Fuming With Expedia!! No Booking Yet Money Taken!

traciey2kbabe

Yesterday evening, i tried to book a trip online at a cost of £439 with Expedia. I entered my bank account details as requested and an error message came on the screen informing me that they was unable to process the payment and to call customer services.

Called customer services and they informed me that the booking was not actually booked and no payment had been taken. They advised that they could book this over the telephone. Proceeded to book over the telephone and they informed me that the price had gone upto £445, I was happy with this and asked them to proceed. They then took my bank details and informed me once again that they could not complete the booking as the airline was not taking payment, no monies had been taken from my account and to try again in 30 minutes.

In this time, i decided to call my bank to just ensure no payments had been taken. I was so shocked to discover that Expedia had taken out 5 withdrawals. One for £249, one for £239 and three lots of £1's. I then decided to call back Expedia and have it out with them. They then informed me that the money was not taken by them, i screamed at them telling them they had indeed taken money out of my account and that it equalled more than the actual holiday! They then informed me that the monies were placed into a holding account. I then asked for the manager who then "released" the money from the holding account and ensured me that if i wrote down the authorisation codes, contact my bank they should then see the payment, brilliant news..... not so!

Called the bank, they informed me that they had received no funds back in the account and there was nothing they could do, and that i'd need to speak back with Expedia. Again got on the phone to Expedia and they informed me the money would take until midnight. Waited til after midnight, still no money in my account. Woke up this morning to call my bank, still no money funds in my account, absolutely fuming!!

I've called Expedia up again this morning who have now informed me that the money can take 72 hours, which means because it is now Saturday i won't get the money into my account until Tuesday! Great customer service this is, so quick to take money out of your account but not so great to refund it. Now just shy of minus £500 in my account with no holiday booked!!

Anyone else had this problem? I am thinking of contacting the Financial Services Authority (FSA) with this complaint to take it further.

I've also searched "money taken out and put in holding account expedia" .... low and behold loads of people complaining with the exact same thing. Lucky for me mines short of £500, they've had nearly £2k taken.

Can Expedia legally do this? My bank says no!

Any help on this will be gratefully appreciated.

GwylimT

If your bank says no why aren't they doing a charge back?

jpsartre

traciey2kbabe wrote: »

Anyone else had this problem?

Yes, it's standard for companies to do a mock charge. If you're using a creditcard the money will remain as a pending charge until it disapears. Unfortunately with a debitcard there's no such feature which means the money will leave your account until the hold is released.

jonesMUFCforever

The money will have been earmarked (meaning you can't use it for the next week or so) but then the earmarking will drop off and monies will become available to you.
They will not physically debit your account.


Personally I always use a credit card so that my day to day monies held in my current account are not compromised.

tomtontom

traciey2kbabe wrote: »

i screamed at them

I'm surprised you got any help at all speaking to them in this way. Yes, what has happened is a pain but it is no excuse for being rude. Next time keep your calm and you'll find them far more helpful.

daveyjp

I had the same situation with lastminute. Money earmarked on credit card. but no booking made due to a system fault. It was a pain, but within a few days everything was back to normal.

McKneff

You should try, if possible, to book holidays with a credit card, you then have an S75 protection and no money out of your cash account.... so this sort of thing wouldn't happen.
Well it may, but it would be easier to rectify

slightlyconfused1

This happens all the time with hotels and car hire. When they take a swipe of your card they put a hold on an amount of money for extra charges. They don't actually take the money but you don't have access to it either, until they release the hold.

That's why your account balance and available funds can differ a lot when you haven't spent anything. I imagine it can be a real problem if your account is near its limit.

You will get access to your money so don't panic.