PeaceOut

This thread is in the Lounge, too, but wanted to post it here to alert everyone:

DD is traveling on her own in South America. She had booked her tickets through an on-line company called "eDreams". She had confirmation of itinerary and tickets from Cuzco to Lima to Santiago, in an e-mail from eDreams. She confirmed her bank account was charged for the nearly $600 fare. She felt they were good to work with via e-mail, and she had no reason to think they were flaky.

She arrived at Cuzco airport and the airline (LAN) told her that eDreams had CANCELLED her ticket. All other flights were sold out going to Lima and/or Santiago for the next two days.

LAN airline personnel were sorry for the mess, but they were sold out and could not help. They said eDreams would have to sort it out for her the next day.

She had an immersion program starting the next morning, with a homestay, and a ride picking her up that night in Santiago. So she persisted in trying to find a solution for Sunday.

I was trying to help her in the States, while she worked face-to-face at Cuzco. Not speaking the language very well was a hindrance, but she is a smart cookie.

After many attempts calling eDreams' various numbers from my cell, I would get an error voice message saying my phone call could not be accepted. I called AT&T to help make sure I was dialing correctly.

Then, I discovered I had to call eDreams from a LAND-LINE, which I did not have easily accessible, because we were out of town, also (see other Lounge thread).

I called a friend from my cell, and asked her to call eDreams from her land-line, which is when we discovered eDreams was closed anyway.

I also sent two e-mails asking for help to eDreams' customer service and to the rep who confirmed her ticket. No replies.

DD found a person at the Cuzco airport, who was willing to help her search third-party inventory. They found a transferrable ticket she bought for $1100, nearly twice what she had already paid to eDreams. She tipped the helper, too.

So she bought those tickets, after a couple stressful hours in Cuzco airport. Then she spent the night at the Santiago airport, as she arrived at 1:00 a.m., and had to wait till 8:00 a.m. to get her ride.

So, we would love for eDreams to reimburse her the $1100 she paid. They say, 'No way, Jose!'

They have not explained why this happened. They did refund her $600, at least.

After the fact, we see how many complaints are lodged on-line about eDreams. We shoulda known better! Well, now you know, at least!

qwovadis

complaintsboard.com/complaints/edreams

They are notorious for being awful on the board

Google is your friend keep checking your accout for fraud

Always best for me to pay with CC

can always do a merchant reversal get 100% of my money back

that way... if the do not take CC BIG red flag.

insuremytrip.com always wise.

qwovadis

file complaint with BBB.org FTC.gov

PeaceOut

Thanks!

suze

Threads like this just confirm why I ALWAYS book directly with the airline myself (same for hotels). I have never used any kind of internet middleman.

mlgb

Me too, suze. With all of the internet search engines like Kayak there is no reason to risk losing it to scamming travel agents (anyone remember latinamerica4less?)

jh2011

Oh gosh. Thank you for posting this one and warning a lot of people. This is just making us aware of what a rotten service they have. And I'm sorry for your friend... it's just really a rotten luck she went through.

PeaceOut

Thanks, jh, for understanding the intent of this post is to warn off potential eDreams victims.

kld7451

im going through the same thing at the present time they canceled my lady flight to me here in the usa DO NOT DEAL WITH E DREAMS THEY ARE CROOKS

PeaceOut

Sorry to hear that! I hope you can find alternate travel tickets. I really believe eDreams is a money-laundering operation.

We got our original payment amount back, but they have not responded to our several e-mail complaints about the extra money they cost us.

You might do your best to spread the word.

Loonaangry

I had the same thing in August and I was left with return ticket cancelled, the same problem. They were paid 2 months before and before 1 week, they sent me the same email with confirmation without any indication in subject that the ticket was cancelled and their email went to spam so I was lucky I saw it before 3 days prior to our departure, then, same thing I called the customer support many times, we had only music for 30min, and when we managed to have someone, this person very rude and stopped the call when she knew I have a cancellation, then, I tried to call again, she knew it's me so, it stayed busy forever until I paid around $30 only waiting for them to call.....emails, automatic answers only,
they gave me a ticket number that doesn't exist, when I checked with Meridiana airlines, they refused to pay me anythign because the ticket is issued by Edreams that issued us ticket with another airlines company that doesn't have nothing to do with our flights or destinations(act illigal in aviation)....As we had 2 flights to take each time, we ended in a hotel with all expenses paid from our pockets...
I am adding this comment to prevent other persons to have the same experience because, Edreams is playing with prices/flights/destinations to gain money, and they don't know what is customer, they don't care if they cancel your flight, ticket...for them, we are only credit cards that send money to them and there is noway that this money can go back to these credit cards for any reason, because they will always find a reason to twist the facts and makes you the faulty one....please pay attention to where you buy your tickets, because if you think you make some economy by buying tickets on edreams, you are totally wrong!!! you may pay much more just to insure that you arrive to your destination!

PeaceOut

I'm sorry to hear of your problems. I have continued to submit claims to eDreams, for the extra expenses, but I get nothing but a confirmation number. I have also forwarded my e-mails to a consumer advocate.

Best thing we scammed consumers can do is spread the word via any forums we have, and complain to authorities. I will forward my history to the FTC, as well.

PeaceOut

If you go to FTC.org, you will see how to file a claim to them on-line. It's easy. I suggest you do it, too.

PalenQ

ttt

PeaceOut

I have forwarded my e-mail chain with eDreams to Christopher Elliott, travel consumer advocate. I hope he takes a look at them.

PeaceOut

ttt for crckwc1

PeaceOut

I see that eDreams has now signed on to participated on this travel forum. What's up with that?

Not only are they scammers, they are a commercial travel company, which I thought was banned by Fodors' policies.

ANDREAV

DO NOT USE THEM.

We booked some flights with them and they charged our credit card and at the same time gave the airline our credit card details so that they charged us again. They never paid the airline direct so we ended up paying twice!

Edreams promised a refund but did not deliver and we had to open up a dispute with our credit card company.


THEY ARE SCAMMERS.

Also if you phone their customer service department it costs £1.53 per minute and they take ages to deal with you, so it is VERY EXPENSIVE.

PeaceOut

Wow. I am sorry to hear they are still in business. I filled out the FTC complaint form a few months ago, but never heard back. Good thing you can complain to your CC company, and you got your tickets. Good luck.

tlaloc

Let me share my nightmare experience with eDreams. I already recommended them to change their name to eNightmare, it would be much more appropriate.

The premise

I wanted to buy 2 sets of tickets, for me and my wife.
I used 2 perfectly good credit cards, spent over 2 hours on phone with 'help', 4 times went trough purchasing process, send them money via bank transfer, had 3 pending payments on my credit cards, all that simply because I followed directions of eDreams website and eDream personel. Price of tickets rose literally every time I contact them (of course).
At the moment (after 5 days of calls, repeated purchases and so many nerves lost), they are holding my money, i never got my tickets, so I went to Expedia, where I purchased tickets without any problem.

The plot

So I want to get 2 sets of tickets. My wife and I wanted to fly to diferent location in USA, meet in Belize and then fly together back home from Quito. So I visit eDreams, find tickets for my wife and purchase them. No problems so far (if she will be able to fly with them, remains to be seen...).

Five minutes after first purchase I wanted to buy my set of tickets. Purchase is made, reservation is sent to my email. Next day i received an e-mail, that error accured in my reservation.

I checked with my bank – payment is pending for some reason. So I called eNightmare. Everything but friendly person in support centre tell me to buy again (in poor english of course). I wanted to explain situation, but she didn't want to listen – just buy again.

So I buy again.

During the purchase process eNightmare site warns me that one reservation on my name has allready been made with the same dates (as if I wasn't painfully aware of that). I finish my purcase and of course ten hours later again e-mail – error accured in reservation – this time mail came in spanish language, probably to make my purchase experience even better.

So I call again. Slightly friendlier person tells me that there is a problem with America Airlines and I should try to use different Credit card. I asked, what to do with previous pending reservations – he assures me that those are not a problem.

So my third purchase with second credit card. Price went up for 100 euros already. Not to mention that price advertised was never equal to price charged (60 eur eDream commision, 7 eur commision for credit card payment , and who knows what else .) Again after 12 hours mail (in spanish of course) that something went wrong. I called again (eNightmare phone number allready on speed dial). So this person explains me that problem is in many booking pending (my previous purchases). I asked him to terminate those bookings, so I can try again. He promised to do so (I should know better...)

So my forth purchase. Immediately I knew that problems are coming – again message about previous booking pending. ž

So I call the friendly stuff of eNightmare again, asking them what to do. He inform me, that there is an option to make a bank transfer to them. Yupiiii!. So they sent me info where to transfer money, and I do so (15 minutes after my credit card purchase attempt. I sent them scan of tranfer document, as they instructed me to do. To be sure (after all, I do have some bad experiences with them), I call them to confirm the payment.

This time I even get a nice person, who is kind enough to inform me, that:

1. Ticket price on reservation is not correct and is higher that one on reservation (?)
2. bank payment will reach them no later than in four days and there is no way that my reservation will be still active in four days.

WTF – so why did your coleuage directed me to send bank transfer if it is virtually impossible to pay for tickets trough bank transfer? Of course she didn't know.

Next day i receive SMS message, that credit card payment was confirmed with American Airlines. So I send an email begging them to solve my problem.
They had my money I even gave them flexible dates for some of my flights, so they it would be easier for them to find tickets. The response was that I should deal with American Airlines alone and that they will refund me money I transfered. So I asked myself, why they are charging me 60 eur of commision if i need to argue with AA myself....

That was enough for me, I went to Expedia and bought tickets without any problem.

At this moment I have 3 payments to eDream pending on my cards (not so worried), hoping that they will refund me my bank transfer money (quite worried), tickets cost me 300 euro more, I spend over 50 EUR on phone calls, lost several hours of my life, not to mention my agitation and frustration....

Would I recommend eDreams? Only to people inclined to masochism.