grumplin

I appreciate you taking the time to offer up a very well thought out suggestion. It is all of the Carnival owned companies to my knowledge.

 

I have sent several emails to the gentleman I have to deal with in the accounting department as well as left several voice mail. I have not heard one single word. We are now at two weeks trying to get a reponse tomorrow. Im not going to go any further with this actually. If we dont hear back after several email and several voice mails to the manager that Im told is the only one I can talk to by Friday we are done. I sent proof I bought these legally and where when this first came to my attention. Im not going to beg a company to reconsider anything by this point. I will not book or make payments through an accounting department like I am a criminal. I dont need this headache over a vacation.

 

Ive loved all our cruises and they have all been Carnval so far. I can book on RC the same day , same port and the suite is actually less. I wish they would fix the problem for me but I cant control what this manager does at this point. This has been very frustrating . I want to be treated like a valued client , Not ignored and get the problem fixed. However that is not happening.

 

The last woman I spoke to when i wanted to leave voicemail scolded me that it was a holiday weekend on 9/1 when I asked to leave voice mail since I was not getting a response to my email from the manager. Frankly she couldnt have been any more unpleasant. She refused to let me talk to another manager. I was very pleasant and polite. The only reason we let it go this long is I thought possibly all reps were possibly being routed to work with all the calls with the hurricanes.

Well we extended it until two days ago trying to solve this. This started in August. We finally gave up 2 days ago, cancelled and rebooked with RC. I have never experienced anything so ridiculous in my life. I provided proof we bought legally. I did everything asked. Sure cant do much when Im told I only can talk to one manager and said manager refused to call back, email back for almost a month. Finally on contact I still have a block. Not worth the hassle and frustration when there are other lines.

Update: issue resolved. After faxing in the requested documentation 5 times (each time was confirmed delivery from our fax at work) I was able to finally speak to someone today (granted I know and totally understand had been closed for the hurricane). I told the lady in accounting, Carole, that this really needs to be resolved today: She placed me on hold, and brought a lady named Brittany on the phone, who FINALLY found all of the previous faxes (I had faxed the authorization form, along with all of my documentation for the gift cards showing I did nothing wrong) She placed me on an extended hold, then came back and had me process my final payment online. I AM FINALLY PAID IN FULL FOR THE CRUISE! Brittany also apologized for the delay, and let me know my account has been totally cleared going forward (she did say the block is tied to the phone number on the account, for others going through this issue). I can finally relax and look forward for vacation.

Im glad you finally got it fixed. We finally gave up 2 days ago, cancelled and rebooked with RC. Im sure we are not the only two that went through this mess.

What I would do is write a well-crafted letter to the CEO of Carnival Corporation and one to the Accounting Department with the facts as well as that you did not intend to fraud Carnival. In your letter ask them to reconsider their decision not to take gift cards from you and that all payments need to go through accounting.

 

One way around this is to ask in the letter if you book your next x amount of cruises directly though accounting could they revisit the issue and rescind this decision? The letter should go via certified mail.

 

Also a company wants your money and had you know then gift cards were fraudulent you would have never used them in the first place. Make that very clear that you are as ethical as possible and did not realize that there would be an issue with the cards.

 

in the letter ask them what are reputable sources that Carinval would accept the Gift Cards from. Offer to help them to find the person who frauded you. Attach credit card statements and any supporting evidence. Perhaps you may need a lawyer to concot a letter to their legal team if the first steps don' work.

 

Remember there are other companies you can deal with but it does not sound like you are baned from cruising with the entire Carnival brand just that you need to pay via their accounting department. Does this ban apply to Cuanrd,Princess and Holladnd America or just Carnival?

 

I hope this gets straightened out.

I appreciate you taking the time to offer up a very well thought out suggestion. It is all of the Carnival owned companies to my knowledge.

I have sent several emails to the gentleman I have to deal with in the accounting department as well as left several voice mail. I have not heard one single word. We are now at two weeks trying to get a reponse tomorrow. Im not going to go any further with this actually. If we dont hear back after several email and several voice mails to the manager that Im told is the only one I can talk to by Friday we are done. I sent proof I bought these legally and where when this first came to my attention. Im not going to beg a company to reconsider anything by this point. I will not book or make payments through an accounting department like I am a criminal. I dont need this headache over a vacation.

Ive loved all our cruises and they have all been Carnval so far. I can book on RC the same day , same port and the suite is actually less. I wish they would fix the problem for me but I cant control what this manager does at this point. This has been very frustrating . I want to be treated like a valued client , Not ignored and get the problem fixed. However that is not happening.

The last woman I spoke to when i wanted to leave voicemail scolded me that it was a holiday weekend on 9/1 when I asked to leave voice mail since I was not getting a response to my email from the manager. Frankly she couldnt have been any more unpleasant. She refused to let me talk to another manager. I was very pleasant and polite. The only reason we let it go this long is I thought possibly all reps were possibly being routed to work with all the calls with the hurricanes.

The e-cards work fabulously via AARP. I purchased them, and had them in my email account virtually a minute later. Then, I was able to pay off my cruise 5 minutes after that. Easy peasy!

 

CeleBrat

As of this moment I am permanently banned from ever using a gift card. My profile ID has a complete block.

Some alley cats have better manners than people.

Well I have done all I can do about these restrictions short of cancel my cruise. I have emailed the manager in charge twice and left him voice mail. :( One of the accounting reps was able to process my final payment two days ago but now I wait.

Sadly yet another example of how trying to get something for nothing can sometimes result in getting nothing for something.

 

It does very little good to rely on the generic claim that a business is BBB certified if you don't bother going to the BBB page. In this particular case card cash IS BBB certified. But their rating is a C+ and their average review is 2.4 out of 5. Reading some of the complaints, it seems pretty common for the amounts to disappear as soon as the 45 day refund period expires. Coincidence? Maybe, but unlikely. OP was fortunate to have still been within the 45 day period. Personally I wouldn't buy a product of any kind with such a poor rating on Amazon, even with their 30 day return policy.

 

As to Carnival's actions? Entirely justified. We look at the inconvenience of the OP but how about the costs Carnival occurs in dealing with this?

Wow you are pompous. No one tried to get anything for nothing. These were discounted gift cards a few of us spent a thousand or more on. Sure that's trying to get something for nothing.

To the OP I am so very glad this is fixed for you. Now I sure home they get my restriction fixed.

OP I hope it all works out with no further issues. Enjoy your cruise.

 

This has been an interesting thread. CC is a gold mine of information sometimes and I have learned a lot about gift cards and gift card re-sellers. But like a gold mine, WOW you sure have to dig through a lot of waste rock to get to that gold.

You sure do don't you! I love The way you put that :) The Credit card and spouting who has debt and doesnt, shouldn't cruise etc is out there. Should we all just throw our net worth out here now? LOL

The OP came for help and to vent but it sure did turn into something else

So, we booked a cruise on the Victory for a quick getaway this month and paid extra for an Ocean Suite for my grandmother and I and our roommates, her sister and her husband. Well, we booked the cruise around 50 days before departure and were promised to be paid the next day. Well, it's been 4 weeks. If I cancel, I'd only get about $300 back for them. I'm just trying to weigh my options. I just don't want this to be an ill vacation where I have to stomach the fact that the lied and used us. It's not like they are going through hard times, they lied when they said they would pay me back. She just happened to tell us that she maxed out all her credit cards and has not had money for months!

 

Next time, we will require it up front. It's put my grandmother in an emotional situation. So yes, our fault, but it's just hurtful and deceitful. Money isn't a problem, it's the fact that they used us.

 

Lesson learned.

Im sorry you are going through this. I get it. Im sitting one 1500 in festival seats family were supposed to pay me back for the end of July.Ive booked this big event for all of us the last 10 years with no problems. Everyone of these people has plenty of money and one brags about making almost half a million a year. Thankfully I will just sell their tickets and recoup some of my money and never do it again.

If I were you I personally cancel and enjoy your cruise. Yes its family and if they want to get mad because they dont get a free cruise out of you they are the jerks.

I was wondering, if you had gift certificates and you weren't sure of their validity, could you call Carnival and have them checked before using them on your account? Most gift cards have a number on back where you can call and check the balance.

(No, I don't have any, and I'm not planning to get any. I'm just curious.)

Im going to say yes you could check but it might not matter depending on where they came from. My giftcards had the funds on them and they went through fine. It was weeks later carnival notified me they were part of a huge fraud ring and were taken off my account.

As I think you realized after you posted this, the part of reselling the cards was there. This is from January 25, 2013, courtesy of web.archive.org:I see the same prohibitions there in the February 15, 2014 archive of the page, the February 16, 2015 archive of the page, and the January 9, 2016 archive of the page.

 

Either way, hopefully it puts an end to the problems.

I have no idea exactly what was there in previous years. What Im talking about it what I linked in a previous post that was new. Mentioning specific sites and sellers. This is new to me. Ill copy it in bold from the site. It also has come on all corespondence I have gotten from Carnival starting in the second email about this fiasco.

Carnival Cruise Lines is not responsible for any Gift Cards bought or sold through Craigslist.com, giftcardZen.com or any website facilitating aftermarket sales of pre-gifted or pre-owned items.

• Where can I purchase a Carnival Gift Card?
  
• Where can I use the Carnival Gift Card?
  
• click here for more
  

That statement doesn't exclude gift giving. It only says it can't be resold.

Sorry tiger I missed the re-sell in the original statement. Im in a bit of a fit today trying to decide about rebooking and dealing with all this. My bad!

I am actually surprised that any of these gift cards are valid after re-selling.

It seems there would be much less chance of fraud if they were only usable by the original purchaser.

They aren't:

The stuff about resellers and guarantees was just added to Carnivals site recently after this huge fraud ring was detected. This was NOT all on the site previously.

If gift cards were only available to the original purchaser it wouldnt make gift cards viable for gift giving.

for those affected, my email is a a r o n s 1 5 8 4 at g m a i l obviously you know how to fix that and email :) I am glad to share any notes or what we can do about this, I am feeling very unappreciated by Carnival on this.

We will get a group email going.

dsykes2 and grumplin, please email me! You can find it in the signature.

I see it now . I will!

You did use stolen gift cards. Since you used them, you were part of it. Carnival has no way of knowing what you did or did not do. Since they are willing to forgive, and let you pay with another way, than you just need to accept that you were a victim, and than turned around and victimized Carnival. In law, there is a saying that ignorance of wrong doing is still wrongdoing. Unless it is cleared in a court, which it won't be because no one is pressing charges, you could have this hanging around under your account

I have a stake in a freight business. You know freight is stolen all the time Im quite sure. Their is a huge black market for things we would never ever think of like mustard. Sounds silly right. $14,000 in mustard disappeared recently when a trailer was stolen. Now the original purchaser of of this stolen freight likely knew it was stolen. However the people that bought supplies from him/her or their suppliers did not. Now if you as a consumer unknowingly bought this mustard when it made it into your local retailer are you committing fraud? After all you bought the mustard. Many of us buy stuff like this and have no idea. Are you buying many of the professional brand of hair care products that have made it into the big box stores? Many of those products are illegally obtained and resold. That is why the bottle says " guaranteed only if bought in a licensed salon".

No one victimized carnival. They took the gift cards off the account. By law you can not be charged with wrong doing for buying fraudulent merchandise legally when there is no possible way you could know it is fraud. Everything can potentially be fraudulent.

Carnival now has this on their website under gift cards Carnival Cruise Lines is not responsible for any Gift Cards bought or sold through Craigslist.com, giftcardZen.com or any website facilitating aftermarket sales of pre-gifted or pre-owned items.

This is new since this great big fraud ring!!

So does that mean you can't even use a gift card on the boat?

I cant use a gift card ever.

I did as the accounting rep advised and appealed to the higher ups about the restrictions on me as a client. I dont care I can never use a gift card again. I care I cant book a cruise without having to go through a special department to book and pay forever. If the restriction is not lifted I will be cancelling and taking a cruise out of the same port on RC. Being branded a fraudster in their system will stop us from being clients of Carnival.

Grumplin, I don't know how to private message you, but those of us stuck in this limbo world should reach out to each other and compare notes, and who to speak with.

I unfortunately do not know how to either :( Maybe someone will give us some pointers.

I tried adding you as a friend . Doesnt shop an option to PM. have you tried to pay off or make a payment on your cruise?

They gathered from everyone who was caught up in this documentation. Carnival has said to me that they realize that no one did this intentionally. They have emails and receipts showing they were bought legally, and that is how they can tell that we are not the ones trying to scam them. Carnival didn't just take our word for it, they demanded proof.

Your absolutely correct. I had to show receipts and purchase and GC numbers. I just spoke to the rep again and processed my payment. I told her we were really thinking of canceling and taking RC. She is sending me the contact info for her boss to appeal the ban on my profile booking and paying without going through accounting. She said the gift card ban is permanent.

I just spoke with her. There is a total restriction on my profile at this point and I can not use a PVP. She gave me her bosses info to speak to him directly.

Like I said, if you decide to cruise Carnival again, get a PVP like mine. They will (and would have in this particular case as well) handle everything for you with one call and save you a ton of time and frustration. Instead of you having to talk to multiple people repeating your story over and over again, waiting for supervisors, etc you only will need to call them and they will take over from there. They will even handle the accounting end of it in the future too. This is why a good PVP is so important. For me, it's all about the convenience and service. Use a good one to book your next cruise and you'll never do it any other way again.

Im going to ask her if a PVP could book any future cruise or not specifically and let you know. She made it rather clear I was not allowed to go through anyone but the accounting dept but I will ask. I also did not repeat my story over and over. I had a designated accounting rep from the get go. The only other one I spoke to was an agent online when the CC payment was rejected and gave me the red message. It most likely not going to matter for us. Im pretty sure we are cancelling and booking a RC that leaved the same day and is also 5 days. I have a hard time throwing cash at a company treating me like a criminal when I had proof I bought them legally from a BBB accredited company. It has made me quite sad.

I do think you PVP advice would be very helpful to anyone reading though so I am sorry if I came off wrong.

But you didn't use a PVP when booking did you? A PVP is not a Customer Service Rep. CSRs are the ones that answer the phone when you call the 800 number and many of them are useless. A PVP is in a totally different league and you have to know their extension to get a hold of one.

No I did not. I booked online as I always have. However it is a mute point as I am no longer allowed to book a cruise with anyone but the rep in the accounting dept because of the gift card stuff. It may help someone else in the future reading this. However a PVP wont help me.

I am unsure how to make it anymore clear, I did NOT commit any fraud.

Give up you cant. There are some that believe Carnival can do no wrong. You legally were a victim of fraud.

The problem is in Carnival's eyes you committed fraud once .. and they aren't going to let you scam them again.

 

Carnival may be incorrect in thinking you are shady but once bitten, twice shy. I can't say I blame their corporate policy.

 

Their business, their rules. Even if it inconveniences you.

 

 

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I am going to blame them for making punishment binding for life. . Legally non of us committed fraud. We had to show proof we bought the gift cards legally. We were victims of fraud. I can see not taking gift cards but the needing to book and process any payment though their accounting dept for life is ridiculous. Im looking seriously and canceling and taking RC the same day so it works with our flight and hotels.