Priceline have me dangling by a thread and don't know what to do.

vicshippers

Sounds like you've got it all sorted feesh, have a good time.

isplumm

feesh wrote: »

You've hit the nail on the head there Ollie's Dad! There's no breach of contract unless I get turned away from the hotel and frankly, I don't want the hassle of that happening. We are getting there quite late at night.

I have been on the phone to Priceline again this morning and they were useless. Said there was nothing they could do as they were "still researching my problem" and therefore cannot refund me.

If this was an English company I would be more empowered to sort this out (at least I would have the worst-case option of driving to their offices to pay them a visit in person), but as they are based in the US I feel very hopeless - I will definitely be writing a letter of complaint but I am not expecting results after my experiences with them so far.

I also just rang the hotel in Brussels - definitely NO record of my booking, although they do have availability now for all the nights we are there.

However, I snapped up a bargain on the Expedia website yesterday as a back up option - it is now too late to cancel this now (I had to cancel it by midday today if I wanted my money back) so I am just going to go with that option instead. I am £120 down and a little wiser from this whole experience. I will not use Priceline again, or any other company which does not have a strong UK presence.

I will be pursuing the matter with my credit card company (s75 claim) and possibly travel insurance but anything I get back now will be a bonus to be honest.

I am pretty sure this whole mess is the fault of the hotel, not Priceline, but at the end of the day Priceline customer services weren't there for me when I needed them to step up to the mark and I won't be using them again. Their call centre is an exasperating experience, to say the least.

Hi,

How can you claim via your CC ... after all priceline haven't broken their contract yet .... I would have arrived at the hotel, then if they had no booking for you - pay for the 3 nights & claim it back from priceline .....

Mark

Foggster

Am I assuming Feesh you are hoping for a romantic weekend away? I think you have done the right thing and I hope you get your money back. Who wants to be arguing their rights on a romantic weekend away? Blooming contract law and all its "not broken the contract yet......" its not very romantic now is it!! LOL

Hope you have a wonderful weekend and I am sure your partner/spouse will appreciate you not sticking to your guns and preparing for a confrontation when you arrive late at night and the chance some other cupid couple got to the vacant rooms before you!

Happy Valentine!

view

peachyprice wrote: »

All hotels are non-smoking now, by law;).

Believe it or not, this is not actually true. Hotels can still choose to offer smoking bedooms, or rather bedrooms where you can smoke in I have been in Irealnd, Scotland and England in the past 6 months and have been asked on check-in if I would like a smoking or nonsmoking room. Was a bit surprised and queried how this could be, I assumed with the smoking ban all rooms must be nonsmoking. Was told that it's up to the hotel!

Also, for OP I have booked with priceline before. I received an email within 24 hours confirming my reservation with the hotel's reservation number. I know it's not helpful for this occasion, however, if you dont' receive an email within 24-48 hours of any booking you should chase this up.

Hoping it gets sorted for you.

feesh

GoldenJill wrote: »

Also, for OP I have booked with priceline before. I received an email within 24 hours confirming my reservation with the hotel's reservation number. I know it's not helpful for this occasion, however, if you dont' receive an email within 24-48 hours of any booking you should chase this up.

I did get this email just a few hours after making my booking back in December - it was meaningless at the end of the day though.

By the way, to the rest of you who have kindly supported me on this thread, you might be interested to hear that I finally heard from Priceline on FRIDAY NIGHT via a very helpful email confirming my room availability for Thursday night....about 36 hours too late then!

By the time this email arrived, we were halfway through our stay at our much nicer Expedia bargain hotel and I will never use Priceline again.

hollydays

what a nightmare,glad you got it sorted out.

bingo_bango

peachyprice wrote: »

Ah, very true, it was supposed to change 1st Jan 2010, but they may have moved the date.

I forget that it's only us here in the UK who follow the EU rules to the 'T'.:D

You haven't been in Blackpool lately then