Letter about Priceline situation I had

I got an email from a reader whom had found my post that I did about Priceline.  I had a situation previously and had been given NO help whatsoever from Priceline, and posted how to actually get your situation taken care of.

She wrote me to say thank you for the post.  She said she had the same situation and had problems with a hotel that she got through Priceline.  They, again, did nothing to help her.  She found my post and within two phone calls, got her money refunded and situation solved!

I was sooo excited to read this email and know that it actually helped someone else!  I had such a horrible experience with it and didn't want anyone to have to deal with it for the whole day like I did.  I am so happy that it helped her out and never really thought that it would actually help someone!!!  Yay! =D

Back to Square Zero... How to cancel your bid reservation from Priceline!

I guess we have to totally disregard my post yesterday that the hotel has been booked and taken care of...because now its not...but I wanted to write about it in case anyone else has had problems about it...which...I think alot of people actually are...

So we bid right, and it got denied, and they offered us another hotel for $120 a night.  Well we read some of the reviews and realized that it is not on the strip at all, which we bid for one on the strip.  It does not have a casino, so when we stay at the casino late at night on the strip, we would have to walk back to the hotel late at night/early in the morning...and we read that the street to walk back to this hotel from the strip was dark and dangerous...

I called Priceline to try to get my reservation changed or canceled because I said I don't want to stay at a hotel where I would have to worry about our safety when we walk back at night.  The first person I talked to just basically was like a ROBOT and recited the "We can't refund or exchange or change the reservation at all." over and over and over again...so I asked to speak to someone higher up...

He transferred me, and "escalated" me to the customers resolution dept...I explained my situation again...safety, no casino, resort fee that was not explained or mentioned, not on the strip, price (it was the same exact price I found on another website)... Well he didn't cared, he said the same exact things the first person said...the robotic repeat of the same script OVER AND OVER again.

That just made me so ANGRY.  I told him I was frustrated and unhappy with the choice I was given and I haven't even started my vacation yet...I said so you expect me to go ahead and go on my vacation being MAD?  He just answered the same robotic sentence over again.  I said, "You're not even TRYING to help me, so I would like to speak to your manager."

He said this is already the most escalated dept you can speak to...I was like WHAT?!?  So....you don't have a manager?  He said, "I do"....and wait for this......

But my manager does not speak to the public!

I was speechless then...I said you know what...I'm going to find my own way.

I'm not even going to go into the details and the time we spend to try to get this resolved...needless to say, Priceline obviously do not care about their customer service skills at all and do not care about their customers!  But if you, or someone you know, has had problems with the same situation, this is what you need to do to get it resolved...

We happened to catch the Trump Hotel's manager on the phone when we called the 2nd time.  We explained to him our situation and our concerns...Without any blame or hesitation, he said, "Well, if you're not happy with what you got, there is no point for you to stay here, because I don't want you to be unhappy on your vacation."

Words of a truly SUCCESSFUL customer oriented businessman!  He said for me to call Priceline back and tell them that he approves our reservation being cancel without any penalties, and he said THEY (PRICELINE) DO THIS ALL THE TIME!  So they handle cancellations all the time!

If Priceline would've said to me, I'm sorry we can't cancel this on our end unless you have approval from the hotel...that would've been ok with me!  But they didn't, they basically said we can't override our system, there is nothing we can do....but yet the whole time there WAS something they could do!

So for all Consumers out there ~ BEWARE ~ if you have had this happen, now you know this is what you have to do.  And I WILL NOT ever use Priceline again ~ EVER!  Just because of their customer service, over something that could've been resolved so easily!  So please BEWARE and STAY AWAY!  There are way too many other competitors out there that you can use that will handle your business much better!

Hotel Booked - Vacation Booking half Accomplished

After weeks and weeks of planning, checking, and rechecking tickets and prices...the hotel is finally booked.  Looking at it as an after thought, I am not quite sure if we got a great deal or not...

My browser had bookit.com, travelocity, expedia, priceline, and some random airlines page constantly open so I can check everything...bookit.com actually had pretty good package price for both the flight and hotel together...but my friends wanted to try bidding for the flights on priceline to see if we could get it cheaper (after all the price increases).

If you've never done priceline bidding before, this was my first time, you see...you will need a credit card....you input in the bid that you want, rather its flights or hotels...if its hotel, the place, area, and the stars of the hotel that you wanted...and then you have to enter in all your information: name, address, phone number, credit card info.......and then you click purchase.

You have to make sure that the information and dates you input is correct because once you click purchase, they will tell you rather your bid is accepted or denied....and if its accepted your credit card is automatically charged, you don't get to cancel it...which was kinda what I thought...but thats not the case...

If its denied, they might come back and tell you another deal they can do...or just tell you that its denied and ask you to change some criteria and bid again....We spend almost four hours just bidding and looking at everything...so needless to say by the fourth hour we were so tired of it and just basically was like whatever, we'll just take whatever! lol

So we didn't get any good deals for our flights...but we put in $76 for a 5 stars hotel in Vegas strip vicinity North (two rooms)...we knew we weren't going to get it for $76...but wanted to try our luck and see if it comes back with anything...it came back denied but it said one of the five star hotel would accept it for $120 a night...We thought about it for awhile but decided to just go for it...since $120 a night for a 5 stars hotel seems pretty good.

We clicked agreed or purchase or whatever the button was, and it came back with our hotel information and itinerary...The hotel that we got was Trump...We looked it up and it looks pretty nice but its actually not on the strip...I think some reviews said that about 2 mins from the strip...and it doesn't have a casino on site...hm...I don't really gamble either but isn't the reason most people want to go to Vegas is because of all the action and excitement?

Then I looked it up on bookit.com and the hotel can be booked on there for average $154 a night...so we got it for a little bit cheaper but not that great of a deal I guess...but like I said, we were so tired I think we just didn't want to deal with it anymore...

So I guess we'll just see how it goes...updates and more realistic pictures after our stay there!