- Uncategorized (44)
- July 15, 2010: Orbitz (Is that Philippino for bad customer service?)
- July 13, 2010: Travelocity better than Orbitz ...
- June 21, 2010: Don't use chat
- June 1, 2010: No way home
- April 26, 2010: I Used to work in orbitz
- April 14, 2010: Screwed by Orbitz
- April 13, 2010: Used Orbitz for booking at Barcelo Mismaloya in Puerto Vallarta
- March 22, 2010: Orbitz changed the rebooking deadline last minute
- February 21, 2010: REGARDING YOUR CLAIMS
- February 19, 2010: ORBITZ RUINED OUR 1 NIGHT in PARIS!
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ORBITZ RUINED OUR 1 NIGHT in PARIS!
My boyfriend and I were fortunate enough to be able to spend a night in Paris, France this past September. We thought it would be romantic and everything that we had imagined it to be. WRONG! Why? Because we booked with Orbitz! We get to the hotel that we made a reservation for, fill in check-in info and then are told that the hotel is full…but that there is a hotel down the street that will take us. This already seems a bit shady to us and we demand that we not be moved, as we spent much time debating which the perfect hotel would be for a night in Paris, and were not too pleased to be moved. The host gets rude and hostile with us and tells us that if we do not take the other hotel we can leave. So we get to the other hotel and tell them that the host at the other place sent us over, and they tell us that they already have a room prepared. Seems a bit shady…considering we made a clear decision to book a specific hotel on Orbitz. Better yet, we are treated like they are doing us a favor, and the bathroom shower drain is completely clogged up and full of water. DISGUSTING! We complain about it…but nothing gets done. This is only half the complaint. Our only night in Paris was completely ruined by a frustrating, disgusting situation.
So you would assume that Orbitz would treat customer complaints seriously, right? I mean especially if you give them your credit card and have them charge you for a specific hotel. I mean…would you pay the price of a Mercedes, if you knew that last second the car salesman pulls out a Toyota with defective brakes, and says…”I have no more Mercedes cars, but here is a Toyota…and you already were charged for the price of the Mercedes.” You would probably avoid a situation like this. To the same degree, you should avoid Orbitz. We complained to Orbitz right away, at which point our complaints were completed ignored, and we were told we should have called while we were in Paris. With which phone should we have called? Ohh..and would they have paid the charge? Probably not! Hmm…and waste even more time…I think not. We expected Orbitz to handle this like a company that cares about the customer.
After this, I call up American Express, and demand that the charge be frozen, as Orbitz did not keep up with its part of the contract. This gets better…This was in September. Now it’s February, and Orbitz has the audacity to call me up and demand that I pay or have my bill be given to debt collectors, which will hurt my credit. I tell them again the situation, and they say, “The hotel did not claim you had any complaints.” Which hotel are you talking about Orbitz? The one that we booked…or the one we were forced to move into on a makeshift basis with clogged bathtub? It’s funny how Orbitz is willing to take the side of the hotel, and tell me, “the hotel won’t refund us because they said you had no complaints, so therefore we need to charge you, and if you refuse to pay, we will report you.” We have pictures to prove that the bathroom was clogged, which we sent to Orbitz, but were ignored.
How about this Orbitz…why don’t you listen to your customers once in a while, especially those that have used you in the past? There’s a marketing concept…If a company (i.e. Orbitz) treats a customer unfairly, the customer will tell nearly 20 people about their negative experience. When a company treats a customer well, the customer will only tell 5 people about their positive experience. What’s the moral of the story? When a customer complains, take it seriously, and don’t attempt to bully them and make excuses. Ohh…and one more thing…Hire people that understand this theory.
I hope this gives everyone a nice little taste of what booking something with Orbitz is like.
February 19, 2010 at 12:06 pm
Hi. I work for Orbitz Customer Relations and we would be interested in reviewing this matter with you. If you could please provide your Orbitz Record Locator for this reservation, we will research and get in touch with you. Thank you, Orbitz Customer Relations
March 5, 2010 at 9:02 pm
I booked 2 flights to Panama city Panama on 12-3-09 and on 1-11-10 orbitz contacted me notifying me that the flight was canselled and i would be getting a full refund in 2 weeks. Well the 2 weeks went by and no refund so i contacted orbitz and was told 1 more ween and that went by and i called again and was told the refund would defenately be done in a total of 45 days. Well it has been a total of 53 days and still no refund.I have probably spent about 10 hours dealing with this mess and they still have my $1,360.00!
I have been told by copa air that orbitz would be responsible for the refund even though my statement says copa was the one that billed me. And orbitz has told me that copa was processing the refund and it would be soon. Copa says that they told orbitz that copa was not responsible for the refund and orbitz is still saying that copa is going to pay.
Today i looked on my card statement and saw a non orbitz ph # by the orbitz charge and it turned out to be cheap tickets. I called it and they ran me through a maze and then said copa air was closed and to call back tomorrow.
What i will do is to call my card co on monday and dispute the charge and AVOID THESE SCUMBAG BOOKING SITES LIKE THE PLAIGE AND SWINE FLU COMBINED !
March 7, 2010 at 4:45 pm
Stupid Customers Suck More Than Orbitz…
I too just took some time to read through many of the posts here at this site…what a bunch of cry babies who need their frickin’ diapers changed. Example: “…My boyfrind and I had just one night in Paris and Big Bad Orbitz screwed up our whole trip…” Give me a break - and we’re supposed to feel sorry for you because you were a spoiled little Mommy’s Girl cheerleader who had to deal with a changed hotel which was … oh my god, wait for it … down the street from where you originally booked, and, … oh my god, wait for it again … the bathtub was clogged up? Do you have any idea what thousands and thousands of our soldiers have to deal with on a day to day basis in the Mid-East? And your complaining about a ‘clogged bathtub, in Paris?” And another thing…who books a trip for just one night in Paris? That alone starts the ringing of the ‘Moron Bell’ for me. Can’t you just picture the woman who writes to complain about this Orbitz Nightmare? When she was a little girl and fell down outside and scraped her knee, she ran in the house crying and Mommy made it all better and gave her cookies and milk. It’s people like this that should be forced to live in a 3rd world country for a year. Then we’ll see if they complain about a clogged up bathtub…
March 10, 2010 at 11:17 pm
Sounds like rexwood is a plant for orbitz.
If he is so conserned about the third world countries, don’t let the door hit you in the backside!
April 21, 2010 at 4:38 pm
RexWood is pretty right (and I’m not a plant for orbitz; in fact I doubt I’ll ever use them). It’s a bummer to be “walked” (that’s the industry term for what happened) by a hotel, but it happens, it’s probably not Orbitz’s fault, it may not even be the hotel’s fault (it’s probably because a guest refused to check out or they had a mechanical problem), and when you say it “ruined your night” you lose whatever credibility you hadn’t already lost by saying you were spending just 1 night in Paris. It is an industry standard that you should get that night free, and Orbitz was wrong if they didn’t do that, but given the irrationality in the rest of your post, I’ve got to wonder what really happened when you talked to them.
April 21, 2010 at 10:55 pm
People who think it’s unreasonable to spend 1 night in Paris clearly have never been on a business trip where you get to kill the weekend. And thinking about soldiers and customer service in the same context? Are you an f—ing retard? Instead of bringing pride to these men and women, you just insulted them by bringing them up in the same context. You should be ashamed of yourself.
May 7, 2010 at 3:07 pm
I am an investigator with the law firm of David P. Meyer & Associates. We are investigating a potential case against a major online travel site regarding alleged charges to consumers for travel insurance without their full knowledge. If you would be willing to assist in our investigation or would like more information about this case, please call me at 1-866-827-6537.
May 16, 2010 at 4:13 am
To people like RexWood and Orbitz,
Look, idiot(s), it has nothing to do with being a cry baby or looking for someone / something to complain about.
It has to do with getting what you paid for. If I book a hotel, and my confirmation statement says, in fact, that I am paying for that specific hotel, then that’s it. I paid $xxx for that hotel, and that’s all it should be. All of the other red tape, fine-print, bullcrap isn’t relevant when one deals with a reputable, honest, and service-driven company.
It’s very clear Orbitz is not reputable, Orbitz is not honest, Orbitz is not service-driven, and the fact that a person pays for one thing and then gets another proves, without a doubt, Orbitz lies and scams.
Again, it has nothing to do with your nonsense accusations, which, quite frankly, do more to hurt the situation than help. It has everything to do with the fact that if someone does not get what they paid for, then it’s illegal - That’s it.
I don’t need a law degree to know that…it’s common damn sense, unless you are RexWood.
And to people like Bruce, who say many of these situations are not the fault of Orbitz: There’s a little something called the “Tough-Shit Rule” that comes with being in this type of business.
People use Orbitz or any of these services for a number of reasons, the most prevalent being:
1. Convenience
2. Price
3. They are experts, presumably, where the consumer is not. (travel, dealing with airlines, hotels, etc.)
When they fail to deliver, in effect, all three, then there is a huge problem. I don’t care whose fault it is when hotels switch someone around, or airlines cancel flights at the last minute, or anything like that. It simply shouldn’t matter if they are dealing with a proper company, which Orbitz is not.
The Tough Shit Rule means essentially this: If something like that happens, if you don’t get what you paid for, if your flight gets canceled days before you am supposed to leave, etc., then Orbitz should either:
A. Work with the customer to find a solution as close to, i f not exactly, what the customer wants as possible regarding time, location, etc. and that costs the customer no more than their original booking.
or
B. Offer a full refund with no arguments, no paperwork…nothing. You ask for the refund, and you get it - that’s it.
or
C. Offer sufficient compensation for the situation in the form of a partial refund - not Orbitz credit or something like that - to the customer. So if that lady’s hotel moved her to a different one - even if the different one is amazing - then she gets a refund for every night she did not stay in the original hotel.
It doesn’t matter if it is Orbitz’s fault or not, here’s why this is the way it should be:
A. The original booking is initiated because a customer uses Orbitz to browse all possible bookings, select what works for them, and then they pay Orbitz to give them the price they selected on each service / item, negotiate that with the airline, hotel, etc., and then deliver that booking to the consumer.
B. The customer initiates Orbitz, therefore Orbitz, not the customer, is the one who directly acts as the party who books everything.
C. It is the job of whoever books everything directly to make sure they get what they paid for. Why would it be the job of someone else?
D. The customer directly employed Orbitz - as evidenced by Orbitz’s fee to use the service - to be the middle-man / direct booking body.
E. If the airline, hotel, etc. fails to deliver what was finalized upon payment for the original deal, then that is between the person / body who worked directly with them to book the trip - which would be Orbitz. It is the job of the customer to make sure Orbitz gives them what they paid for, and it is the job of Orbitz to make sure the airline, hotel, etc. gives them what they (Orbitz) directly booked.
It is not the job of the customer to all of a sudden step in as the direct booking party and fix the situation, because that is what Orbitz is being paid to do. If they don’t do it, then why in the world does the customer need them to exist to begin with?
It’s not as though a pizza restaurant can charge you an extra $5 for a pizza you ordered just because they had to buy more ingredients from the grocery store, and the only ones available were really expensive. It is the job of the restaurant to worry about the price of ingredients, and then set the price for the customer. The customer should not have to worry about the price of the ingredients. All the customer needs to know is the price given by the restaurant originally, and the pizza they ordered. Everything else is the restaurant’s job. If the customer had to worry about the ingredients, the price of those ingredients, and what to do if the original order doesn’t turn out, then why wouldn’t they just make the damn pizza themselves? Why should they have to pay something for essentially nothing?
Conclusion: In that same way, why should a customer have to pay for Orbitz’s faults, shortcomings, mis-negotiations, and fallen-through deals?
The answer is, plain and simple, they shouldn’t.