On November 26 I attempted to bid for a 2.5 star hotel room in Charlotte, North Carolina, University Area for 2 consecutive days in January. When I bid a certain amount, Priceline mandated that I change the itinerary of my trip in order to receive a chance at a second bid. I had no choice but to increase my bid amount and reduce the number of room nights from my desired two, to only one. I was successful after another attempt and obtained a room for the first night at a hotel in the University Area. Priceline then offered me the option of adding room nights to my reservation at the same price. I opted to add a room for the next evening. When I selected an additional room night, Priceline denied its own offer. I spoke with two customer service employees and two supervisors in an attempt to rectify this unfortunate situation. Priceline would do nothing on my. I received an email from an employee of Priceline's Executive Offices indicating that they wished to speak with me directly by phone. I responded to the email thanking them and briefly describing my customer service issue.instead of a phone call I only received another email from refusing to assist me in any way with this issue. I requested to speak with the Vice President of Customer Service. My request was ignored in the form letter that was sent to me via email. I left two voice mail messages for Lisa Gillingham, Senior Vice President of Customer Service & Operations. To my surprise, I received a return phone from Ms. Gillingham call but was offered no more customer care than I received from any of her employees. Ms. Gillingham contends that Priceline has a specific disclaimer about extended room nights not being guaranteed. During our phone conversation she had indicated that extending one's stay with Priceline is not guaranteed and a disclaimer to this effect is clear when attempting to accept Priceline's extended stay offer. After carefully checking the reservation and billing information page that contains the extended stay and hyperlink text button I could find no such verbage and/or disclaimer. It also fails to appear following a negative attempt at extending one's stay via their website.
The text and hyperlink from Priceline's web page read as follows:
Happy with the hotel we've selected for you? Extend your stay or book more rooms.
Click here to extend your stay at Courtyard By Marriott Charlotte University now.
And in a subsequent line:
Happy with your hotel? Click here to extend your stay.
While perhaps unintentional, the implecation and subsequent ommission is at the very least, misleading. If an extended stay is not possible, Priceline should not bait the consumer with any such unobtainable offer.in my view it is unethical to make such an offer and then retract it. I am well aware of the disproportionate number of customer complaints regarding Priceline's business practices and Priceline's corporate culture which consistently condones systematic customer neglect and contempt for frequent and infrequent customers alike.
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