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EXPEDIA is the top scam: source http://www.expedianews.com

Dirty tricks from travel sites used to scam people
Some “legitimate online travel agencies (OTAs)”, besides running their legitimate business, are running a scam.
I’ll explain the scam using as example: TRAVEL.SCAM (a ficticious OTA). For a real case read this: 
http://www.victimsofexpedia.com/mycase.htm
How does it work? The mechanism of the scam is complex, involving poor customer support, lies, ignoring customers complaints, use of “web based” e-mail system, use of “automated message”, “fine prints” and “term and conditions” and “separate terms and conditions”.
 
At a first glance there is nothing illegal but the way they use all that is to scam customers.
 
1)TRAVEL.SCAM will charge your credit card for whatever you book (hotel, flights, vacation package, trip insurance), then you are on your own. Is something happens, (canceled flights, loss of your ticket -even if they are responsible for the loss-) they don’t take responsibility. So, far this is legal. Where is the scam? In some cases, TRAVEL.SCAM will fail to provide the service you paid for but they will do anything to keep the money they charged in your credit card. They use a lot of tricks to do that:
 
2) Poor customer support: This is very typical. There are plenty of examples of customers that try to contact the customer support team but are put on hold for hours before talking to a real person. Once you are able to talk to someone, you have to give him/her a number (itinerary or booking number) and explain you case. They will tell you that they are going to solve your problem and they are going to contact you. Most of the time they never call you (lies) you will have to call again. Again you will have to spend time giving your number (itinerary or booking number) and explain you case.
 
3) Some OTA uses a “web based” e-mail system. This sounds great, once you are logged in your account you just need to “click” a button and a new window appears showing a box where you can write to TRAVEL.SCAM. It looks very friendly, you don’t need to type the e-mail address of the company, just write and submit your message. Where is the trick? You will not have a copy of the message you sent to them. Most of the time they will not answer you message (ignore customer) or will send you an “automated message” like this: ” Dear TRAVEL.SCAM customer We have forwarded your request to the appropriate department and you will receive a response from that department within 72 hours. If you have further questions, feel free to reply to this e-mail or contact TRAVEL.scam customer services at 1-800- WHO CARE -and reference case ID . You can also visit the TRAVEL.SCAM “Customer Support” page for more customer service information. Thank you for choosing TRAVEL.SCAM Sydney TRAVEL.SCAM Cuustomer Support Team Of course, most of the time nobody will take care of your case and you will have to call again and send new e-mails. Where is the trick? If you use a “web based” e-mail system to send a message to TRAVEL.SCAM they will later deny that. You will not have any proof that you were trying to contact them. Never use “web based” e-mail system.
 
4) Fine prints. This is typical, completely legal but abusive.
 
5) Terms and conditions. Again completely legal but abusive. Where is the trick? One of the most tricky point is something like this (called “governing law”) : “This agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Alaska , USA (for TRAVEL.SCAM). You hereby consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of courts in Spring County, Alaska , USA, in all disputes arising out of or relating to the use of this Web site”. This means that if you want to dispute your case against TRAVEL.SCAM in a court room you have to do it in Alaska. If you live in NY it will be pretty expensive to do that. In most of the cases, you will decline and travel.SCAM will your money (in a tricky or fraudulent way).
All these tricks give online travel agencies the freedom to lie and scam people. They have the freedom to deny a service you paid for, they have the freedom to give you a room completely different from what you booked. They have the freedom to lose your ticket or not to arrange your trip. They will simply blame the hotel, the airline or someone else. They have to freedom to charge your credit card with fees. Believe me, they are using them. Even if you have proof that TRAVEL.SCAM failed to provide the service they will deny and try to keep your money unless you sue them in Alaska If you bought a “trip insurance” and you want to cancel your trip they will tell you that your insurance does not cover that. Even if they told you before by phone that it will. But you didn’t read the “fine prints” (more lies and “fine prints”. Even if you are right they will tell you the opposite. In this example, the TRAVEL.SCAM makes money by selling “trip insurances” that are useless because they will refuse to honor (even if you are right). Again, if you want to dispute in a court room be prepared to travel to Alaska (abusive “terms and conditions”). By using all these tricks they can charge “fees” for whatever they want, then is going to be difficult for you to recover the money they charged in your credit card. You will have to provide proof to your credit card company that it was TRAVEL.SCAM ’s fault and not yours to be reimbursed. In summary, TRAVEL.SCAM makes money in a legitimate way (as expected if you are lucky) and in a fraudulent way (by not providing the service you paid for) and by using all the tricks mentioned above to keep your money.
 

I’m not alone. Most of these people feel they were cheated by EXPEDIA in one way or another:
http://www.expedianews.com
 Be careful, you (or your friends and/or relatives) might be the next victim and/or lose thousand of dollars due to their unethical business practice.
 

Source: http://www.expedianews.com

Source: http://www.expedianews.com

YOu are welcome

Read recent news about EXPEDIA at : http://www.expedianews.com

All you want to know about customer satisfaction, customer service and ethical business practice from the world  leader in the travel industry.

Read hundreds of complaints from unhappy, cheated/scammed EXPEDIA’s customers at:

http://www.expedianews.com

Post your own experience in our forum: http://www.victimsofexpedia.com/forum (in English, German and Dutch). Soon in other languages too.

victimsofexpedia is growing. Thousands of people were already alerted about EXPEDIA and other scams.

It seems EXPEDIA ruined a trip  and left someone stranded in Denver.

 Read the full story:

http://towandasnewwindow.blogspot.com/2008/03/stranded-in-denver.html

I had a very interesting comment in my website yesterday(in a webpage whre you can add your feedback about EXPEDIA : http://www.victimsofexpedia.com/surveycomments.htm ). Becky sent this comment. I wrote in red my own remarks to Becky’s comment since I fell obliged to respond to such a devoted defender of a scammer.

Name = Becky

URL = n/a

Visit = YES

Comments = I agree with some of the other people who have commented

 here…..first, you need to learn proper english (does it really matter? How many languages do you speak CORRECTLY besides your mother language?)   , second, you should move on with your life…..unless you have no life (I have a wonderful life, more interesting than you can imagine).  And for your information, I am not an employee of Expedia (No?, are you another scammer? Is my website interfering with your scam? Because www.victimsofexpedia.com is now alerting people about other scams too) and have never used them (At least you seem to be smart, why defending EXPEDIA then?).  I have enough intelligence to make my own arrangements, and if something does happen to go wrong, I have enough professionalism about me to get things resolved appropriately (maybe you have professionalism, use them to teach EXPEDIA).  You really do seem like the kind of person  who has a propensity to be correct 100% of the time (I’m almost 100 % of the time correct. Here are some examples:

1)    I predicted that in 2008 EXPEDIA will continue to cheat travelers. I was right, read some complaints about EXPEDIA during 2008: http://www.expedianews.com )

2)    I predicted that EXPEDIA will continue to cowardly hide: I was right. EXPEDIA never tried to contact me or the airline to make things right. As I predicted, they chose to hide and continue cheating travelers.

(as one of the  comments noted….the poll and comments are useless because you always have a  sarcastic remark if it is something you do not want to hear.)(Sarcastic me?)  I would  hate to live my life thinking I was perfect………what else could I  learn (good and bad) about this wonderful world if I were perfect?   Maybe you should take time to humble yourself.

subject = Survey Results

The questions I have to ask you Becky is: why are you defending EXPEDIA (a scammer) with such devotion? I can only imagine two reasons: 1) Money: is my website interfering in some way with your earnings, are you an EXPEDIA investor afraid that EXPEDIA shares will fall? Are you an EXPEDIA affiliate and feel that people are realizing EXPEDIA is a scam?
2) The other reason is LOVE: Do you feel attracted by scammers? Do you find scammers HOT? Do you find Barry Diller Hot? (see a pic here: http://gawker.com/news/evil-bosses/new-yorks-worst-bosses-barry-diller-246022.php ) (By the way, I’m not saying Barry Diller is a scammer, but he might have –as Chairman of EXPEDIA- enough power to make EXPEDIA a honest company. ). It is not like in the movies. Online scammers are not like Leonardio Di Caprio in “Catch me if you can”. Most of the times they are ugly and disgusting.  Ahhhhhh, that is: LOVE.  But that is fine, love is perfectly understandable. Even Eva Braun can be forgiven in that case. But I doubt EXPEDIA top scammers will like you. You pretend to be “intelligent enough” and “professional” but you don’t even check whether my case is true or not.
Isn’t that a lack of professionalism?
That make me think you have a poor education and you feel superior by make remarks on my English. According to your logic you might not qualify for a PhD degree. Not even for a Master degree. Maybe you have finished high school and have struggled to have College Degree (I’m being generous). Am I right or wrong with your education?. It is just your lack of common sense and logic is what make you defend a scammer without even looking for the truth. To refresh your logic: “Those who scam people are scammers; EXPEDIA scam people, thus EXPEDIA is a scammer”. Is it so difficult to understand that? 
Come on. Ask EXPEDIA, I predict that EXPEDIA will never answer you. Please, please , please, send them this letter and let me know their answer:  
 

Simply copy and paste the following letter and send to : travel@customercare.expedia.com  and/or travel@expedia.com  

Dear EXPEDIA customer support team                                                                 
 I would appreciate if you can give me your version about the “victimsofexpedia” affair. Apparently there is a guy who created that site ( http://www.victimsofexpedia.com   ) and claims that EXPEDIA tried to scam him.
He claims that EXPEDIA failed to deliver an airline ticket (twice) and later, instead of fixing the problem (originated by EXPEDIA) you ignored several messages from him and from KLM to arrange his trip.
He also claims that EXPEDIA, repeatedly lied to him and tried to scam him by reimbursing only 800 U$D when actually EXPEDIA charged his credit card for 1,254.95 U$D.  This is fraud anywhere in the world.
According to him, he could recover the full amount of his money after 6-7 month only after he provided to his credit card company proof of your lies and attempt to scam him.
Since I don’t know his name, I’m providing his Case ID: [REQ:21826350]. I’m sure you have all the details about his case.
Since it is difficult to believe that a legitimate company like EXPEDIA would do such horrible things to a customer I would also like to know why EXPEDIA does not sue him for libel and slander.
 
Sincerely Yours truly,
Becky
PS: I add one positive vote in this the  http://www.victimsofexpedia.com/surveycomments.htm poll. 
 

A customer from EXPEDIA.CA claim that he/she has been robbed ($4,900 in extra charges). Read the case at:

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/expediasteals/1/1205206140.html

Report them in ” www.victimsofexpedia.com  ” (you can post who is trying to scam you, who is spamminng you  in the FORUM) 
 It is amazing, few days after I posted in the internet all these spams and attempt to scam me in www.victimsofexpedia.com/OS/otherscams.html (a website to alert people about the EXPEDIA scam and other scams in general) . The number of spams/scams e-mails I’m receiving dropped significantly. 

I didn’t receive a Victoria’s Secret gift Card  today !! I love  VS, but for my girlfriend. I’m sad that scammer are using them as bait and a significant number of ladies will fall for that biat and switch scam.

Anyway, these mean that exposing spammers/scammers in the internet works. Good reason to alert people about EXPEDIA since they are the top scammers.

See examples of spam/scams emails: