LAX economy car for $25/day, however NOT what I wanted

[marcos]

As per the administrator's suggestion, I'm posting this "win" here, although it's actually a case where I received something other than what I wanted.

Congratulations XXXXXXXXX, you got your price of $25 per day for your Economy rental car.

Pick-Up/Drop-Off: Los Angeles Intl

Rental Car Company: Hertz

Car Class: Economy (unlimited mileage)

Pick-Up Date: Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Pick-Up Time: 11:00 PM

Drop-Off Date: Monday, July 24, 2006

Drop-Off Time: 10:00 PM

Summary of Charges

Your Offer Price: $25.00 (per day)

Total Rental Days: 13 days (12 days and 23 hours)

Subtotal: $325.00

Taxes and Fees: $39.73

Total Charges: $364.73

Here's what happened: I asked for a car to pick up at LAX and drop off at PDX. Price wasn't satisfactory, so I proceeded to name my own price. I bid $25 and got it. Except it was NOT for drop-off at PDX but rather pickup and dropoff at LAX. There was no clear warning about it and only realized it after I got the confirmation email. Calls to their customer service were to no avail and now I don't know what to do. Hertz can't predict the cost of the change in the dropoff location (which has to be done at the counter when we pick up our car) and of course Priceline does not help (nor wants to help either, it's actually rather hostile and rude).

Has anyone faced the same situation before? I am thinking of disputing the charge with the credit card company. The whole process is definitely consumer fraud, since the site is misleading and they "trap" us. It's clear that what we got is completely different than what we asked in the first place (and obviously, if you want to drop it off at PDX, you have a reason for this - in my case a flight already waiting for me there). Between the first screen (of the initial request) and the second (of the bidding confirmation), the dropoff location changed, without our input.

Any advice?

[BEAV]

Here's what happened: I asked for a car to pick up at LAX and drop off at PDX. Price wasn't satisfactory, so I proceeded to name my own price.

First off, thank you for posting your winning bid, regardless if you were happy with it or not. Sharing your winning bid price is what BetterBidding is all about. Knowing you won an Economy Car for $25 per day for 13 days can be very valuable information to the community readership here. So again, thank you for sharing! :)

Second, I just replied to your post in the other forum. It may shed some light on your situation. But I'll elaborate a little more after reading your post here.

I believe your comment of "price wasn't satisfactory" is major part of the confusion here. Priceline's "name your own price" system does not allow for picking up at one location and dropping at another. Because you had entered LAX as the pick-up location and PDX as drop-off, you were taken into Priceline's retail section, which is completely different from "name your own price". Priceline's retail section is just like using any other on-line travel site, such as Expedia, Travelocity"]Travelocity, etc. Did Priceline display a number of different rental car companies for you to choose from, along with various rates for each car category? I can only assume this was the case because of your comment "price wasn't satisfactory". The prices they were displaying included no doubt hefty drop charges, thus your decision not to purchase. Under the "name your own price system" you are not presented with a variety of rates to choose from. I just did a test on Priceline's website and the only way I was able to access their "name your own price" section was to enter the same city as both pick-up and drop-off. I can only assume somewhere throughout the process you did the same (without realizing it, of course) and that's how you wound up in the "name your own price" section.

As I said on the other thread, Priceline's website is confusing with regard to their retail vs name your own price sections. It's very easy to see how this happened to you. Since your rental period is still a month away, I'd contact Priceline once again, but this time try via email. Maybe you'll have better luck vs talking with their reps over the phone, which can often be 'challenging', to say the least. Personally, I've had more positive results in conflict resolution via email vs over the phone.

Good luck and keep us posted.