Online Shopping: It's A Gas Gas Gas
Priceline WebHouse Club, a licensed affiliate of priceline.com, will launch a new service that allows drivers "name their own price" for up to 50 gallons of gasoline a month. After locking in their price, drivers can get their gasoline at local major-brand stations selected by Priceline WebHouse Club. The service will be offered nationwide starting on May 20, says Stamford, Conn.-based priceline.
With Priceline for Gasoline, drivers are promised savings of 10 to 20 cents a gallon, "and sometimes more," the company says. Priceline WebHouse Club gets money from several sources to lower the gasoline prices its customers pay, it says. Participating local gasoline stations pay WebHouse Club a few cents per gallon to get incremental business coming to their stations.
In addition, the Priceline for Gasoline service will have paid online advertising, with some of those ad dollars used to reduce customers' gasoline prices. And, at launch, more than 100 national sponsors will contribute to Priceline WebHouse Club customers' gasoline purchases in return for customers' agreeing to try their products and services, it says.
Priceline WebHouse Club says it expects major oil companies to support the system with additional savings in return for getting new customers for their gasoline and related products, as well as for the oil companies' own proprietary gasoline credit cards.
Consumers need to get a Priceline for Gasoline card, which Priceline WebHouse Club express-mails for free. A user then enters the identification number on the back of the card and provides priceline with a major credit card or debit card account number. At the Web site, the consumer chooses the grade and tells Priceline WebHouse Club the price-per-gallon he or she wants to pay and how many gallons up to 50 gallons per household per month. The consumer then pre-approves three or more local gas stations, and he or she receives a yes-or-no answer on the per-gallon price. If the price is accepted, that price is immediately locked in for up to 50 gallons of gas. Once your price is locked in, the credit or debit card on file is charged for the purchase and priceline gives the consumer the name and address of the designated local station to get the gasoline.
If the price isn't accepted, there's no cost and the consumer can try again the following day, the company says.
At the station, the Priceline for Gasoline card overrides the pump price, and after each fillup, Priceline WebHouse Club e-mails the consumer a receipt that also tells how much gasoline he or she has left at your price. If the price at the pump is lower than the price named online, the consumer pays the lower price, says priceline, which promises to refund the difference.
Back...
