Corona, refunds and I

Now, this is a story all about how my life got flipped-turned upside down. And I'd like to take a minute just sit right there I'll tell you how I chased down Expedia over 16 months to get a corona related refund.

So, my story started back in 2019. My partner and I, both loved football, made the decision to purchase tickets for Euro 2020. Corona wasn’t a thing and we were just looking forward to a lot of travelling in 2021. We went into a pool and secured 3 lots of tickets: a pair in Rome, a pair in Romania and a pair in Wembley (the locations are important for the story). We paid for the tickets and then sorted our travel for Rome and Romania as Wembley was on our doorstep. We decided that we were definitely committing to the matches so booked non-refundable flights and hotels. We had friends we could stay with in Romania so booked flights with BA. For Rome, we found flights and a hotel through Expedia. Everything was booked and we waited.

Fast forward to 2020 and the world was shutting down. The Euros were cancelled for the year and moving to 2021 so UEFA gave us a choice: hold on to the tickets for 2021 or get a refund. We thought things over and given who we were going to see play, we asked to refund the Rome pair and held on to the Romania and Wembley pairs. So far so good. Then as borders started shutting down, it was clear that no travel was going to be possible. So like everyone else, I went about trying to claw my money back. BA refunded the flights to Romania as they cancelled them. Vueling also cancelled their flights to Rome so I thought yay, especially as we no longer had tickets to the game there. The hotel, also booked via Expedia, refused on the basis that my booking was a non-refundable booking.

Now, all my flights and hotels had been non-refundable because nothing was going to stop us from going to the matches but as the circumstances changed, some companies realised that certain policies had to change or so I thought. I contacted Expedia to try and understand how a flight and hotel booked through them was not being treated in the same way. Considering that Italy had closed their borders so a hotel booking would be moot if you couldn’t fly across. The best explanation they could offer was that the hotel refused the refund on the basis that my booking was non-refundable. I argued that my flight was also non-refundable but the airline refunded my money on the basis that they could not fly to a country with borders closed. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that I was not an Italian citizen so could not enter the country. I spoke to the hotel who fobbed me off with the line about how they had not yet received the money and thus could not refund my booking and so I was left chasing Expedia.

After some time, I was then offered vouchers. Now my main issue with this is that I did not cancel my hotel booking for the non-refundable clause to be in effect. Corona was a force majeure, an act of God, that stopped the whole world. We couldn’t fly out of the UK and Italy would allow us in. That was a fact I couldn’t change so I felt I shouldn’t be penalised for that. Expedia still refused and gave me vouchers to use them for over a year in the future. Now, no one knew what corona was going to do so I didn’t want something with a time limit considering all my other travel had been cancelled as I didn’t know what 2021 was going to look like. I spent every other month speaking to customer services at Expedia fighting for vouchers I didn’t want as no one could give me an assurance of what would happen if the vouchers expired before I could use them.

So, 2021 hits and the UK plays ‘red light, green light’ with many European destinations and I can’t use my voucher on a country that may have its status changed without notice, leaving me stuck abroad, having to pay through the nose to return or quarantining and missing work. As predicted, my voucher expired and I was back on the phone with Expedia. Each time, I found myself having to explain the whole situation to a new agent which I found odd (read infuriating) as they verified who I was each call but it felt as though they weren’t updating my account with details of the conversation. After each 2nd call, I’d get a response from a supervisor promising a refund only to wait the allotted time and it doesn’t materialise. I then had to call again to be spun the line that the hotel had declined the refund thus I wouldn’t get my money back. I found this line of explanation intriguing because if the refund had been authorised, the hotel no longer had any influence on the situation.

I found myself pulling my short hair out but remembering that it was not the fault of the agent I was speaking to so I kept my temper in check. By September 2021, I was slowly starting to lose my patience after several promises of a refund failed to materialise. I made it clear each time I received a call from the main HQ in Canada that I was not letting this matter go. I felt I needed to state that as they reminded me that their calls were being recorded. The next promise of a refund was then followed by a call to advise that my card was not accepting the refund. Now, this was odd as I had not replaced the credit card used in the original booking. I thought to myself ‘oh well, this is progress’ however it was short-lived as I could not give my card details to the agent calling as he was not in the billing department (and for my own security). I then chased as to how long it would take to get a call from them and no one could give me an answer.

We then reached November and I was truly fed up with the promises and reached the point where I was calling out the barefaced lies I was being told. Again, I was called by supervisor after supervisor who made promises after promises and then lo and behold, I was contacted again on 25th November by the fabled billing department who wanted my bank details to action my refund. I was excited and then I stopped, remembering all the useful tips Martin Lewis had taught. Even though the number had flashed as being from Expedia, 2020 had taught many of us that scammers had gotten better in their ability to scam. So rather than divulge my credit card details, I provided them with my Revolut bank details (I’d gotten this for travelling) and figured that as it was empty and a debit account, if I was being scammed, I wouldn’t lose out on any money. I was told that the refund would arrive in a few days and with the immortal words of ‘is there anything else I can do for you?’ the agent signed off and I waited yet again.

The angels must have been working overtime because my phone chimed at midnight to reveal that I did in fact receive a full refund from Expedia. It was only 16 odd months after the booking but who’s counting? To say it has been a journey is an understatement. My friends who are aware of this situation are well aware of how I’ve felt over time. Normally I would have let this go but I felt I was justified by several factors:

1.???I didn’t cancel my booking. A force outside my control did it for me. Having booked hotels here, there and everywhere, I appreciate what non-refundable means. The hotel doesn’t care why you booked them so if your plans change, that’s down to you.

2.???Yes, UEFA cancelled the Euros so I didn’t need to go to Italy however I didn’t try to get my money back until after the borders were closed and my flights were cancelled. I assumed that the company I booked both my hotel and flights with could see that I could use neither and help. Clearly, I was wrong.

3.???At some point Boris has said that companies should be offering refunds to customers and I was prepared to wait as I wouldn’t have been the only one in this situation. BA offered vouchers for the Romania flight and I declined even though the time limit on them was longer than a year. I simply didn’t want to tie that amount of money in a company I wasn’t sure when I would be using.

4.???The offer of a voucher was made and you could argue that they had done right by me but I refused this and they refused to accept this ignoring the fact that I may not be able to travel for a while.

5.???The fact that the promise of a refund was offered then rescinded was just rude and it felt as almost it was made to shut me up as I would have to wait for 7 to 10 days for the refund to show up before I could contact them again.

I appreciate that corona did a number of many businesses but this experience with Expedia has been painful and one I wouldn’t wish on anyone. ???