Open Letter To Expedia

Would you let your family fly on a plane, rent a car, or stay in a hotel arranged by a company that has no compassion for a customer at the basic level of service? If a human error on the customer's end can't be satisfactorily rectified, are you willing to trust that any other unresolved errors with this company would be? Do you trust your loved one to be on that plane, in that car, or in that hotel room? I know I wouldn't. This is the letter that I sent to Expedia, hoping to find an amicable solution to my mother's ongoing issue. 

I received a direct reply from Expedia regarding a post I made about a very negative experience my mother has had with a flight she booked. Due to that person's attempt to reach out and offer assistance, I hope this is a sign that you are willing to try to find a favorable resolution to a truly unfortunate, yet very human, error. 

My mother only travels between AZ and MN, and she uses Delta and books directly from their site. She needed a different flight, however, to visit family in WA; a 'last time to see them before they die' trip, if you will. Therefore, she needed to book both a flight and a car. Delta had no nonstop flights available, so she needed to try Expedia to get both the flight and the car rental booked together. 

This was detailed in my FB post, but I will reiterate as you may or may not be the person who had responded. My mother is on disability and is only able to fly nonstop flights. She has extremely advanced peripheral neuropathy as well as severe anxiety. For these medical reasons, her options are only nonstop and, for this flight, Expedia offered the best fare on an American Airlines flight. 

Again, my mother is older and completely unfamiliar with using Expedia. Any prior Expedia bookings in her name were made by me as I arrange most of her electronic transactions. 

Her main concern while booking was ensuring that she was able to get the flight she had chosen, so she tried to get through the checkout as quickly as possible. I'm sure YOU are quite aware of Expedia's checkout (and truly any booking company's process). It's much different than booking directly through an airline. There are several long and detailed legal disclaimers. There are offers for travel insurance, purchasing items for the flight, adding hotels or cars, applying for an affiliated credit card, etc. Your site's checkout process is indeed lengthy and can be very overwhelming and confusing for older people. Of course, I understand that customers of any age are expected to read (and do have to agree to) the terms and conditions. I also know that YOU know as well as I do that we ARE all human, and I can name very few people who truly scrutinize legal disclaimers. That's why they're there - to allow a company an "out" whenever a discrepancy or dispute arises. But that's not the point. 

These are the two mistakes that occurred:
1. In my mother's haste to checkout so as not to lose the flight she chose, somewhere along the line the date was accidentally changed. Instead of flying out June 26, 2015, and arriving back on a later date, the flight was booked to fly out June 26 AND return June 26. In fact, the two flights booked were literally 2 hours apart. 
2. She received her confirmation email and made the mistake of not double checking it until days later, thereby falling out of what I understand is Expedia's 24-hour cancellation policy. 

When she discovered the error, she was able to cancel the car rental without issue. They obviously realized that it would be ridiculous to rent a car and return it 2 hours later. Unfortunately, your company didn't see it that clearly. In fact, your employees chose to ignore the obvious logical error of a same-day round-trip flight and didn't even attempt to help at all, simply citing policy and refusing to adjust her tickets without a $300 fee PER TICKET. My mother is retired and on disability. Heck, I'm in my 40s and neither of those things, and I still wouldn't accept having to pay an additional $600 for 2 ticket changes. She cancelled her tickets with you. She accepted her mistake. You gave her a $600 credit on her account to use toward a future flight. Other than the embarrassingly outrageous $300/ticket change fee offered, this was all understandable. 

However, this is the part that's completely unacceptable. My mother now has a $600 credit with Expedia. She has future travel plans, she can use that credit. But.....she's since been advised that TO use that credit, she has to pay ANOTHER $200 fee PER TICKET to use them. The only way I can possibly think of to make that make ANY sense is as follows: 

A woman receives a $600 personalized item from a store. The personalization was incorrect. She returned to the store and was told to correct the personalization, it would be an additional $600, or she could return it for store credit, which she did. She then took her store credit and made an additional purchase, and at checkout was informed there would be an additional $400 charge simply to USE the store credit. 

I don't know who is receiving this email, but I can't imagine a single person in the world who would be okay with that situation with their mother, father, brother, sister, husband, child, etc. I can't imagine how that makes any sense to anyone anywhere, and this is what I am fighting against. My mother has already paid for her error. She has already had to book a new flight. But now your company is charging her ANOTHER separate fee to simply USE the credit she already has with you, and this is unacceptable. 

I personally have used Expedia myself with never an issue. I would gladly continue to do so if you would be willing to correct this egregious error. My mother's error was honest and she has paid for that. Continuing to make her pay additional fees to use her credit with you is unconscionable. If your company is willing to make this right, I will remain a loyal customer and I will gladly post to my Facebook, Google+, and Twitter feeds that Expedia has come through and has my full support and gratitude. If you choose to stick to whatever asinine policy that allows you to do this to customers, I will continue to repeat my story on Facebook (which has already been shared several times). I will repeat my story on Twitter. I will go out of my way to create accounts on EVERY other social media out there that I don't even USE just to get that word out to avoid Expedia, the company who would screw over a disabled, elderly woman simply trying to make a trip to see family members before they die. I will gladly reactivate my own personal blog just to share this story over and over. I will also share it with the MANY close friends I have who are even MUCH more active bloggers, published in magazines and seen on TV shows, who will be only too happy to share my story. I will share it with every follower and contact I have. I will contact our newspapers, both mine in MN and my mother's in AZ. Both MN and AZ have equally large populations of elderly residents, and I know the Minneapolis Star Tribune in particular LOVES a good "poor elderly person got scammed" story and runs them quite often. I'm sure the Arizona Republic will be just as interested. 

I am sincerely requesting that you help us make this right. This can only work out to your benefit if you do so. If you help my mother in a compassionate and thoughtful manner, I will put just as much positive effort and time and work into sharing your sincerity and generosity as I would negatively if you refuse. 

I sincerely look forward to hearing from someone from Expedia very soon who can help me resolve this unfortunate situation for my mother. I await what I hope is a truly genuine and positive response.