Beware of "pushing the button" as William Shatter so eloquently states in the TV commercial for PRICELINE.com.
If you change any detail in the hotel agreement PRICELINE will charge you a one night's stay and $25.00 fee for this change.
I recently booked at PRICELINE.com and then went through a whole circle of emotions and a one hour on the phone with PRICELINE.com. I was trying to book a hotel in downtown Providence. I wanted to surprise a relative with a birthday present, you see he is slightly handicapped and cannot walk great distances, so being in the downtown area was my greatest concern. Within seconds of the acceptance of my $85.00/night stay at the Providence Marriot, I called the Marriot to see just how far a walk it was to the "downtown Providence Place Mall. The Marriot claimed it to be a 22 minute walk, which is far greater than I bargined.
Upon calling back PRICELINE.com I discoveraged new ways to tote the "company line" without any concern for the consumer. After on hold for 10 minutes a customer service agent spoke. She kept repeating the same line, "you booked within our "downtown zone" and the Marriot is within that zone. How far a walk to the mall is not our concern, it is in the "downtown zone". We can cancel your reservation, but will have to charge your credit card. After various ways of explaining that my guest cannot walk that far to enjoy the Providence downtown, I would get the same response. She could care less about anything I had to say, only spouting the company motto of you pushed the button and should have read the guidelines. She is certainly correct, but who reads the legal fine print; especially if you are not a lawyer. My call was literally 3 minutes after I booked the room on PRICELINE.com.
Finally she agreed (with great urging) to pass me through to the "Customer Relations Department". After this conversation and wait, I have concluded that there is no relations department to speak of. They stated the same things, unwilling to refund a portion of the money or to cancel the reservation or to help me find a hotel room closer to the downtown area. The priceline maps and zones need to be paid close attention (as does the fine print) if you book through PRICELINE.com Once you "press the button" on PRICELINE.com you are committed without change... You are done! Changes or questions: will not be discussed without a charge. Curious enough, I even informed PRICELINE.com that the hotels website (Marriot) boosted of a spa and in fact the spa knew nothing about any arrangement with the Marriot and they were a 30 minute walk from the hotel. The Marriot has no spa. This did not matter to PRICELINE.com because I had already "press-the-button".
No matter!
Once you press that button you are done... As far as waging any customer service complaint you can only do that through email. They will not give you a manager to speak on the telephone. There is no thought process here, just HOLD THE COMPANY LINE AND SAY NO...
Let the buyer beware...
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