Priceline
Complaint 245560 Details

I have been a customer of Priceline for many years but after my last experience I will never, EVER use Priceline again. The next day after I booked my reservation I discovered that the hotel website offered the same room for $60.00 less than what I got through Priceline. I sent an email to Priceline to inform them of this and got a response informing me "You must call us prior to midnight the day before travel if you have a valid Best Price Guarantee claim. Please call 1-800-PRICELINE if you live within the U.S. or Canada. If you are outside of the U.S. or Canada, please dial 1-212-444-0022.

You will also need to have the description and details of where you found the lower price, since Priceline will need to verify the price and availability, and please be ready to enter your trip number (xxxxxxxxxxxxx) when prompted, so you may speak to an agent."

So I called a few weeks later and was first told that they would have to look it up on the hotel website where I found the lower price - but of course when he looked it up the price had gone up. I told him that I had already sent the information in the email and also had printed out hard copies of the price from the hotel website. When he told me that there was nothing that he could do - that THEY had to look up the price themselves, I asked to speak with a supervisor. I was transferred to the "customer care" department and after being on hold for 25 minutes, was disconnected.

I called back and this time miraculously was transferred directly to someone in the customer care department. This time, the woman "Nicole" informed me that it was "too early to call" - that I had to call "prior to midnight the day before travel". I told her apparently there was a communication issue here - that I WAS calling prior to midnight the day before I was traveling - the reservation is in June. She proceeded to tell me that "no, your reservation isn't until June 5, you are calling too early." SO basically, she tried to tell me that I couldn't call BEFORE midnight the day before I traveled, that I could ONLY call in that small 24 hour window of time.

Essentially, if you find a lower price after you book the room (and pay for it - which is non-cancel able, non-refundable) the only way that they will honor this "Big Deal Guarantee" is if you FIND the price AND call NO more and NO less than 24 hours prior to the date you are to check into the hotel! Even though the "Big Deal Guarantee" states "You must call us at the provided number to claim your refund up until midnight the night prior to check-in."

What they are doing is extremely deceptive and is false advertising. I will do anything to discourage others to fall victim of their unscrupulous, deceitful practices.