I decided to try Priceline one day to beat a going rate of $316.28 for an airline ticket. That was the biggest mistake I made.
Here is my email to the company explaining my situation:
"Priceline is in the business of getting people better prices than what an airline is going for on other websites. That is what your company claims. They are not in the business of charging people double of what a flight is going for on another website. On June 28th at about 1:20 I logged onto southwest.com and noticed a flight from SLC to SEA for $316.28 (I have a printed copy of this price and itinerary). At 1:30 pm I logged onto priceline.com with my father and made a bid for $225 to fly out of SLC to SEA on Thur Jun 29th for a best friends wedding. The total with fees was $252. I initialed and clicked BUY TICKETS and then got a page that said "congratulations your bid has been accepted!" I was very excited and scrolled down to see my itinerary and saw that I was charged $675.55! I never agreed upon that price. I immediately called your customer care line and was told the computers were down and to try again in 30 mins. I tried to explain my situation and the lady told me she could not talk to me until the computers were up. It's interesting that I had this "computer problem" where I get charged $675 for a price of $252 I agreed upon when your company had computer failure. I tried again 5 minutes later and got Eddie. Eddie told me the same thing, that their computers were down. I called again right afterward and got Eddie again I said it was very important and asked if he'd just listen. I explained to him what happened and said I needed that money back and would only do it if it was the $252 I had agreed to. He took my information and looked me up and found the information (interesting that a second before he told me he couldn't because computers were down). He put me on hold and then came back and said he could refund me but would have to charge me a $100 service fee. I said, "no, you can charge me $252 that I agreed to, and give me my flight, but not charge me any kind of service fee for something I never agreed to." He said I would have to talk to a travel service specialist to dispute that but that I couldn't right now because computers were down (he had just looked up my info). I tried calling 2x starting again at 3:44 pm mt standard time and kept getting customer service people (Todd and Charles) and being put on hold for up to 15 minutes with no answer.
I finally got a hold of Harold (now my at around 7pm mt standard time and 6th call to your complaint) and told him my entire story. He told me not only can he not give me the money Eddie had already approved for me to get, but that he couldn't give me any of the money back. I explained that they can't charge me for something I never agreed to and he stated that I had agreed to it. I never saw a page for $675.55 and neither did my father (I have his witness report copy). The had to have been some type of computer glitch during your computer failure because that page never came up. It was right during your computer outage. I had just looked on southwest 1 minute before and there was a flight for $370 (with fees and taxes) ($316 base fare). NO one in their right mind would have went from $316 to $252 to $675! It doesn't make sense that I would do that. And it's unreasonable that a company like your who claims to give you 40% OFF what flights are going for, would be now charging me double of what I had foung a flight for and almost triple of what I had offered! I am waiting for a full refund on this airline flight. I have tried and tried to get it back before the flight leaves tonight while talking to Harold (for 40 minutes and 42 seconds) so Delta can resale the ticket (which I just checked and is going for $360 NOT $675 on lastminutetickets.com) but he will not refund my money and said the only way I can is to talk to you guys. I feel it is unethical that the only way I can talk to management is through an email and not by phone. Harold (who refused to give us his last name) would not believe or give me the benefit that I only agreed to the $252. I never saw a page saying that my offer was denied! ONLY an acceptance page for $675 was emailed to me which I never agreed to. For me to be charged something that I never saw or agreed to would be a fraudulent charge to my account. I have already notified my visa and bank and they are aware of the situation and said if you all don't refund me that they will fight to get it back from you. I am willing to fight this until the very end if I have to. This would be not only bad customer service, but unethical and fraudulent for you guys to charge me for something I never agreed to.
Computer glitches and errors happen, and it so happens it happened when your computers were down. From my statistics class and from speaking with an attorney family member they said that for every 1 bad experience a person has they tell 15 people and those people tell that same number and so on. For the hundreds of dollars you spend on advertising to bring costumers to you, I wouldn't think you would want to bring this much negative light to your company for one transaction. Also, once a customer is told by your agent (Eddie after speaking with his supervisor) they they can have a refund and then later told they can not you all need to stick to your word and refund that and not change your minds. That's terrible customer service! Please refund me my money asap. I can not pay for this $675 ticket I never agreed to!"
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