Priceline Complaint

Priceline is useless and risky! I have used Priceline in the past and been pleased with them, but not this time. Sure, there are apparent risks in using them. I once heard someone complain that they paid too much using Priceline. Well, you get to "Name Your Own Price"* so if you overpaid, that's your fault. There are other risks too since there are no refunds or exchanges, but if you understand that and accept it going in, that is acceptable.

I used Priceline to purchase a hotel room for 3 nights for my wife and her friend in Las Vegas. Even though it is my understanding that when you pay Priceline, the full price has been paid, the hotel (Trump Hotel) added a $15/day resort fee plus taxes. My wife complained to the hotel but they wouldn't do anything about it.

So I called Priceline to complain actually expecting them to do something about this, but they said that during the process of buying the room, I agreed to accept the hotel being able to add fees. Maybe I did, who knows. But even assuming that to be true, Priceline is a complete risk and with that policy makes it completely unusable. You have no idea prior to purchase who the hotel will be, and they can add any fee they want? How does that allow me to "Name My Own Price"?

I agreed to a certain amount per day, but Priceline allows the hotel to add any fee they want thereby nullifying the deal I got. What if the hotel wanted to add a $200/day fee? They could do it according to what I supposedly agreed to. That makes their sales slogan "Name Your Own Price" a fraud.

In this case, my loss was small, but there is a principle involved here. Can I control how much I pay or not? I can't accept a non-refundable contracted price that the hotel is allowed to increase at their whim. So while I have actually recommended Priceline in the past, Priceline, consider my recommendation revoked. Buyer beware!!!

* Or do you?

More On My Priceline Complaint

When I called Priceline to complain and they told me I agreed to this, I pointed out that I was not given a copy of anything stating this. They offered to send it to me and I accepted.

I received an email of the electronic receipt and what they are referring to is where I had to initial that I have read, accept and agreed to their "terms and conditions" and "privacy policy".

There are links for the "terms and conditions" and "privacy policy". You can click on the "privacy policy" link to see it, but when I click on the "terms and conditions" link I get a javascript error. I think it is odd that these two links are handled differently on the page. I'll assume for now that it is just an accident that the link to them doesn't work for me now. I'll assume it did when I was making the purchase. Fortunately I am technical enough that I was still able to get them but a less technical user probably could not. Here is the link to their terms and coniditions:

http://tickets.priceline.com/privacypolicy/terms_en.html

It is true that the contract states the hotel can charge these fees. In fact, it recommends that you contact the hotel to find out what these fees may be. However, you don't know the name of the hotel at this point. Additionally, I challenge anyone to read and comprehend this agreement in the amount of time before your web session times out. I don't know what their timeout period is, but I am guessing 20 minutes, at least that is what I expect on a web page. So I know, I had better not spend any longer than that on a web page or I am probably starting over. Not good Priceline. Not good.

Even if you decide to use Priceline regardless of this warning, please make sure you read and understand what you are agreeing to. And at least this page has made it feasible for you to do so before it is too late. But my preference would be for you to call them and complain about this policy and point them at this page. I want my $15/day plus taxes back. Also, I want them to change this policy. The price a user agrees to pay must be the price they pay. No add-ons allowed. Either you can "Name Your Own Price" or you can't. Right now, you can't.

What they also don't understand is that when I used them for this purchase, it was also to demonstrate to my wife's friend the value that Priceline can provide. Want to guess what her opinion of Priceline is at this point?

Do You Have A Priceline Complaint?

Date	Name	Comment
10/15/2009	James Richardson	I always thought there was a catch here. I have never tried the service myself. I was to find a flight, but I couldn't get past the they find the airline and the time. I don't remember now, I might could have specified an airline. There was a blurb in the T&C I didn't care for either. I disremember at the moment, but it seemed like they could manipulate the backend some how. One should always read the T&C, never know what may be hidden therein.

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