Priceline Full Refund supposedly available, but Priceline makes it literally IMPOSSIBLE to receive Norwalk Connecticut

On approximately April 28, 2023 I made a hotel reservation for myself and my son thru Priceline for the Marriott Maui Kahului Airport hotel for June 11 - 12, 2023.  The amount charged to me was $996.08.  

When making this reservation I was assured that as long as the hotel agreed it could be cancelled prior to the date of arrival.  Yesterday afternoon, May 11, 2023,  I contacted the hotel by phone and spoke with the front desk manager.  He had no problem in agreeing to cancel the reservation and told me to have Priceline call to confirm.  This is where the situation deteriorated to the present frustrating place.

After calling the primary Priceline number and being prompted to enter my Priceline trip # (289-583-815-16) I was automatically switched to Booking.com where I spoke to a young lady and again provided the Priceline trip #.  She informed me that she could not find my trip because Booking.com uses a different set of numbers --- which of course I'd not been provided.  

She provided me a different phone number for Priceline, but it ended in the same circular routing back to Booking.com.  And since Booking.com claims to be “unable to retrieve my reservation” the practical consequence is that I’m unable to cancel my reservation — thereby initiating full charges accruing to Priceline.  As this appears to be standard operating procedure for Priceline, I trust I am not the only person to end up in this obnoxious loop.  It merely seems to serve as a rather underhanded means for Priceline to prevent customers from cancelling reservations that would otherwise protect the customer’s payment from being charged.  

Furthermore, a detailed search online failed to find any way around the problem, no additional resources for Priceline were evident.  At this point, I am attempting to receive a refund in full for the $996.08 that Priceline is wrongfully holding.