I have seen the other complaints regarding Priceline and tend not to agree with most. Priceline does make it very clear that once you press the "Purchase" button, the transaction will go through if accepted. Your flight times, connections etc. may be inconvenient but only you can decide if the savings will be worth it. My latest experience however, is not worth any amount of savings I may have gotten.

Last week while I was attempting to get my airline tickets at a decent price, I played the usual frustrating game of upping my bid by $25.00 each time. Eventually I offered $175.00 for the roundtrip ticket, plus applicable taxes, airport fees, etc., I was informed my credit card charge would not exceed $202.95.

At this offer price I was told they found an airline willing to accept the bid and I could purchase these tickets if I would answer two questions about long distance. The two questions appeared on the same screen. I answered them and proceeded to press the purchase tickets button. At that time they told me I would receive my itinerary within one hour. At that point I even went and bought some long distance minutes while I waited. Approximately five minutes later I received an E-mail saying they were sorry but it would take between 4 and 5 hours for the itinerary. Late that afternoon I received another E-mail confirming my round trip tickets, the itinerary, and a congratulations for receiving my tickets for my offer price of $200.00 plus applicable taxes, etc.

I was livid because I had not offered $200.00. Whether it was $19.00 or $2500.00 they had charged my credit card $221.95. I had not authorized that amount and had their printed confirmation saying my Master Card would not be charged over $202.95. If they have the power to put any dollar amount on my Master Card that they choose, that is a scarey thought not only for me, but all consumers.

Then came the fun part, trying to deal with customer service. I called and attempted to straighten it out, however since my name wasn't on the tickets they could not talk to me. They had to have permission from my husband to speak with me about it. When I was finally cleared to speak I explained to the customer service rep. what had happened. She quickly informed me that she didn't have any tickets on that ticket request number. I attempted to read her the E-mails confirming the tickets, etc., and then she told me it wasn't her problem I would have to talk to someone in the Promotions Department. Five people later we finally talked to Alex, he was actually pleasant, gave us a reference number and said that our credit card would only be charged $202.95 and we would receive another corrected confirmation, itinerary etc. That never happened.

One week later we still had not received anything from Priceline in the mail as we usually do. I became concerned and called my credit card company who informed my account had been charged $221.95 a week before. Coincidentally I went on line about the same time and had an E-mail informing me that my ticket request had expired because they hadn't heard from me in seven days. They informed me that I could place a new request. At that point I was more concerned that there were no tickets on that request number, than I was about an overcharge. However once we had to start calling customer service again everything became important.

So now I have no airline tickets, no record of airline tickets and an unauthorized charge on my credit card, showing I bought the tickets. I at that time sent them an E-mail explaining once again what had happened and demanding some answers. Within minutes I received an E-mail telling me that someone would get back to me within 24 hours. That never happened. Once again back to the phone and the customer service department. At 9:00 a.m. my husband was told that since their had been a problem in the Promotions Department the tickets were taken out of the computer system and they were being handled manually. The woman said she would fax us the itinerary, corrected charge, etc., within the hour. Well, eight hours later nothing... Again back on the phone.

This time my husband got the pleasure of explaining the situation to five different (rude) reps. before he finally was put through to the Head Honcho herself, Maryanne,(employee #47128}. She was so powerful that she told him there was no one higher he could talk to. She was it...... The buck stops here..... She was the voice of Priceline.com and what she says goes. Well, ... she said, to disregard whatever we had been told the previous times we had called. She had the final say and she would not credit our mastercard with the overcharge. There was a computer error so TOUGH. There were no tickets, even though we were charged. She said she could arrange to get the tickets at the price we had not offered nor authorized to be charged to the account. She then said that the Promotions Department had also made an error by accepting the bid and that they would be losing money on the deal.

My husband became enraged and said that he could not believe a company of their size would lose our business over $19.00..She laughed at him and told him to take it or leave it. At this point he told her to credit our master card in full. He then informed her what he in turn would do regarding the situation. At that point our credit card was to be credited the full amount. Of course as of this date that has not been done.

I then called my credit card company and explained the situation to them. Now I have to put my dispute in writing, send them copies of my E-mails showing they accepted my offer of 175.00, agreed not to charge my card of $202.95 and never provided the tickets. This will go against them as charging my account with an unauthorized charge. Eventually I am sure it will be straightened out. However what is someone's time worth? I have hours into this mess already without any satisfaction. It will take me hours to get the documents together for my credit card company, for what, to save a few dollars? It is definitely not worth it. I would sooner pay full price and be treated with respect than deal with some $5.00 an hour reps. who haven't been properly trained in human relations.

We will never use Priceline again and I caution anyone to use the them. Someone in their corporation needs to look into the way their customers are treated when they call for assistance. I find it difficult to believe that there isn't one competent employee with the ability to follow through. I can only hope that everyone who has a bad experience with them spreads the word. It doesn't take long for word of mouth to travel. My husband has 156 employees so that is a good start. Hopefully with this page if will further inform the public to be cautious of who you do business with.