Hello:

I am a travel co-ordinator for a Canadian fundraising operation, with offices in Australia and the United States. I have recently encountered some difficulty with Priceline. I would be contacting the BBB, but I understand Priceline has been expelled from that organization and is now suing for reinstatement.

I booked a hotel for a colleague, currently working in Boston at our office there. Due to a miscommunication between the various offices, my colleague was unsure as to where she was to present herself to check in and decided to leave the city for the weekend. I did not know this until the next morning. Upon discovering that this had occurred, I called the Intercontinental Hotel Boston. They were not interested in discussing the matter. I then called Priceline.

I spoke with two Priceline representatives. Neither of them was any help to me at all and, in fact, I found there was something of a language barrier. It seemed to me they were reading from scripts; parroting Priceline's policy. I had asked, simply, that my colleague be permitted to check in late, as the booking was for eight (8) nights. I explained that she had not missed an airplane, but had simply not presented herself for check in on the appointed day. In the case of missing an airplane, I would expect (fully) not to be reimbursed. In the event of not checking into a hotel on the first night, I would expect at least the consideration of a vendor toward a customer that spends thousands of dollars with that vendor every year. The total for the booking was $1.1K, USD ($1.5K, CDN). Normally, in such circumstances, I would expect to lose the first and even the second night (standard procedure for hotels where check in has been missed). Priceline, however, does not see things as others do. They insisted, repeatedly (and in boilerplate), that we were on the hook for the full price of the booking, but would receive no services in exchange for valuable consideration. Citing, over and over again, Priceline's policy in the matter did not take into account the fact that there were fully six (6) room nights that an ethical business that wanted to see this particular customer again, would have honoured. At the very least, something might have been worked out. There was absolutely no interest in discussing any such arrangement. There was no interest in retaining the business of my company. Rather, there was a chorus of parrots, reciting Priceline's draconian (non)refund policy(ever), ad nauseum.

I have, since my fruitless discussions with customer service personnel at Priceline on Saturday, attempted to contact the corporate headquarters of Priceline. The woman who answered phone this morning said she was putting me through to the Executive Offices. She then put me through to yet another service representative, sitting in a noisy phone room. I said to this representative that I was aware I had not been directed to the Executive Offices, which she thought was quite funny. Again, I was treated to the standard boilerplate response for customers seeking to be treated fairly by this company. I concluded the call and called the same number, asking to be put through to the CEO. I was put through to a voicemail line and subsequently, left a message.

Since then, I have even gone so far as to contact the public face of Priceline, as he appears to be the only human being associated with the company: William Shatner. Yes, that's right. I have contacted Captain Kirk, because it doesn't seem I can find anyone at Priceline that is not either a parrot, or someone who thinks stealing from customers is funny. One never knows how a public figure might respond to being associated with this sort of piracy. Certainly, I hold out considerably more hope that Captain Kirk will raise a fuss with head office than I do that head office cares about its customers. After all, Captain Kirk has a reputation to protect. Priceline, apparently, has squandered theirs by treating customers with the utmost contempt.

I understand that the Attorney-General's office in Connecticut (who have received the same email as I'm now sending to you) has investigated Priceline before. I am also aware of many complaints about this vendor, peppered across the internet. While I am not hoping for any actual action at this point, from any of the contacts listed (even the esteemed Captain Kirk), I am hoping that one more drop in this particular bucket will serve to tip it over and that Priceline will no longer be permitted to steal from consumers in this manner.

Thank you for having taken the time to review my concerns regarding this company.

PRICE LINE HAS BAIT & SWITCH: BUYER BE WARE!
I ordered an economy car @ $11 day x 10 days .Approved all the costs. They billed me for that car @ $14 day x 10 days.

I explained the problem. They don't care to help. I'll never use them again.

My latest experience with Priceline was the worst, and I will never use them again!!! During the process of booking a hotel room this time (I have used them twice before with mixed success), I discovered Priceline uses fraudulent advertising to make us think we're getting a great deal. When I requested a particular area for the hotel room, they booked a room clearly not in the area I requested. When I called customer service to dispute my hotel reservation in a place I didn't want to be, their reasoning was, 'it's in that area according to our map'.

I called the hotel directly to ask them if there was a misunderstanding or if they could shed any light on the matter, and the folks who worked at the hotel insisted in no way, shape, or form, was their hotel in the area I had requested on Priceline. I ended up calling customer service at Priceline three times and talked to three different managers for a total of two hours trying to resolve my problem, and to add insult to injury, all three managers ended up hanging up on me!!!

Needless to say, Priceline customer service had a scripted response to every point I made about their false advertising, dishonest business practices, and misleading literature, which was, 'we use our own maps to determine where hotels are, and we are not able to refund/cancel any reservations'. No matter how many times I pointed out 'their own map' was, in fact, different than the maps the city planners themselves made for the city, they insisted 'we use our own maps and all bookings are nonrefundable and nonnegotiable'.

Until now, I have never had problems with Priceline. But now I will never use them again. I went to book a hotel as I regularly do. The hotel I was given was supposed to be a 3-star hotel. Here's the Zagat customer review of this hotel, posted on the Priceline website. Does this sound like a 3-star hotel?

Though "many stars have stayed here in the past", "historic is one thing, but outdated is another" note guests of this "centrally located" Downtowner, where the "rather humble" facilities include "cramped" rooms with "paper-thin" walls and "minuscule" "baths worse than a Super 8"; though the staff can be "friendly", the lack of "modern conveniences" and the "substandard food" mean many folks would "never go back."

When I called Priceline to tell them this is not a 3-star hotel, after an hour on the phone and talking to two "customer service" reps, I received nothing but argumentiveness. I asked to talk to someone about how to petition for a hotel's star rating to be changed so that Priceline doesnt continue to mislead customers and make them very upset. I was directed to their company website. I typed in my issue and chose the option to request a phone call rather than an email response. A day later, I got a standard email response (they said it was "too early" to call me) without addressing my concerns.

This poor treatment of customers trying to improve the company will ultimately cost Priceline more lost customers. I will never use it again, and will encourage my friends to use Hotwire and Expedia instead of Priceline.

I made hotel accommodations totaling $249.08 on 11/01/05. At the time, priceline.com offered an email address and phone number for customer service. First of all, you can't reach a human being, which is a sign of fraud. Their phone and email system was circular. Even now, at the time of this writing, 11/17/06, their website actually discourages you from calling. They now actually have a 'contact us' form to email with. That is hopeless as well.

My letter isn't anything new. The basic idea that a company won't allow you to change, cancel, or give you a refund on any kind of purchase is unethical. I didn't even check in, and they charged me.

In fact, priceline charges right away so they can get your money. If you book with any other entity, they wait until you finally checked out and are satisfied.

I'll never buy from them again.