dav8t

Hello,

I got left stranded by Expedia when my car hire booking could not be provided by the vendor, Payless.com due to an insurance snag whereby the insurance was not registering on the booking and the car could not be driven legally in that country without it (Dublin, Ireland)

I'm confident that I can recover the $99 from a MasterCard chargeback request. Expedia have refunded the initial car hire booking fee of £96.

Unfortunately though the issue left me stranded in the airport at midnight, when the car hire desks closed for the night. I was left with costs for: (1) a hotel for the night, (2) train fare, (3) replacement car hire at higher rates, (4) one way fees for the car hire.

I spoke with Expedia today and spent 3 hours queuing for Tier 1, 2 and 3 (corporate) customer service to try and get these costs reimbursed but the company policy prevented anything being reimbursed. I asked for further escalation but this was not possible.

Looking at their Dispute Resolution policy, an arbitrator can be appointed after 60 days. Does anyone have any advice on how to proceed from here.

It's been a real disaster!

Jared Ito

Dealing with Expedia, one is unlikely to be made whole. The aggravation and time wast make pursuing this not worthwhile. Expedi adoes not have customer service. Try calling their headquarters, you will find that no one will pick up the phone. There mission statement does not have anything about taking care of customers.

Yoshi212

To clarify:
-a car was rented for 96 GBP (now refunded)
-an insurance policy was purchased via Expedia for 99 USD (not refunded)
-the insurance didn't get attached to the rental how?
-Did Payless have an insurance option you could have purchased?

Sabasi

That is utterly inaccurate.

Yoshi212

And improper grammar.

dav8t

Yes this is all correct. The options I was presented with at the desk were (1) wire transfer €5000 and sign an unlimited warranty waiver for the full value of the car of €25000 and purchase my own insurance on top of that, summarised by the guy on the desk as "if you so much as scratch it you own it", (2) purchase insurance at the counter for €56 per day totalling €560, (3) abandon the Expedia.com booking and purchase the same car hire booking at the rack rate last minute of €46 per day totalling €460 or (4) call Expedia and organise for insurance to be allocated to the booking.

Unsurprisingly I opted for the final option and paid Expedia $99 to have insurance added. It didn't come through and I don't know how or why, but it was not issued and the car could not be released. The car hire desks then all shut, therefore I was stranded for the night and options (1), (2) and (3) were no longer available either.

The basic principle is that I was sold car hire on the understanding that I could drive the car, however it could not legally be driven on the road!! The vendor refused to give the keys on that basis. Therefore the service offered was redundant and not fulfilled. Expedia.com was the provider of that service and breached our agreement of sale. Emergency accommodation and travel costs resulted from this which should be paid by Expedia. They have refused so I now need a legal mechanism for recovering the cost - one option is arbitration, another is the small claims court.

Has anyone ever used arbitration or small claims for an Expedia dispute?

tatterdema

Unfortunately things like this happen. Even worse, chances are slim to none that you will recoup anything besides what you initially paid out. Possibly maybe a small token coupon code for a future purchase. Literally hundreds, if not thousands of people have asked the same question about litigation. I have yet to see an instance of success. That is just my experience.

If you have any better luck, please come back and let everyone know.

Cris L

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

Hope this helps.