More Corporate Lies

These companies really kill me. It's like seriously impossible to complete a transaction over the phone or internet without some sort of colossal hassle involved. My girlfriend and I went to Cabo a couple weeks ago, so she handled the bookings through Priceline.com, using my credit card. Then she found out we could get a better room in the same hotel for a cheaper price, so she canceled the hotel booking she made with Priceline (but kept the plane flights). She was assured I would be refunded the hotel portion, which was over $1,100. Beautiful.

After we got back, I checked online and saw my credit card had not been refunded the money. I called Priceline and was assured - a second time now - that the request was still being processed, and I had nothing to worry about; I would definitely be refunded.

You can guess what happens. A week later now and still no refund, so I call again. Bad news, I'm afraid. My refund request has been denied. The room, you see, was nonrefundable. "No no," I responded. "I was told twice that it absolutely was refundable." Again, the customer serveice rep says, nothing they can do.

As you already know from my earlier postings, I'm an old hand at this sort of thing, so I immediately asked to speak to someone with more authority. This new guy told me the same story. "You cannot do this," I started to raise my voice. "You can't have someone promise me that my reservation will be refunded, then have me go on vacation, come back, and tell me you can't refund the money. That's lying!" There was the usual back and forth on how there was nothing he could do, and I was just expected to politely eat the $1,100, hang up the phone, and happily go on with my day. After I started screaming a little more, he asked if he could put me on hold to see "if there were any options" for me. Would I mind holding? "I'd love to," I said.

It took all of one minute for him to come back and tell me they were going to refund the entire cost of the reservation.

I don't know what the deal is with these companies, why it's always lies and grief and stonewalling, as opposed to honest transparency and friendly customer relations. Is it just me? Or does this sort of thing happen to everybody?