victims of EXPEDIA - travel - fraud - scam - Flights - Ticket - Customer service - Deal - Vacation - Destination - code - E-ticket - Problem - Issue -Trip - experience - holiday - vacation - resort - code - ticket - coupon - discount - deal

The mechanism of the scam is complex, involving poor customer support, lies, lies and 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. I will describe the scam using a "ficticious online travel site (travel.cam) since I have evidence of some of the tricks EXPEDIA used when they tried to scam me but not evidence of other tricks EXPEDIA might had used to scam or try to scam others.

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) Travel scam 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.

		EXPEDIA international sites (This section is under construction). For corrections contact us at: webmaster@victimsofexpediacom
	Country	Phone	e-mail	Comment

expedia.au	Australia	1300 EXPEDIA (1300 3973342). There is also another phone number to claim the "Expedia Price Promise": 1300 794 952	Not listed. EXPEDIA wants customers to use their web-based form, This is a scam tool since customers has no record of the e-mails sent to EXPEDIA	Telephone services fee up to $ 50.
expedia.ca	Canada (- In English)	+18883973342 or +18883973342. For outside north america use: +16137801386	Not listed. EXPEDIA wants customers to use their web-based form, This is a scam tool since customers has no record of the e-mails sent to EXPEDIA	Changes and cancellations to flight bookings can only be handled by telephone. - C$75-C$200 airline change fee per ticket plus any increase in the fare - C$50-100 fees for cars - C$50-100 for trip extras (e.g attractions) If you are already in transit you should contact the airlines (Why this? isn't expedia suppose to be your travel agent?
expedia.ca	Canada (In French)	+18883973342 , +18883973342 +16137801386 (ailleurs qu'en Amérique du Nord)
http://www.elong.com/	China	+18008101010, 400-810- 1010, In english: 86-10-58299309 or 400-810-1119 (in Mainland China)	web@elong.net
expedia.dk	Denmark	Hotel og Billeje: åbent 08:00 - 22:00 mandag til fredag og 09:00 - 22:00 lørdag, søndag og helligdage. Ring til expedia på 80200088 Fly: 10:00 – 18:00 mandag til fredag og 12:00 – 15:00 lørdag, søn og helligedage (der er lukket i weekenderne fra juni til august). Ring til Expedia på +4570225516	fly@kundeservice.expedia.dk
expedia.fr	France	??????
expedia.de	Germany	Kundenservice: Telefon-Nr. 01805-900560 (0,14 €/Min. dt. Festnetz / Mobilfunkpreise können abweichen). Aus dem Ausland wählen Sie bitte +493020164021	Not listed. EXPEDIA wants customers to use their web-based form, This is a scam tool since customers has no record of the e-mails sent to EXPEDIA.
expedia.co.in	India	+18004191919 (opening hours 8AM until 10PM))	Not listed. EXPEDIA wants customers to use their web-based form, This is a scam tool since customers has no record of the e-mails sent to EXPEDIA.
expedia.co.jp	Japan	ホテルお問合せ 0120-936-910 (年中無休) 平日 7AM - 8PM 土日祝 10AM - 5PM +81355392834	???
expedia.nl	Netherlands	8.00-23.00 telefoonnummer 0900-397 33 42 (40ct/min)	travel@support.expedia.nl
expedia.co.nz	New Sealand	Customer care centre: 0800 99 87 99. ( open Monday – Friday from 9 am to 10 pm, weekend and public holidays from 10 am to 5 pm).	Not listed. EXPEDIA wants customers to use their web-based form, This is a scam tool since customers has no record of the e-mails sent to EXPEDIA
expedia.no	Norway	Hotell og Bilutleie: +4780036401 (08.00-22.00 mandag til fredag, 09.00-22.00 lørdag, søndag og helligdager) Fly: +4781533070 (10.00-18.00, og helgdager/helligdager kl.12:00-15:00. (Stengt helgene i juni, juli og august))	Not listed. EXPEDIA wants customers to use their web-based form, This is a scam tool since customers has no record of the e-mails sent to EXPEDIA
expedia.co.uk	UK	Telephone number : 0871 226 0808 Calls charged at 10 pence per minute BT Rate. Charges may vary from other networks).	Not listed. EXPEDIA wants customers to use their web-based form, This is a scam tool since customers has no record of the e-mails sent to EXPEDIA.
expedia.es	España	Número de teléfono: 0871 226 0808 Lunes-Viernes de 9:00 a 21:00 h, Sábado, domingo y días festivos de 10:00 a 17:00 h	EXPEDIA.es esconde el su correo electronico porque quiere que sus clientes usen su sistema online. Este es un truco porque el cliente no tiene ninguna copia de lo que le escribe a expedia.
expedia.it	Italy	Numero di telefono: 0871 226 0808 08:00-20:00 lun-ven/ 09:00-13:00 sab. 0,60 € al min.+ 0,12 € alla risp. IVA incl.	Same as for Spain	Warning: Is EXPEDIA charging for any call?
Expedia.se	Sweden	Hotell och Hyrbil: Om du föredrar att prata med en Expedia.se-representant är vi tillgängliga 08:00-22:00 mån till fre och 09:00-22:00 lör, sön och helgdagar. Ring Expedia på 0200 810 341. Flyg: 10:00-18:00 mån till fre och 12:00-15:00 lör, sön och helgdagar (stängt alla helger från juni till augusti). Ring Expedia på 08-505 504 70	flyg@kundtjanst.expedia.se (apparently only for flights)

	New questions about EXPEDIA (still ananswered)

How EXPEDIA convinced the NFL to become the official travel site?
How many people are going to be scammed by EXPEDIA during Christmas and New Year 2009?
DO you know any other scammer that want to be partner with EXPEDIA?
Why don't you you tell your relatives and friends about www.victimsofexpedia.com?	1) I hate my relatives 2) I'm a bad dad, mom, aunt, uncle, cousin, 3) I want my relatives to be scammed by EXPEDIA 4) I want my friends to be scamed by EXPEDIA

United States (US)	3,175
United Kingdom (GB)	556
Canada (CA)	403
Philippines (PH)	214
Spain (ES)	162
Sweden (SE)	160
Chile (CL)	137
Australia (AU)	137
Peru (PE)	109
Argentina (AR)	95
Colombia (CO)	92
Italy (IT)	88
Germany (DE)	83
Mexico (MX)	80
Netherlands (NL)	80
France (FR)	66
Ireland (IE)	64
India (IN)	56
El Salvador (SV)	50
Belgium (BE)	45
Brazil (BR)	43
China (CN)	31
Singapore (SG)	31
Romania (RO)	25
Greece (GR)	25
Europe (EU)	24
Slovakia (SK)	22
Israel (IL)	21
New Zealand (NZ)	20
Czech Republic (CZ)	20
South Africa (ZA)	20
Portugal (PT)	19
Malaysia (MY)	18
Puerto Rico (PR)	18
Switzerland (CH)	17
Poland (PL)	16
Hong Kong (HK)	16
Venezuela (VE)	16
Russian Federation (RU)	16
Japan (JP)	15
Bulgaria (BG)	14
Guatemala (GT)	13
Nigeria (NG)	13
United Arab Emirates (AE)	12
Austria (AT)	12
Turkey (TR)	11
Thailand (TH)	10
Bolivia (BO)	10
Sri Lanka (LK)	10
Denmark (DK)	9
Korea, Republic of (KR)	9
Lithuania (LT)	9
Costa Rica (CR)	8
Kuwait (KW)	8
Estonia (EE)	8
Saudi Arabia (SA)	8
Finland (FI)	8
Serbia (RS)	7
Latvia (LV)	7
Norway (NO)	7
Uruguay (UY)	6
Dominican Republic (DO)	6
Ecuador (EC)	6
Egypt (EG)	5
Slovenia (SI)	5
Ghana (GH)	5
Hungary (HU)	5
Morocco (MA)	5
Taiwan (TW)	5
Pakistan (PK)	5
Macedonia (MK)	4
Jamaica (JM)	4
Ukraine (UA)	4
Luxembourg (LU)	4
Vietnam (VN)	4
Trinidad and Tobago (TT)	4
Malta (MT)	4
Moldova, Republic of (MD)	4
Indonesia (ID)	4
Iran, Islamic Republic of (IR)	4
Oman (OM)	4
Croatia (HR)	3
Bangladesh (BD)	3
Jordan (JO)	3
Kenya (KE)	3
Algeria (DZ)	3
Lebanon (LB)	3
Cyprus (CY)	2
Bahrain (BH)	2
Grenada (GD)	2
Qatar (QA)	2
Palestinian Territory (PS)	2
Nicaragua (NI)	2
Mauritius (MU)	2
Virgin Islands, U.S. (VI)	2
Suriname (SR)	1
Netherlands Antilles (AN)	1
Aruba (AW)	1
Togo (TG)	1
Fiji (FJ)	1
New Caledonia (NC)	1
Iceland (IS)	1
Madagascar (MG)	1
Cambodia (KH)	1
Tanzania, United Republic of (TZ)	1
Angola (AO)	1
Rwanda (RW)	1
Dominica (DM)	1
Bahamas (BS)	1
Turks and Caicos Islands (TC)	1
Georgia (GE)	1
Afghanistan (AF)	1
Tunisia (TN)	1
Asia/Pacific Region (AP)	1
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BA)	1
Belize (BZ)	1
Gambia (GM)	1
Guam (GU)	1
Sudan (SD)	1
Yemen (YE)	1
Guadeloupe (GP)	1
Honduras (HN)	1
Barbados (BB)

The Expedia, Inc., Board of Directors

The Expedia, Inc. Corporate Management Team

The Expedia, Inc. Business Unit Management

	Nationwide class action: I received this e-mail
	NOTICE OF CERTIFICATION OF CLASS ACTION In re Expedia Hotel Taxes and Fees Litigation, Case No. 05-2-02060-1 SEA (Superior Court of Washington in and for King County) A STATE COURT ORDERED THIS NOTICE. THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION FROM A LAWYER. THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION FROM EXPEDIA TO PURCHASE ANYTHING. PLEASE READ. If you booked a hotel stay through Expedia and paid "Tax Recovery Charges" and "Service Fees" during the period from January 10, 2001 through June 11, 2008, a nationwide class action may affect your rights. Consumers of hotel stays through Expedia ("Plaintiffs") have filed a lawsuit against Expedia concerning the bundled "Tax Recovery Charges" and "Service Fees" charged by Expedia when consumers book a hotel stay through Expedia's website or telephone operators. The Plaintiffs allege that, in its assessment of "Tax Recovery Charges" and "Service Fees," Expedia has (i) committed deceptive or unfair practices in violation of the Washington Consumer Protection Act ("CPA") from January 10, 2001 to June 11, 2008 (the "CPA Claim") and (ii) breached its contractual obligations from January 1, 2003 to June 11, 2008 (the "Contract Claim"). The Court has allowed the lawsuit to proceed as a class action on behalf of all consumers, nationwide, who booked hotel stays through Expedia from January 10, 2001 through June 11, 2008 and paid a "Tax Recovery Charge" and a "Service Fee" (the "Class"). Not all Class Members will have both the CPA Claim and the Contract Claim as defined above. Expedia denies all of the Plaintiffs' claims, and the Court has not decided whether Expedia did anything wrong. There is no money available now and no guarantee there will be. However, if you are a member of the Class as described above, your legal rights are affected, and you have a choice to make right now: YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS & OPTIONS DO NOTHING Stay in this lawsuit. Await the outcome. Give up certain rights. By doing nothing, you keep the possibility of getting money or benefits that may come from a trial or a settlement. But, you give up any right to sue Expedia separately for the same legal claims that are raised in this lawsuit, and you will be bound by any further court orders or judgments, whether favorable or unfavorable to the Class. If you do not ask to be excluded, you may enter an appearance through counsel of your own choosing if you so desire. ASK TO BE EXCLUDED Get out of this lawsuit. Get no benefits from it. Keep rights. If you ask to be excluded or "opt-out," and money or benefits are later awarded, you will not share in them. But, you will keep any rights to sue Expedia separately for the same legal claims in this lawsuit, and you will not bound by any further orders or judgments, whether favorable or unfavorable to the Class. If you wish to be excluded, you must complete and mail an "Opt-Out Form" to Lead Class Counsel at the address below. You can download an Opt-Out Form at www.hbsslaw.com/expedia, or you can obtain one by contacting Class Counsel at the phone number or address listed below. In order to be effective, your Opt-Out Form must be postmarked on or before January 15, 2009. If you choose not to be excluded, do not fill out or return an Opt-Out Form. No money or benefits are available now because the Court has not yet decided whether Expedia has done anything wrong, or whether the Class is entitled to any remedy. If any monetary or other benefits are ultimately awarded, you will be notified about how to obtain a share. The Court is unable to estimate how long it will take to resolve the case, and does not know whether or not any money or benefits will ultimately be awarded. For further information about the Class Certification and this case, or to obtain an "Opt-Out Form," visit www.hbsslaw.com/expedia, or contact Class Counsel: Expedia Hotel Taxes and Fees Litigation HAGENS BERMAN SOBOL SHAPIRO LLP 1301 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2900 Seattle, WA 98101 (866) 428-1785 DO NOT CONTACT THE COURT. To unsubscribe, click here Please do not reply to this message. We are unable to respond to inquiries sent in reply to this email.
	I (John Doe from www.victimsofexpedia.com ) did some research and I found out that this is apparently true: 1) HAGENS BERMAN SOBOL SHAPIRO LLP seems to be a genuine law firm: http://www.hbsslaw.com/expedia 2) See the Class Certification ( http://www.hbsslaw.com/files/Class_CertS1224722679897.pdf ) signed by Judge Monica J. Benton from the King County Superior Court (Important note that the internet domain is a dot GOV, scammers dont' usually have access to this kind of domains -except corrupt state workers) 3) The "realDeal" confirmed this story in its website: 9WSYR.com

	Interesting comment from a reader about EXPEDIA and other travel sites Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:13:34 -0400 Chris sent this message to share his experience with you. Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:13:34 -0400 From: "Chris" <XXXXXX@gmail.com> Yahoo! DomainKeys has confirmed that this message was sent by gmail.com. Learn more To: webmaster@victimsofexpedia.com Subject: expedia BS Hello, Just felt compelled to share with someone what I just experienced. So, I googled "expedia scams" and found you. Put this up is you want, please protect my identity; call me Chris if you want, but don't use my e-mail or contact info please. So. I was looking for a romatic getaway from my girlfriend and I and thought "Hey, Captain Kirk's got my back" so I went on all those sites. Expedia, Orbits, Cheaptickets, Hotels dot com. Expedia had the lowest price, but for some reason, I decided to try to bargain with the hotel and just called them. I told the girl at the front desk that I looked at all these sites and the cheapest I found was 239$ a night. So I asked her if it was better to do that or go through the hotel first hand and she told me that is is ALWAYS more expensive to use those sites. She quoted me a price of 199$ a night for a better room! Anyway, my intuition was correct, and I booked two nights for probably 100$ cheaper and a better room just by calling the hotel myself. Im sorta pissed that these damn commercials make us think that we will save all this money when we actually save money by dealing with the hotel directly. I hope that you can get this out to people so they may take the time to do what I did. Chris.

Why to alert people about EXPEDIA (based in my own experience) If you feel you are special, if you feel it will never happen to you, you are wrong. Even if you had no problem before using EXPEDIA, it is not a guarantee it won’t happen to you in your next trip. I had used EXPEDIA a couple of time until they revealed what they really are, until they tried to scam me (read my case, including gruesome details of their lies and tricks they used to try to scam me: http://www.victimsofexpedia.com/mycase.htm ) - If you travel you can be the next victim of a scam they are running alongside with their legitimate business (they tried to scam me 1254.96 U$D.. and failed miserable). - Your relatives and friends might also be the next victims - Therefore, you, your relatives and friends may lose thousands of dollars - Your vacation might become a nightmare - You might not have a vacation at all - You can be stuck an any airport because EXPEDIA failed to arrange your trip - You can spend a lot of money by calling EXPEDIA from a foreign country trying to fix a trip EXPEDIA failed to arrange - You can waste a lot of time when EXPEDIA agents put you in hold for hours (and waste a lot of money in phone calls - Thus, you might find yourself in another country trying to book another flight because EXPEDIA didn’t arrange your trip and abandoned you there with no ticket - EXPEDIA does not plan to stop their unethical business practice (read daily complaints in this site) - EXPEDIA keeps falsely promoting their services (http://www.victimsofexpedia.com/falseadvertisement.htm ) - People believe EXPEDIA is a honest company (until they are scammed and is very late) - EXPEDIA has “friends” that help them to delete negative comments about them in the internet (read about the Wikipedia Affair: http://www.victimsofexpedia.com/wiki.htm ) - EXPEDIA will never take responsibilities of their own mistakes - EXPEDIA will never compensate you for the “extra” money you had to spend due to their mistakes. - EXPEDIA will try to keep (steal is the right word) money by charging your credit card a tricky way (http://www.victimsofexpedia.com/cheat.htm ) . - You might need to wait months to be reimbursed for the money EXPEDIA charged in your credit card for services they failed to provide (but only when EXPEDIA is forced by your credit card company to reimburse you). - EXPEDIA agents will lie to you - EXPEDIA supervisors will lie to you - EXPEDIA “customer specialist” will lie to you - EXPEDIA will ignore your e-mails if you try to contact them for a trouble with your trip or they will send “automatic responses” to make you believe they are taking care of you (read a collection of these kind of messages: http://www.victimsofexpedia.com/templates.htm ) - EXPEDIA might use many of these “dirty tricks” that online travel sites are using to scam people (http://www.victimsofexpedia.com/dirtytricks.htm ) to scam you. o Why EXPEDIA keep doing this? Because the travel business is very profitable. EXPEDIA can afford to lose thousands of customers because there are still million of people that are unaware of how bad EXPEDIA is. EXPEDIA can still make billions cheating new customers. So, don’t feel you are “special”, don’t believe “the EXPEDIA promise” , you are not “number one”. It is up to you to help yourself or your friends or relatives to have a safe trip or vacation. Just alert them.