As someone who has used Expedia regularly in the past I didn’t think twice about using them to book my hotel. I booked accommodation for 6 weeks time using the pay later option. Booking page clearly stated “ £0.00 due now. Payment information is only needed to hold your reservation” and then lo and behold my credit card was charged a couple of days later. The online chat advisor told me that this is just pre-authorisation and it will be refunded in 3 working days. He was as useless as they come and 1) it’s not really the point- I didn’t authorise any charges and £420 is not a few quid here and there 2) I had an email receipt from the hotel so I didn’t believe the refund nonsense. I then tried to speak to THREE different people via Twitter (who were equally as useless) for me to be told that they can see i chose to pay later but some hotels need prepayment to secure the booking and ‘not to worry’-as if £420 is pocket change. Expedia customer service advisors are clearly paid too much. Have contacted my credit company about this unauthorised charge and will be cancelling the reservation and using booking.com going forward. Stay far away from these people as they won’t help you or even care when you encounter a problem. Clearly gone down hill since the last time I used them- won’t use them again.
