Ryan spent over two hours on hold trying to redeem Expedia’s “Best Price Guarantee” after finding a lower price for his itinerary on Travelocity. Expedia offered a flight to Denver and a hotel nearby for $580. Travelocity offered the same package for $458. Ryan had an account with Expedia and wanted them to match Travelocity’s price.

The CSR informed me about the “Best Price Guarantee” where if after booking with Expedia I found a lower price on the exact same itinerary within 24 hours they would refund the difference and give me a $50 travel voucher for future travel. I asked if this could be done at that time with her and she said that I first had to book my Expedia package online and call back to complete the “simple refund process.”

Ryan booked the package, called back, and spoke with CSR Lenny. Ryan explained that he wanted Expedia to match Travelocity’s price, and gave the details of his itinerary. Lenny put Ryan on hold. For 48 minutes. When Lenny came back, he said “I am sorry I am not familiar with your Wild Wild West and cannot locate this hotel.”

Since when is Denver the “Wild West?”

We hate on Travelocity’s gnome as Ryan learns that in the Wild West, “simple refund” is just another one of ’em darn oxymorons, after the jump…

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Ryan walked Lenny step-by-step through Travelocity to point out the identical deal. Lenny stalled and had Ryan hold for another twenty minutes. When he came back, Ryan’s flight was no longer listed on Travelocity.

Keeping Ryan on hold for almost an hour was likely intentional. Expedia, those clever gnome-hating foxes, probably just waited until Travelocity’s fluctuating offers fluctuated Ryan out of his flight. Ryan, also clever as a gnome-hating fox, had taken screenshots of Travelocity’s deal. He asked to speak with a supervisor. His insolence earned him another 32 minutes on hold.

When the supervisor arrived, she only offered vouchers worth less than the price guarantee. Ryan protested and was again put on hold. “When she returned my voucher was now $100 and she informed me that my “account with Expedia will be discontinued upon redemption!”

Ryan told them where to stick the offer. He threatened never to do business with them again. Much to our surprise, after keeping him on hold for over two hours and screwing him every which way, that was the threat that got Expedia to back down. They cancelled his itinerary and refunded his money. Two hours later, he found and booked the original deal on Travelocity.

We are not surprised this happened. The terms and conditions render Expedia’s “guarantee” worthless.

• Expedia will not accept screenshots or other purported evidence of a lower price.
• Expedia reserves the right in its sole discretion to modify or discontinue the Best Price Guarantee or to restrict its availability to any person, at any time, for any or no reason, and without prior notice or liability to you.

We don’t need any more ‘purported evidence.’ We did not think it was possible, but we hate shenanigans like this more than we hate Travelocity’s gnome.

Ryan’s full email, below.

Hi Consumerist,

I usually just enjoy reading, but after my experience with scamming CSRs at Expedia yesterday I thought I would pass my story along so others can choose their travel sites with caution.

I was planning a weekend trip to Fort Collins Colorado and needed to fly in to Denver and stay in Fort Collins. I found identical packages on both Expedia.com and Travelocity.com (exact same flights and same room). Expedia’s price was $580.60 while Travelocity came in at $458.60. I already had an account with Expedia so I called to inquire if they matched prices. The CSR informed me about the “Best Price Guarantee” where if after booking with Expedia I found a lower price on the exact same itinerary within 24 hours they would refund the difference and give me a $50 travel voucher for future travel. I asked if this could be done at that time with her and she said that I first had to book my Expedia package online and call back to complete the “simple refund process.” I booked my package, called back and was connected with CSR “Lenny” who told me that he would help me “invoke” the Best Price Guarantee. I was put on hold for about 5 minutes while he “prepared for the transaction.” He returned, told me that he was now on the Travelocity website and would now find my exact itinerary and be back to conclude the transaction. This time I was placed on hold for 22 minutes, during which I was able to pull up my exact itinerary on Travelocity, at the lower price, two separate times. Lenny comes back to tell me that unfortunately he would not be able to offer the Best Price Guarantee because he could not find the same hotel I booked with Expedia on Travelocity, he could only locate the exact flights. I explained that the hotel was in a different city and he would have to do and advanced search. The search must have been pretty damn advanced as I was on hold for another 26 minutes. The first words out of his mouth were “I am sorry I am not familiar with your Wild Wild West and cannot locate this hotel.”! I was pretty upset at this point but needing to get my money back prevailed. I explained how to book the package step by step with him and again found all the proper flights and room on my end. Lenny claimed that the Travelocity site had an error and put me on hold again, another 21 minutes! He returned and said that he was now able to find everything except the same outbound flight, which meant he could not offer me the Best Price Guarantee. I went through the same steps on Travelocity, now for the fifth time, and found out that indeed the flight I had booked with Expedia was not longer available.

I asked to talk to a supervisor, which led to a hold time of 32 minutes. After the first hint of scam from Lenny, I printed the lower priced identical itinerary and captured screen shots from Travelocity. When the supervisor Joanna finally came on the line I explained that I could fax, e-mail, or snail mail the proof of a lower price to her. She then put me on hold to talk to her manager, 13 minutes later all she could offer me was a $70 travel voucher, just more than half the amount of cash refund I should be receiving. I explained to Joanna that I followed all the steps properly and asked what I should have done differently. On hold again for 8 minutes, when she returned my voucher was now $100 and she informed me that my “account with Expedia will be discontinued upon redemption!” This made me furious and I explained that I would not be making any more travel plans with Expedia after this experience making the voucher useless to me. I asked to speak to her supervisor, was put on hold for another 4 minutes, and offered a complete refund and cancellation without fees which I gladly accepted. The great part is that two hours later when my seat was available on the plane again, I booked the exact same itinerary on Travelocity for $448.60, $10 less than it had been before!

Are Expedia’s CSRs trained to lie to customers? I know for a fact that any one with basic internet skills would be able to navigate Travelocity with ease. I believe they are trained to draw the call out as long as they can in the hopes that something changes thus negating the ability to invoke the Best Price Guarantee. From the time I picked up the phone to the time the flight ended up filling up was almost 2 hours, not including my half hour wait to talk to Lenny’s supervisor Joanna. If nothing else, his “wild wild west” comment told me that he was not concerned with helping me solve my problem or saving me money which really pissed me off. I will never do business with the scammers at Expedia.com again and would advise others to think twice when shopping for travel.

Thanks!

— CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER

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