Priceline.com
Reviews and Complaints

I rented a car via www.priceline.com for 7 days. Unfortunately I had to cancel my entire trip, so I contacted priceline and asked for a refund. They said they don’t do refunds and that they cannot cancel my reservation. Absolutely ridiculous. So basically I lost all my money for a 7 day rental! Customer service rep was disrespectful and provided absolutely no help. Never will I use priceline again!

I booked a hotel via Priceline but because our flight was canceled due to winter storm I had to cancel the reservation. I contacted Priceline customer service and gave all my information to their representative. Their rep said that no one from the hotel was available at the moment and asked me to call back later. I asked why do I have to call back, since they had all my information. Their rep said that I need to be on the phone when they contacted the hotel. Few hours later I called back but no one picked up the phone. Since then they are ignoring all my calls and I have no idea whether they cancelled my hotel reservation or not. I didn't receive my money back yet.

I was buying a ticket to New York. The dates that I put in were a Monday February 22nd and to return Friday February 26th. I filled in all the necessary information, but suggested that I need to change my arrival time. So I changed the dates and confirmed the payment. The next screen said payment has been accepted, but then I realized that arrival time remained the same. Priceline uses the tool that makes it impossible to review the ticked before purchasing. The issue I have is it is misleading to put in dates and then the tool to completely disregard it. I contacted Priceline customer service and the girl I spoke to did not listen to me. There was no dialogue because I was the only one who said something. The next day I received a message saying that I can cancel my flight for a $200 fee. Really? This website is a complete fraud!

I wanted to book a room and decided to try Priceline. So I booked a room for January 25, 2016. Later received a confirmation email and noticed that they made a mistake. They had booked it for January 20, 2016. I immediately contacted customer service and they told me to call the hotel. When I called the hotel, they told that there was nothing they could do. I called Priceline again and almost begged them! I explained that I need a room on January 25. Then I asked for refund, but they refused, because the hotel already received the money. I contacted the hotel and was told that they heard nothing from Priceline and received no money. I actually don't know who is lying to me, and really don't care! All I want is my money back!

Priceline.com is a real scam. It is cheaper to book a room directly through the hotel, because Priceline takes more money! I tried to reserve a room, but then I realized that my room was only $200, but they took $300. And the most interesting part is that they did not pay the hotel, they just stole all my money! I tried to contact their customer support but had to wait for over two hours just to be connected. Priceline charged $100 more than the hotel would have charged! I When I finally got to talk to their agent, I explained what happened and demanded a refund. But I was told that there was nothing she could do. This company is horribly unprofessional!

Priceline is not taking any responsibility for their agent’s fault. My flight has been delayed for more than 22 hours and the agent insists only 2 options for that: accept the change by the airline or refund the partial value of the ticket. When I choose to refund and after the agent calculated manually for 10 minutes, they provided me the information the total amount of $476.4 will be refund to me. I referred to more than an agent for the refund total amount and that’s the amount provided by few different agents. By that, I made my decision to get a new ticket on my own because the price difference is not that much for the new air fare. After a month, my bank statement did not show any refund from priceline, I called again and ended up there was only $234.8 will be refunded to me. I am so upset and I called for more than 7 times engaging on the phone for more than an hour trying to solve it. But, what the final result that I got was not a single penny more for the refund. I insisted $476.4 is the amount provided by the agent and now I got less than what I should is not acceptable! The agent is not helpful at all and told me action will be taken towards the agent who provided the incorrect information and nothing we can do for the customer! I am totally frustrated as this is definitely not my mistake as a customer, I made my decision based on the information by the agent. So, this is the customer service from priceline, pushing the customer away and nothing they offered to the customer. Not even any compensation or absorbing the total difference. I will not use priceline anymore and not even recommending to anyone.

Travelweb (division of Priceline) is a scam. The booking was a breeze and once they had my credit card information it appears that their service ended there. Mainly, I am currently staying through October 14th, 2015 at the Holiday Inn Express Express Hotel & Suites Dallas West (trip# [protected]) and the purpose of my trip is business for a Texas State University. While it is my fault for having booked with a third party (i.e. Travelweb aka Priceline) and not directly with the hotel ( I needed quick convenient booking online and searched on MapQuest led me to Travelweb - which I did not know at the time) I must say that the service or lack there off from Priceline/Trawelweb is appalling. As I am traveling on business for a State University I have a Texas Hotel Occupancy Tax Exemption Certificate which I attempted to present to the hotel, (as I have done with all my other travel thus far). They of course explained that it was booked through a third party and that I had to contact Travelweb and that they would be happy to work with them if needed. Long story short: was on the phone for 45 minutes with Travelweb/Priceline and they advised me that they do not provide tax exemption. Furthermore, they are unable to provide me with an itemized invoice of my purchase of hotel service (over $550) which would identify what amount of the charges are state taxes, hotel fees and room rates. The fact that they do not have an invoice availability with itemized information regarding what was paid in State Taxes vs. Hotel Fees to me sounds unlawful. I am writing a complaint to the hotel and urging them to remove Priceline/Travelweb as one of their authorized third party companies. I hope that this review will help those individual looking to plan their business travel as quickly and efficiently as possible - IT IS NOT WITH PRICELINE/TRAVELWEB! If you need an itemized hotel invoice for your business offices you will NOT get it as they do not provide it. All you will have is the Summary of Charges you receive upon booking the hotel and you can forget about them providing a service to exempt you from state taxes as it is probably not in their best interest to provide you with this service. All hotels are required to provide the State Tax exemption if valid certificate is presented. The fact that Priceline (Travelweb) is neglecting to provide this service is again to my understanding borderline unlawful. But what's worse is that do not provide an invoice that is itemized to identify what of the "Taxes and Fees" is actual Taxes and actual Hotel Fees - are they taking additional money? without our knowledge? Remember all they are out to do is get you to book and enter your credit information - once you have done that there is no going back! As you can see from previous reviews on Priceline and Travelweb. I strongly AGREE that Priceline/Travelweb is NOT a service provider that values the customer and their overall experience. No repeat business for Priceline/Travelweb from me that is certain and I will find every possible venue to hopefully alerted others of this unethical company.

10/3/2015 Over five website companies Orbitz, Expedia, Priceline, CheapAir etc offered the same round trip flight itinerary rate for next weekend. I thought I would try the company William Shatner promotes Priceline. I was planning to fly weekends for an under determined amount of time. If Priceline proved to be as consumer friendly Orbitz, Expedia etc I could simply use Priceline to booked all future flights. Priceline is not consumer friendly they are predators. Priceline changed the airline and the flight time after I purchased ticket. The phone number for customer service is in the Philippines. The person refused correcting the itinerary and refused giving me a refund. No customer service representative! I was told transferring the call to a supervisory is not an option because I was speaking with the supervisor in the Philippines. I requested a phone number in the United States. I called the number provided for the USA and a person in Manila, Philippines answered. The total cost of air fare was $400.02 and he said he would cancel the flight for a fee of $200.00. My sister was recently diagnosed with brain cancer, she is in hospice. The doctor reports nothing more can be done for her and she should enjoy the time she has left. She lives out of state and I want to fly each weekend to be with my sister. Money is an issue since I'm diagnosed with cancer and I've missed work for medical treatment, chemo and surgeries. The Friday night departure flight time was changed from 8:30pm to 11:30am. I've used all sick and vacation time therefore if I do not work I'm not paid. All people I know have always expressed how I feel about my sister that she is an exceptionally kind, thoughtful and caring person. I know where she is going and I hope to see her again soon. Greedy Priceline CEO's enjoy all the money you've ripped off from hard working people now...remember you can't the money to where you're going and know it's only a matter a time.

On 27/6/2015 Saturday morning, I went to Priceline Dogrock Albany to get advice on my makeup, I asked if I could have my makeup done an had a young female apply makeup to my face which I felt wasn't a beautician an have now found out from complaining to the manageress it was a salesperson, my makeup was done an looked ok, but I did feel it was a bit light in colour but the shop didn't have very good lighting an payed for it including some skin care from a different company full amount was $218.49, that nite I asked my next door neighbour to do my makeup as I was going out an didn't feel really comfortable about using the makeup, she made comment to the colour being to light for my facial skin colour, since then I haven't used it an don't have the confidence to go back, on Tuesday 14/9/15 I went to my hairdresser who uses Loreal products an she said I need to contact you in regard to this matter . I have since had my makeup done by a beautician at Spencer Park Priceline an she actually took me outside to show me what my makeup looks like in true light an I am very happy with her results she gave me ( all Loreal Products ) except my skin care $215.00, my complaint is that when I asked for a refund on products at Priceline Dogrock Albany the manager refused as its not their policy, I have also been told to get advise from consumer protection in regards to this, also i have read the Australian consumer law regarding my shopping rights an do feel that my request was not addressed fully the first time by a salesperson selling your product with no experience as a beautician so I did not get what I asked for the first time, I would appreciate hearing from you as soon as possible, its a lot of money to just throw away

Priceline has started a new way of deceiving the bidder. On the page where you make your bid if you leave out a block to check or one of several steps to finalize your bid you are brought back up to the top of the page and informed of the block you need to respond to. After you check the item that was missed you then submit to "Buy your Room" What Priceline has started doing is CHANGING your bid in the bid block to a higher recommended bid. This can be very easily overlooked and you will be charged the price that they changed in your bid box... The following is the complaint I submitted to Priceline who played ignorant on this new scam.
You have been connected to Chris.
Chris: Hi, STAN! Thanks for choosing to chat with us today. How may I help you?
Stan Bass: I just keyed in an offer of $29 for a room... was just awarded the room but the price bumped up to $43... I noticed you guys change the rate if you have to go back and enter missing info... did not catch you doing that this time... I've been buying priceline rooms for years...what kind of shady things is this now going on!
Chris: I'm sorry to hear that. I can imagine that must be frustrating. I can certainly review your reservation, to determine how I can assist you. Please give a moment while I check that for you.
Stan Bass: THIS IS A DECEPTIONS YOU GUYS JUST STARTED DOING... I HAVE RENTED HUNDREDS OF ROOMS FROM PRICELINE... THIS TRICK HAS PURPOSELY BEEN WRITTEN INTO YOUR SOFTWARE...
Stan Bass: CHECK YOUR HISTORY OF MY USAGE OF PRICELINE... I AM ONE PISSED CUSTOMER!
Chris: I understand you're upset right now. Before we proceed, I am showing that you chatted us before regarding the same issue.
Stan Bass: WHILE I WAS TRYING TO TYPE MY RESPONSE I WAS CUT OFF...
Chris: I'm sorry you lost the connection with the previous chat agent. Dont worry, I should be able to pull up the conversation. Please give a quick moment to access your record.
Chris: Stan, thank you for your patience.
Chris: I have thoroughly reviewed your information and our records shows that your offer price for this reservation is $43.00 and not $29.00.
Stan Bass: PASS THIS ON TO WHOEVER CREATED THIS SHADY LITTLE TRICK ... YOU WILL LOSE MORE MONEY FROM ME THAN THE MONEY YOU JUST MADE A LITTLE WHILE AGO! PRICELINE HAS ALWAYS BEEN GREAT AND I HAVE REFFERRED IT TO HUNDREDS IF NOT THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE INCLUDING A RADIO TALK SHOW (MARLA IN THE MORNING) INTERVIEW IN KNOXVILLE TN... i PROMISE YOU THE PUBLIC WILL BE AWARE OF THIS GREEDY SCHEME YOU HAVE COME UP WITH...
Chris: Stan, we searched for hotel based on the price you offered and we found a travel partner willing to accept your price, we charged your form of payment to lock the rate and secure the reservation. This is non changeable and non-refundable due to contractual agreements with our hotel partners.

If you found a lower rate with the same itinerary online before you check in, please contact us so that we can check if it qualifies for our Best Price Guarantee.
Chris: Hi, Stan, I see your Chat box is still open, but I haven't heard from you in awhile, are you still available to chat?
Stan Bass: JUST CHECKED MY CREDIT CARD AND WAS STILL CHARGED FOR THE HIGHER AMOUNT...
Chris: This reservation is prepaid and your card was charged in full at the time of purchase, Stan. Your offer price was $43.00 plus taxes and fees of $12.56 for a total amount of $55.56.
Stan Bass: CHRIS...PASS MY CHAT WITH YOU ON TO THE CEO OF PRICELINE! HE CAN CALL ME AT [protected] OR [protected]@GMAIL.COM
Chris: I understand you're not satisfied with our policies, Stan; however, there is not another department or person that I can transfer your chat to that would address your issue differently. All chat and phone agents have the same authority to address customer issues.

Made a reservation for a hotel & airfare through Priceline.Found out next AM from locals in Uruguay that the hotel was unsafe after dark.

Called Priceline, spoke to Anna & Jake pleading to change reservation to different, safer hotel b/c I would be a woman traveling alone in a country where I do not speak the language. Offered to pay additional money, stay in a different city, etc. Would not do anything to help me! Told me I could send a letter to their executive office.

This company SUCKS! I will never use them again under ANY circumstances.

Totally walking away from hotel reservation b/c my safety will be in jeopardy. Likely $ 300+ in money being lost PLUS I now need to make another hotel reservation.

Not worth it.AVOID this company at ALL COSTS!

On my priceline.com trip receipt under important information it reads: "If flight cancellations outside of your control keep you from picking up your car, you will be able to cancel your reservation upon verification". My flight was cancelled. Priceline verified the cancellation. Priceline THEN told me there would be a $27 cancellation fee. Fully 25% of the cost of my unusable retantal. Hidden fee? You bet. I called and wrote, and here was their response.
Dear John,
We are sorry to know that you not satisfied with the cancelation fees charged for your rental car reservation booked with Budget Rent a Car. Our records indicate that we have already addressed your concern. We understand that you are not satisfied with the resolution.
We reviewed your issue again to confirm that we did not overlook anything that might support a more favorable resolution. There is nothing we can add to what has already been stated in our previous correspondence. Although we empathize with your situation, we are truly unable to assistyou further in this matter.
Sincerely,
Sanket T.
Customer Service Specialist

I will no longer do business withPriceline, and neither should you. Deceptive, misleading and dishonest...and they really don't care.

I was looking to book a flight from Houston, Tex to Las Vegas, nv and in all the searches that what it said. When I booked it they sent an email saying Houston, Tex to new orleans, la. I called Priceline and they said it had to be my computer. They also said they couldn't refund anything and if I needed the flight change I would have to manage my travel through the airline. So what looked like a great deal ended up costing double almost triple of the original amount.

I reserved a hotel room, online through Priceline, with Days Inn in Azusa, California. I booked the room for a visiting guest and her cat. The hotel had advertised "Pet Friendly" on Priceline. My guest checked in 2 hours early and paid Days Inn $10 cash ($5/hour). An hour later the cat was delivered to my guest. My guest went to the Hotel office to ask that maid service not come in unless she was there because the cat would try to escape. Days Inn said she could not stay because she had a cat and she did not tell them in advance. They said she was not in one of the rooms OK'd for pets, but they did not offer to move my guest to one of those rooms. They just demanded she leave. She said they were insulting. She may also have been insulting as well because she is an avid animal lover and can get difficult on animal issues. Days Inn said they will charge for one night even though they did not allow my guest to stay and did not offer her one of the "pet" rooms. I spoke with Priceline to dispute payment of the one night hotel stay and ended up with a supervisor named Andrea. After about an hour, Priceline refused to do anything about the unfair charge. So, my credit card will be charged for a stay that never happened, my guest was "kicked out" of the "pet friendly" hotel because she had a cat and didn't tell them in advance, my guest was treated rudely, and I was dismayed by Priceline's unethical and/or cowardly refusal to do the right thing.

The following is the correspondence between Priceline and me regarding to the reservation of car rental that the price that Priceline negotiate for me is very high. Whatever the price that I request, the company kept saying it's too low and tell me to put it higher and then they gave me the price that I thought it has to be the lowest. However Priceline car rental partner has the lowest price. Priceline will not cancel my reservation and charged my card right away a month ahead of the trip.
I filed a complaint with BBB and it's still pending. I don't know what good it's going to be to put the complaint here but I just want the consumer to know how tricky this company is.

[protected]@service.priceline.com | Add to Contacts
Sunday, Mar 30 02:18 PM | Show Details | View source
Re: Executive Offices Rental Car Trip Number [protected] (KMM55812838I15977L0KM)
11 Attachment(s) Download All
Dear Mr. Bernard Albelida,

Thank you for your response to my concern, the reason that I need to cancel and refund on my reservation is your price is higher than your other partner company that I found the link from your website.

First of all after I made that reservation, and after several attempt to put in the price that I want to rent a car, at first for $18-$19/day but your negotiator said I named it too low and want me to put in for over $24.00 and when I put in $24.00, your negotiating prize just came up for the prize that I have to accept, at that time I thought that it is the best and cheapest price since I have Priceline and negotiator so I go forward and reserved it without reading you fine print.

Then, I just want to send a thank you to your company by using the Contact us on your website (picture attached) then I scroll down to the bottom of your website page, I found Priceline partner site and they have the DISCOUNT RENTAL RATE, so I click on it and you partner site came up as Airport Rental Car. For curiosity I just put in all the info exactly what I made reservation for and the result came out that the price is much cheaper than what you gave to us as you can see in all the attachments.

We called your customer service at Priceline right away to let them know, unfortunately they told me that they cannot cancel or match the price since it's not from the same rental company. My question is why Priceline will not give us the best price that they have the connection with their partner company, Priceline gave us almost the most expensive rental price as you can see on the attachments.

So we call Hertz company and the customer service there told us that the cancellation can be done if we make reservation directly through Hertz, since we make reservation through Priceline, Priceline has to be the one that cancel and refund our money, Priceline has your money, Hertz customer service said they will get the money from Priceline when we pick up the car, they saw our reservation in their computer but they cannot cancel it and told us to call Priceline back.

We called Priceline back, your customer service told us that they have to investigate and the resolution will be after May 7, 2014 and at the same time Priceline has already charged my Visa Credit Card account. My trip is on April 20, 2014. We are retired and save our money for our trip, with our trust in Priceline that we used to use the service for so many time, that's why we use Priceline again this time and did not pay attention on the restriction that set by Priceline for the trust that we have in your company.

In your response said "The Terms and
Conditions of our Best Price Guarantee can be reviewed on our website.
As stated on our website, "The lower rate found must be found online,
including priceline.com, other rental car reservation sites and sites
operated by the car rental companies. The rate must also be with the
same rental car company as reserved with Priceline. Rates on other
opaque website, where customers are provided with their rental car
company information after the reservation is completed, are not
eligible."
Per our attachments, the lower rate that we found was from Priceline website and from one of your partner company.

I just want to let BBB knows of what going on with us, the consumer, that we were threaten and restriction by internet initial as per your response said

"Our travel partners provide deeply discounted rates for
restricted reservations because these reservations cannot be changed,
cancelled, or refunded. These restrictions were presented on your
contract. For this reason, our ability to refund your reservation is at
the discretion of the rental car partner's corporate office. We need to
research your issue with the rental partner directly before we make a
decision on your request for a refund. If they have conflicting
information, we will not be able to process a refund, and your
reservation will remain non-changeable and non-refundable.

I hope that Priceline will understand my situation, if Priceline can match the price and change the rental company to the cheapest price company on the attachment, I will help me save my hard earn money for this trip, otherwise I have to cancel and get my refund since the price is very high.

Regards,

Jeravan Isara

On 03/29/14, 'Travel Support Team wrote:

Dear Jeravan Isara,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding your reservation
with Hertz Corporation for Trip Number [protected].

We are writing to let you know that we have received your Better
Business Bureau concern in our Executive Offices. We understood that you
are requesting to cancel the reservation because the lower rate you
found does not qualify for our Best Price Guarantee. The Terms and
Conditions of our Best Price Guarantee can be reviewed on our website.
As stated on our website, "The lower rate found must be found online,
including priceline.com, other rental car reservation sites and sites
operated by the car rental companies. The rate must also be with the
same rental car company as reserved with Priceline. Rates on other
opaque website, where customers are provided with their rental car
company information after the reservation is completed, are not
eligible."

Prior to submitting the request, we presented you with a Contract Page
for review. Our travel partners provide deeply discounted rates for
restricted reservations because these reservations cannot be changed,
cancelled, or refunded. These restrictions were presented on your
contract. For this reason, our ability to refund your reservation is at
the discretion of the rental car partner's corporate office. We need to
research your issue with the rental partner directly before we make a
decision on your request for a refund. If they have conflicting
information, we will not be able to process a refund, and your
reservation will remain non-changeable and non-refundable.

When you submitted the request, you indicated that you have read,
understood and agree to the terms and conditions of the reservation. For
your reference, a copy of your contract page has been sent in a separate
e-mail.

We are sorry we did not provide you the answers you were looking for and
we thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Berna Abelida
Executive Offices

My son booked a hotel room through Priceline. When he arrived at the hotel it was awful; the hallways smelled, the room smelled, and he did not feel safe. He left the hotel and stayed somewhere else. I contacted Priceline to get a refund on the room. They told me that I had to go through the hotel for the refund. I called the hotel and they told me that I had to g through Priceline for the refund. Back on the phone with Priceline. I have now been on hold for 42 minutes, and counting. This is obviously a scam. Someone needs to sue these people. I will never deal with Priceline again and I hope none of you will either.

My husband had to have cancer surgery in Houston and we had never used Priceline, but it came up in a search for hotel rooms. It was $79 a night at a 3 star or higher hotel (their idea of 3 star and mine were very different, but that is another issue). We prepaid for 2 nights.

I am disabled and the trip was painful, but the pain only got worse after we arrived at the hotel. Check in was at 4 and we got there a little after 4. Family had already checked into the hotel. Over 3 hours later we still had not checked in to the room, because there were no reservations. Many calls were made to Priceline, the hotel talked to Priceline, but they couldn't resolve it. The Priceline rep screamed at the hotel clerk and she said she would rather lose her job and go hungry rather than let anyone talk to her the way this guy was. By this time the hotel was convinced that we were not lying about having reservations, despite none showing up in two separate reservation systems.

Since both my husband and I were totally wiped out the hotel clerk offered to allow us to stay in a room if we would give her our credit card info, just in case Priceline failed to pay. We gave the hotel our credit card info, which they wrote down, because it couldn't be put into the system. We only had assurance for that night. While hubby had surgery I had to call the hotel, we had given up on Priceline, and they told me we had the room that night and they were resolving it with Priceline.

Many complaints have been made to Priceline since then, and I have all the emails and phone messages, their response was for us to call and initiate a complaint. DUH, we already had done that, which is what they were responding to. Now we have an email saying we got the room and that they had nothing to resolve.

Priceline customer service sucks! They double billed my credit card and won’t remove the charge. I disputed the charge with my credit card company and apparently this is a common event for Priceline.

Anyway, 6 weeks later, I’m still arguing with Priceline as they disputed my dispute and now I have to start over again. After a lengthy conversation with another Priceline customer service rep, they basically told me to just to sue them as they we’re going to help. Unfortunately it’s not that easy to sue Priceline as you have to sue them in CT.

Simply put, book direct and don’t use Priceline as they are very unethical and don’t care about you after the sale. Please feel free to post this anywhere you’d like as I have the evidence to prove my case. I even recorded my conversation with the Priceline customer service rep. DON’T USE PRICELINE!

I booked 2 nights for Sacramento with the condition of 3 stars. The booked me Governors Inn Hotel showing as 3 stars. However, when I checked on Expedia.com and hotels.com, all show as 2.5 stars. When I chatted with custom service and asked them to cancel it, she said NO.

Do not buy, or even browse, on Priceline.com! While trying to plan our honeymoon, my husband and I were simply comparing prices on the Priceline.com website and they ended up charging us $3, 000 for plane tickets without our consent. We immediately called Priceline and asked them to cancel the plane tickets but they refused to and would not give us a refund! Further more, our credit card company was unable to give us a refund as well due to Priceline's "fine print." Needless to say, we will never be using Priceline again and will do all we can to spread the word. Browse at your own risk! Priceline.com is an unfair business with shady, unethical business practices. Avoid at all cost or you'll pay the price!