Priceline.com Complaint

Priceline.com - Poor Misleading Business Practices

I decided to go online to check out hotel prices for a trip to San Antonio I would be taking soon. After surfing online a while, I came across Priceline.com which I had never thought to look up at this time, but thought I would give it a try to see if I could save some money. All of the hotels were the same price on Priceline as I had seen on other websites, but Priceline had the 'low price guarantee'. I stumbled across the 'name your own price' button (which by the way, is not easy to find on their hard-to-navigate website). I decided to try it out, and having never done it before, I entered all the info that was asked of me, and when I clicked the button at the bottom of the screen, I thought that I would be given a list of hotels, or a couple of choices to name my own price on. I also thought (my mistake) that I would be asked to confirm the charges that would be billed to me or something more would be asked of me before charging me. But NO, that's not how it worked. I clicked on the bottom, and a message comes up saying 'CONGRATULATIONS' and pretty much 'You just paid for a hotel room'. I didn't even know where I was staying or what I had paid for!!! It took me 15 minutes to navigate the site to figure out what hotel I had just booked. Everything is on their site is extremely hard to understand.

When I finally found the customer service number, I called and got a customer service rep who was obviously reading me scripts, and continually apologizing for not being able to do anything. I explained that I misunderstood this whole process and this was my first time to their site. I also asked for my money back. I had checked the insurance box on the website thinking that would allow me to cancel, at least thats what it said. The lady kept putting me on hold to 'pull up my information'. Finally, I had to hang up on her. I got tired of hearing ' I do apologize for the inconvenience, but......' As polite as that is, it still really ticked me off. So I called back hoping to get someon who would understand that I was confused, and didn't know what I was doing. I got the same exact scripts. With the second lady, I had to stop her from reading the scripts and explain I had already heard the exact same thing. She was more of a pro at it....like she has to tell people that they can't do anything for them quite often. I finally just flat out asked her, 'So pretty much, what you're telling me is that I'm screwed, and I have to just suck this up and deal with it, Right? I got screwed, and I'm stuck with this room, Right?' Her exact words were 'yes, ma'am'. SHE AGREED THAT I GOT SCREWED! They will actually agree with you. I asked about the insurance, and she told me to call the insurance company and ask them if they could help me. Upon calling the insurance company, I get told that it has to be a medical emergency with documentation, and you have to file a claim and it could take a while! I told him that the rep from Priceline told me to call and see if their company could help. He said, 'yeah, they always do that to us knowing that we can't do anything. But I can connect you back to Priceline.' So I got transferred back! That's when I asked to speak to a manager or supervisor...THAT WAS LIKE HITTING A COMPLETE BRICK WALL. He was cold, insensitive, and showed no emotion over the phone. No apologies, just said 'There's nothing we can do, this is non-refundable, no negotiating.'

I believe that the entire website is misleading and it is just poor business practice to not even work with someone. Every bit of their information about what you are paying for, or how you're getting charged is in the really fine print. It was there, but buried deep in the small paragraphs in the 'terms and conditions'. Very deceptive....VERY VERY DECEPTIVE. After reading on some of the other websites about the claims against priceline for the exact same thing I went thru, I wish I would have done my research first.

If you're also a victim of this company, then submit your own Priceline.com complaint letter