Expedia Rip Off: Bought, collected, and used ticket....mysterious extra £1 charge appears later

[BluePenguin]

When buying train tickets, I am always after the best deal. I was meeting some friends in Broadstairs to play crazy golf and watch the fireworks and decided to go by train.

I had a browse on TopCashback to find that Expedia were offering an attractive 3% cashback so I bought the ticket with them. I had no trouble collecting it and had a nice day out. Nobody checked my ticket either way for the record.

Anyway, earlier today I was checking my online banking to see if I had been paid. I saw that I had been charged the price of the ticket as expected. However there was also a separate charge for £1!!

I didn't remember reading about any extra charges anywhere so I went back to the Expedia website and entered the details of the same journey. I clicked through the process and there was no mention of a booking fee right up to the payment page.

I know that most third party websites charge a fee although the majority of them declare it. For Expedia to charge me £5.90 and to then go ahead and take more is an absolute disgrace. On my Expedia account I can see all my trips listed. Clicking on the booking for the train ticket displays the itinerary and the price of £5.90 with no mention of the extra £1.

I called them to demand an explanation and a friendly Indian put me on hold several times before transferring me to the "railway department"....who turned out to be National Rail Enquires. I called back and after 30 minutes on hold spoke to a lovely Australian lady who apologised and said that I would get a refund within 5 - 7 days. She said she would also make a note for the technical team to update the website.

Expedia have made good their wrong but I blame TopCashback too. I know it is a small amount of money but seeing as we use cashback websites to save money, hidden extra charges rather defeat the object of using them. They should warn users that about websites that charge fees, diminishing their cashback savings.

Has anyone else been ripped of like this? Anyone who has bought tickets on line recently should check their accounts!

 

[AlterEgo]

That seems like an odd thing to happen. Did you pay by credit card? Did they explain why this mystery charge had appeared?

 

[najaB]

Anyway, earlier today I was checking my online banking to see if I had been paid. I saw that I had been charged the price of the ticket as expected. However there was also a separate charge for £1!!

It's very odd for a booking fee to be added separately. And probably illegal to collect it without displaying it during the booking process.

 

[BluePenguin]

That seems like an odd thing to happen. Did you pay by credit card? Did they explain why this mystery charge had appeared?

It was very very strange indeed. No I paid by Visa debit card. I did ask the lady where the extra charge had come from and she did confirm that it was a booking fee but couldn't explain why I had been charged it.

Apparently the booking fee is normal and no other customers have had trouble with it - I bet they would be they were aware and chrxked their accounts!

For Expedia's sake I hope they update their website soon. Trading standards have a field day on this one !

 

[BluePenguin]

It's very odd for a booking fee to be added separately. And probably illegal to collect it without displaying it during the booking process.

Yes is is complete a mystery and certainly illegal. I have learnt my lesson and definitely won't be buying train tickets from Expedia website again that's for sure.

 

[najaB]

Apparently the booking fee is normal and no other customers have had trouble with it - I bet they would be they were aware and chrxked their accounts!

For Expedia's sake I hope they update their website soon. Trading standards have a field day on this one !

If it's not shown during the booking process then it is a clear violation of Consumer law.

 

[najaB]

Yes is is complete a mystery and certainly illegal.

Just as a wild thought, you didn't happen to use expedia.com rather than expedia.co.uk?

 

[jon0844]

Yes is is complete a mystery and certainly illegal. I have learnt my lesson and definitely won't be buying train tickets from Expedia website again that's for sure.

I have boycotted Expedia after going ahead with a holiday booking to Las Vegas where everything was confirmed in my basket and then when the payment was being authorised, it failed and the holiday was no longer available at that price. I was expected to now pay a further £500 and they refused to honor the price saying the deal had been taken by someone else before I'd completed the order.

I understand prices are sometimes only held for a limited time (often with some sort of countdown in the case of TicketMaster etc) but I wasn't hanging about and I'm more of the opinion that it was a classic bait and switch scam.

Their loss. I've been on many holidays since and they've never had any of my money.

 

[sheff1]

I didn't know Expedia did train tickets, but a quick trial booking led me to this
https://www.expedia.co.uk/rails/payment
before I reached the payment page.

The extra fees are apparently levied by Silverail and £1 is the fee for First Class post. If you picked the ticket up from the station there should be no fee.

 

[BluePenguin]

Just as a wild thought, you didn't happen to use expedia.com rather than expedia.co.uk?

I can't remember off the top of my head. However I have just been onto TopCashback and clicked through to Expedia again which took me to expedia.co.uk. I presume I booked on the UK version

 

[najaB]

The extra fees are apparently levied by Silverail and £1 is the fee for First Class post. If you picked the ticket up from the station there should be no fee.

I just did a trial booking and the £1 delivery fee was shown on screen and included in the total price.

I can't remember off the top of my head. However I have just been onto TopCashback and clicked through to Expedia again which took me to expedia.co.uk. I presume I booked on the UK version

Okay. I just thought maybe it might be a currency charge if, for some reason, you were charged in US dollars.

 

[Merseysider]

There's dozens of articles on the internet about why you should avoid Expedia.

Interestingly, bait and switch is something they apparently do regularly.

 

[M28361M]

I had a browse on TopCashback to find that Expedia were offering an attractive 3% cashback so I bought the ticket with them. I had no trouble collecting it and had a nice day out. Nobody checked my ticket either way for the record.

Anyway, earlier today I was checking my online banking to see if I had been paid. I saw that I had been charged the price of the ticket as expected. However there was also a separate charge for £1!!

I believe Expedia charge for credit card but not debit card transactions. Was the £1 actually debited from your bank account or did it show up as a pending transaction?

I have bought tickets from Expedia a couple of times, paying by Visa debit. Each time a £1 charge (separate to the ticket price) has appeared in the Pending Transactions section of my online banking, but the money has never actually been taken and has disappeared from the pending section after a few days.

I don't like Expedia's user interface for train tickets, and certainly wouldn't have used them without the cashback (in my case from Quidco).

 

[BluePenguin]

I have boycotted Expedia after going ahead with a holiday booking to Las Vegas where everything was confirmed in my basket and then when the payment was being authorised, it failed and the holiday was no longer available at that price. I was expected to now pay a further £500 and they refused to honor the price saying the deal had been taken by someone else before I'd completed the order.

I understand prices are sometimes only held for a limited time (often with some sort of countdown in the case of TicketMaster etc) but I wasn't hanging about and I'm more of the opinion that it was a classic bait and switch scam.

Their loss. I've been on many holidays since and they've never had any of my money.

That is absolutely outrageous! You would have thought that if you are in the process of making a payment the holiday would be reserved until you either click cancel or close the window. I think I will give them a wide birth from now on. Your story has potentially saved me from ripped of again so thank you.

 

[BluePenguin]

I believe Expedia charge for credit card but not debit card transactions. Was the £1 actually debited from your bank account or did it show up as a pending transaction?

I have bought tickets from Expedia a couple of times, paying by Visa debit. Each time a £1 charge (separate to the ticket price) has appeared in the Pending Transactions section of my online banking, but the money has never actually been taken and has disappeared from the pending section after a few days.

I don't like Expedia's user interface for train tickets, and certainly wouldn't have used them without the cashback (in my case from Quidco).

That is interesting. Yes the £1 has been debited from my account along with the £5.90 for the ticket. The only thing that I have on my pending list is my Pizza Hut order from yesterday. I will wait and see if the £1 disappears in a few days time.

I agree with you, the website interface is awful for train tickets. Without a "via" option or option at bottom to check for cheaper routes it it's hard not to think that they want you to spend as much as possible.

In your case if the £1 disappears each time, do you continue to buy from Expedia to you get your cashback?

 

[BluePenguin]

There's dozens of articles on the internet about why you should avoid Expedia.

Interestingly, bait and switch is something they apparently do regularly.

That was a very interesting read. Cheers for the link. Expedia seem to have very shady ways of doing business...

 

[BluePenguin]

I just did a trial booking and the £1 delivery fee was shown on screen and included in the total price.Okay. I just thought maybe it might be a currency charge if, for some reason, you were charged in US dollars.

Was is it? I wonder whether they have updated their website. As I used the mobile site I'm now wondering whether that was the reason it didn't show. Still doesn't explain what happened in my case.

Good suggestion though, I am pleased the UK version of TopCashback didn't direct me to the US version of Expedia!

 

[Tetchytyke]

That was a very interesting read. Cheers for the link. Expedia seem to have very shady ways of doing business...

No more than any other online travel agent, to be totally honest. Bait and switch is rife.

 

[najaB]

No more than any other online travel agent, to be totally honest. Bait and switch is rife.

Thing is, if you're speaking specifically to flights (or the flight component of holidays), it's very difficult to differentiate between bait & switch and yield management. I've seen variations of hundreds of pounds (plus and minus) for flights over the course of a couple of days. My most recent flight cost me £516 when I booked it at c. 09:30, and was nearly £800 by 1600 the same day. And that was the price directly quoted on the airline's website.

 

[supervalkoinen]

Several times when paying for a variety of things online I've had a mysterious extra £1 deducted, which I've queried with my bank, who informed me that it should drop off after a few days. They didn't give any more explanation than that, but it has always disappeared.

 

[Joe Paxton]

Several times when paying for a variety of things online I've had a mysterious extra £1 deducted, which I've queried with my bank, who informed me that it should drop off after a few days. They didn't give any more explanation than that, but it has always disappeared.

This is often just a card pre-authorisation, which since retailers use as a way of checking that a payment card is legit before then going ahead with the full transaction.

I don't know if this is what happened in the case of the OP.

 

[paddington]

I've used Expedia many times for flight tickets (after searching on ITA matrix) and never had cause to complain.

With regards to the "bait and switch" complaints, I would suggest that the problem is that they cache search results because each GDS query costs. If someone else has searched for the same flight a few minutes earlier and then booked it, Expedia will just show you the results from the other person's search because they don't want to pay to run the search again. So the flight may never have been available to book. This would not be the case if you consistently found the same flights available over a number of days and they were always unavailable to book when you clicked further.

 

[Bletchleyite]

This is often just a card pre-authorisation, which since retailers use as a way of checking that a payment card is legit before then going ahead with the full transaction.

I don't know if this is what happened in the case of the OP.

This isn't *meant* to come off your balance, but with "Electron" type cards it does to prevent the risk of overdrawing.

 

[FQTV]

I've used Expedia many times for flight tickets (after searching on ITA matrix) and never had cause to complain.

With regards to the "bait and switch" complaints, I would suggest that the problem is that they cache search results because each GDS query costs. If someone else has searched for the same flight a few minutes earlier and then booked it, Expedia will just show you the results from the other person's search because they don't want to pay to run the search again. So the flight may never have been available to book. This would not be the case if you consistently found the same flights available over a number of days and they were always unavailable to book when you clicked further.

Exactly this.

For various reasons, I use Expedia (and ebookers and orbitz, which are all the same company) a *lot* and, in my experience, I actually find that, at the passenger details input screen, the price falls in half or probably two thirds of cases where the definite pricing prompts a revision to that originally-shown. It's not a conspiracy; it's the way that the web, searching and dynamic pricing all work together.

 

[BigCj34]

I did have a small problem with Expedia when booking a Ryanair flight, for the small bit of cash back and Nectar points, but an extra 50p was added to the price without notifying me. I phoned them up and it was amended, but after that i just book my Ryanair flights on their website.

I am not a huge fan of the Expedia booking system for trains, when buying two singles as a return the costs of each individual ticket are not given and travel cards cannot be purchased. However the 4% cash back offered through Topcashback or Expedia (they rotate) is usually the most generous now.

 

[Joe Paxton]

Several times when paying for a variety of things online I've had a mysterious extra £1 deducted, which I've queried with my bank, who informed me that it should drop off after a few days. They didn't give any more explanation than that, but it has always disappeared.

This is often just a card pre-authorisation, which since retailers use as a way of checking that a payment card is legit before then going ahead with the full transaction.

I don't know if this is what happened in the case of the OP.

This isn't *meant* to come off your balance, but with "Electron" type cards it does to prevent the risk of overdrawing.

It isn't a full transaction and so doesn't come off your balance as such. Rather, most banks report your 'ledger balance' and then also your 'funds available' (using a variety of different terms) - a card pre-authorisation will reduce the funds available, until either the transaction proper goes through or the pre-authorisation is dropped (if that happens it can take a few days for the 'funds available' to reflect that).

The classic cases when some people notice (or get into issues) with this are at a hotel, or when hiring a car (if the car hire company accepts debit cards - many don't) - the hotel or car hire company put in a 'block', or pre-authorisation of x amount on your card and then remove it when you leave the hotel having not smashed it up/ drank the minibar dry without paying for it etc or return the hire car unscathed. In that time however, or even a few days afterwards, one likely won't be able to spend that pre-authorised amount - even though it never becomes an actual transaction - as it remains reserved pending a potential transaction that never happens.

 

[maniacmartin]

It's poor form for Expedia to leave the pre-auth to expire on its own accord though. They should true it up to the full value when you complete the transaction, or else they should cancel it.

Pre-auths are also common at 'pay at pump' fuel stations, and in the USA at restaurants

 

[Bletchleyite]

There are signs at some petrol stations warning you *not* to use an Electron type card because it will do a pre-auth to £99 which could cause issues.

 

[DarloRich]

So all this hassle earned you about 18p. Is it worth it? Just buy at the station on the day.

 

[AlterEgo]

So all this hassle earned you about 18p. Is it worth it? Just buy at the station on the day.

Indeed - or from the operating TOC in advance. If something goes wrong there are fewer hoops to jump through in my experience.