Don’t use chat

June 21, 2010 by Mary.

While trying to book a reservation package yesterday with a flight, hotel, and car rental - a chat window appeared for free, “live” assistance with booking.   A consultant came online while I was in the process of booking after I clicked on the pop up window to chat, however as I was in the middle of the reservation, she stated she would stay online to assist if needed.  The reservation that was available minutes before was gone - I told that to the consultant, and stated she could complete the reservation as she had it on her screen and it was still available at the price I selected.   Then after another lengthy question and answer session similar to all the questions I just answered, the consultant stated that my credit card wouldn’t go through, so, while she was online,  I told her I’d call my credit card customer service to check - they stated there were seven $2.00 attempts to verify the card, and that there was no problem from their end on the transaction.  We tried yet another credit card - that one didn’t work.   After over two hours of her “checking, please hold, etc.” she asked if she could  just submit the flight and hotel bookings as “the car rental must have caused the problem”, I said OK to book just the flight and hotel, and the final outcome was the reservation package FINALLY went through as she stated - after she booked it she came back online and stated a new price over $900.00 of the original - AFTER she submitted it to my credit card, she then asked me if I wanted this reservation - now without the car rental, I said no,  and THEN she stated that she had to call customer service to have that amount reimbursed, and it would take five days.  So now, ORBITZ has my payment for something I didn’t want.  I should have ended the “chat” after the first hour, but she kept stating she was able to complete the reservation except for the issue of trying to make the credit cards work.  I felt sorry for her as she was definitely not capable of understanding the issues the ORBITZ software was having, and I didn’t want to offend her as she seemed to be trying to resolve the issue, however, after telling me she had submitted the higher price to my credit card and not the one I agreed on, I  definitely feel scammed, and will NEVER book through ORBITZ.

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