Today, I went onto Priceline.com to 'Name your own price' in order to book 2 hotel rooms for 1 night at a 3 star hotel in WEST LAFAYETTE, IN.
When I booked and my price was accepted, I received my confirmation only to find that the hotel was not in West Lafayette, but instead it was outside of East Lafayette - miles from where I needed to be. I contacted customer service and was told that I could not cancel. I then asked to speak with a supervisor and was put through to the escalations department.'Brenda' did cancel my booking but charged me one night's cancellation fee! In other words out of a total booking of $120-68, I have been charged $60-34 despite the fact that the incorrect location of the hotel is the fault of their SYSTEM. I did not book anywhere other than West Lafayette. Why was I given a hotel outside of (east) Lafayette?
I received a confirmation of the cancellation stating that I had 'inadvertently entered the incorrect information'! I then called them again and was told that if I re-book, the cancellation fee would be refunded minus a $25 charge. I then re-booked for West Lafayette again and, guess what, it re-booked me at the SAME hotel in East Lafayette!!!
I then contacted 'Jimmy' in the escalations department who, after 30 minutes of having me hold on the phone, refused to refund the $60.34 DESPITE me re-booking as per their email. He said that because I had booked at the same hotel in the same area, (???) I was not entitled to a refund. What BS. I asked him what other hotels Priceline had ANYHWERE in LAFAYETTE and he could not give me that information. Which means that Priceline does not have any hotels anywhere in Lafayette other that the one booked for me. If I put in West Lafayette and their system puts a person in a hotel outside of East Lafayette??? How is this my fault???
Priceline has consistently lied and booked me the only hotel it has and then refused to refund me after saying that it will refund me. That is intentional fraud as far as I? M concerned. Now, that means that twice I have tried to book in West Lafayette and twice their system has put me in the same hotel in EAST Lafayette. Twice I have had the misfortune to have to call priceline's 'Customer service' department and twice I have been lied to by them.
I now have no option but to stay in the wrong hotel miles from where I have to be. Their system might as well have booked me in LA or Washington DC for all its worth.
I am extremely disgusted by the fact that I have been charged for their errors again and again. If this is the only hotel they have that covers the entire city of Lafayette, then this should be made clear at the outset. This is not what I expected from Priceline. I have wasted almost 2 hours over a single booking for 1 night. Rest assured, I shall not be using Priceline ever again.
I shall now also take this up as a dispute with my credit card company. I have printed the screenshot of my original request and of my second booking and I shall produce this as evidence that I requested a hotel in WEST LAFAYETTE.
I know that these days most companies pay only lip-service to 'customer service' but Priceline takes the biscuit for its lies and cheating attitude that gets people to book and re-book whilst it rakes in the 'cancellation fees' - that's if you can get a partial cancealltaion refund in the first place.
Bottom line - dont book with priceline as they're liars. Of course they have to make money somehow - they've got to pay 'the negotiator' his $600million you wont get a refund even if its their fault. And dont believe them when they say to re-book as it's a lie.
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