Complaint Review: Priceline.com

Priceline.com misleads buyers by soliciting travel preferences prior to a transaction, but not disclosing specific travel arrangements until after acceptance. These travel arrangements, whether acceptable or not, then become binding and provide no flexibility whatsoever.

Tickets purchased with Priceline.com for travel to Phoenix, AZ. meant 12 hours between airports, by way of Salt Lake City, Utah, and arriving in Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport at midnight. Normally travel to Phoenix is no more than a 2-hour trip for us.

Upon contacting Priceline.com customer service immediately after learning of our itinerary, in an attempt to discuss issues and options, the representative was rude and uncompromising, indicating that our flight arrangements were a closed end transaction. We also received the same response in subsequent communications with Priceline.com corporate headquarters.

Critical disclosures warning an individual who may be unfamiliar with Priceline.com tactics that "you get what you get," regardless of suitability, were not evident until a frantic search of Priceline.com's website for some type of recourse.

Unfortunately Priceline.com refused to cancel the credit card transaction after being disputed with Citi Card Customer Service. Needless to say, as a result we also cancelled our account with Citi Card.

In the end, we were forced to purchase replacement tickets for our travel, and the Priceline.com tickets went unused. I suppose Priceline.com may be ideal for those that have total flexibility, for the rest of us they're totally impractical.

Obviously, Priceline.com is a perfect example of why the buyer must beware.

Chuck
Sacramento, California