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The Priceline Group Inc.—owner of the popular travel booking website priceline.com— faces a potential class action lawsuit that alleges the company collects “taxes and fees” for reservations but does not return those fees to customers in the event that the reservations are not used.
Priceline customers can reserve hotel rooms, airfare, rental vehicles, vacation packages, and cruises. In particular, the Priceline unreturned fee class action lawsuit notes the “Name Your Own Price” feature of the website, which allows users to make an offer on a item, such as a hotel room, which Priceline then submits to various companies in the location chosen by the consumer. If accepted by one of those companies, Priceline charges the consumer that price, as well as “taxes and fees.”
“Priceline Group, in charging ‘taxes and fees’ for a rental or purchase transactions that did not complete, violated various local, state and federal laws regarding the charge and collection of taxes,” according to the Priceline class action lawsuit.
Plaintiff Richard Laquer asserts that he reserved a rental car in San Francisco through the Priceline “Name Your Own Price” feature. He named a price of $35, which was accepted, and he was charged an additional $19.05 for “taxes and fees” by Priceline. Laquer claims that he did not use that reservation, and the charges were not returned to him, even though the $19.05 was never used to pay taxes on the incomplete sale.
The Priceline class action lawsuit argues that when the company charges taxes and fees, Priceline is telling customers that those fees are necessary for the transaction to be completed.
However, “Priceline Group knew when these representations were made, or made them as a positive assertion recklessly, that it would not pay the ‘taxes and fees’ it collected from plaintiff and the putative class members to the various federal, state and local taxing authorities in the event the rental or purchase was not completed,” according to the unreturned fee class action.
This is not the only class action lawsuit Priceline faces regarding its “Name Your Own Price” feature. In July of 2015, a class action was filed alleging that Priceline intentionally hides fees from consumers, making the true price more than the consumer is willing to pay. The allegations of that class action lawsuit, specifically about hidden resort fees, are separate from this complaint.
The Priceline unreturned fees class action lawsuit seeks to represent a class of “thousands of customers of Priceline Group who reserved and paid for motor vehicles, hotels or air travel online through the Name Your Price option – and other nonrefundable reservation options – and did not use the reservation.”
Laquer asks for restitution “in an amount greater than $5 million” for all the taxes and fees collected by Priceline for unused reservations, as well as punitive damages in excess of $75,000.
The plaintiff is represented by Larry A. Tawwater and Darren M. Tawwater of the Tawwater Law Firm, PLLC.
The Priceline Unreturned Fees Class Action Lawsuit is Richard Laquer v. The Priceline Group, Inc., Case No. CIV-16-15-HE, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.
UPDATE: On Aug. 26, 2016, Priceline filed a motion to dismiss the class action lawsuit stating that the taxes and fees are clearly represented as nonrefundable to customers at the time they make the reservation.
UPDATE 2: On Sept. 19, 2016, Laquer argued that he should have standing in this class action lawsuit because he is not seeking to enforce the tax on Priceline, only to obtain a refund for taxes Priceline did not pay to the government.
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56 thoughts onPriceline Hit With Unreturned Fees Class Action Lawsuit
Priceline does not refund your money. They lie and say it’s in the mail. I have been waiting 6 months. Priceline and booking.com are crooked
Priceline helped reserve a hotel for a price I could afford and I contacted the hotel asking if I specifically need anything prior to checking in dude at the desk just said see u at check in time so when I pulled up to check in he asked for my ID and debit card which was stolen minutes prior so when I explained the situation they denied me the room suggested o request a refund through Priceline and was denied that was the money I could’ve gotten back for my asthma meds since my debit card got stolen prior to arrival now since they wouldn’t rerun my money for my meds I been hospitalized and missed days of work
I had my flight canceled 3 or 4 times had premium seat strength flight to lax to Rome in June and they end up giving lax to France had to wait there 8 hours with my kids and had to get another plane from there to Rome , went from a 15 hour total flight to 28 hours it was awful, and they canceled are return flights as well had to do multiple stop again and to come home faster I has to give up my premium seat for economy, pay more money for nothing!
My straight flight was steal available but through priceless they sell your seat for more money and cancel your flight and give you the longest flight with more stops ! Flogging with priceless was a awful experience and very stressful!
Tried to get refund for an unused hotel night because of a stomach bug. Priceline said “no way” to a refund without nor from a doctor. This incident ends my use of Priceline even though I had used them for years. Never again.
Priceline and their Dollar Rent a Car buddies are disgusting. They’re thieves. I booked a car rental thru Priceline. They said non-refundable, I think, I don’t know, I wasn’t paying attention, but either way, I tried to cancel the reservation within less than 24hrs from making it, that should be a courtesy NO MATTER WHAT YOU WRITE ABOUT NON-REFUNDABLE. It’s not like you lose the room or flight or car I have to give it back to you. Airlines do that, I think they’re obligated by law. But even companies that say that something is non-refundable if you do it super fast, they refund you. I’ve had that happen. I’ve experienced. It left a good taste in my mouth, I have and continue to go back to those companies, I will NEVER EVER GO BACK TO PRICELINE. I even said, okay, my plans changed, I still want to use the car for a day, within the range I booked it in. not earlier, not later, but WITHIN. Priceline said, no changes, alterations, refunds, nothing. They are taking my $200+ for a 3 day car rental that I won’t be using at all. THey’re despicable trash. Thieves of our money, Boycott Priceline! #boycottpriceline
I JUST had the same exact experience this month. I he d everything documented. It is extremely predatory and unethical. I tried to cancel less than 5 minutes from transaction time end never used the car. They kept all my money for nothing in exchange. It’s totally outrageous. I’m ready to join any class action lawsuit.
Priceline is the worst. I stopped using them years ago because I booked a room with them and maybe 15mins later I tried calling them back to switch to a different hotel to which they told me they couldn’t do it.
Unfortunately I didn’t delete the app and forgot why I hadn’t used them in so long when I was looking for a car to rent. I did the rental on the app on either 12/17/22 or 12/18 to pick up rental car at 5am on 12/25-12/30. On 12/19 due to weather predictions in the 20’s, I decided to fly instead. I did the chat to try and cancel. They tell me it can’t be cancelled. Then they lie and tell me it has to be done through National. I call National and she tries to cancel but since it’s done through Priceline, her system won’t let her cancel. I call them back and ask for a supervisor. She continues the same “I can’t cancel” and repeats this was a non cancelable contract. We continue to go back and forth. I tell her why not when National is willing to cancel the reservation. She then tells me I need to contact National and get that persons name, title etc and call them back and then they will email National to confirm. She tells me this after she told me they don’t do anything through emails. So I know this was another delay tactic to get me off their backs. They have no intention of giving me my $350 back. This is STEALING and they need to be put out of business. I’m surprised they are still in business but I guess if you’re taking money from customers regardless if they use the services or not then it doesn’t matter to them. They are the WORST and I won’t be using them ever again and deleting their app.
I booked a room for November 21, 2022 and after I got to the hotel I heard gunfire outside of my door. I left immediately. I was there not even 30 minutes. I didn’t sit on the bed, watch tv or anything. I just applied makeup. I called and spoke with a representative and they said basically,”oh well.”And they charged me more money than if I had gone the hotel. Their customer service sucks.
They did the same to me, i paid for 2 rooms for 3 nights on 11/20 for Holiday Inn in Canton, Ohio for 11/23 -11/26. i received a notice that i had to work later that night so i called Priceline in the morning asking if it was possible into change the three day to either the 11/24 -11/26 or 11/24 -11/27. They told me to call the hotel and if they changed it on their end, i could do it. The hotel had no problem with it and changed the date to 11/24 -11/26. After, my check out i had them print out a paper with my checking date and check out date. Told m how much they charged me ($391) because i had paid Priceling $651. i expected the difference to be credited back to me since did everything Priceline told me to do. i was on chats and phone calls from 11/27 to 11/29 ( i have ALL of my screen shot if my conversations via chat and phone call times and holds. On the 29th the gentleman told me i waited too late to call them and referenced the 29th as if i hadn’t been in contact with them for the past 3 days! He was rude and told me Priceline would not resolve this issue and that he called Holiday Inn and they told him they didn’t approve my change because it was after my stay with them. i clearly had the change made before i checked in and sent the paperwork. I have contacted Holiday Inn’s Corporate Office to ask if they could provide paperwork with more detail and call them about the approval of this change prior to me checking in etc. i plan on contacting Pricelines corporate office too, I was hoping to hear from Holiday Inn first but it’s been over 3 days now.
I will never use them again and I have used them for over two decades for all of my sports functions with teams that I coach and my 3 kids and Nephew who all played on National travel sports teams smh
So hurt and disappointed
I booked an initial flight in March2022 that I had to cancel..ok Priceline said no prob we will give u credit applied to next flight ..with $50 service charge. So deducted from initial amount and remaining credit $577. So Nov 2022 I book another flight within my credit yr. Economy class to Vegas $245.20 . I was on Priceline website as they lied to my face claiming my previous tickets were main cabin and we can only get tickets of same seat value.. and credited me $550. For a ticket that could be $247.. because they don’t want to .. that’s clearly cheating a customer. I booked economy !!! I have proof. Worse company ever to book flights ..when I asked customer service they hung up on me. Next thing I get a confirmed email of my Vegas booking $550.00 itinerary.
Covid was in full effect at BDL. I had a rental vehicle on reservation to pick up. The office was closed because of covid and i called to try and get a .refund for the money I had paid on my credit card. They said there was nothing they could do and i don’t get a refund for something totally out of my control! I thought that was really sketchy
Then when I called the company all they kept saying is that “WE DONT GIVE REFUNDS ” even when it is our fault!
I will make sure I never use Price Line again. Greed kills in the long run for companies like this. Tom Wilson
Priceline and Ramada inn Both advertised things they did not have there was no spa at the pool no coffee in the filthy room