Complaint Review: Priceline.com - Internet

My husband and I planned to take a road trip from 7/19.

In the early morning of 7/19, I used Priceline.com to book my hotel room for 7/19 and 7/20. (Note that I didn't "bid" the hotel room.)

The hotel for 7/19 is Best 5 Motel, and the hotel for 7/20 is Rodeway Inn Motel.

I written down the confirmation number of Best 5 Motel and printed out the confirmation for Rodeway Inn Motel. Then we departure from San Jose, CA to Monetary, CA around noon.

After sightseeing in Monetary area, we drove to Best 5 Motel and arrived there around 6pm. I told the front desk my booking number and last name, but the front desk said that she cannot find my reservation and explained to me that Priceline usually would fax the reservation to the hotel, but she received nothing. I further asked if she had a room for us and how much the rate is. She told me $180 for a room, which is almost the double of the price I got from Priceline reservation.

I called Priceline customer service and talked to its customer representative. He told me that my credit card was declined by Best 5 Motel. This is also impossible since I had used the same credit for the entire day and no one declined my credit card if there was a problem. I asked customer service why my credit was declined, but he cannot give me an answer. He simply said that Best 5 Motel declined my credit card. Since I had two hotel booking, I started to worry my booking of Rodeway Inn Motel. Thus, I asked customer service checked if my booking of Rodeway Inn Motel is confirmed. The customer service asked my booking number, my name, and my phone number, but no record can be found. He even told me that the confirmation number is 11 digits, but mine is only 9 digits. He said that he only saw one record of Best 5 Motel, but he saw nothing related to my second hotel reservation. He told me that my booking was not successful.  It means that we had no place to stay for two nights.

We decided to drive back home. I called my credit card company to verify if my card was charged and if my credit card was declined. The credit card company said that no priceline transaction and no decline record. Since priceline has ruined our vacation, I used traveladvisor.com to book my hotel for 7/20. I called my new hotel few times to confirm my booking. Then we went to bed with a peaceful mind at 7/19 night. We departure form San Jose again on 7/20 and stayed in the new hotel at that night.

I thought this is the end of the story. However, at the night of 7/21 (the third day of my vacation), I checked my credit card account on-line and suddenly found that my credit card was charged US$109.99 by Rodeway Inn Motel. I checked my email and got an email from Priceline which indicated that this US$109.99 charge was for no-show cancellation cost. I called Priceline and asked for a refund. However, Priceline told me that there is no record which indicates that my booking of Rodeway Inn Motel was failed.She transferred me to Priceline's sister company booking.com and had customer service of booking.com deal with me.  Customer service of booking.com said that, in the morning of 7/22, she will contact the manager of Rodeway Inn Motel to this issue. She cannot do anything for me at that moment, so I wrote a customer response and explained the entire process to Priceline by replying a customer service email.

At the night of 7/22, I received an email from Rukshan Parys at Booking.com Customer Service Team. The following is Rukshan Parys' email response:

"Thank you for choosing Priceline.com

I apologize for any inconvenience caused regarding this reservation. I kindly need more information regarding this issue. We are at the moment investigating the matter. Please kindly advise do you have any written documents from priceline informing you that there is no reservation at the Rodeway Inn Lompoc for July 20th. At the time of the booking we send you a confirmation with Trip Number and booking confirmation number, once you provide this details we are able to access your reservation.

We do not have any notes in the reservation or witht he reservation for best 5 motel your inquiring regarding this booking, if you have more information regarding this complaint we appreciate it.

Please feel free to contact us with any additional questions."

This is really ridiculous. Priceline ruined my trip, but Priceline dares to ask for the written document.

It is Priceline's customer service told me that my booking with Rodeway Inn Motel is failed.

I was very angry and called Priceline's customer service again. The telephone recording ot Priceline asked me to enter my reservation number. I entered 9 digit reservation number which is the only reservation number I received from Priceline. The telephone recording said that this reservation number is not valid since it only has 9 digits, not 11 digits. Then my phone call was hang up. I called the same number of Priceline customer service again and hoped that I can talk to a real person. The telephone recording of Priceline asked for my reservation number again, and I still only had 9 digits of reservation number. So, I entered this 9 digit reservation number again. Suddenly my reservation can be found in the database. How weird it is! Priceline customer service only told me that only Rodeway Inn Motel can issue a refund.

Priceline cannot do anything on it. This entire process indicates that Priceline cannot take responsibility and is totally not accountable on this issue.

Priceline causes this disaster and ruins my family vacation. Priceline didn't do anything except shirking its duty and asked me to deal with this case with Rodeway Inn Motel.

Priceline provides the platform between customers and hotels. No matter how, Priceline cannot be exempt from the liability for this incident.

Now this is the fourth day of my family vacation, and this problem has not solved.

I am still looking for a legal solution on it. Before taking any legal action, I will fully utilize the power of social network and tell everyone about it. Hope the power of social network can force Priceline.com go out of business.