Showing posts with label Priceline. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Priceline. Show all posts

Monday, July 02, 2007

Instead Of PriceLine, Well, Don't Use PriceLine

PriceLine. You know. It's the online hotel and travel website best known for being represented by William Shatner of Star Trek. But I've had a bad experience with PriceLine and because of it I can just tell you I consider it to be a fraud, period.

It's better to use a firm like Hotel Reservations.com, which promises Cheap Hotelsbut without the bait-and switch that Priceline gives you. In a matter of time, maybe Shat will switch to Hotel Reservations.com.

Why not?

Don't you think it's better than going to PriceLine and signing up for a hotel you're supposed to get, only to have another one?

Geez!

Well that's what happened to me. I'll never forget it and it explains all of those websites that label PriceLine as a fraud. Watch out there!

Think I'm kidding?

Look at this:

Today I had some real fun and wrote formal complaints against priceline at

- The Federal Trade Commission(FTC)
- The FBI Internet Fraud Complaints Center (FICC)
- The National Fraud Center
- National Internet Fraud Watch (NFIC).
- The Better Business Bureau of Conneticut
- First National Bank of Omaha

So what happend? I just experienced fraud on the internet.

My frist mistake was that I decided to try something new by purchasing a hotel stay through priceline (confirmation number 63260917). However, I was also charged a $15 additional 'travel insurance' fee even when I did not requested it. I contacted priceline and was only verbally abused by a person who called himself agent 7399. After spending almost one hour on the phone (mostly on hold and in a maze of recorded messages), they refused to refund anything and was extremely abusive. The first 'agent' also refused to transfer me to a manager and stated that only a colleague was available. This person was equally rude and did not let me finish a single sentence and 'told me off' in no uncertain terms...

It quickly became clear that this was pure intimidation and fraud and the 45+ minutes on hold was clearly designed to discourage any requests for refunds.

Instead, agent #7399 claimed that I had selected to buy the travel insurance. I asked him how he could make such a claim, when I called him within 20 minutes after receiving an email confirmation about the overcharges. He simply told me that they had good systems and I should 'trust him'.

In short, I was taken subjected to a $15 theft and was being yelled at for simply protesting.

I am not an investor activist yet, but I will become one if needed...