Priceline promised to bend the rules, but now it’s backtracking

Rules are rules, but what happens when a travel company promises it will bend them? That’s the question Rebekah Conlon wants to answer. Her rental car, booked through Priceline, was non-refundable and non-changeable, and she knew it.

But just before she arrived in Toronto to pick up the car, she got a troubling call. “A family member had passed away,” she says. “We had to abruptly change our travel plans.”

She continues,

I contacted Priceline within 10 minutes of when we were supposed to pick up the rental car and informed them of the death in the family. They said they would contact me with details about a refund.

Nice of Priceline to agree to bend the rules for her. But when Conlon followed up, Priceline backtracked.

Here’s the email she received:

I am very sorry to hear of your loss, and I am sure this is a difficult time for you.

I apologize; however, we will not be able to refund your reservation. Our ability to issue a refund is governed by contractual agreements with our partners, which state that once the scheduled pick-up time has passed, all reservations are non-changeable and non-refundable.

We thank you for the opportunity to assist you and hope this information is helpful to you.

Helpful? I might have used another word to more accurately describe how Conlon might receive the bad news. But I digress.

Priceline is right. And wrong.

It’s correct, in that its rental cars are non-refundable, of course. But the company can also waive its rules (for example, when a customer dies, it can refund a non-refundable airfare). It’s incorrect, in that it shouldn’t have told Conlon she could get a refund if it wasn’t prepared to offer her one.

I asked Priceline about the refund. Its response?

This was a no-change/no-cancel reservation. However, since the agent on the call with Ms. Conlon indicated otherwise, we are going to go ahead and issue a refund.

Good of Priceline to fix this.

Could the problem have been avoided? Probably. Conlon might have rented a car with fewer restrictions. Most rental companies let you cancel, or even no-show, without a penalty. Priceline offers a deep discount, but you have to pre-pay for the car and there are no refunds. Unless it says otherwise.

But this does bring up an interesting question: What happens when a company promises to bend its own rules? Is that an oral contract, and if so, how do you go about proving it when a company backtracks? Short of taping the phone call, which Conlon wasn’t in a position to do, how do you establish that you were offered a refund?

(Photo: Bruce/Flickr Creative Commons)

  • http://www.sanibel-rentals.net Sylvia

    A mantra every consumer should employ:

    Get it in writing!

  • Phil

    She could have purchased cancellation insurance also to avoid this type of problem.

  • http://www.thetravelinggiraffe.com Crissy

    It’s all in the wording. Even her own writing indicates that they didn’t commit to getting her a refund. “They said they would contact me with details about a refund.” To me that says they would try to get a refund and contact her about it.

    I think priceline probably had the best intentions of trying to get a refund under the circumstances, but I’m not sure they committed to it since she had a non-refundable fare.

    The best way to protect yourself? Rent a car with a cancellation policy. No one plans for an emergency or a death in the family. I rarely purchase travel things without a cancellation policy when I don’t have to, unless I’m able to accept the loss of the cost if an emergency does arise.

  • Tanya

    I am not sure that an oral promise is a valid contract. The actual contract was the cheaper price for the rental car with no refunds. Exactly what did the OP give to Priceline in return for the bending of the rules. Nothing. Priceline did issue a promise, just not a contract. I think Priceline did the right thing in honoring what its employee stated, and it is good customer relations, but I don’t think they had to do it.

    I guess I have a question, would the OP have paid for the full rental had she received the call about her relative an hour later. After she had already picked up the car? Or would she have expected a refund on the unused portion. At what point do you draw the line?

  • Thalassa

    I agree with Crissy. There was no certainty, even with what the OP claims.

  • Carver

    It’s impossible to know whether the oral promise is enforceable or not without looking at the underlying, original contract with Priceline. So any thoughts would be speculation.

  • Mike Z

    Since Priceline doesn’t say no refunds an hour prior, or no refunds 6 hours prior, it really shouldn’t matter that the OP called with 10 minutes to spare. “once the scheduled pick-up time has passed, all reservations are non-changeable and non-refundable.” To me indicates that she was entitled to a refund or change because she called before the scheduled pick up time had passed. priceline’s own wording helped the OP.

    @Phil, insurance for airline tickets or vacations are one thing as they are normally high dollar items, but rental cars can be fairly cheap in most cases. I am sure it would not be normal to purchase additional insurance for a rental.

  • Scarlett

    I think the only reason they refunded the money is that THEY recorded the conversation. They often “check the tapes” to use the information against us, but it’s heartening to me that in this case, they admitted the agent who took the call agreed to a refund. Evidence to support this theory is that they didn’t issue the refund for a death in the family, or because Chris got involved, but specifically because of their agent’s actions. If they didn’t have proof of that, it would have been a game of he said-she said, and she would not have gotten a refund.

  • Steve

    Priceline did the right thing in honoring the refund. I would have had no problem with them standing by the contract and stating that the rental was nonrefundable *if* they had not told the customer that they’d make an exception. (I suspect from the tone of her letter that she felt the same way; it wasn’t that she felt entitled to a refund, but that when she asked if they could give her one they initially said yes).

    I feel that whenever a company representative promises something (and that promise is reasonable), the company should honor that even if it goes against their stated policies. I had something similar happen to me when I called my telephone/internet provider to ask for a lower rate. The representative I spoke to promised me a rate that would be substantially lower than what I was paying for the next 12 months, followed by a rate that was marginally lower than what I was currently paying after that. Obviously, that sounded great. When my bill came and it was higher than I expected, I called back and was told he had made a mistake and offered me a rate that was valid only for new customers. After a bit of back and forth in which I politely but firmly pointed out that I had no way of knowing that I shouldn’t have been promised the rate and I accepted it in good faith, they agreed to honor it, which left me as a satisfied customer.

  • Len

    People that book with priceline on “name your own price” terms, as I do, know very well that the reservation is non-cancelable. As such, these people should have no expectation other than that they bought something that will go unused.

    That being said, once Priceline agrees to a refund, there is no doubt that one should be forthcoming.

  • Sarah Di

    Since it’s pretty obvious when you book with priceline that the reservation is non-refundable, it was nice of Priceline to give it to her for the circumstances, but probably shouldn’t have been expected. If for some reason, the terms of this rental were not nonrefundable, the fact that she called to cancel before the pick up time should have been enough to get the refund, even if it was too late for the rental car company to reimburse Priceline.

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    My question is what are the terms and conditions for Priceline? Is it non-refundable and non-changeable? Or is it non-refundable and non-changeable but if there is a death in the family, illness in the family, the passenger gets sick, etc. it becomes refundable and changeable?

    I don’t understand the people who purchase non-refundable and non-changeable reservation then ask for a refund, wants to change it and etc.

    I am sure that Priceline will raise their rates\mark-ups\etc. in the future to cover this refund and other refunds; therefore, defeating the purpose of Priceline and other sites like Priceline…cheap rates!!! It is my understanding that sites like Priceline buy hotel rooms and etc. so it isn’t like they can rent a car at the last minute, rebook a hotel room or etc.

    I agree with Crissy that a refund wasn’t promised but they will get back in touch with her about a refund.

  • Joe Farrell

    Unlike the last event – at least this death happened in the middle of the trip – no 2 months before she made the reservation!

  • Carver

    @Arizona

    As usual we discagree. Under normal circumstances, Priceline is nonrefundable, non-canceleable etc, and that’s fine. They offer a service that meets the needs of a certain segment of the population.

    Where we disagree is whether that non-refunable should be iron glad, regardless of circumstances, or if there should be some wiggle room. I say, that there are some extenuating circumstances in which it is appropriate for a waiver of the non-refundable clause. I think a death in the family is probably the best one.

    The suggestion that priceline is raising its prices to cover this refund is plain silly. Priceline sells an amazing amount of travel. The amount of travel cancelled by Priceline due to death, extreme illness, etc. is undoubtedly a miniscule portion, probably less than the rounding error.

    What you are failing to appreciate is that Priceline, like every successful business, builds into its pricing structure a cushion for refunds and other failed transactions. As long as it stays within its guidelines, its basic pricing structure is unaffected.

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    @ Carver – I wasn’t referring that this one refund will bankrupt or cause Priceline to raise its prices because of this single refund. My point is that a company can’t continue to refund non-refundable non-changeable reservations because it will eventually goes over the portion that a company has allocated for the costs of ‘goodwill’ (i.e. refunds of non-refundable non-changeable reservations). It is an attitude.

    By the way, no matter how small the refund is, it adds up. Recently, we had a user conference and our users told us that it might be small when their employees steal $ 20 from them every day but it really adds up over a period of time.

  • Carver

    @Arizona

    There is no good reason to assume that the number of refunds offered by priceline will go over the alloted “goodwill” refunds. Priceline has historical data and knows exactly how many refunds are likely to happen and has no doubt accurately planned for that. Moreover, Priceline is the sole determiner of who gets a goodwill refund so its not exactly something that can easily spiral out of their control.

  • MeanMeosh

    @ Arizona – I have to disagree with you in this instance as well. Your point is taken – and I personally do think we tend to bully businesses these days into issuing refunds where it’s not warranted – but a death in the family is different. It’s standard business practice in most companies to extend some leeway from normal policy in the event of a death/serious illness in the family, as long as the customer can provide documentation, and as Carver noted, I’m pretty sure Priceline builds in a cushion for refunds in extenuating circumstances such as these. Heck, even Delta offered to cut me a break on a change fee (without me even asking) when I had to cancel a trip due a family member suddenly becoming ill. I just don’t see a risk of busting your budget for making exceptions for serious cases, especially if the exception has to be documented.

    In this case, I would push Priceline to provide a refund regardless, but putting that aside, if a company promises a refund, they should provide it, even if it goes against their normal policy. What we don’t really know here is what exactly was said. If I had to speculate, it sounds like a misunderstanding between the customer and the rep. The rep probably meant “I’ll check to see if we can give you a refund”, but the customer heard it as “we’ll send you a check”.

  • http://www.miss-britt.com Miss Britt

    I have actually had similar problems with Priceline’s customer service. A rep will make a promise to bend the rules and then later the company has backed out. Perhaps they need to train their customer service team better?

  • http://www.roamingtales.com Caitlin @ Roaming Tales

    Legally, verbal contracts are enforceable and can override a prior written contract. But you generally need proof to enforce it.