Priceline
Don't believe their "Best Price Guarantee"

I booked a hotel on Priceline at the hotel's price advertised on Priceline (not through the bidding process). An hour later, I checked the hotel chain's public website and discovered the same category hotel room was being offered there for $60 less on exactly the same day as I had booked it on Priceline.

I called Priceline and spent almost an hour on the phone with them before they would agree to refund me the difference in price. Clearly they were employing stalling and delaying tactics in the hope that I would hang up and go away so they wouldn't have to give me a refund.

For example, I gave the customer service rep the web site address of the chain so she could verify my claim. She put me on hold for several minutes and said she couldn't find the web page I was referring to. I gave her the address for the page again, and was again put on hold for minutes. Then she got on the phone and said the offer on the page was for a king bed and I had booked two queens on Priceline. I told her she hadn't scrolled down far enough on the page or else she would see the chain's quoted price for two queens. She put me on hold again and then said the guarantee could not be honored because the chain's cancellation policy wasn't the same as Priceline's cancellation policy. I explained to her why legally this didn't matter under the terms of Priceline's "Best Price Guarantee". I then received an email denying my claim while she had me on hold for another 10 minutes.

Finally, demanded to speak with her supervisor. Finally, she agreed that my claim was legitimate and agreed to refund me the difference, and I received an email to that effect.

Bottom line: she denied, denied and denied, and gave me the run around for almost an hour. Most people would have hung up, but I persisted because my claim was obviously right. I suspect bad faith and an intentional practice of denying legitimate warranty claims unless the consumer persists and is willing to devote way too much time to pursue the claim. I will never use Priceline again. Their marketing creates a false impression that you will save by using Priceline as opposed to buying direct from the hotel, and that is not always the case. You may actually pay more!

Company: Priceline
Country: USA
Address: 800 Connecticut Avenue
Site: priceline.com

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