Everyone knows there are exceptions to the travel industry’s strict refund rules. Unless you’re dealing with one of the so-called “opaque” Web sites, where all sales are final, and the only thing missing from its terms and conditions are, “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.” At least that’s the conventional wisdom. But maybe the conventional wisdom is wrong.
Robert Stringer thinks so. Last August, he rented a car for a week through Hotwire in Washington. “My wife and I planned to visit our son who lives in Virginia,” he says. “About a week later my wife became extremely ill and had to make several visits to our local hospital for a series of tests. Her physician ultimately restricted her travel for at least six weeks. The physician also issued a very detailed letter explaining her restrictions and stating her specific illness.”
Hotwire’s rules are clear about Stringer’s options. Simply put, he has none. He must pay for the car, whether he uses it or not.
Or maybe not.
I called Hotwire customer service and explained our situation, acknowledged that I understood their rules. However, would they entertain my request based on my wife’s condition?
The customer service representative was extremely courteous and asked if I had any documentation from her physician attesting to her condition and travel restrictions. When I said I did, he said no problem. He sent me an e-mail with a specific address and instructions to either mail the documentation or to send it via facsimile. I sent the fax later that evening.
The next day, I received another e-mail informing me that I was approved for a refund minus a $25 fee due to my wife’s medical condition and that my next credit card statement would reflect the credit. How’s that for good customer service?
I am comfortable with paying the service fee versus the initial $197 for the rental. I might add that I have used Hotwire at least five times in the past to rent cars and have never experienced any difficulties or problems whatsoever. It is my site of choice for my car rental ventures.
Hotwire deserves credit for doing the right thing. They have made a friend for life with me.
There are a few important takeaways from Stringer’s case. First, it doesn’t hurt to ask about a refund, even when you aren’t entitled to one. Second, Stringer’s approach was highly effective because he didn’t demand anything based on his wife’s conditions. Being aggressive is a big turn-off to customer service agents.
And finally, no rules are written in stone. Travel companies can bend them — if you give them a good enough reason.
Nice work, Hotwire.
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Nice work, indeed. Good to hear about a travel company that actually seems to care about its customers.
I had Hotwire do this for me once also. I was flying into JFK from Boston, and had a room booked in JFK because I had an early morning connection. Boston was socked in with Fog, and my flight didn’t end up getting into JFK till about 2 in the morning.
Since my connecting flight was leaving at 6am, I called Hotwire to see if they could do anything for me. The rep asked for my flight number and put me on hold while he checked the flight status, and came back and said they’d be glad to give me a one time exception and refund the flight. Whereas Priceline refused to budge with me with a similar issue a couple years back.
For that fact, i’ll never use Priceline, and when need-be, I will definitely use Hotwire in the future.
Do not use hotwire this is a very unusall case. If you make a reservation thru hotwire and for any reason can not keep it, kiss your money good bye. I work for a very large company that demands great customer service and hotwire does not even come close to any kind of customer service, so if you must use priceline or any other company you can get a refund with no questions asked when I check with Expida they are the same as hotwire watch them also.
I also had Hotwire credit me for tickets that I bought for two minors. It was my mistake and by no reason did they have to refund the money, (I had lied on the website), but they did.
They were even in another country most of the time, and I’m not the nicest person, but they had a loophole that really helped me out.