Alexa Buffini admits she made an “honest mistake” when she booked her rooms through Priceline and bid for the wrong date. She hoped the company would help her fix it.
But it didn’t, and now she has to kiss $469 goodbye.
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I‘ve waged a long and lonely campaign against mindless form letters sent to customers by uncaring corporations.
It looks like I finally have some company.
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Question: I booked a vacation package for three people to Hawaii through Priceline. The package cost $3,208 and included my flight, hotel and car. After making the reservation, I noticed a typographical error on one of the passengers names and seeing that I couldn’t change this online, I called a customer representative.
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Sometimes, even death isn’t a good enough reason for a refund.
Consider what happened to John Graham when his father died unexpectedly the day before he was scheduled to pick up a rental car he’d booked through Priceline. It’s true that Priceline’s rentals are non-refundable, but travel companies routinely make an exception when someone flashes a death certificate.
Not this time.
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Sometimes a best-price guarantee just isn’t worth the trouble. That’s what Lynne Fukumoto thought after trying to make a claim on a Priceline “Name Your Own Price” hotel room recently.
“I ended up with a room at the Ala Moana Hotel for $120 a night,” she says.
That’s the Ala Moana Hotel – Honolulu, a nice little property in Waikiki, and part of the terrific Outrigger Hotel chain, for your reference.
“I had never heard of this hotel and went to its website where rooms were advertised for $119 per night,” she says.
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It wasn’t Margaret Peary’s first hotel booking on Priceline. But it may have been her last.
She’d been quoted a rate of $77 a night, which didn’t include hotel taxes for a condo in Kihei, Maui. Great rate, right?
But when she got her credit card bill, the fun started.
Phillip Barszczowski’s Hertz car, which he booked through Priceline, cost $122. Not bad for a four-day rental in Wyoming, considering what rates have been doing lately.
But when Barszczowski told the agent he’d have the car back by noon on the fourth day, she had some bad news: His reservation lasted only until 8 a.m., and the four extra hours would more than double the price of his car, to $305.
Priceline’s reservation said he had until 1:30 p.m. The Hertz agent didn’t care. “She told me Priceline does this all the time and they get you a great deal and then make up for it later,” he says.
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