Slashdot Mirror
Orbitz Sharing Customer Credit Card Information
tstorm writes "ConsumerAffairs.com has a warning about Orbitz and their affiliation with a company called MWI. Apparently numerous people who have booked travel through Orbitz are finding unauthorized $9.95 monthly charges on their credit card bills from MWI for membership in a 'discount entertainment service,' despite that fact that MWI doesn't appear to provide any actual product or service. It's also very difficult to opt-out of this membership, some people have gotten refunds for what they were already charged only to have another charge appear the following month."
If it is difficult to get them to refund your money, contact your bank instead. Usually they will refund the charge and deal with the investigation themselves just on your word that the charge wasn't authorized. Last time this happened with my American Express card, they just said "the charge has been reversed, if we need any forther information we will contact you, otherwise consider it taken care of". Your bank and ultimately visa/mastercard has a lot more leverage with a given buisiness than you. They can threaten to not allow them to process visa/mc/amex transactions if they are the cause of too many fraudulent charges or complaints.
*disclaimer - I previously worked for Orbitz, this post is my own opinion, not that of my previous employer, this is not based off of any information I have, purely speculation and guessing based on general business practices*
I tend to avoid any "special offers" because they almost always have some sort of string attached. I don't like strings. From tstorm's follup posts, it looks like some of the methodology is at least changing. It is very possible they have some sort of contract with the company so that they can't drop the promotion. I would not say this is an example of a company being bad. This is an example of how the standard web based sales company works. Most of them have contracts with people, some good, some bad. Sometimes you just don't know until its too late and you have to ride it out.
I would say that contacting customer service before you decide to never use Orbitz again makes more sense. If you are upset enough to not use them again, let them know why. They need to be better informed as to what customers like and don't like. Thats the only way a company can better serve you, the consumer. Without you, there is no company.
-Tim
-I just work here... how am I supposed to know?
A company willing to pull dirty tricks in advertising is of course willing to go the extra mile and blatantly steal from their customers.