Booking 3 tickets to Zurch cost almost $10,000

February 27, 2007 by bemerson.

On the 17th of February I attempted to purchase three tickets to Zurich and orbitz charged my checking account for $10,000

Below is a transcript of my email to orbitz customer service and a timeline of a telephone call.

Dear Brian,

Thank you for contacting Orbitz.

For further information and assistance with regards to your issue,
please contact Orbitz Customer Service at 1-888-656-4546. If you wish to
speak to a supervisor, you may ask the representative to transfer you to
the supervisor available at that time. Our representative will be glad
to assist you.

We value you as a customer and look forward to serving you again in the
future.

Sincerely,

Janet
OrbitzTLC
www.Orbitz.com

Orbitz - The faster, easier way to find the trip you want.

Original Message Follows:
————————-

Priya,

Your response and you attempt to tell me that you can’t do anything at
all I
need to talk to someone else is the exact problem I am talking about.

I called customer service and they said I had to send an email to get
the
“convenience fee” refunded.

The charges have been removed but the point is I am not happy with
wasting
about four hours Saturday and being lied to by the ticketing agent.

Please have someone address my concerns… don’t tell me that I did
something wrong that caused me to waste time.  I realized something was
wrong when my accounts were near overdrawn, called Orbits who said to
call
my bank, I called my bank they said they needed the auth number, I
conferenced the bank on the line with Orbitz when Orbitz said they
couldn’t
help with the charges because I didn’t have a reservation at the time…
the
time wasted repeating this story to the low level clerks that had no
authority is getting old way too fast….  I called waited and did
whatever
Orbitz asked and still it took a VP at my bank to give me a “credit”
until
the Orbitz stuff fell off.  And wasted four hours

If you think lying to customers is acceptable just keep sending the same
canned responses.

If you think a bug or the error handling in your web based booking
application causing about $10,000 of my money to be tied up for a few
days
is acceptable then keep sending the same responses.

I would expect if someone held on to your paycheck for a few extra days
that
wouldn’t be a problem would it.

Please have someone email or preferably call me that has the authority
to
make a decision on something.  I tried all your customer no service
numbers
the weekend before last and they stated no one was working that could
refund
my “inconvenience fee”.

My office number is xxx-xxx-xxxx

Regards,

Brian

On 2/26/07, Orbitz Customer Service <customerservice@orbitz.com > wrote:
>
> Dear Orbitz Customer,
>
> Thank you for contacting Orbitz.
>
> We are sorry for the inconvenience cause to you. With regards to your
> query, we suggest you to called our customer service at 1-888-656-4546
> or internationally at 1-312-416-0018 and ask the agent to contact the
> bank so as to remove the additional charges.
>
> If you wish to make the reservation over the phone, please contact our
> sales desk at 1-888-656-4546 or internationally at 1-312-416-0018. In
> lieu of online service fees, to ensure the ability to provide
> exceptional service, Orbitz charges a $25.00 per ticket service fee to
> complete flight reservations over the phone.
>
> We value you as a customer and look forward to serving you again in
the
> future.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Priya
> OrbitzTLC
> www.Orbitz.com <http://www.orbitz.com/>
>
> Orbitz - The faster, easier way to find the trip you want.
>
> Original Message Follows:
> ————————-
>
> I am registered using xxx@xxx.com but used my personal
> email
> to file this complaint because the web form would not work when logged
> into
> the website.
>
> As I said this problem has nothing to do with an existing reservation
it
> was
> how the authorizations were handled and not reversed.  Coupled with
the
> insulting $75 convenience fee and the ticketing agent or customer
> service
> agent lying to me about how to get that charge removed.
>
> I understand the “soft charge” but it still kept $10,000 of my money
> unavailable for 7-10 days.
>
> Frank,
>
> I doubt you would be so understanding if 10K of your money was tied up
> for
> 7-10 days.  I had to book over the phone since I couldn’t book it
online
> due
> to the repricing of a leg of the flight.
>
> I was notified about the charge and told I would need to accept the
> charge
> then could get it taken off later.
>
> Also my bank can not take the charge off without the business that
> posted
> the authorization contacting their merchant services and reversing the
> charge or adding a credit.
>
> Please put down the script and understand the issue I was dealing with
> was
> due to my $$$ being tied up and Orbitz lack of knowledge or
willingness
> to
> help me with my issue.
>
> I am also upset about my wasted time to fix an error that should not
> have
> happened.
>
>
> On 2/26/07, Orbitz Customer Service < customerservice@orbitz.com>
wrote:
> >
> > Dear Brian,
> >
> > Thank you for contacting Orbitz.
> >
> > It is very disappointing to learn of the  situation you encountered.
I
> > sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you have experienced.
> >
> > In reviewing our reservation system, I show that you are not
> registered
> > with Orbitz under the e-mail address ‘ @gmail.com‘. If you
have
> > made the reservation using another e-mail address, the reservation
> will
> > show up under ‘My Trips’
> > ( http://www.orbitz.com/App/PerformDisplayMyTrips) of that account.
> >
> > For reference, if you attempted to make a reservation on Orbitz
which
> > did not go through successfully, the charges reflecting on your
credit
> > card may be soft charges.
> >
> > A soft charge is a temporary authorization that will automatically
> drop
> > off your account within seven days, if not sooner. A soft charge is
> when
> > Orbitz ask for funds from a credit card / debit card company but
does
> > not actually charge the card. By doing this the funds are taken out
of
> > the available credit on the card but not included in the balance
that
> > you need to pay to your credit card / debit card company.
> >
> > Soft charges ‘Fall off’ or are added back to the available credit in
> > approximately 3-10 days depending on your credit card company/bank.
> You
> > may contact your bank or financial institution to check on the
status
> of
> > the removal of the charge.
> >
> > Booking reservations over the phone is an extra service that we
> provide
> > to our customers. These bookings are completed manually and requires
> > more time. We are experts and search for the best prices and best
time
> > for you to travel.
> >
> > Also, our agent always notifies it’s customers of the extra service
> fee
> > that will be charged. Only if the customer accepts the charge does
the
> > agent go ahead with the reservation process.
> >
> > For further assistance in this regards, please contact us via phone
at
> > 1-888-656-4546 within US or 312-416-0018 outside the US and our
> > representative will be glad to assist you.
> >
> > However, to assist you better, please provide us with the following
> > details:
> >
> > 1. Name of Traveler(s).
> > 2. Date of Travel.
> > 3. E-mail address used for booking.
> > 4. Orbitz Record Locator.
> > 5. Name of the airline and flight number.
> >
> > We value you as a customer and look forward to serving you again in
> the
> > future.
> >
> > Sincerely,
> >
> > Frank
> > OrbitzTLC
> > www.Orbitz.com <http://www.orbitz.com/>
> >
> > Orbitz - The faster, easier way to find the trip you want.
> >
> >
> >
> > Original Message Follows:
> > ————————-
> >
> > To:  Orbits Customer Service
> > To: travelercare@orbitz.com
> > CC: jdiefendorf@orbitz.com
> >
> > On 2/17/07 I attempted to book three tickets from Houston to Zurich
> > online.
> > The website said something like “orbits encountered a problem making
> > your
> > reservation, please try again”  After I tried it 4 times my card was
> > declined due to insufficient funds.
> >
> > After speaking to your representative Later I found out each time I
> > attempted to make the reservation Orbitz would authorize my card
then
> > fail
> > to get the tickets from the airline so the entire transaction would
> > fail.
> > But my authorization of $2408 for the tickets and $39 convenience
fee
> > was
> > still authorized.  Correction that was $9636 authorized for the
> tickets
> > and
> > $195 authorized for the convenience fee.
> >
> > After my card was declined I looked online and found the nearly
> $10,000
> > authorized against my checking account for airline tickets that were
> > never
> > purchased.
> >
> > I called orbits customer support and they asked for my reservation
> > number,
> > email address, etc and I told them I would like to book the tickets
> and
> > remove the authorizations that were placed in error.  They kept
saying
> > they
> > needed a reservation number or email address for a reservation and
> could
> > not
> > get it through their heads that the reservation did not exist but
the
> > authorizations against my checking account did exist tying up about
> > $10,000
> > of my money.
> >
> > The first person I spoke to hung up in me.  The second person did
not
> > have a
> > clear telephone line and I could not hear her and she would not
> transfer
> > me
> > to anyone else.  She put me on hold or transferred me to a queue
that
> > didn’t
> > have a message or anyone answering.  I hung up after 30 minutes.  So
> far
> > I
> > have used 3 hours of my Saturday morning.  Then I call back again..
> tell
> > my
> > same story explain that I don’t have a reservation I need to get the
> > charges
> > off my account… etc …etc..etc…
> >
> > Then I get someone in the credit card processing departments who
found
> > my
> > $10,000 worth of transactions and agreed to take them off.  I give
her
> > the
> > number of my bank’s credit card department and she says all the
> > transactions
> > will be taken off she said she spoke with Jessica at Amegy bank.  I
> call
> > Amegy bank and happen to talk to Jessica who stated she was only
given
> > authorization to remove the service fee authorizations and not the
> > actual
> > charges of about $9,600.  She gave me a string of numbers as proof
of
> > this.
> >
> > Now I am up to four hours of my Saturday that I will never get back.
> So
> > much for the “Orbitz and go” or “Point click Orbits”.  Then I call a
> VP
> > at
> > Amegy Bank and she helps me out and posts a reversal of $5,000 of
the
> > authorizations so I could use my account until everything is
> > straightened
> > out.
> >
> > Then I still need to book the tickets and decide to use my amex,
call
> a
> > representative to book the tickets.  I explain the problem I am
having
> > and
> > the tickets I would like to purchase.  We attempt to purchase the
> > tickets
> > but it turns out the airline is repricing a leg of the flight so the
> > transaction can not go through I can either wait or purchase a
flight
> at
> > a
> > slightly different time.  She tells me about the $25 per ticket
> > convenience
> > fee and I tell her briefly my story for the morning and ask her to
> waive
> > the
> > fee.  She said she can not do that but after I book the ticket she
can
> > transfer me to customer service where they are able to reverse that
> fee.
> >
> > Now I am up to 4 1/2 hours or more of my Saturday that I will never
> get
> > back.
> >
> > I speak to someone in customer service who asks about my
> reservation…
> > Now
> > I have one but they can’t refund the $75 since I agreed to the fee
> > earlier
> > when I made the reservation.
> >
> > I can see my issue was caused by Orbitz authorizing my debit card
> before
> > the
> > tickets were available and not reversing the authorization of the
> charge
> > when the transaction could not go through.
> >
> > My time was lost due to the lack of helpfulness and knowledge of
> Orbits
> > customer service staff.  If it didn’t have a reservation number they
> > couldn’t absorb the problem.  I even was told once “oh the
> authorization
> > will go away in a few days”  Do you have $10,000 that I can keep you
> > from
> > using for a few days and everything will be fine?
> >
> > So now I am writing this email to request two things.
> >
> > First,  I want my $75 convenience fee sent back to me soon.  This
> > experience was anything but convenient.
> >
> > Second, I feel like my time is worth some consideration since it
took
> me
> > 4-5
> > hours of my Saturday trying to fix the issues you caused.
> >
> > Finally if this isn’t resolved to my satisfaction soon I will bring
a
> > recently registered website online called www.orbits-sucks.com and
> post
> > my
> > experience there and allow others to do the same.  I was thinking a
> blog
> > or
> > forum site where everyone can post their stories about problems with
> > Orbitz
> > and how they will do nothing on the customer service front.
> >
> > Feel free to call me with any questions

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