Avoid Priceline and its daughter company Agoda. They're a bunch of fraudster scam artists. We booked a hotel for two couples for two nights each back in May. The other couple was going to pay us back. We show up to the hotel, and they only have one reservation. So, the other couple pays for two nights themselves, while I try and call Agoda to sort the mess out. I'm on hold for fifteen minutes, while the guy says he calls and talks to someone at the hotel to confirm my reservation. He comes back, says its all good. Reservation is in, go downstairs and the hotel will refund the couple their money. We go downstairs, and the name the guy told me he talked to (Robert) does not work there. No Roberts, Bobs, Rogers, etc. Nothing sounding like that. So I call the company back, and they say they will remove the charges if we send proof of purchase. So, we do. They remove the charges. This was in early June, for a Memorial weekend stay. The charges they removed were after we got our bank involved. So, this week, my wife notices a new charge from Priceline on the account. Its for the same price as the hotel. Lo and behold, they've recharged us because they sent the bank "proof", as in our booking confirmation that they didn't follow through on. Bank says to go through them first. Going through them, Priceline refers us to Agoda. Agoda doesn't speak proper English, and can't seem to get anything right when they're not referring us back to Priceline. They're the same freaking company. My wife threatened them with a lawsuit (obviously that would be costly). If the bank can't handle this, it's Better Business Bureau and Social Media time. Any advice? TL/DR: Priceline and their daughter company Agoda has stolen $370 from me. Do not book with them. We paid for two rooms at a hotel, and they only booked one, trying to deny their misstep and lying to us. Sorry for the long rant.
Same. Priceline has been great to me. They even refunded me on a non-refundable room bc I asked nicely. Sounds like you got snubbed.
Same, I use their name your price tool to get cheap as hell car rentals all the time and it's awesome. Seems like you did in fact get snubbed.
Definitely a bad experience but like with any other large company this is going to happen now and then. I've never heard of Agoda but have used Priceline countless times and always been satisfied.
Never had a problem with Priceline. I've stayed in $350/night hotels for $50 using the name your price feature on multiple occasions. I always recommend it to anyone. I think you just had bad luck this time.
Speaking of the 'name-your-price' feature... pro-tip if you have a few extra minutes to waste next time you are booking. 1. Get a pre-paid card that has $0 balance. 2. Browse in in-cognito mode. 3. Lowball them on the flight/room you want. 4. If they accept the price, it will say your card has insufficient funds. 5. If you were too low, they'll straight up deny your request. 6. Close the window, open a new in-cognito window, and keep trying until you get outcome #4.
Never used agoda unless its hidden inside priceline. Tell them to send you their proof, as they now have a copy. Regardless, file a BBB complaint and put them on twitter, yelp, google+ blast. Using the phone can mostly be a waste of time....
What did your bank say when you recontacted them? Don't you have proof that you paid for two rooms and the other couple paid for one?
Whoops, forgot to answer the original question of OP... BBB imo is a scam... you can buy ratings, so I never even bother with them. Twitter/Yelp/Google+ is generally pointless as well, against a large corporation, unless he has tens of thousands of followers. If it were me, I'd call again and immediately escalate (ask for supervisor). Every single time I've done this with any company, I've gotten what I've wanted out of the call. Be adamant that you want the supervisor even if they say they aren't available. The supervisor will either give in, or sometimes be too lazy to even take the call, and tell the original CSR to give you what you want.
Oh I have no doubt people do, just my personal opinion that they are crooks so I don't deal with them.
I've used Priceline a few times and it was always a smooth deal. I would talk record any phone conversations you have with this company. Talk to two or three different people. If can catch them contradicting themselves or flat out lying you could get the bank on your side.
Agoda is a daughter compant that they may book through when you book on their website. This is what happened to us.
I have a relative who booked through them and the hotel was beyond disgusting. They called and cancelled through Priceline and rebooked through them somewhere else. Long story short, she went through hell getting them to follow through with thier promise to refund that original reservation. So this isn't totally in heard of with them.
That seems like more of a hotel problem than a Priceline problem. I'd give the hotel bad reviews, but not Priceline. How can Priceline force hotels to keep their **** together?
The hotel's condition was definitely the hotel's fault. But not processing the refund after they said they would, and the subsequent runaround afterwards definitely was Priceline's fault. Especially after she rebooked else where through Priceline, and only after they said that they would process the refund. I witnessed an hour long stretch of thier incompetence on speaker phone. They put her on hold and hung up at least three or four times.
I haven't had problems with Priceline, but I will never do business with Dish again after having dealt with the chimpanzees they have working in their billing/customer service departments (and I'm probably insulting chimpanzees when I say that). They screwed me over a decade ago and they just got through ripping my dad off for over $300.
