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A major financial institution was promoting travel discounts, and automatically referred respondents to Priceline, as third-party reservation agent. I selected a hotel reservation which promised free cancellations or changes, and did not indicate any upfront payment. Priceline immediately charged my credit card for the full cost, and e-mailed a contract for a non-refundable, non-changeable reservation instead.
I called Priceline several times for correction. Its telephone representatives responded that, regardless of its pre-confirmation website representations, the post-confirmation contract was binding, without exception or recourse. Its agents stated that Priceline was tracking my challenge, and discouraged any continuation, in a tone which felt unfair at best and intimidating at worst.
I submitted a highly documented consumer complaint to that financial institution, which immediately responded, recognizing the importance of fair, reputable, and honest consumer treatment, even when referrals to third-party vendors. Public reviews about baiting with freely cancellable, changeable reservations and unilateral switching to fully paid, non-refundable, non-changeable ones were included.
Promise.pdf (175 KB)
My case was escalated to very senior levels at the major financial institution, which then contacted those at Priceline. Agreeing to a full refund, Priceline reportedly explained that this reservation switch was a technical bug, newly detected here and slated to repair. However, many recent online consumer reviews indicated that Priceline has already known about this switch, but benefitted by doing nothing.
I would not advise using Priceline at all, whereby similarly affected Priceline customers should consider a class-action lawsuit.