Comments on: Priceline.com Sucks, National Car Rental Swallows

By: Gabbar

Gabbar — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 02:22:22 +0000

Priceline has recently touched the 10 Billion market cap and has been added to the S&P 500 – an index representing our largest companies. They are doing extremely well as a company just so you folks have some perspective. Their profit numbers get better as the country, in the grip of a recession, tries to find cheaper ways to take vacations.
Note that I recently had some bad experiences with hotwire and was looking for blog posts for people who had bad experiences with either hotwire or priceline. So empathize with your problems. But dont fool yourselves – priceline is here to stay. Their model works. And more often than not, they have gotten me some great deals.

By: National Car Rental Invades Privacy

National Car Rental Invades Privacy — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:12:22 +0000

If you have any desire to protect your personal privacy, and to do business only with companies that respect you, you will not rent a car from National or their sister company, Alamo. Here’s why…

Try dialing any of National Car Rental’s toll free reservation numbers (ex. 800-328-1234) from a VOIP line, especially a SKYPE line, and you will get endless ringing. Nobody will answer. Why? Because, as I was told by a National “customer service rep”, “National needs your home and cell phone numbers to service you better”. Huh? Say what?
The truth is that National wants more detailed customer info so that they can sell it – you are aware that your personal info is worth money, right? – and also, of course, so that you have nowhere to hide from their marketing weasels.
If you call National – Alamo from a SKYPE number, all National captures is the SKYPE termination number, and your privacy is protected…and National apparently doesn’t like that.

So, rent Hertz and Avis.

By: Carl M

Carl M — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:23:01 +0000

Priceline really does suck! I booked a trip to Florida but had to change the tickets. They were good for a year so I was good. I tried to re-book the trip and I had to pay $150 per ticket and any difference between the fares. Fine. The bottom line is it was going to cost an additional $950 to re-instate the tickets. Total Priceline BS! I had to tell the moron Priceline rep what flight to pick because she just chose random flights with the same airline. I was able to book a flight on Southwest for $850 for the two. Dumb Azz Priceline people. People who work there are idiots. I won’t make that mistake again. Total BS company!

By: Brooke

Brooke — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:34:26 +0000

I booked a hotel with priceline.com several weeks ago and was told I would be staying with in a hotel comparable to a hampton/clarion inn. After they told me what hotel/motel I would be staying at, naturally I looked at the reviews. The reviews were AWFUL. They treated their priceline customers differently and gave them the most disgusting rooms they could find. I checked several travel review sites and kept finding the same information. I spent over 2 hrs on the phone with priceline trying to get a refund because of their “quality experience” guarantee posted on the website. Apparently, after you sign your contract/press book with them, that doesn’t count anymore. That’s just a teaser to get you to book with them. They kept saying they couldn’t do anything about it because I signed a contract and they weren’t allowed to transfer me to a supervisor, This quality experience guarantee is not mentioned anywhere in the contract that you agree to, supervisors aren’t allowed to take customer calls, etc. I politely told them that if they weren’t able to help me at this moment, then they could just sit there and wait until they were. So, I waited, and they waited and tried to get me off the phone. I made them stay and wasted as much of their time as possible. They transferred me 2 times and the last guy hung up on me. So, I called back and told them that a family member had died. They simply asked for the funeral home name/number and name of the relative. I simply pulled up a funeral home and gave them a name off of their obituaries page. She put me on hold to check with a supervisor and I had an email that my refund would be issued within 2 minutes of my phone call ending. Bottom line…DO NOT under any circumstances book with priceline. Any deal that is sounds too good to be true probably is unless you are just an unusually lucky B@st@rd. BUT, if you have already made the mistake of booking with them and find yourself in a situation that is less than appetizing, DON’T call and argue or use logic with them to try and get out of the contract. It does NOT work. Just call and use a death excuse and have your legit funeral home information ready. Save potential blood pressure spikes for something more worthy than a cheap and crooked company. Regardless of how old this post is when you come across it, please heed my advice and learn from my experience.

By: Dar

Dar — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:06:59 +0000

Thank you so much for all the info about Priceline. You just saved me a lot of aggravation. I am not even going to try to use their service.
Thanks again everyone.

By: Traveler35

Traveler35 — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 04:47:45 +0000

I agree about Priceline’s deceptive business practices. I booked a 3.5 star “Name your own price” hotel deal on Priceline. I got Embassy Suites at a decent price and thought I had gotten a pretty good deal. However, what Priceline does not tell anyone is that they often work out deals with these hotels that are for their sub-standard rooms. At Embassy Suites, this meant a closet sized room with one twin bed, no table or desk, tucked away in a corner of the hotel. I didn’t even know Embassy Suites had such a room! Shame on you Embassy Suites and Priceline!!!

By: sandrar

sandrar — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:53:17 +0000

Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. Cheers! Sandra. R.

By: Anna

Anna — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:29:14 +0000

PRICELINE.COM is a scam! Do not even think about booking with them. If you do, your vacation will be ruined! They are nothing but a bunch of thieves! I am about to have my credit card company dispute a car rental that is the only way you can get your money back. SO BEWARE!!!

By: Alice

Alice — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:37:54 +0000

I too had a bad experience with PL. I filled the bid out to pay $20.00 for a compact car.
Then it was accepted , when I click to the final contract it stated I had bid 25.oo a day. May seem like small potatoesto some ,so I contacted them (PL) and the same treatment “to bad.”
How can you submit the bid for one price and they charge you another ? Shame on them! Their customer service reps are rude and
brass a..holes. I’ll certaninly tell everyone I come in contact what happened and to stay away from PL…………

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 17 May 2009 03:25:54 +0000

There is NO benifit to dealing with the priceline crooks, they will get you any way they can…
i had to cancel a motel stay and they still dinged me. They are crooked and i will never go near anything they are near again… and be sure all i talk to knows……

By: Aaron

Aaron — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:35:12 +0000

Since I always book flights on priceline, I thought I’d try the rental car too, but since i’m 23 its would not let me book my rental car along with my flight, PRICELINE said i had to “bid” on a rental car, So I did that, and PRICELINE made a counter offer which I accepted. Please note** PRICELINE said there will be extra fees if you are under 25, THEN had me put in my age…THEN i received my estimate. One would assume since i put my age in PRICELINE would add those extra fees…. I received my itinerary, and thought everything was good… upon arriving at the omaha airport (at 12:30 AM) I find out my Estimate was $200 dollars off, what kind of estimate is over 300% off?!?!? I paid close to $286 rather than PRICELINE estimated fee of $86!

I am Disgusted with you service, I CANNOT afford to pay an Extra $200,

Thanks PRICELINE (the thanks is sarcastic)

By: Kent B Leave

Kent B Leave — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 02:38:17 +0000

Made reservations through PL. Unfortunately things changed. My mother -in-law needs constant attention and the people we had set up to watch her backed out for those dates. They will be here the following week. I call PL to see about moving my reservation. Same number of days and accommodations just different dates. Nope, can’t do it. Cancellation? Sure go ahead but we keep all your money. They were told our predicament but made no attempt to work with us. Never again.

By: Tess

Tess — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 19:51:30 +0000

Renting through Priceline is like playing Russian roulette. We prepaid a car when we flew to Maui and got an Alamo rental to accept our bid. We came in late at night tired and foggy headed. Apparently, our contract could not be brought up with Alamo’s computer even by the night manager. We were the only ones left in the whole reception area. The manager, a fraudster called Mr. Allen, said he needed to create another contract for a dollar and wanted another credit card so he can release the vehicle. Mark, he said he needed to charge us a dollar. Trusting tourists that we are we agreed just to get to our hotel. He even offered us an upgrade which we were pleased about since we waited for a long time to resolve this problem. He said not to worry he will fix everythig. And he did! He charged us with a NEW contract for the upgraded vehicle for the full amount without even deducting the previous prepaid contract. We got stuck with two paid contracts for the same dates and this we only realized when we arrived home. My husband did sign the second document as it was flipped to the last page since the manager said this was only for a dollar. After a lot of anxiety, phone calls, frustrations and time, the President’s Choice Mastercard credit company refused to refund the second charge after talking and forwarding documentations to them for a period of four months. We wrote a registered letter to the manager of Alamo Maui and got no response. I went to the Alamo.com website and clicked on their customer service icon and wrote my plight providing the receipt numbers for both transactions and also telling them we wrote the manager. We finally got a positive reply and they did refund us the full amount of the second contract written up by the manager.

Who the heck can you trust anymore! But the lady who responded to our customer service complaint apologized and acted within 48 yours of our initial complaint.

But with all the aggravation, I don’t think you want to shoot yourself in the head ala Russian roulette!

Priceline and Alamo and National need to clean up their act. Blaming the customer aint the solution because we are the customers and everything must be transparent to us because we keep them in business!

Having gone through this aggravation, I can understand why some people here say “They can all go to hell!” Someday they will.

By: Gig

Gig — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:48:40 +0000

I just purchased airline tickets via priceline.com so I will remain vigilant during my business relationship with them and will NOT rent any vehicles through them.

Author – Kudos and thanks for the warning. I can assure you that your efforts have cost them at least the profits of one customer.

Matt (from pl.com) – you’re an ass-clown.

By: Karen

Karen — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 04:50:43 +0000

I am glad Iread these blogs, I just had a similar situation with Hotwire, still a little irritated with the whole thing. I’ve been pricing airfare for April for a month waiting for my employer to approve a family vacation. I was getting prices of $208.00 for a direct flight round trip. Last week I noticed the prices going up so I panicked because I have this problem with listening to everyone else. (Prices are going to start going up due to vacations) Well I stayed up past midnight searching every airline, website ect hoping to find a better deal, Hotwire was the cheapest by a few bucks. So I booked airfare for my family for $326.00 each. I am now looking for a rental car and for the heck of it I checked what the airfare was going for which is a week later to find it went back down to $208. ea round trip. Needless to say I was screwed $320. which could gone towards my rental car. I immediately called Hotwire to see if I could absorb some of the cost I had incurred but they said no because they are out to save you (the consumer) money, Not sure where I saved but I am not impressed. If I could have cancelled my airfare and rebooked it I would have but with Hotwire once you book your stuck! Lesson learned (read the fine print and the complete contract)

By: Downey

Downey — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 22:05:36 +0000

I have so far had fair experiences with Priceline, on hotel rooms and car rentals. I think you can get a good deal not a great deal, as the 4 star hotels I bid on don’t have the highest customer satisfaction that others in the area have. That is why there taking my $65 bid on a $220 room.
As for the car rental Priceline’s price is way too high, so when they tell you to bid 30% less they are still higher than you can find elsewhere.
I still use Priceline but I do a lot of preparing before I bid, using Trip Advisor and betterbidding and don’t expect to really get a $220 room for $65. I feel I’m getting a very good 3 star room valued at about twice what I bid.
I have had occasion to call them to try to change a pickup time on my car, not a chance they told me to call National which I did and again not a chance “you have to call Priceline”. Just be well advised and you will do alright.

By: ann

ann — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:47:13 +0000

Thank you for all this info. I was looking into using priceline but no thanks sounds to complicated

By: Fran

Fran — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 05:24:05 +0000

Priceline is a joke, they are dishonest and fall back on their contract that most people fail to read. My family and I went through a horrible experience with a hotel they rated as a two star hotel. The hotel was like a bad movie. The tub had hair in it, the coffee cups and coffee maker were in a layer of dust. The heating and a/c unit was unusable, because we were afraid of the dust and dirt that would come out of it if we turned it on since it was obvious that no one had change the filter or cleaned the thing in months. The elevator at this hotel had some type of body fluids smeared on the walls and control and really the hotel clerk and owner did not show any type of surprise when we were describing the condition of the room…Everyone needs to call the health department when you are exposed to conditions like this. Priceline would not refund our money and the owner of the hotel said he was never going to refund the money since we did call the health department. Your issue has happened several times and in different ways before. There are stories of flights being canceled because of weather, and Priceline will not back the consumer up. Funerals and deaths in the family, and they still don’t give a hoot.
I also went to the Better Business Bureau and Consumer Affairs, to complain, and leave a record of their dishonest practices, In addition I went to the Travel advisor web-site and told the story again. …Any where I can go to save consumers from this ridiculous company…I have spent well over 50 hours investing this company, so way over the $119.00 price of this ghetto room they were charging us for. I don’t see how Priceline stays in business.

By: John

John — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:49:12 +0000

Priceline has its pros and cons, for sure. I use it for about 90% of my hotel rooms, 50% of my rental cars, and 5% of my flights. I feel there is good reason for doing so.

In general, do not use Priceline to buy anything, until you are fully experienced with buying the same thing directly. Don’t use them for airline tickets until you’ve flown a lot without them. Don’t use them for hotels until you’ve bought a lot of hotel rooms directly. Don’t rent a car through them until you have rented a lot of cars, preferably from all 5 of the car rental companies they use.

Sometimes being in a frequent-traveler program of the company will save you from trouble if you got to them via Priceline. If you had already rented from National, you would have known if/what National charges you for underage. If you had National Emerald Aisle status or a valid corporate-travel code, they might waive fees even on a Priceline rental (the key is to ask before bidding!) or you might have found an advocate to take your side if something odd happened. Being charged an underage fee at the counter is not odd.

As far as rental cars go, if you’re under 25, or have only a debit card, or are worried about how much they put a hold on your credit card for, or anything like that, here is my advice. They only use 5 rental car companies (and that is if you consider National/Alamo to be 2) so I would have called each and every one of them to ask about the <25 fees, and 10 other questions, before bidding.

The major rental companies DO NOT generally charge you ANYTHING if you show up on a conventional reservation (not prepaid, just a reservation) made directly with them.

Considering that the price differential between a company’s own site with known terms/conditions, isn’t usually big enough to justify dealing with a random selection from 5 companies, unless you know all 5 have good terms for you.

I’d even call each company 3 or 4 times, to make sure that who I talked to, had the right answers, or find a direct contact who would help if you ran into trouble.

For hotels, the key is to know what star levels they have in each check-boxable area (associated with a destination city), carefully look at the map of each area, and preferably have some idea of which hotels they use in that area. You can get good clues by looking at what hotels they offered before you went to name your price. Then strategize on how to get the most bids in without ending up in an area/star combo you don’t want. If you frequently visit the same city, you’ll learn what area/star combos get you what hotels for what minimum bids if enough space is available for them to be taking their minimum that night.

Priceline is also great for cars if you stick to the 5 basic car categories (economy through full) and are age 25+. It is a bit iffier for a category like SUV, where the rental companies have several categories of SUV but Priceline doesn’t differentiate between them. My only SUV rental from them ended up with a nice Highlander from Hertz, albeit 2WD, when I’d been hoping for a Blazer/Explorer/Cherokee 4WD. I’m crossing my fingers on another SUV rental I have upcoming from them, with National.

For flights, Priceline is a huge risk, which I rarely take. Not knowing what time of day either leg will be, is a huge drawback. The one time I did it, I got good flights but slept through my return-flight time. I just kept calling Delta until I got a sympathetic agent willing to do a $25-fee change to let me get home, rather than just saying too bad.

By: welch

welch — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:40:27 +0000

I am so glad I read the blogs, I was about to book a car with Priceline and now I do not want anything to do with them now that I’m INFORMED by people who used them. You did save one person. Thank you all for your comments.