Complaint Review: Expedia

I booked a cheap hotel on Expedia last the week between November 13, 2005 for the amout of $49.39 for December 3 thru December 4th. I went on the website today November 25th to see if I can find a room for today. Once I saw that I could get a room for today, I proceeded to cancel the room I had booked for December 3 to change it to the one I wanted to reserve for November 25th. Once I cancelled the room, I realized Expedia chaged me $25.00 for cancelling the room. I read the cancellation policy and in the exact words on Expedia says the following:

Cancellations or changes made before 12:00 PM (Pacific Standard Time) on 12/1/2005 are subject to a $25.00 penalty.

Cancellations or changes made after 12:00 PM (Pacific Standard Time) on 12/1/2005 are subject to a 100% Cost of Stay penalty.

Canceling your stay: Cancellations can be made online. From your itinerary, click the How to cancel this hotel reservation link and follow the instructions.

This is stating that if I called on December the 1st before 12 noon, I would be charged the $25.00 fee which is still 48 hours before the date of the booked room. But I called on November 25th.

This is also stating that If I would have called on December 1st after 12noon, I would be subject to the entire price of my reservation.

I called Expedia the first time and spoke to a person and explained that the cancellation policy says "As long as I called before 12pm on December 1st, I wouldnt be charged a $25.00 fee". She claimed that she couldnt help me. I asked to speak to a supervisor, and all she did was put me on hold for about 10 minutes before I decided to hang up and call again.

I called 404-728-8787, again and spoke to a different person, it was a female who said her name was Andy and her Identification number she gave was 63147. She read the cancellation policy and said the only thing she can do since it already went thru, is that she can give me a $25.00 coupon and I could use that coupon towards the hotel I'm trying to book. She said for me to wait an hour and it will show up in my account online.

I went online afterwards and the $25.00 coupon was there. I pushed use coupon, it took me to the page where as though I could select a new hotel. After I finished booking, the coupon deduction was not there.

I called Expedia and was told I could not use that coupon for the hotel I changed to thats why it didnt take, because it was not a special promotion hotel. I explained to them what happened, and that was never told to me and that the $25.00 was charged by mistake.

The manage said, he couldnt reimburse me the $25.00 because when he read the return policy, it says to him" If I call before December the first, I would lose $25.00. I told him "THAT DOESNT MAKE SENSE"!!!

I have their so called policy in writing.
Read the exact words of their cancellation policy

Pamela
Newark, New Jersey
U.S.A.