Expedia — misleading

Website:

Expedia

Having the need to book flights from melbourne to johannesburg, i did a search for flights with expedia, being a "gold" member. Found flights for 2 people and expedia clearly indicated that there was only 4 seats left on that specific flights. We needed to be on the same flights, to assist my elderly mother who came to visit us. We paid aud$1 384.71 for her flights. So seeing that there were only 4 seats available, that the flights were nearly sold out, we had to make the booking at a cost of aud$4 037.62 when they charged our card, they took aud$8 075.24, so exactly double. I did not expect this to happen, it left me very red faced because my bank account suddenly went into overdraft without my knowledge - for the very first time in my life. This was very embarrassing and i still don't have the confidence to walk back into my local bank branch were the staff know me, going to a counter and face people that will know that my bank account went into an overdraft. Expedia put me in a very bad situation and i am still suffering because of that. My 2 kids wanted to see if they could get 2 seats on those same flights today, the same time, same flight numbers etc. And the cost right now is aud$3 149.22 and off course there are also only just 4 seats available today!!! I did contact expedia, querying the huge price difference within a couple of days and was told it is due to the fluctuating nature of the airline industries. There is something really wrong here - in my opinion i was mislead by the fact that expedia stated that there was only 4 seats available, this put pressure on me to book the flights or we would have missed the flights. And yet today there is only 4 seats left... This after i book two of them? I will check expedia every week until our flights are due and take more screen shots, to keep as evidence of what they are doing to consumers. And off course i will not be surprised to see that there are only 4 seats available on those flights every week as well. I hope this complaint might help someone out there, high light what expedia does - be very aware on how you book your flights with expedia.in the media it seems that they are a good company, will price match other advertised prices but from my own personal experience, from seeing aud$886.00 difference within days on their own website and the fact that they refuse to match that, i have lost all faith and trust in expedia.