Failure to refund

I found a rental on Expedia and booked it. A few hours later, I contacted the owner. He said that he had pulled the house from inventory 3 weeks prior, and that he now had a long term renter in the unit. I contacted Expedia and let them know. That was on February 19. Today is March 3rd. I have called Expedia 3 times and VRBO twice. I have heard every excuse you can imagine. Bottom line, no refund. So unless you think paying for 2 rentals instead of 1 is cost-effective, I urge you to NEVER pre-pay for a property via Expedia or VRBO. Rather than save money, it cost me twice as much for my stay. Expedia sucks, their customer service sucks, and apparently (according to them) their computer network sucks also. Twice they have told me their system is down so nothing could be done. They have horrible customer service and a horrible website.