johnk

Yes, I think you are a good example of the kind of return customers they will get. But they will lose many others for being so inflexible, and refusing to help when there is no loss to them. In my airline instance, they were not at risk of losing anything, only cooperating with United by allowing the change. But, they were simply not interested. Their follow up email was just as careless. And re: the hotel - I booked the whole week for the very reason they should have cooperated on the refund...there was no other space available anywhere else. I did not want to risk not having a room, but for that same reason the hotel was willing to refund them and resell at a higher rate. Again, no risk of losing anything on their part, and again, a very inflexible policy where the customer does not come first. I have received good deals from them in the past, which is why I returned. But in the long run, for me as a business person where change is the rule, it's a very bad model. From their heady $300/share price 5 years ago, the stock has gone no where in the last couple years, and as more people have these kinds of experiences, and as the competition figures out how to take care of a customer, their early lead will slowly dissapate and they won't be able to support their internal structure. Trust me, I'm not the kind of person that whines about things, especially when I have been partly to blame. But in this case, when there was no downside to them helping, and they refused, I have to say something about it.

I may be somewhat of a new breed, but I'm a businessperson that does their own travel arrangments, and I like to try to find the best price for either myself or my client. But often with business, and sometimes even when it's not business, things change. But change does not work for Priceline, especially when you have used their so-called better price feature. I have two examples of why I will never use Priceline again. The first was when I booked a hotel through Priceline for a week long stay in Baltimore. I was attending a conference, and had additional business there. When my conference ended mid-week, I found that the other meetings got cancelled, and so I had three extra nights booked through Priceline that I did not need. I called Priceline, and they said they were unable to let me out of the last three nights stay, even though I would not need the room. When I asked, the customer service person said that they would not be able to get a refund from the hotel. I then went to see the manager of the hotel, who told me that they would absolutly refund the hotel amounts to Priceline so that I could leave early. They also felt it would be no problem booking the rooms again as it was the height of the season. Called Priceline back to tell them the good news, and they still said no. Obviously, Priceline wanted to keep their money, even though the hotel did not require and was willing to refund their part. Second experience was with airline flights. I used the name-your-price feature for a business trip to Vancouver, and finally got a price I thought might be worth the flexible scheduling (the price turned out to be no better than had I gone directly to United to book the fare - another lesson). After booking, a conflict came up that required me to fly out later in that day. United could not help make any changes, since it was done through Priceline, but said that they would be happy to put me on a later flight if Priceline gave the ok. I calle Priceline customer service, and they said that they cannot refund or change when you name your own price. I told them I understood that was their policy, but in this case, changing the ticket would not cost them anything, according to United who was ready and willing to change the time. They said that didn't matter, that was their policy. The end. I couldn't believe it, and wrote to them about it. They wrote back, thanking me for the letter, but again assuring me that no change could be made to their policy. Now, I have to completely reticket, since by not showing up for the first leg of the trip, it will cancel out the other half of the trip by United. I am out $465 because I cannot use that first leg of the trip, and because Priceline refused to help me change it, even when I offered to pay them whatever it might cost them to make any changes. Unbelievable. So my question to Priceline...how can you hope to maintain any sort of returning customers, when you have such an inflexible policy. And, how can you have such an inflexible policy when the reality is that things sometimes change, and people can not always know if they can make the time and date they originally set. And why would you be so inflexible, even when the customer is going to lose the entire amount, and has offered to compensate you for any additional costs? For these reasons, I will never use Priceline again, and I believe that their model is one that will eventually lead them to lose more and more business. This is a very short sighted approach by them, and for that reason I believe they will eventually fail and go out of business.