Priceline
Rental Car for the Wrong City. They refused to acknowledge an error
- 11-05-2007
- 7
At the recommendation of a colleague I gave PRiceline a try for an upcoming business trip to Denver. I was searching for a hotel in Denver. Priceline gave me specific area options for the search. This all went well. However, after my hotel price was accepted and confirmed, the confirmation e-mail asked if wanted to "add a rental car to my travel and save additional money".
I thought "why not" the hotel was easy, I'll give it a try. When you click yes for the rental car search, it then asks you for a price you are willing to pay. It self populates all other information from your previous request for a hotel making it easy to use. I get mey price for a car, initial the agreement, and e-mail the receipt to myself to print at my office the next morning. When I printed the receipt, I saw that the rental car was for Colorado Springs, not Denver.
I called "customer service" (use quotations because they take a very liberal definition in calling this department customer service) only to be told, "too bad". You initialled the agreement. I did, but why would I ever think it would come up in a city 100 miles from the only request I made. I asked them if I was flying into NY would they book me a rental car in Philadelphia and expect me to be okay with that?
They agreed to cancel the rental, but only by charging me a $50 cancellation fee. The service rep then refused to escalate the call because he has no policy allowing him to do that.instead they give you a web address to meander through to register your complaint. I even told them I was still willing to rent a car in Denver if they would do that instead of the $50. Nope, that is not an option. I believe Priceline makes more money off cancellation fees than they do off of legitimate travel bookings. That is the only thing that makes sense.
I would strongly discourage you, your family, friends, business colleagues, etc. Even people you don't like from using Priceline in the future. They are not a customer friendly company.
Company: Priceline
Country: USA
Site: priceline.com