This is a letter a friend of mine wrote to Orbitz back in 2008. Thought it was hilarious...
This letter is a result of a very difficult situation I had using Orbitz as my travel agent. In late January I purchased a flight for 2 to Las Vegas with a 4 night hotel stay at the Palazzo through Orbitz’s website. After doing so I even followed up with a phone call and spoke to a customer service representative to confirm that my trip had been purchased and it had. Last night, Sunday February 24, 2008 I logged into my Orbitz account to check over my trip itinerary, only to find much to my surprise that I had no trips listed under “My trips”. At that point I checked my credit card statement online to find out that my credit card had been charged for the trip and then the next day credited. I decided then to call Orbitz customer support to find out why I no longer had trip reservations.
Let me start off by saying what I like about the Orbitz customer service menu/system. Ok now let me tell you what I do not like. To begin with your IVR is inconsistent. It is capable of recognizing my full name, yet when I say the word “yes” in perfectly clear and well spoken English it asks me to repeat myself; many times. Another problem I had was understanding the customer service rep as they were all foreign and had accents, some worse than others. Despite the fact that your CS reps have American sounding names like Phil and Jessica, it is quite obvious that they are either not American or you employee the worlds largest amount of American born people of Indian descent. The customer service rep I spoke with name was Fofepht (I believe that’s the spelling) and she had (shocker) an accent.
Your rep informs me that Orbitz cancelled my trip because Spirit Airline did not confirm my flight reservations. I still do not understand what that means or why Orbitz does not have some department that follows up on that kind of stuff. What this tells me is that despite the fact I paid Orbitz $1277 my trip was never guaranteed because Spirit did not confirm they had a seat for me. I was also told that an email was sent out to me to let me know my trip was cancelled. This is probably the case but I did not see it. Perhaps if companies like Orbitz (and your competition) didn’t send out 10 email notices a day to let us know that there are 10% off flights to the Sudan, maybe they wouldn’t be filtered into spam or overlooked. Also why do I supply you guys with my phone number? Would it be in case of an emergency? Does a vacation cancellation warrant an emergency? My answer is yes, which apparently contradicts your company policy.
I will say this; your customer service rep tried hard and displayed great patience. She was trying to put together a new package for me but it was difficult because I wanted to pay the same price that I had booked for in January and all the flights had increased in price. She offered me alternate hotels and flights, none of which satisfied me. I would suggest maybe a little more training in regards to “travel agent” duties such as knowing simple things such as our world works under different time zones. Your agent tried to convince me to fly from Detroit to Dallas to Las Vegas (definitely not a straight line) and then told me it was a 4 hour trip. I then had to explain to her that there is a 3 hour time difference between Michigan and Las Vegas and that my trip that was originally 4 hours was now going to take 7. My original hotel stay was in a $300 a night suite; she offered me the “comparable” hotel stay at the $90 a night Monte Carlo that in case you didn’t know was all over the news last month because the roof burnt off. Don’t worry I provided the training free of cost.
On a side note I would like to add that if I wasn’t frustrated enough about the fact I had just purchased $600 in show tickets and had no flight and no hotel, the fact that I had to repeat EVERYTHING 2 times to the CS rep because she didn’t understand 3 syllable or greater words. Not trying to be rude, but it was ridiculous how many times I repeated myself or had to ask for clarification because of the CS reps accent. This was one of Orbitz CS supervisors, who was hard to understand and wasn’t aware there were time zone differences.
After explaining that I wanted to stay in the same hotel, fly the same times (direct) I was put on hold. I was put on hold for such a long time that your hold music tape actually ended and replaced with static. I grabbed my other phone and called back. Surprisingly enough your IVR still didn’t understand the word “yes” and I had to repeat myself. I was on the phone total with Orbitz CS for 2 hours and 20 minutes, I am confident that if I didn’t have to repeat myself to your employees or your IVR the phone conversation would have been 20 minutes. Anyhow I called on another line to find out that your CS rep was still working on my issue and she was trying to find me a flight. GREAT! I was glad she was trying to find me the 2 plane tickets and 4 night hotel stay for $1277. However my hold time was 40 minutes which was a bit long, in fact it was so long I actually got up and took a shower and came back was on hold still. I wish I was making that up.
After the 40 minutes Fofepht returned to tell me she found a flight that met my requirements and the hotel stay would remain at the Palazzo and the price was actually $11 less. I was very pleased, it had taken such a long time to get to that point but I was getting my original trip (little variance on the flight times) at the right price so all was good. It did take another 30 minutes to get the reservation in the system but it was done and that was that, two hours and twenty minutes later I had a trip to Las Vegas.
Here is where things get ironic. 2 hours later I visit your website to leave positive feedback about the lady who helped me and I decide to check my new trip itinerary. Upon looking it over I realize that one flight was booked! No wonder Orbitz was able to keep my price down, you reduced the passengers by 50%. So after two hours and twenty minutes of unbearable phone conversation and a serious case of heartburn, I am now back to where I started, I still need to book a “correct” trip.
I call your 800 number yet again and ask to talk to a supervisor’s manager and I am directed to Gabby who was very polite but also no help. He told me there was no problem; I could keep my package and then just add a single flight at only a $500 add. So now my $1277 trip I booked with your company a month ago was going to cost $1800. I explained to him this isn’t an option and quite frankly at this point I don’t want to talk anymore, just cancel. He offered to look for more flights but after all the hassle I just wanted to seek other methods of travel arrangement. I asked Gabby at what point does Orbitz recognize that perhaps they have messed up to the point that the customer deserves some sort of compensation. He informed that he couldn’t do anything but give me a “future” travel voucher. I explained to Gabby that I will never use Orbitz again and that would not be necessary.
Let me recap why I hate Orbitz. You sell vacation packages you can not guarantee, you have a voice recognition system that doesn’t recognize simple words like yes, your customer service department is 100% foreign leading to misunderstandings and a lot of repeated sentences, and you have supervisors who book a trip for 2 but only include 1 flight. Oh and when it was all said it done it only took a total of 3 hours of phone time for your company to screw up. After you screw up you offer solutions such as paying $500 more than you should or suggesting lodging at hotels that have suffered major fire damage in the last month. What if I had gone the airport the day of my departure, to find out I had only one plane ticket? Should I have told my travel companion “Sorry, you might have to fly via the inside of your luggage”?
This entire incident was horrendous from the way you handle cancellations to what I deemed as incompetent customer service. I hope this letter is actually read and acted upon. I would love to discuss this further via email [email protected] or phone 734-XXX-XXXX if necessary.
This letter is a result of a very difficult situation I had using Orbitz as my travel agent. In late January I purchased a flight for 2 to Las Vegas with a 4 night hotel stay at the Palazzo through Orbitz’s website. After doing so I even followed up with a phone call and spoke to a customer service representative to confirm that my trip had been purchased and it had. Last night, Sunday February 24, 2008 I logged into my Orbitz account to check over my trip itinerary, only to find much to my surprise that I had no trips listed under “My trips”. At that point I checked my credit card statement online to find out that my credit card had been charged for the trip and then the next day credited. I decided then to call Orbitz customer support to find out why I no longer had trip reservations.
Let me start off by saying what I like about the Orbitz customer service menu/system. Ok now let me tell you what I do not like. To begin with your IVR is inconsistent. It is capable of recognizing my full name, yet when I say the word “yes” in perfectly clear and well spoken English it asks me to repeat myself; many times. Another problem I had was understanding the customer service rep as they were all foreign and had accents, some worse than others. Despite the fact that your CS reps have American sounding names like Phil and Jessica, it is quite obvious that they are either not American or you employee the worlds largest amount of American born people of Indian descent. The customer service rep I spoke with name was Fofepht (I believe that’s the spelling) and she had (shocker) an accent.
Your rep informs me that Orbitz cancelled my trip because Spirit Airline did not confirm my flight reservations. I still do not understand what that means or why Orbitz does not have some department that follows up on that kind of stuff. What this tells me is that despite the fact I paid Orbitz $1277 my trip was never guaranteed because Spirit did not confirm they had a seat for me. I was also told that an email was sent out to me to let me know my trip was cancelled. This is probably the case but I did not see it. Perhaps if companies like Orbitz (and your competition) didn’t send out 10 email notices a day to let us know that there are 10% off flights to the Sudan, maybe they wouldn’t be filtered into spam or overlooked. Also why do I supply you guys with my phone number? Would it be in case of an emergency? Does a vacation cancellation warrant an emergency? My answer is yes, which apparently contradicts your company policy.
I will say this; your customer service rep tried hard and displayed great patience. She was trying to put together a new package for me but it was difficult because I wanted to pay the same price that I had booked for in January and all the flights had increased in price. She offered me alternate hotels and flights, none of which satisfied me. I would suggest maybe a little more training in regards to “travel agent” duties such as knowing simple things such as our world works under different time zones. Your agent tried to convince me to fly from Detroit to Dallas to Las Vegas (definitely not a straight line) and then told me it was a 4 hour trip. I then had to explain to her that there is a 3 hour time difference between Michigan and Las Vegas and that my trip that was originally 4 hours was now going to take 7. My original hotel stay was in a $300 a night suite; she offered me the “comparable” hotel stay at the $90 a night Monte Carlo that in case you didn’t know was all over the news last month because the roof burnt off. Don’t worry I provided the training free of cost.
On a side note I would like to add that if I wasn’t frustrated enough about the fact I had just purchased $600 in show tickets and had no flight and no hotel, the fact that I had to repeat EVERYTHING 2 times to the CS rep because she didn’t understand 3 syllable or greater words. Not trying to be rude, but it was ridiculous how many times I repeated myself or had to ask for clarification because of the CS reps accent. This was one of Orbitz CS supervisors, who was hard to understand and wasn’t aware there were time zone differences.
After explaining that I wanted to stay in the same hotel, fly the same times (direct) I was put on hold. I was put on hold for such a long time that your hold music tape actually ended and replaced with static. I grabbed my other phone and called back. Surprisingly enough your IVR still didn’t understand the word “yes” and I had to repeat myself. I was on the phone total with Orbitz CS for 2 hours and 20 minutes, I am confident that if I didn’t have to repeat myself to your employees or your IVR the phone conversation would have been 20 minutes. Anyhow I called on another line to find out that your CS rep was still working on my issue and she was trying to find me a flight. GREAT! I was glad she was trying to find me the 2 plane tickets and 4 night hotel stay for $1277. However my hold time was 40 minutes which was a bit long, in fact it was so long I actually got up and took a shower and came back was on hold still. I wish I was making that up.
After the 40 minutes Fofepht returned to tell me she found a flight that met my requirements and the hotel stay would remain at the Palazzo and the price was actually $11 less. I was very pleased, it had taken such a long time to get to that point but I was getting my original trip (little variance on the flight times) at the right price so all was good. It did take another 30 minutes to get the reservation in the system but it was done and that was that, two hours and twenty minutes later I had a trip to Las Vegas.
Here is where things get ironic. 2 hours later I visit your website to leave positive feedback about the lady who helped me and I decide to check my new trip itinerary. Upon looking it over I realize that one flight was booked! No wonder Orbitz was able to keep my price down, you reduced the passengers by 50%. So after two hours and twenty minutes of unbearable phone conversation and a serious case of heartburn, I am now back to where I started, I still need to book a “correct” trip.
I call your 800 number yet again and ask to talk to a supervisor’s manager and I am directed to Gabby who was very polite but also no help. He told me there was no problem; I could keep my package and then just add a single flight at only a $500 add. So now my $1277 trip I booked with your company a month ago was going to cost $1800. I explained to him this isn’t an option and quite frankly at this point I don’t want to talk anymore, just cancel. He offered to look for more flights but after all the hassle I just wanted to seek other methods of travel arrangement. I asked Gabby at what point does Orbitz recognize that perhaps they have messed up to the point that the customer deserves some sort of compensation. He informed that he couldn’t do anything but give me a “future” travel voucher. I explained to Gabby that I will never use Orbitz again and that would not be necessary.
Let me recap why I hate Orbitz. You sell vacation packages you can not guarantee, you have a voice recognition system that doesn’t recognize simple words like yes, your customer service department is 100% foreign leading to misunderstandings and a lot of repeated sentences, and you have supervisors who book a trip for 2 but only include 1 flight. Oh and when it was all said it done it only took a total of 3 hours of phone time for your company to screw up. After you screw up you offer solutions such as paying $500 more than you should or suggesting lodging at hotels that have suffered major fire damage in the last month. What if I had gone the airport the day of my departure, to find out I had only one plane ticket? Should I have told my travel companion “Sorry, you might have to fly via the inside of your luggage”?
This entire incident was horrendous from the way you handle cancellations to what I deemed as incompetent customer service. I hope this letter is actually read and acted upon. I would love to discuss this further via email [email protected] or phone 734-XXX-XXXX if necessary.
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