[554] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] Expedia's Disgrace: "Your Money *and* Your Life!"
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (privacy@vortex.com)
Wed Dec 9 20:42:08 2009
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 17:18:56 -0800
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Expedia's Disgrace: "Your Money *and* Your Life!"
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000651.html
Greetings. The Internet has undoubtedly and significantly brought all
manner of remotely-accessible benefits to many aspects of our lives.
These advantages are often extremely enticing, so much so that they
tend to mask the evil twin that sometimes lurks parasitically along
for the ride.
For some Internet-based services use the fact of Internet access as an
excuse to mask a depersonalized lack of customer service, and in some
cases a vacuous dearth of ethical conduct -- while still merrily
charging our credit cards.
Case in point is massive travel service Expedia -- which trumpets
itself as the world's leading online travel company.
Over the last few days I've watched a tragic saga play out over on
David Farber's "IP" list, as we've learned of his intense upset at
Expedia's refusal to refund monies paid for a trip canceled due to a
likely terminal illness.
Expedia apparently hasn't even been willing to escalate concerns about
this matter to a level beyond the, "Sorry, you're screwed!" customer
"support" level.
Obviously firms need to be on the lookout for fraudulent attempts to
cancel services. But in cases such as Dave's, where not only are the
medical realities well documented, but the various involved airlines
and hotels apparently would be willing to refund, Expedia's middleman
role clutching tightly to the money in this situation is nothing short
of unconscionable.
It's possible that Expedia actually does have -- hidden somewhere in
their policies -- a clause that handles these sorts of situations in a
humane and reasonable manner. But if Expedia patrons are unable to
access such policies (if they even exist), and can't get past useless
Web help forms and script-reading phone agents whose main purpose
appears to be avoiding refunds come hell or high water, then Expedia
has proven itself to be unworthy of patronage -- or even existence in
any form as far as I'm concerned.
Perhaps this is all some sort of misunderstanding. If so, I invite
Expedia to contact me directly and I'll be happy to help sort this
out, and then I'll gladly report back here about Expedia's prompt
attention to this situation.
But being big and powerful is not an excuse for being petty and
greedy. Even if Expedia's actions in this case so far are completely
lawful, they appear on their face to be, frankly, abominable.
When the Internet becomes a convenient vehicle for abusing people in
clearly unfair and unethical manners, such behaviors denigrate not
only the companies and customers directly involved, but also
ultimately the entire community of Internet firms and users.
This should be unacceptable to us all.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
- Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP - Global Coalition
for Transparent Internet Performance - http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
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