelled. That is not "circumstances beyond its control."
Too much drama here. Why did she spend six hours on the phone with Expedia? Did she try talking to the hotel directly? The ABC article doesn't say. What she should have done (if the hotel and Expedia were pointing fingers at each other) was to just dispute the charge with her credit card company and rebook somewhere else.
Six hours on the phone? Just write a concise letter to their legal department, send it Certified, and wait about a week for the response you desire. Whether it's cancelling my cable TV, or dealing with a billing dispute, this method's never failed me.
Why book on Expedia when all hotel websites offer best price guarantees and more personalized service for direct bookings ? Idem for the airlines at least when flying F or C......