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Orbitz took my money when they Had Nothing to Sell

This just happened to me today! I went to Orbitz.com to book a flight, and when I went through the process received message: “We were unable to complete this purchase with the airline, please pick another flight, message 154″—I tried to do that, but found out that Orbitz had charged my card for the flight that they did not sell me, and that I now did not have enough funds to purchase a flight. When I emailed their customer service I got that pablum about soft charges, and was informed that my funds should be available in 7-10 days. I called their “customer service” line –(India?) and explained that I needed either MY MONEY BACK or a flight, and was told to wait 7 to 10 days until the money shows back up on my card. Complete refusal of giving me another flight. They were completely ignorant of the exchange concept—that they sold me something they didn’t have, so they should replace it with a like product or give my money back. Spent two hours on the phone, to no avail. They even had the nerve to blame this on my credit card company’s policies.
How on earth can they take your money and give you nothing?? With most companies, when I purchase something online, they often don’t even charge my card until my purchase is shipped. They are able to get approval without actually deducting the funds.
I have filed a complaint with the FTC, and suggest that all others who cannot afford to loan Orbitz their money for 7 - 10 days do the same. This, in my opinion, is nothing short of robbery, even if they are calling it “soft” robbery. If a thief takes something from you and returns it 7-10 days later, it is still a crime.
Thanks for hosting this website. My travel plans have been ruined, but it feels somewhat better to be able to warn others about these practices.

This entry was posted on September 9, 2007 at 4:40 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Orbitz took my money when they Had Nothing to Sell”

  1. oxforduniversity says:
    November 27, 2007 at 8:12 am

    I have used Orbitz, hotwire, Expedia and Travelocity, all have their pro’s and con’s.

    I spotted a site called Anyfares.com, found air tickets so cheap that my savings were about 35% cheaper than Orbitz, hotwire, Expedia and Travelocity. Flights internationally such as Europe in particular that are great and South American, China and middle East countries, they have excellent rates. Domestic though there are some what competitive where I used either Hotwire or the airlines direct from their web sites.

    What I really like about Anyfares.com is they sell tickets on US dollars in foreign countries and all their tickets are e-tickets so if you are in France and need a fight to St.Petersburg Russia or London or Frankfurt, they sell everything in US dollars and you have your tickets emailed in 10 minutes so you can just travel just like that. Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity, they sell their tickets if you are out of the US, they will charged you the currency in that country if you want to fly from there to somewhere else. So if I was in France for example and I want to fly to London, Frankfurt or anywhere, they will charge me in Euros or Pound Notes (it is like charging you double when the US dollar is so weak) when if you are an American and want to save, you can’t save because Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity will charged the currency if you are outside the United States but with Anyfares.com, they don’t. Euros, Swiss Marks, British Pounds, Russian Rubles and etc, they currencies are high to the US dollar and if you are an American, you are stuck if you have to meet those currencies if you have only US dollars.

    So consider if you have a money budget and you can’t afford the high currencies, try http://www.anyfares.com

    Jim

  2. Jeremy Davis says:
    January 15, 2008 at 11:47 am

    WE HATE ORBITZ!

    So we are in Ft. Lauderdale Florida for a business trip. This trip was suppose to be taken originally with our RV, but that didn’t happen thanks to my carelessness. Since that, this trip has had some serious frustration, so let me clarify.

    Ft. Lauderdale is actually really nice, aside from overly priced food that really isn’t that great, this area is beautiful and is clear why Florida is so popular.

    The nightmare is Orbitz, and for those that don’t want to read more, just follow these instructions. DON’T USE THEM.

    For the rest who are curious, the trip went fine to get here, but I had booked the hotel and car with Orbitz. I booked the airfare directly with Continental thankfully. So got the car, economy was what was requested, and according to Hertz the Toyota Prius was economy and that’s what they gave me. TOTALLY AWESOME, people should know we are big fans of green, and was happy so far.

    Then we got to the hotel. So right on the beach in Ft. Lauderdale, but the room was disgusting. We are talking the classic shit hole, you could feel the mold, dust mites, and bed bugs partying at the sight of humans, it was that grungy. I was expecting cheap, but still sensible.

    So I call Orbitz after 4 nights. They call the hotel and they confirm the hotel would allow us to check out and would refund the rest of the stay, so I followed Orbitz instructions and called them right before checking out on the morning after 5 nights. Hotel clerk charged me 8.88 extra for some safe in the room, which I never even saw, but then thought, maybe that’s where the mold, dust mites and bed bugs are not at. I would pay a few extra bucks to have a spot like that. But whatever, 9 bucks is nothing compared to us hacking our lungs out as soon as we get in the room.

    Orbitz said we would see the refund within 7-10 days. I saw it, come Monday, which was only a couple business days. Still sounds good right, got out of there, moved into a hotel right behind it that was still about $106 a night after discounts for long stay and AAA. Owner was a real nice guy too.

    The problem, the refund was for $1142.86, the whole trip total was going to be $2534.53. That means that 14 days of hotel was only $1142.86, but 5 days hotel and 21 days economy car is still $1391.67.

    So I take $1142.86/14 and get $81.63 a night for hotel. Now this hotel really shouldn’t even charge that, but considering location that seemed awful cheap. So taking $81.63 x 5 to figure out out of the $1391.67 orbitz is still charging me was the 5 nights, I get $408.16. Subtract that from the $1391.67 I get a car rate of $983.50 for 20 days, though the hertz receipt says 21 days. So lets go with the 21 days, though we are talking just a couple hours beyond day 20. My economy car is $46.83. Not so Economy.

    Then after screaming at Orbitz I get this…

    Hello Jeremy S Davis

    It is our understanding that you have requested an itemized cost breakdown of your Hotel + Car package locator 3W7NEU While we do not have a way of breaking down the individual components, our best estimate is the following:

    Hotel $2019.04
    Car $ 515.49

    The total cost of $2534.52 for this pre-paid reservation was paid in full on 2007-12-25 . Thank you for your payment.

    Please note Orbitz Hotel + Car packages are priced and presented as a bundled package, and Orbitz will be unable to provide you with a receipt for the individual components in the future.

    Please allow us to explain the reasons behind our policy. Orbitz takes great pride in offering our customers a comprehensive selection of trip planning options. For customers who prefer or require more flexibility and wish to know the individual price of each component, Orbitz offers a vast selection of options under the Flight, Hotel, and Car tabs that are priced individually. Additionally, Orbitz has collaborated with our airline, hotel and car suppliers to provide our customers with even more choices in how they book travel. Orbitz now offers bundled packages, which may offer even greater savings. This option can offer substantial savings for those who are able to abide the more restrictive conditions which accompany these lower rates and fares.

    You may also print a copy of the itinerary and total trip cost details from the “My Trips” section on the Orbitz site.

    Again, thank you for choosing Orbitz.

    Now that makes sense right. It works out to about $25 a day car, and $106 a night hotel. Fine, but then my refund should be more like $1400, when you do the math, I am about $340 short. So here is my thing.

    If there is any Lawyer out there who sees any valid lawsuit here, if for any other reason then because I am tired of shady business practices and corporate America taking hard working people’s money for services they don’t actually give you, if you help me sue, and win, I will sign a contract that any winnings are yours. If I get no takers, then I am going to look into small claims court. Just because giving me an estimate of what I paid for is just downright wrong, and that estimate being contradictory of the refund I got, after they said I was OK to make the change is also just wrong.

  3. zeromod says:
    March 16, 2008 at 8:21 pm

    You are obviously not a seasoned traveler. Package deals are not wise when doing business travel for example for just that reason, they cannot be itemized. ALSO airlines that offer bulk air rates in these packages are usually not going to allow reissue or changes and if they do the typical change fees are usually substantially higher than a normal ticket because the rates are cheap. You get what you pay for if you find a ticket from jfk to paris in first class for 300 dollars guess what? the airline probably wont allow a refund and the equipment you fly on might be small and cramped. It’s just common sense people. I see these kinds of “websites” popping up all the time a couple of moody old fucks have a bad experience with a product and start blogging about it. And by the way there is no lawyer thats trolling the web for cases and if there are they will be the same grade of lawyer as the grade of hotel you paid for cheap and lousy. idiot.

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