warren s.

I will never do business with Priceline again. Over the last 5 years I have purchased motels and cars from Priceline with average satisfaction. They honored their side of the deal and gave honest descriptions of the product and I honored my side of the deal and paid. That being said.
The measure of a company is not how it deals with every day business but how it deals with those rare occasions when every thing goes wrong. When the time comes that something goes wrong and the customer has to rely on the integrity of the company the true honor of the company is exposed. That being said.
I can say that my experience with Priceline is the company has no honor and definitely does not have the customers back.
On February 15th I rented a room at the Howard Johnson in Vero Beach Florida. We were moving to Florida and needed a room till the 26th while we closed on our house and got it ready to move in to. Our daughter was with us and because of the cost of eating out we chose the Howard Johnson because it advertised a kitchen. Because of problems we arrived at the Howard Johnson on the 17th but because be already had the room we were fine with paying for the 2 days we were not actually there. It was our fault we were late. We arrived late and on the 18th I spoke to the clerk at the front desk about the fact that our room had no kitchen as advertised. He said, "none of the rooms have kitchens". The fact that the Howard Jonson could not supply us with a kitchen created a significant financial burdon on us so on the 20th I went to the clerk explained we were checking out because the kitchen they had advertised was not available at that motel. The clerk apologized admitted the Priceline add was wrong but said I would have to contact Priceline for a rebate for the six days I would not be at the room.
I contacted Priceline, for the first time and explained the problem at this time Priceline started documenting my complaint. The Priceline rep after a lengthy conversation admitted that the add showed that the motel had a kitchen but did not "guarantee" a kitchen. He went on to state that he would contact the motel and if the motel would do a reimbursement they would return my money. I was then informed that a manager was not at the motel so the motel could not authorize the return of the money for the days I did not stay at the motel (21st till the 26th).
This first conversation set the ground work for how I measure the HONOR of PRICELINE. The basic message was: One, yes your right, our ad said "Kitchen"; Two, yes you paid us based on the adds statement of a "kitchen"; Three, our add said there was a kitchen but our add does not say we "guarantee" a kitchen. Therefore we will not return your money UNLESS the motel is honorable and gives us the money back.
At this point the company "PRICELINE" has exposed it's corporate honor. First, it is not an advocate of the customer because it is willing to hide behind waffle words like "guarantee" even when the add it places in the public view is misleading. An honorable company would have said, we are sorry we will correct the problem and thank you for bringing this discrepancy to our attention. "Your money for the last six days of your stay will be put back on your account." No questions asked other they the showing that the ad on Priceline was misleading. Second, Priceline's corporate philosophy is exposed, that philosophy is "we don't take responsibility".
If you were doing business with a man and he lied to you about the product he was selling and then hid behind the word "guarantee" and then said if Joe will pay me back and I'll pay you, would you think he was honorable or another self centered con man? I believe that you would say the man was a self centered con man who had no honor and who's word you could not trust. A company like Priceline must be held to the same standard.
Priceline in this transaction showed that it has no corporate honor and I will never do business with them again.
There are hundreds of companies that offer the same service as Priceline I would recommend and will recommend in the future that Priceline is a corporate con man and should not be given the gift of your business.

Have built points with MyPoints for years and now want to use my points. I log on and the web site recognizes me and says I have X points and then when I try to redeem my points they kick my to a loop that says they don't know who I am and I have to verify my ID when I verify they don't recognize me. OK these things happen. Starting months ago I use their service contact and email them. NO response repeatedly. Today completely fed up I decide to call their service people. Big surprise no phone number! These people hide their phone number like a cobra hides it's kill! So I have a problem and I need to communicate with a human. Simple fact with MyPoints that will be impossible. Avoid this company like the plague, find another shopping portal there are many good ones such as the ones attached to American Airlines and American express.
Tom Sedar
Very Very mad customer of my points.com