Overcharged by Priceline

[trave1]

I bid on two tickets from priceline, when I got the "you won" email the price was $150 higher than my bid. Within 10 min I had notified Priceline of the error, (but did agree to pay the price of my bid) United canceled the tickets, so no charge to priceline but they are still demanding I pay over $500 for tickets that were never accepted or issued. Has anyone had this problem and how did you resolve it. Priceline is being unbelievably and surprisingly unhelpful. Any feedback/help would be appreciated.

[thereuare]

Who cancelled the tickets thru United?

If it was you, exactly what was it that you said to them? (because technically Priceline paid for the tickets, so perhaps they just cancelled your tickets and didn't offer a refund to priceline?)

[trave1]

I canceled the tickets at United because priceline did not have someone with the authority available to do it, but Untied confirmed that Priceline would not be charged for them. The reason I had to do it was because no decision maker was available by phone, and all correspondence had to be done through email, which pricelines rep said could be up to 48hours for a response, the tickets were for a flight less than 48 hours out. Again these were tickets that I didn

[thereuare]

Dispute the charge with your credit card company and let them sort it out.

Priceline will likley have an image of the confirmation screen before you submitted the bid... that will probably be the all telling sign as to what will ultimately happen with the above.

Keep us updated.

[trave1]

I have currently started that process, thanx for the advice. I believe this is a case of unethical business practice and consumer fraud, hence my interest to see if this is "business as usual" for priceline, and if others have had the same issues and if additional action should instigated.

[bbbb]

Is this a case where you tried to beat PLs counter offer? Were you offered something besides the offer you made? There has to be more to this story then your telling?

[trave1]

Happy to share details, just didn't want to take up a ton of board space. Priceline sent a counter offer (and that is the amount they charged me), that I did not accept, they claim I did which is ludicrous since it was a higher price than you could buy the tickets directly from a number of carriers. I contacted them within 2 minuets of seeing the amount to report the error and they were completely uninterested in helping and said there was no decision maker available by phone to resolve the issue and it all had to be done through email. (it could take 48 hours for a response, the flight was before that, but again they were not interested in resolving the issue) I immediately sent the email , and then contacted United who pleasantly and immediately cancelled the tickets, informed me the credit would be issued in full to priceline, yet priceline still insist on keeping the money.

[bbbb]

Did you try to change anything on the bid to get a free rebid? This is where people get into trouble with PL and airline bidding.

[ufjoe21]

I think what the credit card company will say is that if you believe fraud occurs you dispute the Priceline charge and then later if it's resolved the amount charged will be credited to your account. So you didn't have to contact the airlines in the 1st place.....you just file the dispute with your credit card company for the priceline charge. I think by contacting the airlines directly that might have thrown a monkey wrench into you being able to successfully resolve the dispute with your credit card company.

I guess you took the reservation # you got for the tickets and called the airlines and cancelled the ticket and asked for the refund, what the person who answered the phone at United should have said was "the charge was made to priceline, not to United.....if you want your $$$ back then dispute the charge with your credit card company to credit back the Priceline charge......you don't have to worry about our end (United)"

This is a common dispute with credit cards, where you are charged a different higher price then you were told you would be ultimately charged. Priceline usually wins the dispute when it's the case of somebody just skipping out on a Priceline reservation and then the person just disputes the charge as fraud. But this is different and you would most likely win, however since you contacted United directly and cancelled them and told them to refund Priceline all bets are off.

I understand the email is the incorrect price.....when you sign in to your account and view the airline reservation is the price also incorrect there too?

It wouldn't make a difference if this was hotel, car, or airline reservation......neither would it make a difference whether the reservation was for that day or for 48 hours later or 6 days later.....to the credit card comany it doesn't make a difference.

^ what I've said above I know to be true, without knowing anything about Priceline at all, I'm a member of a credit-forum and we discuss these issues quite a bit

[trave1]

bbbb- I never tried anything else because they immediate put their charge through. Didn't even know there were other options.

ufjoe21 - Great, thank you for the information. Cheers.