Runkeeper Test

I got a few miles in on the bike at lunch. Here's where I went:

Cycling Activity 4.16 mi | RunKeeper

Mobility and Me

I am typing this post on a Droid 2 Global Android phone. Using only my thumbs and dancing around the auto-correct feature, it's not bad at all. In fact, despite the sometimes shaky nature of some apps, this is more like the dream device I have always wanted than I would have expected.

Android represents the biggest productivity gain for me since my first Palm device many years ago. It's a more powerful computer than my first two desktops, and it's completely mobile. It's a strange thing to see a device I imagined so long ago. Freaky, even.

I am sure the iPhone is just as nice or nicer, but the ethos behind Android (and, if I am to believe rumors, many if the engineers) comes from the original Palm.

Next week, I'll be hooking up a computer the size of a videocassette to my television to stream HD shows and act as a DVR. I will be able to log in to that computer remotely and watch my saved shows on this phone.

Freaky, indeed.

Don't Use Expedia.com

I can't tell you what to do or not do, but I can offer warnings. Last weekend was the second time in two tries that Expedia sold me a room at full price that did not exist. Here's the result from the angry e-mail I wrote:

Dear Expedia Customer, - Really? Can't muster a customized greeting for the robomail?

Thank you for contacting us about your feedback.

Please accept our apologies in regards to what had transpired during your vacation. As one of our valued customers, your words carry a lot of weight with us, so we are distressed to hear that your travel experience was not a good one. We regret any inconvenience that may have occurred during your stay and would like to assure you that every reservation is important to us.

Thank you for bringing this incident to our attention.

For now, we could only ask for your patience on this matter, though we know that you have exerted all possible efforts to be patient. We would really appreciate your kind understanding and we look forward to resolving this issue for you soon.

Should you need further assistance regarding this matter, do not hesitate to give us a call at 1-800-Expedia (1-800-3973342) or 1-404-728-8787 for callers outside the U.S. and Canada. A customer service representative would be happy to assist you on this matter.

If this does not answer your question or solve your problem, feel free to reply to this message or call us at 1-800-EXPEDIA (1-800-397-3342) and reference case ID: M-xxxxxx.

Thank you for choosing Expedia.


Expedia Customer Service Team

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Jun 29, 2011 7:48:01 AM
To: Travel

* Subject: Refunds questions or comments

--------------------------------
* Comment:
This past weekend, we booked a hotel for two nights through Expedia. We drove 6+ hours to Ames, IA only to find out that the hotel room we had booked (and pre-paid for through Expedia) did not exist. The very sympathetic hotel manager explained that they had been booked solid with four weddings and multiple sports teams for a few weeks.

He was helpful in getting us set up at the Hampton Inn (a sister hotel) with the same reservation, but the Expedia representative I spoke with did NOTHING for us. We already had a jacuzzi suite, so upgrading wasn't any benefit. We ended up quite a distance from the folks we were visiting, and the Hampton Inn is a much older hotel. They were also nice, but the door keys worked 1 in 20 tries (very frustrating) and the jacuzzi tub had a broken front panel and the jets didn't work. I have a hard time believing the 2-year-old Hilton (where we booked the room through Expedia) would have had these same problems.

So, to summarize, we made it through a 6+ hour trip with a 10-month-old baby only to have to pack him back up and go to a different hotel which was farther from our destination than we had hoped to be, because Expedia took a reservation for a room that didn't exist and charged full price for it.

If you can offer any kind of voucher or refund for basically ruining the vacation, I'd be interested in hearing more. If not, I'd like to close my Expedia account and I'll be discussing this with everyone I know.

And here's the back story:
We drove six hours to Ames, IA, to visit some friends. Turns out there's no room, and the hotel was booked solid. The manager was very nice and quite sympathetic, but had no room in the inn. My wife, my 10-month-old son, and me, a bit ragged from a long car ride, were ready to hop in the hot tub we planned wisely to have waiting for us. No such luck.

The hotel manager was nothing but pleasant and assured me that they had been booked solid for weeks (so Expedia sold inventory that didn't exist by the time I bought it) with four weddings and a baseball tournament in town. I called Expedia and gave them my itinerary number and they offered to call the hotel on my behalf. I watched the hotel manager pick up the phone (while I was on hold) and explain the same story to the Expedia rep (who was speaking English but was still impossible to understand over the crappiest phone/connection I think I've heard). The hotel manager offered to transfer our reservation to a sister hotel in town. The Expedia rep asked to talk to me to see if that would be okay.

She offered to upgrade me to the hot tub suite. We already paid for the hot tub suite, so that was no offer. Then, she asked if it would be okay to move our reservation to a different hotel seeing as this one had no rooms. The last thing we wanted to do was get back in the car at this point and drive back across town. We had a cranky kid and a homemade dinner waiting for us just a few blocks away. We acquiesced.

The hotel manager brought us out some bottles of water. He got a faxed confirmation of our reservation with the sister hotel and gave us good directions. We strapped the boy back in and he started screaming.

Luckily, when we got to the other hotel, the two folks behind the counter were also sympathetic and very nice. They got us into our room with no problem (well, one of the keys didn't work and the other worked one out of ten swipes) and we were finally able to relax. Unfortunately, we were more than an hour late for dinner (now on the other side of town) and closing in on Eli's bed time.

Ultimately, it worked out and we had a nice time with our friends, but I feel like Expedia owes us some time or something for all that hassle. They don't see it that way, so I will be closing our account with them.

Two morals to this story:

1. Expedia sucks. This was the second time this happened to us with an Expedia booking.

2. Regardless of how you book the room, call the hotel the day before you intend to stay to confirm that you have a room there.