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Orbitz: Pay For Ticket We Never Sold You...Or Else

consumerist.com — Imagine a mugger holding a gun to you and saying, "I need you to pay for that gold watch I gave you last week." Confused, you say, "Uh, you never gave me a gold watch." The mugger says, "Hey buddy, pay me for that watch or else..." That's a melodramatic interpretation of one consumer's experience with Orbitz.

Who dugg this? Made popular Aug 29, 2008

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  • kevlar21, on 08/29/2008, -1/+55Maddox reported on this a while back
    http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=or ...
  • blogosphear, on 08/29/2008, -1/+35.Let's see, some options:

    1) Resubmit your disputation of the charges with Bank of America
    2) Forward your complaint to BoA's CEO (address here).
    3) Hire an attorney specializing in consumer debt cases


    and now

    4) Get on digg mainpage and Orbitz will reverse their stance and ***** is taken care of
  • Jeffler, on 08/29/2008, -0/+25Maddox warned us years ago, in all fairness.
  • kidwithsword, on 08/29/2008, -0/+21Wow. I'm not using Orbitz anytime soon.
  • Fishnchipsman, on 08/29/2008, -0/+19***** THING SUCKS!
  • Skooma714, on 08/29/2008, -1/+18Silly Orbitz, armed robbery is for the government.
  • andydumi, on 08/29/2008, -0/+17Would you believe we showed up to a hotel in Australia, halfway around the world with printed confirmation page and all, and they said they had never gotten a reservation from Orbitz and they were full? That will really piss you off.
  • AshamedAmerican, on 08/29/2008, -3/+18What a strange troll.
  • badwithcomputer, on 08/29/2008, -0/+14That's the second maddox link I've seen around Digg today. I really wish that guy would write more often.
  • juliusseizure, on 08/29/2008, -1/+10That's why i always do a screen capture of the confirmation page when they say an email will be sent shortly...never trust any website with a no refund policy. As for the issue, it should be resolved due to the negative publicity Orbitz will get. Love the power of the Internet.
  • Blandyman, on 08/29/2008, -2/+10Hilarious name and avatar :)
  • Kohaxx, on 08/30/2008, -0/+8He made his money off Alphabet of Manliness (his book) sales and then gave up on regular updates. He used to be fairly reliable.
  • HanSolo69, on 08/30/2008, -2/+9Imagine a website that took every little consumer's smallest dispute and blew it way out of proportion.
  • aimhelix, on 08/29/2008, -0/+7Appropriate. Donated +1 digg.
  • louiedog, on 08/29/2008, -0/+6I don't know why someone dugg you down. These emails usually only take a couple of minutes. I usually leave the tab open until I get an email. If it doesn't come within a couple of minutes I save the page/print/take a screen cap. Why not?
  • socalftw, on 08/29/2008, -2/+7Always buy directly from the airline or hotel... these "middlemen" are ***** ups w/ their minimum-wage, don't give a *****, workers.
  • Lionhart, on 08/30/2008, -0/+5American Express commonly does awesome stuff such as extending warranties on goods and refunding you if you get ***** like this. For instance people who bought iPhone when it first came out for $600 got $100 back from American Express after the price cut to $400 in addition to the $100 Apple store credit. So basically everyone who payed with American Express got $100 more back than people who didn't.
  • Lionhart, on 08/29/2008, -0/+5Another good reason to use American Express.
  • roebeet, on 08/30/2008, -1/+6Keep him at 0 - I think he wants to be dugg down (read his other posts - it's a good laugh).
  • CAD420, on 08/29/2008, -2/+6NO!
  • thegrantman, on 08/30/2008, -0/+4I'm getting a lawyer.
  • hammerpants, on 08/29/2008, -4/+8What a retarded lead to an article! The Consumerist is always melodramatic and, therefore, an unreliable news source (at best), but this must be a new low for them. C'mon, illustrating a malfunction with a mugging? How can you expect to be taken seriously?
  • inactive, on 08/30/2008, -0/+3People gets screwed every single day, I just wish more people spoke out. Companies constantly rape the consumer with nothing ever done.

    I'll add this to my very long list of companies I do not buy products from.
  • AndrewDB, on 08/29/2008, -4/+7Go away.
  • bdbr, on 08/30/2008, -0/+3Install CutePDF, and you can print the page to a PDF. That keeps you from missing something that might not be on the screen capture.

    Its never a good idea to complete a transaction without any documentation.
  • andydumi, on 08/29/2008, -0/+3Makes no difference. Just like leaving a message for them to call you back. Unless you call and speak with a supervisor, nothing is guaranteed.
  • inactive, on 08/29/2008, -1/+4From what I read on Consumerist most airlines have the same minimum-wage, dont give a ***** incompetent screwoffs working for them too.
  • bagboyrebel, on 08/30/2008, -3/+6This guy is hilarious.
  • WHOOMP, on 08/30/2008, -2/+5my mom used to work for orbitz and they would beat her
  • PopcornDave, on 08/30/2008, -0/+2Not until I hear the or else so I can make an informed decision.
  • tomarocco, on 08/30/2008, -0/+2Who uses Orbitz?
  • inactive, on 08/30/2008, -0/+2Holy *****.
  • n3demonic, on 08/30/2008, -0/+2Brian Hoyt
    Director Public Relations
    Orbitz Worldwide
    312-894-6890 (Office)
    312-752-5436 (Cell Phone)
    brian.hoyt@orbitz.com
  • bitterbug, on 08/30/2008, -0/+2You'd be surprised how often that "supervisor" is just the closest person in the cube farm not taking a call at the moment.
  • TheKoH, on 08/30/2008, -1/+3Wow, consumerist really sucks at writing. They're a good site and all for pointing out business *****, but they need new writers or something... That analogy at the beginning of the story about the mugger and the gold watch was just confusing and terrible.
  • inactive, on 08/30/2008, -0/+2You can use their lawyers?
  • WHOOMP, on 08/30/2008, -0/+2planetz
  • arcticblue, on 08/30/2008, -0/+1They were probably just trying to write something that would make their stock photo seem relevant. Doesn't excuse them from a stupid analogy though.
  • SillyRabbits, on 08/30/2008, -0/+1You can always call the consumer advocate Clark Howard. He loves stories like this and would probably be happy to assist. He particularly likes to deal with travel issues.

    www.clarkhoward.com
  • crocodilexp, on 08/30/2008, -0/+1There are two sides to each dispute. For me, Orbitz is actually not too terrible, once I booked a flight for the wrong date (6 weeks away instead of 2), and they let me cancel out of it since I noticed it very quickly (not sure what their grace period is, but there is one).

    It's quite possible to make a mistake when booking -- an agent once almost sent me to CDG (Paris) instead of CVG (Cinncinnati). It doesn't really work in customers favor when they don't double check or print the confirmation web page, and don't follow up after failing to recieve the confirmation e-mail.
  • GordonV, on 08/30/2008, -0/+1Folks, if you really want to get cheap tickets from airlines, I suggest you Google/Yahoo "Y-fares." A Y-fare is a last minute ticket an airline sells to fill up seats in an airplane. Y-Fare tickets are usually First Class tickets sold @ 1/2 the price of a coach ticket. No middleman nonsense.
  • IIAmusedII, on 08/29/2008, -1/+2It's really easy to contact Orbitz and type in a quick comment. Once at orbitz.com, go to 'contact us' then 'customer service,' and then you can type in a question or comment.
  • bdbr, on 08/30/2008, -0/+1No matter who you book through, if you don't have confirmation within a few hours, you should contact them. Don't wait until 48 hours before the flight like this guy did. I would have at least re-checked the website to see if it shows the flight as booked.
  • JonGalt, on 08/30/2008, -0/+1The description sounds an awful lot like paying taxes.
  • dasamps, on 08/30/2008, -0/+1You beat me to it. I don't understand how companies like this stay around. I mean, look at how much bad publicity they get on the internet.
  • bdbr, on 08/30/2008, -0/+1I used to.
  • inactive, on 08/30/2008, -0/+1just use orbitz, expedia, etc.. as the search engine. find the cheapest airline then buy the ticket from the airlines website, its always the same price. you dont get the middleman fee and if you need to change the ticket its not as much of a hassle. Orbitz/Expedia- we cant change your ticket call the airline. Airline- we cant change your ticket call Orbitz/Expedia.
  • perrym, on 08/30/2008, -0/+1buried as gawker media blogspam
  • glutamate, on 08/30/2008, -0/+1***** Orbitz.
  • s0nicfreak, on 08/30/2008, -0/+1Dude, you should have let her make that mistake
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