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Priceline Name Your Own Price Consumer Reviews

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Paying A Premium For A Discount
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

I used the Name Your Own Price tool on Sunday, June 11. I was traveling to Blytheville, AR which is a very small town. I entered a bid of $69 for the only 3-star hotel in town. It was not accepted. I then bid $69 for a 2.5 star room (hotels like Hampton Inn/Comfort Inn) for 5 nights.

I received a room that was priced on their website for $54 with no verified Priceline guest reviews. This is unacceptable! Why would they "award" their customers a hotel that is of less value than what they are bidding?? I was then given the option of getting the difference in price. It is not enough to "give" them the price difference when they share their concerns. What Priceline has done is equivalent to fraud - giving something of lesser value that what was intended.

I spent over 2 hours with three customer service reps and I must say I have never been more disappointed in a company. I have used Priceline and the Name Your Own Price tool several times over the last 20 years with great results and have recommended the site profusely. This is the first time I've ever received a hotel where the rack rate is less than my bid.

I wanted to be treated like a valued customer and given the option of being able to pay the difference to get a decent hotel room. But, Priceline will be happy to know that all of the customer service reps stuck to their script and offered me nothing but a credit on the difference. Now, I get to travel to Blytheville with a nasty taste in my mouth for Priceline and get the pleasure of staying in a sub-par hotel. I will be sharing this experience with Priceline customers and I will review my stay on this website as well as others. Also, this will be my last transaction with Priceline.

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"Name Your Own Price"
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

I was planning a family trip to Hartford Ct, for 11/24/14 - 11/28/14. I used "The Name Your Own Price" option at Priceline to find a quality Hotel. The trip has had to be canceled, (11/4/14) 20 days in advance, so I called Priceline. Their response was "Sorry, that booking was non-refundable." So I won't be staying in the hotel at all, I paid 100% in advance, and I cannot get anything back?

I offered to pay a cancellation fee and their response was the same… "Sorry, that booking was non-refundable." Wow, what happened to customer service? I will NEVER use Priceline again. As a side note, the airline flights and car rentals refunded me a 100%... neither of those was booked through Priceline.

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Warning
By -

I would like to share a disappointment I recently had with Priceline.com that will hopefully serve as a warning to other travelers. As a retiree my wife and I have enjoyed traveling across the United States, internationally, and sometimes even close to home. For many years I have found utilizing Priceline.com's “Name Your Own Price” a great way to find quality hotel rooms at a discounted price. However, recently I had a very startling, and expensive, experience utilizing Priceline. Because of this experience and my exasperation with Priceline's customer service function about the issue, I will no longer use them under any circumstances.

Recently my wife and I, and another couple, decided to go to Palm Springs. Rather than it being just a day trip we all decided to plan on spending the night there. With those plans in mind I volunteered to make the hotel arrangements for two rooms stating that I “always had a good experience using Priceline.com's ‘Name Your Own Price.'” I went to their website and sorted through the selection options choosing a four star hotel with a “bid price” of $65.00 (plus tax) per room for two rooms, one night. I deliberately and intentionally did not select the “Resort” category because time would not permit us to utilize any of the resort facilities and we preferred a standard hotel for our stay.

My bid price of $65.00 (plus tax) was accepted, however, they had “upgraded” my selection to a resort (Hyatt Grand Champions Resort). When utilizing the “Name Your Own Price” feature you are committed to purchasing the room if your bid price is accepted and your credit card is immediately charged the accepted price plus tax, so one is “committed” to the hotel selection that accepted your bid price. Upon checkout at the Hyatt Grand Champions Resort we were accessed an additional $25.13 per room as a “per day, per room resort fee” which is a standard billing practice of the resort (which is one reason I deliberately avoided selecting a resort as an option when I made my original online selections at Priceline.com).

The addition of this “resort fee” significantly changed the per night cost of each room, an increase of 38.7% over the accepted bid price. Not only was I disappointed and upset about this additional charge, I was also embarrassed in front of the other couple as I had proudly boasted of getting a “great price” via Priceline.com. My calls and written communications to Priceline have obviously fallen on deaf ears… All their customer service function seems to be able to do is to read prepared text responses to customer issues and concerns. I feel the issue resides with Priceline and not the resort as Priceline guaranteed me the room(s) at the accepted bid price plus tax.

Priceline claims they reserve the right to “upgrade” whenever they so desire. This “reserved right” gives Priceline the opportunity to “bait and switch” whenever they so desire -- which is nothing more than a corrupt business practice on their part. If they allow their participating hotels to add on additional fees, etc. that are not known at the time of “bidding” you never know what price you will ultimately be paying for the room. What prevents a participating hotel from adding fees of $50.00, or even $100.00? Having failed to be able to resolve the issue of the additional “resort fee” charge with Priceline when a resort option was not selected, nor desired I find myself in the position of consumer choice.

That choice being to never use Priceline again but also to warn other travelers about the hidden “bait and switch” that Priceline pulls under the guise of an “upgrade” that can significantly increase the room price in a hidden manner. I have always defined a travel “upgrade” as being a nice plus without a price increase. Evidently at Priceline it means “let's get more money than we originally agreed to.” With Priceline.com's “Name Your Own Price” you are not naming your price, you are agreeing to letting them “upgrade” you into a room that is far, far more expensive than you thought you had an agreed price for.

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Consumer Fraud: Priceline Misleading the Consumers.
By -

Priceline advertises best price guarantee. You can save up to 60% when you Name Your Own Price on a hotel. When I saw the advertisement, I thought my dream would come true to save money on a trip. Then I submitted an initial bid $250 to bid a resort at Wailea area in Maui for 6 nights in August 2011. The median price at Wailea area is $569 per Priceline.com. I had searched before I bid. I found out that only 3 resorts available at Wailea area at Priceline.com. These resorts are:

(1) Wailea Beach Marriott $249 per night
(2) Grand Wailea, A waldof Astoria Resort $569 per night.
(3) Ho'olei At Grand Wailea $1495 per night.

I thought my chance to get Grand Wailea was high if I submitted the bid higher than $249. If Grand Wailea could not accept my bid, Priceline should give me a resort with retail price higher than $250. My initial bid $250 was accepted without any counter-offer. Unbelievable that Priceline gave me a resort, Wailea Beach Marriott, with retail price at $249. As a result, I am losing money to bid a resort. I paid more than retail price. I had no choice to get what resort I wanted even though I paid more. If I book a resort at retail price, I have choice to choose which resort I want.

I called Priceline several times but they refused to cancel the bid. They could only able to refund $1 per night back to me. Also, they refused to refund the tax and fees for $1 x 6 nights to me. However, I paid the tax and fees for the amount of $250 x 6 nights. Priceline told me that the vendor is the one to accept the bid. For example, vendor A (its retail price $100), vendor B (its retail price $400), vendor C (its retail price $500) all present at the bid. If the bid is $200, vendor A has the right to accept the bid even though its hotel retail price is $100 because vendor B and vendor C both are not interested at the bid $200.

Priceline is a public company with huge revenues. My $1750 means nothing to them. But it means a lot of things to me. I was raised up in a poor family. I ate the first lobster when I was 25 years old. I have to work every day in order to save money to my trip. I don't earn much because English is not my primary language. This is my first time to Maui. Now Priceline ruined my vocation. I promised my 8 years old daughter that mommy will bring her to a big resort with several pools and slides.

She was very excited and very happy at the beginning but now my dream cannot come true. She asked me why I did not book Grand Wailea. If I had money, I would book Grand Wailea at retail price $569. Since I have little money, I wish to use little money to bid my hope.

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Our Family Has Used Priceline for Many of Our trips... That Will Now Cease.
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

NORWALK, CONNECTICUT -- Our family has used Priceline for many of our trips... That will now cease. Priceline does not appreciate its customers nor do they care about delivering a high level of customer service. We booked through Priceline for our last trip and things were going smoothly until we reached our second hotel in our stay. SURPRISE! I now have $60 to spend on parking for this hotel. There is absolutely no free parking.

Nowhere did this disclaimer appear for this hotel on the itinerary or any way to deselect any hotels that do not offer free parking. For families who have planned out and budgeted their trips, this could be a big downer. If we would have stayed even longer, that price would be even more through the roof. The hotel stated it's Priceline's problem, not theirs. They said we need to fight it with Priceline so that they give us this money back. Priceline was called.

First employee was unhelpful. Said that somewhere in the 100000 word hidden contract it says that incidentals is not covered. Incidentals is VERY understandable, but PARKING is not an incidental. PARKING is a necessity in order to stay somewhere. It should have given us an option to opt out of paid parking hotels if that's the case rather than hide a stipulation into their contract that parking is part of an incidental??

Since this was unacceptable for us that they did not want to reimburse us or offer us any type of incentive, we requested a supervisor. Another employee was handed the phone. Under the impression we were speaking to a supervisor, we proceeded with explaining our situation again. Again, there was no desire to help us. They also said they weren't a supervisor and they have no supervisor to address our call. They told us we could write a letter via MAIL to the corporate office. When asked if they cared about our continued business, they basically beat around the bush and insinuated they didn't care and that it's our fault.

There were no kind words or incentives offered to make things right or to want us to stay a customer of Priceline. Everything that you will pay out of pocket that in real life are not incidentals, is your problem to deal with when you are already out of town. There's no management to oversee their employees on the phone or escalate an issue to. There's no customer service at all. In fact, they were pretty much outright rude on the phone and blamed us for everything.

Aren't customers always right? Or at least they should be made to feel that way even if they are not. Not to basically make us feel like they are untrustworthy and we are stupid to fall for their tricks. Never again will we use Priceline. We rather use a service where everything is disclosed right up front without any surprises on our trips.

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Read the fine print
By -

I have used Priceline.com in the past to book flights, hotels and car rentals. I have even had the thrill of getting what I considered to be some really good deals... up to 49% off the published rates on other "deal" websites. Unfortunately, I fell victim to the biggest pitfall with the Priceline process today. I had booked a car rental for an upcoming trip through Priceline. Unfortunately, the dates of my trip had to be changed - the client company that I was visiting had some schedule changes and could no longer accommodate the original date of our planned meeting.

I quickly called my hotel to change my reservations - no problem. I visited the Southwest Airline website to change my flights - no problem (but it did cost me some additional money due to the rate change). But when I reached out Priceline.com, I received nothing but problems. Because I had used the Name Your Own Price bidding module for my car rental, I was told that I could not change the reservation dates or cancel the reservation. How much sense does this make? I am being charged $76.05 (total price with all taxes a good price for a standard size car rental at BWI), but I am receiving nothing for my money.

The Priceline associates that I spoke with said, "You should have read the contract page more closely... There is nothing we can do to help you". I say - BOLOGNA!!! How can they charge a fee and not provide a service or product in return? I understand that I received the opportunity to "make my own deal" - but is it worth $76.05 to negotiate a deal and then not be able to take advantage of that deal? I am outraged and I will never use their service again.

In the meantime, I have had to reserve another car for the new dates of my meeting. I'm paying nearly 25% more because I had to book a car direct and not "name my best price"... So I am out both my original bid (with additional taxes) which totals $76.05 and I have to pay for another car. Buyer Beware! I, for one, will not use this service again until Priceline changes their policy on allowing changes to reservations.

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Name Your Price and You'll End Up Walking
By -

Like a good consumer I book my tickets in advance. This particular occasion booked a flight 3 months in advance for my soon to be mother in law so she could come and spend time with our newborn. Two months later, to the day, I get a call from a Priceline representative stating that the flights had changed so my tickets were longer good. He did say he was pleased to tell me he was able to secure a full refund... what?

I went on about how I booked in advance to ensure that I received the best deal possible and this was only $5 less than Southwest. (Only $5, but its better in my pocket than someone else's =0) And now 3 weeks from the departure I'm told I have no ticket and there is nothing they can do.

I said, "Her dates are flexible surely you can find alternate flights, we're open to other options (knowing finding a decent rate this late in the game would be tough)." He stated that the rules and regulations of the Name Your Price don't allow the change of dates. I asked whose rules, he said Priceline's... "So you're telling me you sold me a ticket, which you now cannot provide, and you are restricting yourself from finding me alternate flights when I'm being so flexible??"

A business with good customer service would recognize that they have messed up and take it upon themselves to make things right, even if it's at their own expense. So I asked for a supervisor, and got **. She stated the exact same things as if reading it from a script. She again let me know how lucky I was that I got a refund. Shame on you Priceline.

That's my story. To sum it up, I will be forced to pay for overpriced tickets because I trusted Priceline. Remember, that just because they charged your card and you have a confirmation which you are not allowed to cancel, it doesn't mean anything. If something happens, you are on your own...

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I Was Deceived By Priceline And Now They Won't Answer My Calls
By -

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA -- I recently went to Name Your Own Price for hotels on Priceline.com. I was looking for a hotel in Cabo San Lucas. It first asks me what area I want and then it asks me what level of stars do I want for my hotel. It was a last minute vacation for me and knowing that the economy has been terrible, I thought perhaps I could get a top notch hotel for a bargain price.

I chose 3 and half stars, 4 stars or 5 stars, knowing fully that I would most likely be turned down because of my low offer. What I didn't expect is that they accepted my offer. There is one problem. They gave me a 3 star hotel. I never chose the option for a 3 star hotel but Priceline seemed not to care how many stars I was comfortable with. I tried to call them on the matter with no luck. They transfer their phone calls to the Philippines, with trouble understanding them and their protocol answers - they told me there was nothing they could do.

Then I wrote one of the executives. His name is **. He wrote this statement to me: "We are sorry we did not provide you the answers you were looking for and we thank you for your time. Sincerely, Executive Offices." He never answered my question and my problem of how could they give me a 3 star hotel when I didn't choose the option for a 3 star hotel. They could have easily given me a 1 star hotel at this point - it just didn't matter.

It was unfair and completely ruined my entire trip. I felt that my hard earned money was thrown down the drain. I would have never named my own price if I knew Priceline was going to ignore the option that I had chosen. I did try and go to the hotel - very disappointed. No beach, broken Jacuzzi and endless noise. I went and spent my time on a couch at a friends resort. Thank you Priceline. If anyone has an idea of what to do next, please help a fellow consumer from being screwed by another big corporation. Thank you.

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Name Your Own Price is a Scam
StarStarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 2/51

Unfortunately, I have to agree with all the other negative comments regarding Priceline. We have been traveling for six months now and have used Priceline on many occasions. We have experienced everything that many others have complained about: you get the worst room in the hotel, often by the lift and vending machines, you are not able to specify what beds you would like and hidden charges for parking, etc. are not disclosed. Weighing everything up, we still thought it was worth taking a chance to help save on costs. However, the final straw was when we booked a hotel in Barcelona on name your own price. I bid $90 (plus tax, making a total of $107.86).

I then discovered the hotel we had been given only charged $73 (tax inc) for the same room!! I contacted Priceline and asked if they would be prepared to refund the difference but they aren't. This makes me feel that name your own price is a complete scam! The whole point is to hopefully get a hotel at less than the published price as you are taking a chance on not knowing which hotel you will get.

Priceline advertise that you can make savings of up to 60% on the published price with name your own price and I ended up paying 45% more! Goodness knows how many other times this has happened as we don't normally have reason to check. I am not prepared to pay more than the going rate for a normally sub-standard room. For this reason I will not be using Priceline again and would suggest that others use caution if using name your own price which clearly does not do what it claims to do.

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Priceline = Garbage.
By -

I am going to Las Vegas on Friday for my 24th birthday with my friend who shares the same birthday (she turned 21). I decided to use Priceline since William Shatner is their spokesperson and I didn't think he would put his name behind such a terrible company.

You know that adage, "The customer was always right?" Well Priceline has never heard of it. When I was making my reservation I was able to pick the location I wanted. I chose "ON THE STRIP". Seconds after submitting my price I got an email that my reservation had been booked in a hotel MILES away from the strip.

I immediately called in (within seconds of receiving my confirmation email). The representative was from a 3rd world country and barely spoke any English (of course). After explaining my situation to him he basically told me I was SOL and became very rude when I demanded that he fix this issue. He told me there was no way that he was going to refund my money and there was no way he was going to change my reservation to a hotel on the strip like I had requested.

I have booked a hotel through Travelocity now (ON THE STRIP) and it actually ended up costing me less than Priceline wanted me to pay to stay at a hotel OFF the strip. And I have placed a stop payment on the transaction with Priceline and they will not see a SINGLE PENNY from me. Never again.

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Priceline Name Your Own Price Rating:
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1.1 out of 5, based on 9 ratings and
24 reviews & complaints.
Contact Information:
Priceline
800 Connecticut Avenue
Norwalk, CT 06854
203-299-8000 (ph)
203-299-8948 (fax)
www.priceline.com
executive.services@priceline.com
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