I Took Orbitz to Small Claims Court and Won - Here's How
Apr 22, 2011, 3:27 am
#62
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Fairfield County, CT USA
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Posts: 4,077
I know I'm late to the party, but this is a great thread. Really enjoyed reading it and glad the apparently right outcome was reached.
I doubt the Board has any idea about this particular lawsuit. I sit on a number of boards and there is typically a dollar amount that is used as a materiality threshold for being included in the board pack. A GC or CEO might make an exception and include a small dollar suit if there was some greater headline value, but I doubt this matter would have made it.
When you are suing a big company, depending on your situation, often a good strategy is to send a copy of the lawsuit to the CEO and each board member (ideally at their residences), which will certainly get their attention. I have seen this tactic work exceptionally well to get a quick resolution.
I am surprised Ornitz would even defend a matter like this and would have expected them to just default on the court and let the judge impose whatever he/she wished. I'm reaching that point of view, however, assuming there is a maximum amount of damages that could be awarded by the California small claims court. There are low (~$5,000) judgement limits in a number of states for small claims court. I don't know CA's rules.
When you are suing a big company, depending on your situation, often a good strategy is to send a copy of the lawsuit to the CEO and each board member (ideally at their residences), which will certainly get their attention. I have seen this tactic work exceptionally well to get a quick resolution.
I am surprised Ornitz would even defend a matter like this and would have expected them to just default on the court and let the judge impose whatever he/she wished. I'm reaching that point of view, however, assuming there is a maximum amount of damages that could be awarded by the California small claims court. There are low (~$5,000) judgement limits in a number of states for small claims court. I don't know CA's rules.
Apr 28, 2011, 6:55 am
#63
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Louisville, KY, US
Programs: QF Plat - OW EMD | DL Gold / Starwood Gold
Posts: 6,106
Hi, I read your post, and I am very inspired by your story and would like to do the same thing you did. I live in New York City. Did you sue them in your city of residence, and if not, where did you sue them, and what address did you use. Thanks a lot for your assistance.
Diego
Diego
Obtain the forms necessary from your local small claims court to file an action.
Complete the forms, go to the court to file them, and pay the filing fee and service fees to have the complaint served on the registered agent.
The folks at your local small claims court should be able to walk you through the process and any process related questions you have.
May 18, 2011, 2:34 pm
#64
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 1
Orbitz gave us the wrong flight number, departure time and called to tell us our flight was departing on time... unfortunantely we were actually on a flight that left an hour earlier. It cost us $872 to get home AND we had to stay an extra day. Orbitz says it is not their problem. We have been going back and forth with them for 3 weeks. We have turned to Small Claims Court. The first time I looked on my state's website the agents California address was there. They have removed it. The name of the agent is, AS-CSC Lawyers Inc. Service (C1592199), does anyone know if the address is 2730 Gateway Oaks Drive in Sacremento?
May 18, 2011, 5:28 pm
#65
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,746
OP here.
I don't have a record of where they were served in my case. It appears that the address doesn't show on the CA Secretary of State because the information runs over the end of the field.
If you Google process servers in Sacramento and find a local process server he/she will know the location for AS-CSC Lawyers Inc. Service, as they serve them all of the time.
I don't have a record of where they were served in my case. It appears that the address doesn't show on the CA Secretary of State because the information runs over the end of the field.
If you Google process servers in Sacramento and find a local process server he/she will know the location for AS-CSC Lawyers Inc. Service, as they serve them all of the time.
Orbitz gave us the wrong flight number, departure time and called to tell us our flight was departing on time... unfortunantely we were actually on a flight that left an hour earlier. It cost us $872 to get home AND we had to stay an extra day. Orbitz says it is not their problem. We have been going back and forth with them for 3 weeks. We have turned to Small Claims Court. The first time I looked on my state's website the agents California address was there. They have removed it. The name of the agent is, AS-CSC Lawyers Inc. Service (C1592199), does anyone know if the address is 2730 Gateway Oaks Drive in Sacremento?
May 18, 2011, 6:23 pm
#66
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Fresno
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Business name: CSC - Corporation Service Company
Address: 2730 Gateway Oaks Drive, Suite 100, Sacramento, CA 95833-3503
Contact name: Laura Karpen, Branch Manager
Phone number: (916) 641-5100, (800) 222-2122
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Miscellaneous: Trademarks, Service Marks
Jun 2, 2011, 2:05 pm
#69
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 10
Orbitz to small claims court
Thanks so much Bigflyer for your encouraging post. I think I am going to end up by going to court over the same thing. I am in the middle of a big fight with an unscrupulous internet travel company called eDreams which I have since found out is based out of Spain but selling tickets for BA. In other words a ticket broker.
I won't go into details here as it is long a story but I am trying to get either a refund or a change for 2 return tickets purchased through them on BA from London UK to Venice Italy return. Tickets were purchase in Feb. for a trip in Oct. We were originally booked on a cruise leaving out of Venice but those plans have been cancelled. So I want to cancel our tickets London/Venice. TBoth BA and eDreams web-sites say that I am in my rights to request a refund for cancelled tickets. eDreams have changed their policy and prices several times, each time the email is from a different person claiming they will help me and each time the price of a ticket change goes higher. I am asking to change the tickets from London/Venice to London/Portugal or a full refund. They refused to give me a refund and the cost for new tickets to Lisbon Portugal is higher than their web-site quoted price AND they will not put any of the money that I have already paid towards new tickets.
Total cost of return tickets from London/Venice was 284 GPB. cost of tickets from London to Lisbon is 285 GBP a difference of just over 1 GBP. eDreams has informed me that the cost to make a ticket change is 128 GBP PER PERSON a cost of 255GBP total PLUS the price I have already paid makes 541 GBP for return tickets from London to Lisbon. I'm wondering how they can moraly charge such prices knowing that their web-site price of tickets to Lisbon is only 284 GBP. I have contacted BA but have heard nothing from them other than to tell me to go through eDreams - which is totally hopeless. I would warn others never to deal with this company as they do not honor what is printed as policy on their web-site.
I won't go into details here as it is long a story but I am trying to get either a refund or a change for 2 return tickets purchased through them on BA from London UK to Venice Italy return. Tickets were purchase in Feb. for a trip in Oct. We were originally booked on a cruise leaving out of Venice but those plans have been cancelled. So I want to cancel our tickets London/Venice. TBoth BA and eDreams web-sites say that I am in my rights to request a refund for cancelled tickets. eDreams have changed their policy and prices several times, each time the email is from a different person claiming they will help me and each time the price of a ticket change goes higher. I am asking to change the tickets from London/Venice to London/Portugal or a full refund. They refused to give me a refund and the cost for new tickets to Lisbon Portugal is higher than their web-site quoted price AND they will not put any of the money that I have already paid towards new tickets.
Total cost of return tickets from London/Venice was 284 GPB. cost of tickets from London to Lisbon is 285 GBP a difference of just over 1 GBP. eDreams has informed me that the cost to make a ticket change is 128 GBP PER PERSON a cost of 255GBP total PLUS the price I have already paid makes 541 GBP for return tickets from London to Lisbon. I'm wondering how they can moraly charge such prices knowing that their web-site price of tickets to Lisbon is only 284 GBP. I have contacted BA but have heard nothing from them other than to tell me to go through eDreams - which is totally hopeless. I would warn others never to deal with this company as they do not honor what is printed as policy on their web-site.
Apr 2, 2012, 11:17 pm
#73
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 1
UPDATE:
Nevermind, I visited small claims court today (5 minutes from my home) and the clerk explained me everything: they can serve the agent by certified mail for $10, and I found the Orbitz' agent for service in California above in this thread.
--------------------------
I have a question for the OP about Orbitz agent for service in California, that's what I found on the Secretary of State website:
----
Entity Name: ORBITZ, LLC
Entity Number: 200300810047
Date Filed: 12/31/2002
Status: ACTIVE
Jurisdiction: DELAWARE
Entity Address: 500 W MADISON STE 1000
Entity City, State, Zip: CHICAGO IL 60661
Agent for Service of Process: CORPORATION SERVICE COMPANY WHICH WILL DO BUSINESS IN CALIFORNIA
Agent Address: AS - CSC LAWYERS INCORPORATING SERVICE (, C1592199)
Agent City, State, Zip: *
-----
There is no address in there. And how best to serve the agent for service? How did you do it? I'm going to sue Orbitz for $1,809 soon (plus some extra for my trouble). Here is the copy of the complaint I have prepared:
-----
I purchased my round-trip ticket to Russia from Orbitz on October 8, 2011. On January 4th 2012, while being in Russia, I called Orbitz to have my return ticket date changed from 01/10 to to 01/15. Orbitz representative told me over the phone that the total cost for ticket exchange would be $280: $250 for airline change fee and $30 Orbitz exchange fee. I got the same amount in the email invoice from Orbitz. I agreed to that amount and gave him my credit card info to charge. Next day United Airlines charged my credit card for $2,059.50 instead of $250, $1,809.50 more than I had agreed to pay. I exchanged dates for Lufthansa tickets (this flight was 100% Lufthansa-operated) multiple times before (not with Orbitz) and it always was $250 flat fee. Not at any point I was told by Orbitz it would cost that much more. I tried to resolve this directly with Orbitz and with Chase (issuing bank of my credit card) but they both failed to get my money back. Orbitz also failed to provide me with the copy of the recorded ticket exchange conversation between me and the agent.
I’m ready to provide the copy of email invoice from Orbitz on request. The bottom line is that Orbitz failed to disclose to me the total cost of the ticket exchange.
-----
I tried to resolve the issue with BBB but they miserably failed: Orbitz simply stated that in recorded conversation agent told me about the real cost of ticker exchange, while he actually didn't. And they refuse to provide me with the recorded copy of the conversation.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Nevermind, I visited small claims court today (5 minutes from my home) and the clerk explained me everything: they can serve the agent by certified mail for $10, and I found the Orbitz' agent for service in California above in this thread.
--------------------------
I have a question for the OP about Orbitz agent for service in California, that's what I found on the Secretary of State website:
----
Entity Name: ORBITZ, LLC
Entity Number: 200300810047
Date Filed: 12/31/2002
Status: ACTIVE
Jurisdiction: DELAWARE
Entity Address: 500 W MADISON STE 1000
Entity City, State, Zip: CHICAGO IL 60661
Agent for Service of Process: CORPORATION SERVICE COMPANY WHICH WILL DO BUSINESS IN CALIFORNIA
Agent Address: AS - CSC LAWYERS INCORPORATING SERVICE (, C1592199)
Agent City, State, Zip: *
-----
There is no address in there. And how best to serve the agent for service? How did you do it? I'm going to sue Orbitz for $1,809 soon (plus some extra for my trouble). Here is the copy of the complaint I have prepared:
-----
I purchased my round-trip ticket to Russia from Orbitz on October 8, 2011. On January 4th 2012, while being in Russia, I called Orbitz to have my return ticket date changed from 01/10 to to 01/15. Orbitz representative told me over the phone that the total cost for ticket exchange would be $280: $250 for airline change fee and $30 Orbitz exchange fee. I got the same amount in the email invoice from Orbitz. I agreed to that amount and gave him my credit card info to charge. Next day United Airlines charged my credit card for $2,059.50 instead of $250, $1,809.50 more than I had agreed to pay. I exchanged dates for Lufthansa tickets (this flight was 100% Lufthansa-operated) multiple times before (not with Orbitz) and it always was $250 flat fee. Not at any point I was told by Orbitz it would cost that much more. I tried to resolve this directly with Orbitz and with Chase (issuing bank of my credit card) but they both failed to get my money back. Orbitz also failed to provide me with the copy of the recorded ticket exchange conversation between me and the agent.
I’m ready to provide the copy of email invoice from Orbitz on request. The bottom line is that Orbitz failed to disclose to me the total cost of the ticket exchange.
-----
I tried to resolve the issue with BBB but they miserably failed: Orbitz simply stated that in recorded conversation agent told me about the real cost of ticker exchange, while he actually didn't. And they refuse to provide me with the recorded copy of the conversation.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Last edited by Master5; Apr 3, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Apr 7, 2012, 12:03 am
#75
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Seattle
Programs: Costco Club
Posts: 1,155
Not true:
Must I serve the defendant in California?
Yes. You must serve the defendant in California unless:
* You're suing about property located in California, and the owner doesn't live in California, or
* You had a car accident in California, and the owner or driver of the other car doesn't live in California.
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp...e.htm#howserve
Must I serve the defendant in California?
Yes. You must serve the defendant in California unless:
* You're suing about property located in California, and the owner doesn't live in California, or
* You had a car accident in California, and the owner or driver of the other car doesn't live in California.
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp...e.htm#howserve