Nov 04, 2012 11:30 PM
1721 Views
This is the first time I used expedia. I use online flight booking on cleartrip, yatra, makemytrip very often and have never encountered any problem with them. Searching for flights on kayak.com led me expedia link. I should have looked for expedia review online before going ahead with making any bookings with them. I booked multi city flights for usa for Nov 7 departure for my father in law. While booking online, the server did not lead me to any security verification page to input my ipin for my card.
That surprised me since now its mandatory for additional security when using card online. I was sent an email stating that the credit card used was declined so I contacted them. I know for certain I had no problems with my credit card, however they kept insisting it was declined and to use another card on the phone. I asked them if they needed the otp to use the card and they said not required. My father in law's credit card was declined again and so I offered to use my credit card. The second card went through successfully with them and they sent me an email confirming the booking. I got an alert from the bank stating that my card had successfully been charged by US AIRWAYS. and then another alert telling me that expedia had charged for 100 inr.
My father in law called up his bank to verify why the card was declined and he was informed by his bank that expedia repeatedly inputted the details incorrectly and therefore they had to decline.
Half an hour later I got two emails from expedia saying that my card has been declined and that the booking was not successful. I was shocked and called up the bank immediately to verify. The bank informed me that there was an attempt by expedia to charge my card not once or twice but FIVE times. The bank approved the transaction the first time and then the subsequent times the numbers and details etc was inputted incorrectly and therefore the transaction was declined. I was horrified and called expedia up immediately. I was given reassurances that this was not possible and that my card had not been charged at all and infact the bank had declined the transaction. I then called back my back to verify again and the bank AGAIN informed me that the card has already been authorised for one transaction by US airways and its awaiting the merchant to go through with the authorisation. On the banks end they have already approved the transaction so where is the problem and they even gave me Approval Reference Code to verify with Expedia.
For 3 hours continuous I was on back and forth phonecalls from the bank to expedia where I had to repeat myself over and over again to a new person each time in expedia. Finally I lost my cool and with the last Expedia representative by the name of Ritika Maheshwari. I was on the phone with her for nearly an hour. I told her the bank has already clarified on several phone calls that the amount has already been charged and given me Approval Reference Code and she can take that to communicate with the bank directly. She then asks ME for the bank phone number. I was shocked. Surely since they need they need the authorisation for all their transactions they would know how to communicate with various banks. I asked her to email the bank and to cc me on the email as well. Since I was already on the phone with her, I will wait until the email comes through to make sure so that I dont have to keep repeating myself with different customer respresentatives. The email comes through and I am horrified to see that she has referred to Citibank as 'CITY BANK" and in the authorisation form she did not input the Aprroval Reference Code as well and the form was a very unprofessionally typed out form. I pointed out her spelling mistakes and told her that what she did represented fraudulent activities and the bank will not consider this a legitimate email or form while being referred to as CITY BANK. She then proceeds to tell me that I will know of my booking only after 48 hrs after the approval has gone through.
I told her that was absolutely ridiculous since my father in law was leaving tonight and he needed his confirmed e tickets with him before he left for the trip and in 48 hrs time it would be too late for him to book again at hiked prices with another website. She apologized, however by then I was already fed up with this whole issue and instructed her to cancel the whole booking and asked her to send me and the bank of the cancellation before I hung up on her. I received the email with the header "CANCELLATION", shockingly misspelt yet again.
I have called my bank and instructed them to block any attempt by Expedia to charge my card. However because of the first approval of the transaction, my card has already been blocked for Rs 33000 and it will only be reversed back when Expedia cancels the transaction. In the meantime by now, I have to rebook at inflated prices through another website and my card is blocked for the amount, Luckily because I kept the bank in the loop every step of the way, the bank has reassured me that if Expedia charges me, then they will take up the dispute and release my card of the amount. In the meantime I have every email record plus the names of everyone I have spoken to. If they charge my card I will go to consumer court and I will file a case against them for fraudulent activities and push for this ecommerce site to be shut down.
AVOID USING EXPEDIA AT ALL COSTS. Just to save a few rs, you will end up spending a lot more in wasted time and effort with them.
