I used Priceline to arrange for a rental car from Hertz at the West Palm Beach airport on October 23. Upon arrival and after standing in the Hertz line for almost 30 minutes, I was told that Priceline had arranged for me to pick up the car at a remote location, not at the airport. (I ask you, do you know the physical street address of an airport in a city you have never visited?) Anyway, it gets worse.
Turns out that West Palm Beach was hit with a rush and the remote location Priceline selected for me to get my car, no longer had any vehicles. The Hertz people at the airport tried to be helpful and said that they would arrange for a car at the airport, however, it would cost more because the airport mandated certain fees and taxes. Otherwise I would have to wait and wait at the remote location in the hope that someone might return a car. (Oh, and there were people already there waiting for this eventuality!)
So I called Priceline. I thought that surely they would agree to credit the monies I had paid in advance towards this car rental and that they might even negotiate on my behalf for the best rate. Trust me, you do NOT want to call Priceline and expect real customer service. What you get when you call Priceline is very polite indifference. (Even the Hertz people rolled their eyes when I mentioned Priceline, and told me that the best I could hope for was that Priceline would cancel the whole itinerary.
True to what Hertz said, I had to ask for a supervisor even to get them to agree to cancel the itinerary as Priceline tried to say that they were not responsible and took no interest in resolving my problem. It would have been fine with them to leave me waiting for hours in a small remote car rental office for a car that might or might not become available. Nice start to a vacation, right?
I felt that Priceline should have negotiated on my behalf with Hertz, credited the monies I had prepaid them and at least offered to split the difference with me (almost TWICE the cost). But alas, Priceline appears to have a system and a policy that discourages real customer service.
As much as I love their spokesman, Priceline will never get my business again. Be warned: You use Priceline at your own risk.
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