Saturday, April 05, 2014

Orbitz is *not* evil

Update 4/5/14...

OK, I have to eat a bit of crow...

Sarah, who kindly left a message in the comments, was as good as her word, and did respond promptly to an email from me.

She pointed out that indeed, the telephone number is accessible on Orbitz' site, if you search for the right words (like "phone number" -- not sure how I missed that one!).

And, she did discover that I got two email notifications some time back. I don't have them, which suggests they ended up in the "spam" folder, which is easy to understand.

So...Orbitz doesn't deserve to be called "evil."

I stand by my view that for customers outside the U.S., it would be better to have another option besides asking customers to call at their expense. And I wonder why it took me close to three hours on the phone with Orbitz to solve this. If I were the Orbitz people, I'd want to know that, too.

Finally, fairness requires I point out that Sarah offered a $100 travel voucher. I don't know if I'll take advantage of it; it depends on the "ifs, ands, or buts" involved. And, while Sarah represents her company well, I'd like to have a bit more assurance of knowledgeable customer service.

OK, I've eaten the whole crow. Tasty!

(Original post follows...)

I'm having troubles in my final days of my sabbatical.

I booked a flight with Orbitz in November -- from Cincinnati (in January) to Israel; Israel to Rome; Rome to home (next week).

Sometime since I left, the final leg -- New York to Cincinnati -- was dropped. When? I don't know. It was there when I left Cincinnati.

Orbitz loves to send me emails, and claims it will notify you if there's a change. I've gotten notices about gate changes and time changes. I have a ton of emails from Orbitz. I can't find any notice about this. In fairness, I might have deleted it.

How did I find out? When I went online to see about seat arrangements and so forth.

I am in Rome; I spent about 2 hours on and off hold, on an international call. What will that cost? And I still don't have a final flight home. After all my waiting, the operator -- who was very nice by the way -- said I need to call back. It's early AM in the U.S. OK, I get that; I'd rather have called local in Europe (cheaper); but the only help number is in the U.S.

Will they call me? Nope.

Anything on the website? Nope.

In fact, Orbitz doesn't even provide this telephone number on its website. I had to search online. Orbitz doesn't WANT customers contacting them.

The only feedback option on the website, I used to send an "URGENT" message. That was three days ago, still no response to that.

Well, Orbitz, maybe adding "Orbitz is evil" to the Google search algorithm will get your attention? Increasingly, only nastygrams from attorneys, and negative social-network attention, matters to these operations.

7 comments:

Steve Finnell said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Fr Martin Fox said...

Mr. Finnell chose to use my blog to advertise his blog, which isn't the end of the world, except:

> He is attacking the Catholic Faith (on his blog), and

> He has zero interest in talking to me, or anyone here, as evidenced by his decision to post something completely unrelated.

So I deleted his post, and went over to his blog and posted a comment explaining what I did.

ndspinelli said...

I've used Expedia for 10 years or more. I have had a few nightmares but they bat over .920 or so for me.

John F. Kennedy said...

Perhaps a prayer to St Christopher or St Anthony might help. Certainly couldn't hurt and it does sound like you need the help. On the other hand, maybe you're supposed to stay a bit longer there or away from here a bit longer.

Orbitz CR said...

Hello Father Martin,

My name is Sarah, and I am part of the Orbitz Customer Relations Team. We would appreciate the opportunity to research this matter and see how we can assist you. Please email us at socialnetwork@orbitz.com and enter my name in the subject line, so that I can investigate further.

Thank you for your patience, and I look forward to hearing back from you.

Sincerely,

Sarah
Orbitz Customer Relations
Chicago, IL

Fr Martin Fox said...

Sarah:

I just sent you an email summarizing the situation. To reiterate -- for those listening in -- my fundamental complaint is not that a flight got changed or canceled; but that Orbitz clearly doesn't want to make it easy for customers to contact them for help.

Folks, if Sarah offers anything helpful, I'll let you know; of course, she can do the same if she likes.

ndspinelli said...

Mea culpa-lite