I was a recent first-time customer of Priceline. My recent atrocious experience in booking a hotel room in San Francisco and the subsequent interactions with Priceline’s inept, ineffective and “sorry-excuse” for a customer service team has ensure that I will never use Priceline’s service again. I have chosen to write this message to highlight my issues with Priceline and to warn potential travelers to stay away from Priceline.

My nightmare began when I decided to give Priceline a try based on a recommendation from a friend. I went to the Priceline website on Thursday night (5/21/09) and made a $100-per day bid for a room in 3-star hotel in San Francisco over Memorial Day weekend. Within a minute of submitting my bid, I received a message that my bid was accepted by the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway hotel in downtown San Francisco (by the Civic Center).

On the Saturday morning (5/23/2009) on my way into San Francisco, I decided to give Holiday Inn Golden Gateway a call to check on the hotel room configuration (twin sharing or king/queen size bed). I spoke to the hotel representative who informed that my Priceline confirmation number was invalid and that there were no more rooms available. Confused and worried but still confident that Priceline would be able to straighten this confusion, I called the Priceline customer support number. Spoke to customer reservation specialist named Crystal and she called Holiday Inn Golden Gateway to find out the problem. She got back to me, explaining that she did not know why my confirmed reservation was not valid. She also mentioned that the hotel was overbooked and that Priceline can only give me a refund. I told that this was NOT ACCEPTABLE. I had a CONFIRMED reservation (not a “tentative”, not a “maybe” but a “CONFIRMED” reservation). I told Crystal that I expected a call ba
ck in an hour for a status update because I was on my way into San Francisco and I needed someone from Priceline to be on top of this.

At 12.15 pm, there was still no word from Crystal or any Priceline representative. I decided to call Priceline again. Spoke to another representative, Layla or Leila. I told her that I needed to talk to Crystal as she was helping me. Layla explained that there no way to transfer the call to Crystal and that she would help me instead. I had go through my issue with Layla again and had to wait while she contacted Holiday Inn Golden Gateway (which had already been done by Crystal). After 20-30 minutes on hold, Layla got back to me – giving me the same explanation as Crystal: Priceline does not know what happened to the confirmed reservation, the hotel was overbooked and Priceline can only provide a refund. Again – I explained my position: I am IN SAN FRANCISCO, I do not want a refund, I needed a hotel room. I told her that I do not really care where the fault lies but I am holding Priceline responsible because I received a confirmation number from Priceline. Layla said she w
ould call me back.

Later in the afternoon, Layla called me back that she had tried contacting the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway’s “sister” hotels and can get me a room for $180. I was fine with that as long as Priceline pays the difference ($80). She told me that I needed to pay $180 for the room and that it was not Priceline’s policy to pay for difference in the hotel room charges (even if it was Priceline’s mistake in the first place). I drove the point home that my accepted bid was confirmed for $100 which was what I have been charged and was willing to pay. I also mentioned that this mistake was ultimately Priceline’s fault and since it was Priceline’s responsibility in providing the confirmation, Priceline would need to ensure that I get a 3-star hotel room for $100 (the bid that was accepted by Holiday Inn and confirmed by Priceline). Layla was adamant that there was nothing Priceline can and will do except provide a refund. I told her that I wanted to speak to her supervisor.

She refused – explaining that I would need to go to the Priceline website and escalate my complaints there. After a few choice words (in the heat of the moment), I accepted the refund under protest. There I was – stuck at the Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco at 6.30pm on Memorial Day weekend without a hotel room (despite having a Priceline confirmed reservation at the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway).

I was very lucky to have some good friends in San Jose and drove 40 miles to bunk with them. I wonder what kind of MICKEY MOUSE operation is Priceline running? One that strands their customer in the middle of a foreign city, with a confirmed hotel reservation that is not even fit to be used as toilet paper and utilizing customer support resources from the Philippines who can’t even speak English well or slow enough for Priceline customers to understand (though they seemed very good at saying “Sorry”). Priceline and Holiday Inn were given a chance to go above and beyond to help a customer in need, a customer through no fault of his own was left in a lurch by Priceline and without a room by Holiday Inn BUT BOTH PRICELINE AND HOLIDAY INN FAILED MISERABLY.

I have been wondering if there has been some form of racial profiling from Priceline and Holiday Inn, especially with my Asian last name. How convenient that my confirmed reservation would mysteriously disappear or given away to another guest. I also found it convenient that a more expensive room ($180) would be made available to me while Priceline and Holiday Inn refuse to honor the $100 confirmed reservation. Perhaps the racial profile had Asians at a higher income bracket who could afford more expensive rooms. I sincerely hope not but I shall be looking more into this.

I have emailed the entire Priceline and IHG (parent company that owns Holiday Inn) management team. What I got as a response was another pathentic apology call from Paula (some executive communication resource). Stay clear of Priceline. Rubbish, useless, horrible are key words to decribe this pathetic company.

I made flight arrangements and checked the box for bid. Once the bid was accepted, it charged my debit card and switched the times for my departure. The new flight had me arriving at 7:34 pm on 3/8 and departing at 6:25am 3/9! What kind of foolishness is this! I called them immediately and they agreed to cancel if I rebooked with them...foolishly I did. They (without my permission) charged my card an ADDT $100 and then an ADDTL $30. They refunded $100 and claim that my bank is "holding" the rest of the money. I called my bank (who have no knowledge of "holding" money. I have complained to FBI (Fraudulent Charges), Clarke Howard (No HELP AT ALL)...Will try the BBB and write a searing letter to Frontier Airlines for ALLOWING a disreputable company to represent them!

I just completed the worst travel company nightmare I've ever experienced. My roommate and I wanted to travel on her college spring break from Chicago to Orlando to visit my family and see the sites. I went to Priceline.com specifically because I'd heard of their bidding system on vacation packages. Their home page shows bids for motels and flights, but not vacation packages. On the package tab I entered the dates from 3/12/10-3/16/10 for two round-trip tickets, hotel, and rental car. It asked for my credit card information and I expected the bid page to come up after that screen. It never did. The next page confirmed that I was paying close to $900 dollars for a package I had wanted to place a bid on it.

Thinking I made a mistake, I called their customer service to cancel the full-price package and I could start over with the bidding process. They refused, stating that everything was non-refundable, non-changeable. I stated that I'd paid and extra $56 for trip insurance in case I had to cancel and they said I needed a valid illness with a doctor's excuse they could verify in order to cancel. After speaking to the corporate office I was told there still wasn't anything they could do, even though their website didn't allow me to place a bid.

Angry and upset, I finally found someone who would cancel both flights. I figured if they refused to cancel the motel or rental car, they weren't about to get my business for the flights. After all of this, I then had to call them back and get an updated itinerary because I never received an e-mail confirmation on the flight changes and seven days later my itinerary online still hadn't been updated to reflect the canceled flights.

To top it off, after receiving my updated itinerary I found out that their system had defaulted the pick-up time for the rental car at 5a.m. on the 13th...the day after my flight was supposed to arrive. When I explained that the package consisted of me entering in only the dates of the vacation and the website plugged in the relevant information in for the rental car and hotel, I should at least get the missing rental car day for free. Of course, they refused.

At the end of it all, it's caused financial problems and enough stress for both of us that my roommate has now backed out of the vacation, refusing to pay Priceline.com's prices when we started this whole ordeal simply wanting to place a bid to get a decent price. Since Priceline refuses to refund the hotel and rental car, I'm pretty much forced to go on this "vacation" alone. I will never, ever, ever deal with Priceline.com and I will make sure I tell friends, family, and anyone else I meet what a horrible experience I had with them. I've never met a company that was so anti-customer as I have with this one.

I booked a flight online through priceline.com I accidently pushed a wrong date on the computer. Within a couple minutes I sent an email informing priceline of my error. Priceline basically said they would not refund or change the ticket date. Since I was to fly American Airines I called them and they said since the email show I let priceline know what happened right away, American Airlines policy was to issue a refund. Priceline again tole me they were not going to refund my money, would not change the date and let me fly at a later date. I'm on disability income and it took me awhile to be able to afford this ticket but now I'm told they will keep my money and will allow me to transfer the date on a later trip. In my opinion Priceline.com is a rogue company and I will be making plans to sue them. No person disabled or not should be treated in this manner.

DO NOT USE PRICELINE.com THey allowed an airline to debit my credit card even though they already debited it themselves! I have wasted many hours trying to rectify the problem only to be told - finally- that I may get a refund in 6 months time!!