Has anyone placed a Car Rental reservation thru PRICELINE.COM and needed to Cancel it? I placed a car rental 5 months ahead and 3 hour later I needed to cancel it because my date changed. PRICELINE.COM Refused to issue a refund because they have a so-called "NO CANCELLATION POLICY". Which I went thru all the steps of reservation and on one of the pages in a very small paragraph it was stated. On my Car Rental Receipt there was NO Mention of a "NO CANCELLATION POLICY".
So I'm placing formal complaints with the BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU & CONSUMER AFFAIRS OF PA (Attorney General of PA office). I'm surprised that they actually responded a few times, but they held fast on Not issueing a refund.
I WILL NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH PRICELINE.COM AND I recommend for other Not to do any Business with them as well.

Welcome to Fodors. Some rentals through Priceline allow cancellations and some (most) do not. It depends on the actual rental agency Priceline hooked you up to. You are not the first to experience this - I seriously doubt your BBB/PA Consumer Affairs complaints will come to anything. Probably your only option is a credit card charge back -- but that would be a long shot.

. . . "I WILL NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH PRICELINE AND I recommend for other Not to do any Business with them as well."

PL has been around almost 30 years, they won't miss you

thank you for your nice encouragement.

Your best bet is to deal directly with Priceline. Explain that the cancellation policy was in small print, and it is not shown on your contract. Request a one-time exception refund. Be nice, do not threaten them. If you get a "no" back, ask them for a credit to be used for future travel.

I have found that emails work better than calling. It gives the recipient time to process your request.

Hope it works out for you, please report back.

You mention "refund," but would Priceline not allow you to change the date(s) of the reservation... even if a different rate would likely apply?

I agree you're better off dealing directly with Priceline, but it's probably the car rental company that sets its own refund/cancellation policy. Priceline is a "third party" in this transaction.

Emails provide a "paper" trail if needed later.

I would alert the credit card company that you're disputing the charge with Priceline. They might put the charge in suspension until the issue is resolved, one way or the other.

Seems Priceline is taking the ball and handling all the responses. I'm not a world traveler. I thought that if you reserve a car 5 months ahead and cancel 2 hours later, that I would have no trouble getting a refund. I got a refund from American airlines, but not Priceline. What happened was I found I couldn't afford the airfare, so I decided to drive instead. Never would have thought that a $320 car rental 5 months in advance and cancelling hours later that they would Scam me out of that money. But they did.

Airfares are different. You got a refund before because federal regulations require refunds in the first 24 hours (airfares only).

This isn’t really a Priceline specific issue. Every car rental agency and hotel has this situation possibility. For either car rental or hotel reservations, when a credit card number is required, read the cancellation terms. Frankly I’ve never seen a rental car reservation from any company where, when a credit card number is required, a refund is possible.

Noting that personally I have made many car reservations via Priceline that were cancelable. For these I did not enter a credit card number during the reservation process.

Uh -- nope. No one who has responded works for Priceline (and probably don't even like PL). Not nice to join a forum and immediately accuse long time members of being shills.

To the OP, janisj has noted correctly that you have gotten advice from some long-term posters here. We do this out of courtesy and our enjoyment of helping others. Typically, a courteous OP thanks each poster individually for their advice.

Given that, said posters here have suggested you go back to Priceline and ask for a refund/credit, and dispute the charge. Neither of these may work, but it's worth a try.

Oh well, we tried...

Good luck. I do hope you get a satisfactory resolution.

Frankly I’ve never seen a rental car reservation from any company where, when a credit card number is required, a refund is possible.

Unless this has changed, Autoeurope and Kemwel allow for a cancellation 48 hours before the pickup date; but this may be based on European regulations? The rare times that I rented in the U.S. I did not used their services.

I am sorry this happened to you but this is a good reminder to review the terms of any contract before accepting it. I usually try to make refundable reservations (and scour the fine print) even though the reservation may be more expensive. You were not scammed out of money but tried to break your contract after you had accepted it. The company may be amenable to issuing you a credit for future use - it doesn't hurt to ask.

It has nothing to do with regulations, it has to do with the type of rate you choose. Priceline car rental offers are very clear, they say pay now versus pay later, and if you pick a type of car, even then a box comes up where you can pay for flexible payment. If you choose the pay now, the terrms are VERY clear and in bold that it is nonrefundable. I don't know how one could not see all those things and deliberately choose a nonrefundable rate and say you were unaware you were choosing that. Those rates are cheaper. It has nothing to do with being a world traveler, just renting a car and reading the type of rate you choose.

This complaint has no merit. It was even noted that there was notice of the terms..

Priceline is tricky in that the first car rental option that they give you at the top of the page always has a big FREE CANCELLATION banner on it, so I can see why it could be sort of confusing. On the other hand, you cannot book the rental without checking the box that says "I agree to the terms" and the first line of the terms, which you really can't miss before you check the box, is NON REFUNDABLE.

So I'm afraid you're gonna have to chalk this one up to "lesson learned".