I don't 'blog' often, I just don't have the time or the will to bother mostly but my recent dealing with Expedia pissed me off so much...
The Background.
We booked a few days in New York with friends for spring next year. One of our flights [the outbound] was cancelled, we don't know why, that's just the way it is. Obviously we had to do something because we need to go in order to come back. I called Expedia and waited the required 24 minutes for an answer from an English speaking person who was ready to take my order, once it became clear that I'd already paid and just needed to sort out the new flight time, well, I was put through to the 'we've already got his money, just annoy the fuck out of him 'til he hangs up department', which it seems is based in Bangladesh. This involves someone speaking and occasionally shouting at you down the phone with a comedy 5 second satellite delay for added annoyance.
Me - 'I want to change the flight 'cos you cancelled it.'
Ryan - [yes really, that's what he said, it's a popular Asian name.] Mumble mumble, hello.. sir can you hear me?
Me - Yes, I can hear you [I have no idea what you are saying but I CAN hear you]
Ryan - OK, mumble mumble, change mumble mumble flight to Amsterdam mum - Me NO! Ryan- continues, I can do that for you now sir mumble mumble.
Me - [Staying blissfully calm] No, no, no, New York, we are going to New York, it's in the USA.
Ryan - yes, mumble mumble, put you on hold... [cue very annoying tune on 10 second loop]
After 24 minutes...
'Hello sir my name is Jenny, how can I help you?'
Me - [Oh thank fuck] Hi, Jenny, how are you?
Jenny - Hello, can you hear me?
Me - Yes, that's why I just said hello and asked you how you are y'see.
Jenny - Mumble mumble
Me - Oh Fuck!
OK, you get the picture, that went on for 2 hours the first day then my wife had a go and lasted another hour. Our friends also made calls and went through the same telephonic hell. So, today our friends contact me and tell us they have had success and managed to get everything changed and asked them to call me to arrange the same for us. I waited an hour, nobody called so I heroically picked up the phone and with a plastic smile glued to my face, I called them again.
They answered straight away and it was, as far as I could tell, a native, a genuine English speaker, a slight accent but I understood him perfectly, my lucky day. 'I'll just put you through to the relevant department', 'OK' I said, barely hiding the tremble in my voice...
...after 24 minutes 'James' answered the phone, James, unfortunately, was from the 'we've already got his money, just annoy the fuck out of him 'til he hangs up department', he's very good at his job.
I emailed Expedia - I've yet to receive an answer.
/rant
UPDATE: I received a reply from Syed, I have to wonder if that's an English person pretending to be an Asian, anyway, he told me he can't deal with me because it's got nothing to do with me as I'm only the one who's actually flying and has wasted so much of this miserable week trying to reorganise the flight that they cancelled. Obviously, I'm just not involved enough for him to speak to.
I've replied from the other email address to confirm that he can in fact deal with this disinterested party after all.
Can anyone hear steam?
Update 2: Sorted. Wife got home, we made another call. Got a nice apologetic chap called Stephen who decided to sort it out himself, it wasn't easy because of the way the system works but he did it. Thanks Stephen. I wish we had spoken to him first. Why does it have to be so hard?
