Complaint Review: Priceline Pricline.com - Norwalk Connecticut

I attempted to purchase a Business Class ticket to Athens, Greece from Phoenix, Arizona on Priceline.com on Saturday, September 9th.

I was prompted to attempt "name my price" to save money on priceline. First, I made attempt to purchase a First Class ticket and named my price at $1750. My request was not accepted.

So, I then changed my parameters and selected a Business Class ticket instead and upped my price to $1785, also allowing for up to two connections instead of one.

During this purchase process, I was prompted THREE different times to select either First Class, Business Class or Coach Class from a drop-down menu.

As a result of changing my parameters to selecting Business Class and increasing my price to $1785, my offer was "accepted" and I was given a confirmation indicating that I saved $129 by "naming my price."

I immediately noticed on this confirmation page that my ticket was, however, a Coach Class ticket.

I IMMEDIATELY called pricleline and spoke to a man whose name has since escaped me. I expleained to the man that I was under the impression that I was purchasing a Business Class ticket. I was not about to pay $2000 for a Coach Class ticket to Athens, when the airlines themselves were pricing Coach Class tickets at literally half that amount. Why would I name my price at twice the amount it would cost me to buy a ticket that day from the airlines directly.

I asked the Priceline representative to please void the transaction that I had made literally MOMENTS before under deceptive and false pretenses by their web site.

The priceline representative was utterly unresponsive and basically robotic, and seemed to be reading from a script that began with a most apathetic "Unfortunately, Ma'am...We won't be able to void your transaction..."

I asked to be transferred to a Supervisor with the authority to void my transaction. This is not the ticket I was led to purchase, after all! I was trasferred to an astonishingly rude representative (not a supervisor, but a "travel specialist" I was told, by the name of "Brandy".

Later I was told by "Brandy" that her last name was not going to be given to me, but her employee number is 7051 and she works in the Pennsylvania office, she said. She also told n\me that her Supervisor's name was Jeffrey, but that she would not give me his surname and she "didn't know" his employee number.

Brandy went on to say that "it didn't matter anyway, because no supervisor was going to talk to me and if they did, they'd tell me the same thing: that I'm not getting my money back." She also said that i I wanted to take it further I could write a letter. She told me that she wasn't going to listen to me contimue to repeat myself, and then she hung up on me.

I wrote the letter and e-mailed it to priceline immediately thereafter. I addressed it to Ms. Lisa Gillingham, Snior Vice President of Customer Service at priceline.com. I thought she would be appauled to find out that her company representative was not only downright abusive, but that her company was unwilling to void my transaction, which was basically a misrepresented purchase.

I was dumbfounded. Never had I run across a company who was unwilling to void a transaction that happened literal moments before...let alone one that was delivering a product entirely different (not to mention worth HALF the value) from the product I was made to believe I was purchasing.

After three days of numerous and continuous attempts at contacting priceline's Executive Offices, I received a phone call from Katie Leilous in the Executive Offices at prilceline.

Though she was apologetic about the treatment I received from Brandy, the "travel specialist" she was still unwilling to void my transaction (even though it STILL hadn't posted to my Visa account.

I was told by Ms. Leilous in no uncertain terms that priceline would not refund my money because when you purchase airline tickets using the "name your price" you're getting Coach tickets and that's the way it works. Well, this was news to me. Maybe that's because I was totally misled throughout the process by which the web site leads you to purchase that I was getting a Business Class ticket.

I asked her to PLEASE take it to her higher-ups and explain my situation. Well, I don't suppose I have to elaborate what the outcome has been.

Today, Ms. Leilous informed me (as well as my daughter, who even attempted to plead with them on my behalf) that Ms. Gilligham was indeed aware of my situation and that Priceline is unwilling to do anything to rectify the situation.

At the VERY END of your purchase process using the "name your price" option on priceline, there is a disclaimer box with several terms and conditions in fine print that they ask you to initial to completeyour purchase.

Within the other terms and conditions usually associated and familiar with such an online purchase, they "throw in there" that this purchase is a for a "Coach" ticket. This, after you've been prompted three or four times during the process to SELECT whic cabin you'd like to purchase tickets for.

In other words, this disclaimer box is the online equivalent to going to a car dealership and being told that for $35,000 you'll get a BMW and being told that over and over and over again that you're buying a BMW. So then you give them your credit card and they quickly and cleverly say to you "sign here for your Geo" and slide it past you after having gone on and on about your BMW all along. Legal? I don't know. Ethical? Not a chance. Deceptive? You bet.

I literally was in tears on the phone with Ms. Leilous. My daughter also spoke with her and explained that I am a 70 year-old immigrant. My computer skills are banal. My health is poor. The process by which I was ultimately MISLED to purchase an economy class ticket was questionable and confusing at best, let alone for a first-time user of their web site. She didn't care.

The amount of stress that tehir refusal to what should've been a five-minute procedure to reverse my purchase and void my transaction has caused is inconceivable.

My daughter got absolutely nowhere with Ms. Leilous, either. Ms. Leilous told my daughter that Ms. Gilligham was indeed aware of my situation and was standing by her decision to keep my money. My daughter pleaded with Ms. Leilous to give Ms. Gillingham an urgent message to call her and attempt to resolve the situation with my daughter. She did not call back.

My daughter then wrote ANOTHER e-mail to Ms. Gilligham asking her to please call her TODAY to rectify the matter. She was also UTTERLY SCHOCKED at their unshakeable unwillingness to reverse my transaction; ESPECIALLY since I called them IMMEDIATELY after the transaction went through and I noticed it was not for the ticket that I purchased!

Well, now, twelve hours, a formal complaint to the Connecticut Attorney General's Office for Deceptive Practices in sales, another formal complaint to the Better Business Bureau, a Dipute claim with Visa, and a last report to ripoffreport.com later...and here we are: with priceline.com sitting on $2000 ofmy money for a ticket that I was misled to purchase and WILL NOT be using. It's not what they told me I was buying. Period.

I am thoroughly DISGUSTED with this company. They should be shut down by the government. And with con-artist sales tactics and mafia-like treatment by their employees, they will be. They should at least be forced to rename themselves "priceLIE.com" It's a hell of a lot more accurate.

Kiki

Scottsdale, Arizona
U.S.A.

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