Yesterday I tried to make a reservation for an Xmas trip using Priceline. I found a pretty good fare and itinerary and tried to book it, but the system came back and said the fare was no longer available. I then tried a second time. On the third attempt I found a sub-optimal but acceptable ticket and bought it. I did this because they said I had 24 hours to cancel for any reason. Several hours later I found a much better itinerary on another site, booked it, and went back to cancel at Priceline. I sent them an email that they promised to respond to within 3 hours, but never got a response. This morning, 20 hours after I made the reservation, I call to cancel. Two levels of customer service tell me that I can’t cancel because the reservation was made in July. Huh? Maybe I had some old request I didn’t know about. I give up and contact my CC company, no charges in July (or August). I go to the airlines website and find my reservation with an issue date of yesterday. I also have the email from Priceline dated yesterday. So I call up again, I’m told the same story, and then finally get to the 3rd level of customer service. I’m on the line for another half an hour and then finally they say it’s OK, since I am calling within 24 hours they will allow me to cancel. Now through this entire process I’m relatively calm. But they make no attempt to apologize for making me be on the line for an hour, or insisting that I made the reservation in July, or me having to contact both the CC company and the airline.
Fuck them and fuck Shatner. I’ll never use them again.
From what I observe here on the dope, and in other places, this seems to be some kind of widespread new(ish) business model in the USA: Do/say anything to get them signed up and then don’t live up to your promises, stonewall as much as possible. Maybe most people just give up before they get to the ‘level’ (whatever that is) of service that can help them.
But it shouldn’t be surprising that businesses are realizing that if you keeping saying no, over and over, most people will eventually give up, and in these economic times, they’re using this tactic to hold onto revenue, whether it’s legitimate or ethical for them to do so.
I have never gotten a better deal through one of those sites, even though I have tried it more than once. Maybe I am a slow learner, but I will try them again next time - but won’t be too surprised if I don’t get much of a deal.
Yes, I read the OP. He spent a whole hour on the phone, and half of that is probably because he gave up and called back so he had to be escalated.
Frankly, it’s the same kind of disproportionate outrage you see all the time. Priceline messed up, sure, but it’s hardly the sort of thing one should really be up in arms about, posting on the internet and vowing to never ever use that fucking company again, unless one wants to look like a fucking idiot.
I ordered some shoes from zappos.com last night at 10:00 PM with the normal 3-5 day free shipping. This morning at 11:30 they arrived at my office, I’m wearing them now.
How many bad experiences does it take to point at a trend?
I had a similar sort of exerience last month, with a different company. Make you all kinds of promises when you place your order/sign up, totally disregard that promise, and then make you jump through hoops to get them to live up to their side of the deal.
I have no doubt at all that some companies use this tactic. I also believe that when when I’m put on hold for 10 minutes " so I can go check on this", several times during one phone call, that it doesn’t really take 10 minutes for them to say no, they are either handling other calls, or are hoping I will just go away.
No, it’s not all companies. It’s a small percentage. But it does happen, and when it does I do all I can to stop doing business with them.
