VagabondX

There should be a charge to your credit card bill for your parking and other incidentals. Maybe that's what the charge on your bill is for? Or do you have two separate charges from Marriott on the same bill?

NBSPGMEMBER

There was NO incidentals on this stay. Here's how my statement looks like...

00/00/2006.........Priceline..............xx.xx$ ok, priceline prepaid amount
00/00/2006.........Marriott...............xx.xx$ huh? what the **** is this!
00/00/2006.........Marriott...............xx.xx$ ok, parking

I called Priceline and she said the was nothing else they could do.
I will not use Priceline anymore as this stay ended up being as much as the regular rate.

NBSPGMEMBER

I just got a letter from the Marriott hotel here it goes;

after alot of bla-bla

I have enclosed a copy of your bill. As it shows on your bill you were charged XX.XX$ by the hotel for parking. We received an advanced deposit of YY.YY$ for your room which was paid by Priceline. If you have any further questions...

This is stealing from people and I really don't like the feeling.

They are so full of it...
YY.YY$ was not paid by Priceline it was paid by me!
I was charged ZZ.ZZ$ by Priceline weeks before that but they don't state anything about that payment and they don't know anything about it!

It's a lost cause!

empedocles

Send the hotel a copy of the CC statement and ask for an explanation.

NBSPGMEMBER

The amount by Priceline is different than the one billed by the hotel. On the statement it does not say for which hotel it was so there is no proof that the item "Priceline" on the statement is for this Marriott stay. If both amounts would've been the same it would've been easier.

CrazyOne

That's not the two amounts they need to see, though. The letter you describe getting from them seems to indicate they know this is a Priceline room. Thus, what you have to show them is that they billed you what they were supposed to bill Priceline.

In other words, you want to show them that there are two Marriott charges, the one for $XX.XX for parking/incidental *and* the one for $YY.YY for the room, the latter of which should not have been billed to you. That should be very clear on the statement. It doesn't matter that the amount billed by Priceline is different than the amount Priceline is supposed to be billed by the hotel; that will always be the case. The key is that that different amount was charged to you in error by Marriott. When you make that clear to the Marriott people by sending them a copy of the statement, they will reverse the extra charge.

It doesn't appear you need it because the letter Marriott sent you already acknowledged Priceline, but you can reprint a Priceline receipt just by logging into your Priceline.com account and send that along as well.

You'll have better luck getting this corrected with the Marriott hotel directly than you will with Priceline. It is, after all, the hotel's billing error, not Priceline's billing error. They are the ones who need to correct it. Ultimately if you have to you can put it in dispute with the credit card issuer, but I think you send the hotel one more note, "I got your letter, and it's correct except the advanced deposit you supposedly received from Priceline was actually charged to my card by mistake. I've sent along a copy of my statement to demonstrate clearly that this is what happened. Please reverse this charge immediately." This is irrefutable. Someone did not notice that it was charged to the wrong card, or the system does not give them this detail. I really don't think they're doing it on purpose. They're just disorganized.

The faster way to get this resolved would be to call and talk to the billing manager on the phone, and send the cc statement via fax if you can (but I wouldn't send it until after talking to them so they know to expect it). If they finally wake up to the correct records, you may not even have to fax it. Insist that you get someone on the phone to help you right then, not wait for a call back, explaining that nobody called you back before. Be calm when doing so, though, as people are not as willing to help someone sounding angry and/or abusive. You'll want to be calling during "business hours" I would think, weekdays 9-5 in the hotel time zone, not lunchtime, for best results. This isn't to say they shouldn't help you outside these parameters, but hey, do you want to drag this out or just end it? Better chance of ending it quickly this way.

mathematician

This should NEVER happen. In my business, when I make a mistake, the customer ALWAYS comes out ahead at the end. Needless to say, I get a lot of repeat business.

Thanks for the post. I have now learned to STAY AWAY FROM MARRIOTT and PRICELINE.

I've noticed in my travels that the big chains OFTEN make "mistakes." I always go over the bill with a fine tooth comb before checkout. The small "mom & pop operated" motels RARELY make mistakes.

This makes no sense at all ... don't places like MARRIOTT and PRICELINE want to stay in business? Don't they know that with the INTERNET, bad things get around fast. Look, they've lost my business already!!!

I get ripped off too. Already this year I got ripped by Expedia ($10) and WalMart ($18). A resturant added a 65% tip to my bill after I left. They'd changed a 0 to an 8. I'd left a cash tip at the table. I called the resturaunt and they reversed the charge after I faxed them my copy of the dinner cheque. So I'm 2-1 this year. (Expedia lost $1500 of business from me in the last three months, and WalMart has lost A LOT of my business).

mathematician

PARKING?

What's the "parking" charge for?

CrazyOne

Um, parking, probably?

When you stay at a city hotel anywhere where free space and parking are at a premium, you have to pay to park your car. Because not everyone has a car when they arrive, it would be impractical and unfair to raise the room rates and make the parking "free" in those locations.

As to the other post, mistakes happen everywhere humans are involved. It's unrealistic to think everything will be 100% error free. Thus, what is important is how the entity making the mistake makes it right when they do make what is hopefully a rare mistake. So far, this particular hotel brought up by the OP hasn't done a good job. Since hotels are generally independently owned, and even when they're not they have different managers and such, it doesn't to me indict a whole chain. But it would be reasonable to make it known to the Marriott home office that the people at this location should be more responsive to such errors.

jayer

Did one set of charges or two from the hotel hit your credit card statement? Does one of them match the amount on your checkout folio and the other not?

The mechanics of Priceline are that the hotel creates one folio for the basic room charges which are billed to a Priceline-supplied Mastercard account, and another for incidentals to be billed to your credit card. If the desk clerk is new or a dummard they may not know the proceedure and replaced the Priceline Mastercard with your credit card.

Green Dragon

In reality, blaming Priceline for this is silly - they did not double charge you, the hotel did.

By making sure the hotel realizes that they should not have charged you more than the parking, as the advice above states so nicely, you should be able to resolve this quickly. Waiting for a call back can be in vain - phone messages get lost every day.

crhptic

I wonder if Priceline's Mastercard is a points- or miles-earning card??

crhptic

But seriously, to add something constructive...I had this same thing happen to me last month, but it was on a rental car, not a hotel.

I called Avis and their customer service dept. took care of it within a few days. It was annoying, but not the end of the world.

I am sure that with a productive phone call to the right person at the hotel, that it can be resolved.

NBSPGMEMBER

I called the hotel today and spoke with an assistant manager. She did not understand that I was charged by the hotel and by Priceline. The amount that they charged me was paid by Priceline according to her. It doesn't even make sense!!! Whatever, I just don't care anymore. I spent the whole week running after this refund. This is silly.

But to top this off, I just did a Priceline bid for a hotel in Montreal for 3 days. I ended up at the Hyatt Regency Montreal for 70$, not bad at all. I just gave Priceline another try, I hope it won't happen again... even if it's not Priceline's fault. I won't use Priceline ever again if it does.

CrazyOne

Either something's missing here or you're not being clear with them. That's all I can see. As soon as you say "Look, something's wrong, I've been overcharged" they should be looking to fix it, though they might want to see some indication that you've correctly assessed this (which would be the credit card statement).

Are you certain that your bill for parking/incidentals didn't get split somehow? Maybe the problem is they've billed you for something else other than what was on your original receipt. But if that's the case, you would be justified in asking them what that extra charge is.

Perhaps that's the tack to take. Not the whole Priceline angle, just "I have an extra unexpected charge from you on my credit card statement. Can you show me what this was for?" If the situation is as you have described, they will not be able to properly document what that charge was for and thus would need to reverse it.

I don't really understand why you didn't stay on the phone until it was resolved. What do they say when you tell them "Look, I clearly have two charges from you on my statement when I only expected one. What is this other charge?" They need to be able to answer that question. What am I missing here?

BTW, it's unlikely to repeat. I've done dozens of Priceline stays, and I've never had this happen. I did get this once on a Hotwire stay, but it was obvious right away. The room charge ended up on my receipt at checkout. I was able to get it reversed before leaving the hotel.