OT: Off-Topic Thread Episode VIII: Daisy Dukes Sharkinis On Top

[DCDM]

Guys?

If you value your sanity, never deal with expedia. I literally just fought with those ****ers for an hour trying to help a guest. The help needed you ask? To change the date of his reservation at no extra charge. This was the worst customer service I have seen in my entire life. If one of my employees was that bad at their job I would fire them without a second thought.

Yeah I'll second this. I steer far away from Expedia when booking trips or reservations. They're brutal to deal with. There are way better options out there.

 

[InfinityIggy]

Wish I had seen this before dealing with Expedia to book my group for our hotel in Toronto. Was a huge pain in the ass, because when I needed to fix something with the hotel, it could not be done through them but only through Expedia, and Expedia is almost as bad as Rogers at getting back to their customers when waiting.

Wait, so you're saying if I were to book a hotel room through Expedia and then I needed to change something, even if I was at the hotel where I had booked the room, id have to deal with the change through Expedia directly? If so, duly noted.

That seems like a huge system oversight..

 

[Lunatik]

^ Wish I had seen that before dealing with Expedia to book my group for our hotel in Toronto. Was a huge pain in the ass, because when I needed to fix something with the hotel, it could not be done through them but only through Expedia, and Expedia is almost as bad as Rogers at getting back to their customers when waiting.

they are god awful. after that hour the guest finally said **** you and told them to give his money back and I more or less told them to **** themselves too

If anyone who works for Expedia reads this; this is what you call customer service and this is how you handle such a situation:

1. Speak to guest, verify desired changes.
2. Speak to hotel, ask them to approve changes
3. When hotel approves changes and says they will do so at no extra charge, make the changes and do not try and milk the money out of the customer on the other phone 3 feet away from me.
4. Wish them a good day.

Is that really so hard?

Instead, I matched Expedia's advance purchase rate and gave a comp upgrade to a guy having a ****** day because Expedia pissed him off so much. And what did I get? Some stranger telling me how awesome I am because I know what customer service means.

/rant

 

[Lunatik]

Wait, so you're saying if I were to book a hotel room through Expedia and then I needed to change something, even if I was at the hotel where I had booked the room, id have to deal with the change through Expedia directly? If so, duly noted.

That seems like a huge system oversight..

that is the case. we are not allow to change any reservations through expedia without their consent as legally it is their reservation since they charge the guest and we charge expedia.

 

[InfinityIggy]

that is the case. we are not allow to change any reservations through expedia without their consent as legally it is their reservation since they charge the guest and we charge expedia.

As someone who helps build similar systems for our clients: that's so stupid it makes my brain hurt.

 

[Bosnian Beast]

Wait, so you're saying if I were to book a hotel room through Expedia and then I needed to change something, even if I was at the hotel where I had booked the room, id have to deal with the change through Expedia directly? If so, duly noted.

That seems like a huge system oversight..

Not in my experience, but as AF just said - it happened with him. What happened with me was this:

1. Speak to guest, verify desired changes.
2. Speak to hotel, ask them to approve changes
3. When hotel approves changes and says they will do so at no extra charge, make the changes and do not try and milk the money out of the customer on the other phone 3 feet away from me.
4. Wish them a good day.

I spoke with Expedia to change the name on two of our rooms since the one room that was booked in one persons name was no longer going on the trip, and another room was booked under the wrong name (right person, but her name was misspelled and apparently turned her into a man). Took me 1.5 hours to get a hold of Expedia to change these two simple tasks, and then an hour on the phone with a rep from Expedia to do it. I also asked about an apparent charge that did not first appear when I booked back in November about extra guest fees (that applied to two rooms of 3+1) and when I got to the hotel the following day, the fees didn't actually exist.

Expedia seriously dropped the ball when I was booking through them, and the Marriott I dealt with in Toronto was fantastic at every level. So next time I go to Toronto, I'm not going to deal with Expedia but instead with the hotel directly because they were great.

 

[Unlimited Chequing]

I always used those services with the assumption that changes were not permitted. Am I wrong and is there no fine print that says "all sales final" (or whatever the reservation equivalent of that is)?

So AF, are there any services you do recommend? In the past I've used Hotwire with success.

 

[Bosnian Beast]

I always used those services with the assumption that changes were not permitted. Am I wrong and is there no fine print that says "all sales final" (or whatever the reservation equivalent of that is)?

So AF, are there any services you do recommend? In the past I've used Hotwire with success.

I don't know, but in my case I didn't pay anything until I got to Toronto. I was permitted to change things with Expedia until the day of my reservation with the hotel. I was dealing with them the day before I was in Toronto, mainly because Expedia didn't email me any additional information from the first time I dealt with them back in November until the Saturday evening before I was going to Toronto.

 

[Unlimited Chequing]

I don't know, but in my case I didn't pay anything until I got to Toronto. I was permitted to change things with Expedia until the day of my reservation with the hotel. I was dealing with them the day before I was in Toronto, mainly because Expedia didn't email me any additional information from the first time I dealt with them back in November until the Saturday evening before I was going to Toronto.

Ah, maybe that's the difference. I pay everything off when booking because I don't want to deal with them trying to upsell me extras and what not.

 

[Lunatik]

I always used those services with the assumption that changes were not permitted. Am I wrong and is there no fine print that says "all sales final" (or whatever the reservation equivalent of that is)?

So AF, are there any services you do recommend? In the past I've used Hotwire with success.

Booking.com is probably the best, just because it is always pay at hotel. With it being pay at hotel they are allowed to make changes at their discretion.

 

[Lunatik]

I don't know, but in my case I didn't pay anything until I got to Toronto. I was permitted to change things with Expedia until the day of my reservation with the hotel. I was dealing with them the day before I was in Toronto, mainly because Expedia didn't email me any additional information from the first time I dealt with them back in November until the Saturday evening before I was going to Toronto.

you must have selected Expedia's new pay @ hotel option.

 

[DCDM]

Booking.com is probably the best, just because it is always pay at hotel. With it being pay at hotel they are allowed to make changes at their discretion.

Booking.com!

Booking.yeah

 

[Bosnian Beast]

Ah, maybe that's the difference. I pay everything off when booking because I don't want to deal with them trying to upsell me extras and what not.

Usually I would be the same way, but being that I was booking for a University student group and did not have all the money at that time (since we were doing this as we were figuring out our trip budget), it wasn't exactly possible.

you must have selected Expedia's new pay @ hotel option.

Not sure if you're being sarcastic or not, haha.

 

[Lunatik]

Not sure if you're being sarcastic or not, haha.

not being sarcastic. they were forced into it because they were getting sued in the US because hotels wouldn't (I should say couldn't) provide receipts, now with them offering pay at hotel options it covers them if the people want a folio at the property.

So how it works is like this:

Pay @ Hotel: Expedia makes a reservation with us and provides us the guest credit card which we charge personally. They get commission on the rooms.

Pay Online: Expedia makes the reservation with us but charges the guest personally and then rents the room at a discounted rate from us.

 

[CraigsList]

Booking.com!

Booking.yeah

Beat me to it ... Well, not really.

 

[Pirate King Luffy]

Janko. My game won't won't go any farther. It keeps crashing on me. Well...I still can go for months at time , too annoying to continue. Still I made it to 1730 and wiped out Denmark and Sweden. Attacked Hungary and helped a vassal who took half their land from them and they own half of Hungary.Poland is no longer in Poland, they ended up in the Baltics. Russia and Norway are in a Personal Union. Norway has colonized has as well which meant that in a few years they could merge into nation. Russia would be in on the East Coast of North America. Lithuania is no more. They were swallowed up by Russia and Crimea. Ukraine and Belarus formed as well.


My Vassals were The Teutonic Order(Black), Galicia-Voysomthing(Red) and some Client state I formed with someone from my dynasty as the leader.

http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198028753988/screenshots/

You can see 3 photos of my progression.

 

[InfinityIggy]

In my current game playing as the Chinook tribe its 1680, I have claimed all of northern California as well as the areas of modern day Oregon, Washington and Vancouver Island. I have alliances with Castile (controls all of Mexico, Cuba and South-West US. As well as with France who control French Louisiana. Ill try and throw up a screen-cap sometime.

 

[Pirate King Luffy]

In my current game playing as the Chinook tribe its 1680, I have claimed all of northern California as well as the areas of modern day Oregon, Washington and Vancouver Island. I have alliances with Castile (controls all of Mexico, Cuba and South-West US. As well as with France who control French Louisiana. Ill try and throw up a screen-cap sometime.

Seems interesting. Never succeeded in one though, I conquered all my neighbors and they rebelled. Gave up lmao. What I like also is when they start arriving is that your technology greatly speeds up quickly. Are you going to Westernize or no? It's a bumpy 30-50 years. Worth it in the end though.

 

[InfinityIggy]

Seems interesting. Never succeeded in one though, I conquered all my neighbors and they rebelled. Gave up lmao. What I like also is when they start arriving is that your technology greatly speeds up quickly. Are you going to Westernize or no? It's a bumpy 30-50 years. Worth it in the end though.

I have to deal with a lot of rebellions even though I have converted their culture and all that. Very annoying.

I plan on converting, the problem is I am so far north that I have no European nations sharing a border with me, and I can't start government reformation until then. It has been nice though because its made them indifferent to me while I try and catch up in technology.

 

[Flames Fanatic]

As I learned with Travelocity when trying to use credit they issued, Travelocity, Expedia and another company I'm blanking on (one of the bigger ones) are all owned by the same company in the end. I know this because they kept transferring me between the three of them thinking that I had credit with the other.

I spent THREE hours trying to redeem credit. And when we finally found a flight I could redeem it on, the operator ****ed up entering my credit card number so many times that the last seat sold and he couldn't give it to me anymore.

 

[CraigsList]

As I learned with Travelocity when trying to use credit they issued, Travelocity, Expedia and another company I'm blanking on (one of the bigger ones) are all owned by the same company in the end. I know this because they kept transferring me between the three of them thinking that I had credit with the other.

I spent THREE hours trying to redeem credit. And when we finally found a flight I could redeem it on, the operator ****ed up entering my credit card number so many times that the last seat sold and he couldn't give it to me anymore.

Wow, that would be pretty annoying.

 

[DCDM]

As I learned with Travelocity when trying to use credit they issued, Travelocity, Expedia and another company I'm blanking on (one of the bigger ones) are all owned by the same company in the end. I know this because they kept transferring me between the three of them thinking that I had credit with the other.

I spent THREE hours trying to redeem credit. And when we finally found a flight I could redeem it on, the operator ****ed up entering my credit card number so many times that the last seat sold and he couldn't give it to me anymore.

Are you serious. That's brutal. I would reported him to the manager after that big of a **** up.

 

[Lunatik]

As I learned with Travelocity when trying to use credit they issued, Travelocity, Expedia and another company I'm blanking on (one of the bigger ones) are all owned by the same company in the end. I know this because they kept transferring me between the three of them thinking that I had credit with the other.

I spent THREE hours trying to redeem credit. And when we finally found a flight I could redeem it on, the operator ****ed up entering my credit card number so many times that the last seat sold and he couldn't give it to me anymore.

that other big one is hotels.com

and they are not owned by the same company, hotels.com, travelocity, orbitz, reservation counter.... etc have all become "expedia partners" where they give Expedia a cut for using their booking systems and such.

 

[Lunatik]

Are you serious. That's brutal. I would reported him to the manager after that big of a **** up.

that's the norm with Expedia, their staff is completely useless.

 

[Beats By CoRD]

Interview with Oilers Exec [spoof]

If you can watch this without laughing so hard you cry, then you sir have no soul. I cried.