Circumstantial Priceline Bans? The WDWYB Mode

[MichaelBei]

:) Priceline has repeatedly decided, seemingly on a total lark, that they don't want my business even when they have availability.

Ok, I am really, really fed up with this and I can't believe I am the only one this has happened to. I want to know if anyone else out there has experienced something similar and what you've done about it; also looking for good, creative ideas as to how to get rid of the problem.

I have found that, through a lot of pain and frustration, that Priceline frequently rejects my bids when they have availability, i.e., if a hotel is available at $43, I only have a 20% chance of getting a $43 bid accepted, someone else has a 100% (as far as we can tell from the way Priceline is suppose to work) chance of getting accepted - this exact scenario has happened to me many, many, times. If you don't believe me, I can easily drag up 25 examples of this that date back from January of 2002; also there are some examples of this I have posted under my winning hotel bids in various places such as SC, DC, and VA. I have never failed to pay a Priceline bill or been a troublemaker of any kind. Here are some things I know by now or still don't know:

1. So far, if first bids of the day are of adequate amounts, they have always been accepted, regardless of which credit card used.

2. If there is some erroneous "bad credit" assignment associated with certain credit cards, it isn't consistently applied, because occasionally bids still get accepted with the problem cards. And Priceline has never had a problem getting paid from my account.

3. Counter offers to bid at a higher amount may be made when the "we don't want your business" (WDWYB) screen is turned on by Priceline; however, when the WDWYB screen is on, Priceline will reject me within a few seconds even if I accept the counter bid amount.

4. Thank God for counter offers on hotels, without them, it would have been much, much harder to figure out what the Priceline demons are doing to me.

5. The WDWYB mode probably isn't turned on by a particular IP address, it can happen sometimes on different computers.

6. I don't know a foolproof method to prevent the WDWYB mode from being turned on by Priceline. Name change? Change email? Move to another location?

Federal witness protection program?

7. Is there any way I can know in advance if the WDWYB mode has been turned on by Priceline?

8. Should I go for broke and take this issue to the top at Priceline? If so, how should I approach it with them?

Your comments and suggestion are appreciated.

[oldfoagy]

This reminds me of the movie "A Beautiful Mind"

[thereuare]

I would guess the following as possibilities for the reasoning behind your issues:

-glitch in Priceline's interface that causes instant rejections rather than process your bid (although this happens with too great of frequency to be likely)

-do you abide by all of priceline's terms or do you venture into gray areas (which we won't discuss here)

If you want to pursue this with priceline, i would have a friend place similar bids (with their own credit card but in your name) immediately after your own rejected bids. If your friend has acceptance 3 times immediately after your own rejections, i would then take the information to them for an explanation as three times shows a trend and not a 'random' situation.

I'll forewarn you however, that:

1) going to priceline may flag your account further

2) you may get no reaction from priceline other than canned replies

[MichaelBei]

Don"t know any reason why Priceline wouldn't like me, unless it was because before this started it was sometimes somewhat of a recreational effort for me to try to hit as close to the minimum acceptable bid as possible by copious use of additional "dead" zones without hotels at the level I was trying for. With their higher fees (now up to $8 to $10 for a single hotel night after you separate out the taxes), I don't think that should bother Priceline much any more. I only try to change locations I am bidding from after it seems obvious that something strange is going on (my first experience with this, which I at the time thought was a fluke, was when I bid for a hotel for the exact same nights as someone else had gotten and the same price and got rejected.) I tried for a couple of other locations and got the same result, That was with bonus dollars added (back when Priceline often made such offers directly) and I remember at the time I thought that the bonus money wasn't working. A couple of days later I added a zone (there were many opportunities to do this), just happened to be on another computer and for some odd reason I got accepted for the zone I had previously been rejected at that price. Over the course of a couple of years, I grew to understand that Priceline since some point in time triggered by events unknown to me) began to take me on a journey into the twilight zone.

This business of getting someone else to try for a room (perfectly legal) or changing locations before continuing on with my own bidding ONLY has taken place as a RESULT of Priceline LIEING to me and telling me there were no rooms available at the price I offered when in fact there were. Priceline has now played this game with me so much I can't believe it is an accident. I no longer believe that Priceline will always sell a room at the price a hotel makes the room available to them. I know that is what most everyone says is the way Priceline works, but since they have pulled this one on me maybe 25 times (exact number can't be determined because I can't of course always know for sure when they are doing this to me), I now know better.

An experiment I would like to try, but probably won't because it requires me to throw away money, is to bid like $10, $20, and more over what appears to be the minimum hotel price after I have accepted a counterbid offer and it has still been rejected by Priceline to see if there is a higher "special" price Priceline is looking for for me. If that works, then I try for a second room at the real hotel price from another location to see if that works.

My firm belief is that it is Priceline who is engaging in unethical behavior - not me.

[WillTravel]

I don't have any proof or statistics, but I do have a "feeling" based on very limited experience that Priceline bids with added "free rebid" zones are less likely to be accepted, particularly if you do not start a new bid each time (closing down the browser).

[MichaelBei]

WillTravel,

Your hypothesis is a good one, it fits all of the experience I have had. The only reason I hesitate to run with it so far is that, so far as I know, no one else has reported having the same experience. I am waiting to see if, in response to my post here, if anyone else comes out of the woodwork who has had the same kind of experience. If your hypothesis is correct, than the bogus rejections have nothing to do with which credit card I use other than they may use them and other personal info to id me as a low-profit customer who is targeted for "special" treatment on rebids.

I wonder if the Priceline computer counts the number of times a user rebids, and if they exceed a certain quota, figures they are a low-profit customer and starts feeding them rejections for rebids that are only narrow margins over the minimum hotel price. This would explain my experience completely. It would also demonstrate dishonesty and deceit by Priceline (but something they could never be prosecuted on because no one could ever prove it in court). Priceline could honestly institute such a program by simply stating that adding a zone may result in an increase in the minimum amount they will accept for the original zone (but I don't know how the hotels would feel about that).

[MichaelBei]

Interesting development.

I tried an experiment today. I cleared my computer completely of all information related to Priceline, then used my old credit card to bid in Nags Head Island, NC (see 4/2/05 winning bid there) with an amount that I thought might be accepted. I won a hotel on the first bid. No rebidding opportunities there. As I have opportunity to try for hotels in the future, I will try the same process a few more times to see if this works reliably. However, it is a real pain to have to clear out your computer and reboot before every single bid.

[WillTravel]

Did you use the same email address, and do you use a profile?

[MichaelBei]

Good questions WillTravel. I did once have a profile. I haven't used it in a long time, being concerned that something negative was associated with my profile after I realized what was happening. I don't use that email for Priceline anymore. I have tried switching email addresses several times, but this isn't always enough to avoid the WDWYB mode.

In the Nags Head case, I used an email address that was recently associated with a winning bid. Incidently, I did use the same credit card that was rejected in Williamsburg, Va recently for a winning bid in Taipei, Taiwan a few weeks ago. The interesting thing about that bidding session was that my rebids involved changing dates rather than adding zones so each bid was technically a first bid for that zone - date combination. After 4 tries my bid was accepted.

Perhaps I should find that old profile, go in it and change my address and everything - with the intention of never using it. Don't really know if there is a problem there, and again, don't have a clue as to why there would be. Note that the WDWYB mode is very frequently but not always observed with all of the credit card - email combinations that have been a problem. It is still possible to get a bid accepted there - but strangely they have always been first bids for the zone when they were accepted. I also have been able to get some rental car offers accepted with the problem credit card - email combinations.

[MichaelBei]

It has happened again! Priceline hotels are nasty, nasty.

Bid $49, counteroffer to bid at $61. Added "dead" zones, rebid at $52 and $55. REJECTED.

Go to another location, add another dead zone, don't use same email etc. Bid $55. ACCEPTED.

This is Maddening! :)

I still don't know why this is happening, but the worst thing is that I don't know when this cheating mode is invoked by Priceline, and Priceline really has availability and is just trying to get me to overpay.