geoherb

My $62 bid for a 4* hotel in the downtown zone of Miami was accepted by the Hyatt Regency. I had already mapped out my strategy of rebids and ended up not having to use any. Used the PRICELINE link from here. Thanks for the great website.

I guess I'm latest casualty of Sherryl. I think my ban was for posting that I successfully challenged a Priceline charge on my credit card. I guess she did not want people to know that was possible. I'm glad to have found this forum, where the admins are interested in letting everyone share info.

I added a post about my winning bid to the North Carolina section. The important thing to note is that the Crowne Plaza at the time I bid was not inside the shaded area of PRICELINE's map. Priceline has now changed its map to include the Crowne Plaza.

My $88 bid per night for two nights (second Saturday and Sunday in July) was accepted by PRICELINE for a 3* hotel in the downtown zone. The total with taxes and fees was $205. I got the Crowne Plaza. Unfortunately, I discovered that the hotel was outside the shaded area of Priceline's map. I tried to get Priceline to cancel my reservation. After going around and around with them, I gave up (since I was already on the road) and ended up using the reservation. After getting back from our trip, I tried contacting Priceline again. I finally noticed that they had changed the shaded area of their map to include the Crowne Plaza. I offered a settlement with them--I would take a 25 percent refund. If they would not offer this, I told them I would dispute the charge on my credit card. I ended up disputing the charge, sending my credit company details of all my contacts with Priceline. It took almost three months, but my credit card company finally upheld my dispute and told me I would not have to pay the $205. PRICELINE could have saved themselves and me a lot of grief if they had just admitted their mistake immediately and cancelled the reservation since it was clearly outside the zone at the time.

In July, I bid successfully for a hotel. When I looked at the map, however, I noticed that the hotel was outside the shaded area shown on Priceline's map. I called the 800 number immediately. The reps there could not cancel my bid. I sent an email to Priceline's Executive Offices that day. I received an email back disagreeing with my contention that the hotel was outside the shaded area. When I called the Executive Offices, I finally got someone to agree that it looked like the hotel was outside the shaded area--but that she could not change anything about my reservation. Subsequent email exchanges with Priceline also proved fruitless. It looked like I was stuck outside the zone I was bidding for. So, we went and stayed at that hotel. It was inconvenient to get to but was a 3* hotel. All in all, not that bad an experience--but still not great knowing that we had gotten stuck by Priceline outside the zone I was bidding on. One of my suggestions to Priceline was that if they wanted that hotel to be included all they had to do was extend the shaded area on the map so that other people would not be misled. They ended up taking my advice. The shaded area now includes that hotel. After our trip, I decided to give Priceline another chance. I sent them an email offering to accept 25 percent off. I received the auto-reply letting me know Priceline had received my email. But I never heard back from them. I decided to file a dispute with my credit card company. I had saved all the emails, including screenshots of the maps from Priceline's website. I also had documented my phone calls, taking detailed notes of who I had spoken with and what they had said. Now, almost three months later, I received notice from my credit card company that it was upholding my dispute. They are not charging me at all.