On January 27th I booked a stay at the Radison Hotel in Providence RI. for the weekend of February 14th for my husband and I. Confirmation #______. I purchased travel insurance just in case. On February 11th my uncle, my mother’s brother passed away. On February 12th I contacted Priceline.com to cancel our trip, the agent I spoke with instructed me to contact AIG for cancellation insurance. I called AIG and spoke with an agent there, who asked me for the reason of canceling my trip, I told him that they were personal, family matters. He said “such as.” I told him that my uncle died and he said: “that’s what I wanted to hear.” For a moment lets set aside the inappropriateness and the insensitivity of that statement, what exactly is the point of purchasing vacation insurance if you must have a “sufficient reason” for canceling a vacation? Is it your position that your customers buy cancellation insurance to purposefully cancel their trip? Do you think it is reasonable for you to assume that your customers buy travel cancellation insurance because they believe that in the off-chance that something were to come up, the insurance would cover them? But as it turns out, your company does not operate that way at all. In fact you mislead your customers into purchasing an insurance policy and then when these customers are confronted with a situation that makes them cancel their travel plans you begin to judge whether or not they had a “valid” reason for canceling. So what other excuses are valid? Would the death of my dog be “valid”? Would work project that interferes with my vacation? Would job loss? And by the way, who decides what’ a valid excuse? And how does this great and wise person come to such decision?
Well as it turned out, for AIG the death of my uncle was a favorable outcome, but for Mercury Claims and Assistance of Wisconsin, L.L.C., to whom AIG sold my policy to, my uncle does not register at all. As it turns out Mercury Claims and Assistance of Wisconsin, L.L.C. does not feel that uncles are family members and therefore their death, however tragic or untimely does not deserve their attention.
The way I understand this scheme is Priceline.com lures people into buying bogus insurance policies and Mercury Claims and Assistance of Wisconsin, L.L.C. is more than happy to deny claims. In my “We’re sorry to inform you” letter, Mercury tries to explain to me how my uncle is not good enough of a relative, but where was this explanation when I was buying the policy? They mislead us and they defraud us and Priceline.com assists them. I am disgusted and appalled by this callous disregard for customer care. I will never use priceline.com and I will make sure that none of my friends or relatives do either. I will also submit formal complaints against AIG and Mercury Claims and Assistance of Wisconsin, L.L.C. for unfair and deceptive practices. These companies are out of control and they need to account for their actions, enough is enough.