[gr8aunt]

I had a weird bidding experience last night. Bid first choice zone…rejected. Added first free zone, re-bid and after the usual wait, instead of getting the normal rejection page, up popped the non-opaque Priceline screen listing all the hotels in that city. There was a yellow bar at the top of the page that stated: Thank You for Naming Your Own Price – Unfortunately, we can't accept your offer. During our search, however, we did find special priceline rates available for your travel dates at the hotels shown below. There was no way to get back to the Name Your Own Price screen without closing my browser and starting over again. Oh, forgot to mention that when I hit my back button in my attempt to return to the original bidding screen, there was a never before seen page with a message stating that Priceline was still searching my bid and to click on an orange colored button in 15 minutes. Which was odd, since the non-opaque screen message already stated that my offer was rejected. I didn’t have the patience to wait the full 15 minutes and after 5 minutes clicked the button only to have the same non-opaque Priceline screen pop up. This occurred 4 times in a row…very frustrating!

[thereuare]

As recently posted in another thread:

thereuare, on Jun 13 2009, 09:04 PM, said:

Sometimes PRICELINE will direct you to their "retail" screen... since you just placed a bid, they know you need a hotel room, and since you were unsuccessful with your bid, they're cross marketing their retail service in hopes that you'll buy a hotel from them thru that side of their service.

Although not the intention when created, many have found the PRICELINE search box on the top right of the page convenient to use in these situations. If you're re-directed to the 'retail' section of the PRICELINE website, or you need to close the browser and re-access PRICELINE in order to 'clear' previously added zones, our search box keeps all your city and date information, so you just need to click the GO button again to resume your bidding, rather than needing to re-enter all your destination information.

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

[gr8aunt]

Thanks, thereuare. I did use the search box to re-access PRICELINE. I was just annoyed that I had to close my browser at all and couldn't understand why Priceline didn't offer any way to return to the bidding screen so I could up my bid. Believe me, these little annoyances are well worth it once I get a winning bid! I discovered this board last year and so appreciate the help and support I have gotten here. I tell everyone I know to use Betterbidding as it has been an invaluable tool for our travel planning...many, many thanks for all you do!

[tess]

gr8aunt, on Jul 1 2009, 02:26 PM, said:

Thanks, thereuare. I did use the search box to re-access PRICELINE. I was just annoyed that I had to close my browser at all and couldn't understand why Priceline didn't offer any way to return to the bidding screen so I could up my bid. Believe me, these little annoyances are well worth it once I get a winning bid! I discovered this board last year and so appreciate the help and support I have gotten here. I tell everyone I know to use Betterbidding as it has been an invaluable tool for our travel planning...many, many thanks for all you do!

I had a similar experience. After I got this message about my bid not being accepted, I was unable to change the area or bid amount. Closing the browser didn't help. When I re-opened I got a message that I wasn't allowed to bid anymore.
I found it very annoying. Is this something new?