Orbitz Consumer Reviews - Page 5

Worst experience dealing with them. Screwed up my reservation. Customer service was rude and unhelpful. They hung up on me multiple times and nothing was ever resolved. I will never use them again. Worst customer service experience ever. If I could give less than 1 star I would have. DO NOT BOOK WITH ORBITZ!

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA -- Misleading reviews of hotel in Charlotte NC - glass in front of hotel clerk, people walking in and out not sure of the business going on in the rooms. We have kids and cannot stay somewhere like this. When we spoke with Orbitz, they said we would have to cancel through the hotel and they hung up. So, why go through them if they cannot give any guarantees?

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS -- I have been booking several hotels using Orbitz. I came to Midway UT to Zermatt 5* hotel. They gave me cheaper room than I ordered from Orbitz. They did not even had a room I ordered replying that room was not assigned correctly. My wife and 3 kids went to California next day and got into Best Western Oceanside INN hotel and manager kicked them out to a street not even letting them to check in. It looks like Orbitz does not have any good relations with hotels and do not want any business to be repeatable.

Orbitz charged me an adult fare for a child - they already ADMITTED to this mistake - and somehow I cannot get through to anyone to get this money back. It's only $140, but I am absolutely never, ever using Orbitz again. They have a completely insane, convoluted system of which type of supervisor can "help" with which kind of problem so they kick you around from department to department all over the place when really, no one can help. I will never see this money again, and they will never see my business again.

CALIFORNIA -- Promises cost free cancellation if within 24 hours but holds paid funds for up to 5 days. Cancelled reservation within one hour once I learned that airlines will not guarantee a seat booked via Orbitz and their ilk. Went to make new reservation directly with airline and learned that Orbitz didn't refund my money because my hard earned funds were in the purgatory known as "pending" in which neither the broker (Orbitz), the credit card co (**) or the airline (American) had the ability to give me the right to use my own money. They take zero responsibility.

Recently my husband realized that there was a strange charge on our home phone bill from a company called "ESBI." When I researched a little bit I found out this company is one of those pop-up sites that ask you for your phone number for answers to some quiz or something. They then charge your phone bill for any fees related to the service. I called a couple days ago to take care of the month we initially discovered (it's at the very end of the bill, and since we don't expect extra charges on our bills we usually look at the front page and pay the amount due. We've learned our lesson on that one!), but then we got curious and checked previous months.

Sure enough...so back on the phone. I reached the "customer service" department (with a true picture of how valued customer service is to Orbitz ~ in the Philippines) and got the charges removed easily (another side note ~ I've worked in customer service AND for telemarketing companies...when they readily, without question remove the charges from your bill it is VERY clear that they know they're scum and sneaky).

At the end, after they've removed the charges, they asked how I was related to (insert name of person who entered my phone number). I had no idea who that person was, and their name wasn't anywhere NEAR our name. UGH!! In the age of technology we live in, there is no reason for a name not matching the phone number to actually go through as a charge. I've had it happen to me when I've accidentally hit an extra number and didn't realize it.

When I asked for the supervisor (the poor operator can't do anything about the company) and asked for the phone number of ESBI headquarters in the States I was informed they are actually "Orbitz Telecom." So I asked for their phone number in the US. She informed me that she can give me an address, but that she did not have the phone number ( I LOVE being lied to...).

I stated that obviously they don't write letters back and forth from the Philippines to Henderson, NV and that they DO have the phone number there. She gave the typical, "I'm following company policy" (yeah ~ "I'm following the policy that shows our level of customer service. They let those of us in other countries deal with their messes." Gee, I wonder why other countries REALLY don't like us? Hmmmm???). After a VERY long attempt at getting the number, I gave up and decided to, instead, look for every forum possible to post a review of Orbitz on. Moral of the story: CHECK YOUR PHONE BILLS!!!

I booked a combo flight+car package with Orbitz after pricing each separately and comparing prices on other travel sites. Because the times of the flights would affect rental car pick-up and drop-off times and thus determine the length of the rental (7 days v. 8 days), I called the car rental company directly to get specific information on how car rental charges are accrued. I confirmed that as long as we returned the rental car by the same hour on the clock that we picked up the car a week earlier, we would be charged for a weekly rental, not an 8-day rental.

With that information confirmed, I made flight+car reservations on Orbitz. The confirmation email from Orbitz said my car rental was for 8 days, so I called their Customer Service number to get this corrected. The agent was polite and professional but could only repeat their position to me. During the course of the conversation, she actually said I would be charged the package price which is "not charged based on the number of days you keep the car." What? Then on what is the package price based? I understand I got a package price, but why did I get an 8-day package price, not a 7-day package price? No satisfactory answer, so I asked to speak to a supervisor.

The supervisor gave the impression she had no interest in my situation. She indicated Orbitz charged the rental rate based on when cars will be picked up and returned. Well, the website did not offer me the opportunity to choose my pick-up and drop-off times when I purchased the package. Their computer algorithm chose the presumed times and charged me accordingly, which made an 8-day rental, when in fact, because of early arrival times for security clearance, we qualified for a 7-day rental.

The supervisor offered me the option of changing my flights, which would incur an additional charge, or canceling my car rental and booking separately through the car rental company, at an additional charge. What? I can pay more for taking steps to correct Orbitz's overcharge mistake?

This is obviously a flaw in the Orbitz website. (The Expedia site allows the traveler the opportunity to choose the time frame for rental car pick-up and drop-off). Rather than offer to correct the error and re-price the package for me, Orbitz gave me the option to pay a penalty to cancel and solve my problem myself elsewhere. Wrong headed business practices all the way around. Wrong policy, wrong attitude, poor customer service make Orbitz the wrong company with which to do business.

I have to say I will not spend the hours searching other sites for airfare, trips, or even hotels in the future. Orbitz has topped any company for travel I have dealt within price assurance, arrangements, and most recently customer service. While I am certain Orbitz must base their refunds, or rebooking on a customer to customer bases, we could not be more pleased with our recent outcome. Due to an unfortunate family death we were forced to cancel our long planned trip to Puerto Vallarta at the last minute. In that we did not purchase the insurance being an added expense we could not afford, we did not know if we would recoup anything.

The customer service reps we touched base with went over and beyond in all they did for us. The loss we incurred was minimal thanks to the hard work of the customer service team. They worked with the resort we were booked with as well as the airline company. While we had to rebook a trip by a certain time line with the same airline, we were able to rebook; which kept us from losing our airfare completely. The customer service team was always so pleasant, and while some spoke with an accent, they all understood and spoke English well.

Prior to having to cancel our trip we had difficulty reaching one of the places we had reservation with for an activity. When we called Orbitz they took care of the problem right away. Often to get confirmation or work on getting refunds, or rebooking information they would have to place us on hold, and was so apologetic. This was one time I did not mind being placed on hold. We had used Orbitz a few times in the past and was always pleased with the outcome of our flights, or trips. We have run across people that had booked through other well known names only to not have their rooms when they arrived, or flights that overlapped.

To know as much as possible we will be taken care of, and that if anything does arise we will have the best of the best in customer service, in the future we will only use Orbitz. We highly recommend Orbitz to anyone traveling in any way. To note we are not ones to write reviews, and generally do not necessarily make recommendations, so please know we would not say this if we were not totally confident in this outstanding company.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS -- Booked an all-inclusive vacation package to Cancun in Jan, 2011 for two couples - price was around $1,650.00 each including airfare. Not too bad for a nice hotel, and the hotel was awesome, do not get me wrong. But when we arrived at the Hotel, we were taken to the "Business office" to check in. We were thinking "We were special?" After checking in we were given some coupons to use while at the hotel. I asked why we needed coupons if we were all-inclusive? I was then told that we did not book the all-inclusive plan with the hotel, and to do so would be $108.00 (USD) per person, per night. If you add that up for 7 nights, that comes to $3,024.00 EXTRA.

So we called Orbitz, from Mexico and got absolutely nowhere. After hours on the phone with them, they offered me a $200.00 credit voucher, saying my itinerary did not say anywhere that the package was all-inclusive. The amazing part is how several other people checking in (at the business office) was just as shocked as we were. We searched for this vacation package on the Orbitz website using the "All-Inclusive" link, and all four of us were under the impression that we were booking an all-inclusive package. Why were we taken to the business office to check in? Why were others just as shocked as us?

The manager at the Hotel told us that they have had problems with people booking through Orbitz, and that Orbitz had changed their web site to correct the problem. So the Hotel did work with us, and gave us $10.00 per person, per day discount on the all-inclusive upgrade. We were so frustrated and upset. We pretty much had to do it. You cannot afford to eat at this hotel for $108 per person per day at the listed prices, and we were ready to start having a vacation, which we did after having to fork out a little over $2,300.00 extra.

It's not that we could not have afforded it, or that it was overpriced, but we would have liked to have been able to know up front what we're paying, and budgeted for it. The Hotel was awesome, and assisted best they could. Orbitz was useless. I was so insulted when their solution to the problem was a $200.00 travel voucher! I would like to get e-mail addresses from others this has happened to. We are not the only ones this has happened to, and Orbitz needs to make this right!

I have never written a review in my life but due to my dreadful experience with Orbitz I am forced to do so. I normally use travel agents or just book with airlines but I was thinking to save a bit of money so I booked the ticket using Orbitz. Due to some personal reasons, I wanted to change the dates of my ticket and when I tried to do so, the ticket got cancelled altogether (after I clicked change/cancel button).

I got an email regarding the cancellation but there was no info on what happened to my $ 1300. As I frantically searched my ticket showed it can be changed with additional fee. I called the 1-800 number where I had to wait 30-45 minutes before somebody picked up who asked for tons of information only to tell me to hold for another CSR.

This went on for 3 hours where literally I was cursing, pulling my hair, stomping and blaming myself for not reading reviews regarding this company. To add insult to injury every time I talked to somebody I was given different information... from "no, the money is gone as it is a ticket that can't be changed" to "please call United Airlines as they got your money" and "wait for the travel voucher."

It is good that I was just on the phone with all these stupid, heartless, cold people or otherwise I would have given them each a slap. The last straw was when I was connected to a Filipino Rep who pretended she can't hear anything I was saying... and this happened only when I gave her my reference number or a phone number where I begged her to call. I ended up calling United where I was initially informed that it is beyond their control. I literally begged and pleaded and explained and the great lady (bless her) tried her best to help. Not even 10 minutes has passed and she fixed the change and charged me $83 compared to the $230 if I did it via Orbitz.

I am writing this review for those smart enough to read before purchasing. I wasn't so smart enough and I regret wasting 4 hours of hell with this company. While I have never used Expedia, Travelocity etc. I would suggest purchasing from the airline company. Saving a few is not worth the tension and anguish. At least that how it is for me. I swear that I will never, ever purchase anything from Orbitz and I do hope this company closes soon. I have read tons of people who got ripped off and it's not even funny that they are still in operation.