frequentrider

After nearly 6 months of back and forth with our credit card company and Princess Cruise Line, i decided to submit the $150 for arbitration. When their attorney reveived the arbitration request, within a few weeks, the cruise line sent me a check. Though it was not what was rightfully owed, we decided to accept the check as paid in full and also the $150 arbitration fee was reimbursed to me. We have learned to check our folio every night on any cruise we take. Once you are off the shop, it is nearly impossible to right their wrong. On another note, i was fully prepared to win arbitration! On or account it showed that we were both having a couples massage that ginish at 11 am. This was obviously an error! On the same folio it showed we bought something in one of their gift shops WHILE we were getting the massage!!!! The gift shop was also 2 floors up from spa! I just dont think an arbitrator would have voted in the cruise lines favor on this one!!!!!

Hi Wandawithdogs, i would only give them 4 weeks at max to respond. Sometimes they file our complaint in file #13 and don't tell us!

Thank you Skynight! I will definitely do that. I usually try every possible avenue I can to resolve an issue. One of those avenues might work so why not try all!! I was always told if you knock on enough doors, eventually you will sell a vacuum!!

Yes. This is my second posting. I did not know my first submittal posted.

I will keep posting!

At this point, I have sent correspondence to Carnival stating intent to sue in small claims court or I will pay the $150 for their mediator to arbitrate settlement.

I actually called Princess customer service within a week after disembarking ship. After about 6 calls to Princess customer service with no success, about 3 weeks after cruise, I did, contact my credit card company BofA to stop and challenge payment. So, I did fall within the 30 or 60 day challenge time period. Both BofA and Princess asked me to provide a copy of the statement showing where my wife had paid for the Lotus Spa and Masssage prior to boarding. We did provide this statement as they requested only to be told (after waiting 4 weeks) that our challenge had been denied due to not providing proof!

My apologies to all that have responded to my post here. I am new to this forum and wasn't even sure if my ordeal had posted! My wife and I are now suffering PTSD!! LOL. Every hotel, etc we use now, we are constantly checking our charges! We always trusted in the past, but not much anymore. We were given on board credits, one military ($100), and one for $50. I did review the folio and agree that I do owe them $219. the other charges on my folio show the $329 for couples massage and $236 for Lotus Spa usage (all of this prepaid prior to boarding). I do agree with another here about the ambiguity of the Folio. Since we did pay for the couples massage and use of the lotus spa before boarding, I believe the only way the masseuse could have gotten her $59 tip, would have been to charge the $329 to our account and the software then calculates the tip accordingly. I feel that is why the additional $329 is on our Folio. I had no problem with the tip, only the additional charge of $329 which had already been paid.

I am hoping for a favorable outcome. I will post here in the near future when I reach the end of all this mess!

I pay $150 for an arbitrator and then Princess has to pay the arbitrator $400 per hour, according to the contract we all have to sign prior to boarding the ship. Imagine that! Princess to pay $400 per hour to resolve a $565 erroneous charge. As I am retired, and live comfortably, its not the $565 , but rather, the principle of it all.

I have gone through my BofA credit card company. They interface with Princess, but Princess will not back down. I have put in a complaint twice with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (.gov website). They contact bofa to dispute with Princess. Princess still rejects my claim. My final attempt is now to settle in small claims court, or to pay Princess' mediator $150 to resolve this issue.

So, my wife and I took a California coastal cruise to Ensenda and back in November of 2022 on a Princess cruise ship. Two weeks prior to boarding, my wife uses her credit card to pay for (in advance) a couples massage and four days use for both of us to use the Lotus Spa. On the day of our disembark, we noticed we were charged for a couples massage and use of the Lotus Spa (for 4 days). But wait a minute! We paid for those services 2 weeks before boarding!! NOT..says Princess cruise customer service! They ask us to prove prior payment by showing them the credit card statement showing payment 2 weeks prior to boarding. We fax to them a copy of the credit card statement showing that we DID pay. They then say "your statement does not contain the FULL credit card account number". So, we called that credit card company and got a statement showing FULL account number. We fax it to Princess. One month later, Princess states that our appeal is denied due to lack of proof!! To make matters worse, our billing (FOLIO) showed we also had a second couples massage two days after the first! We only had ONE on our first cruise day! Needless to say, Princess Cruise Line made a big billing mistake and will not fix it. It has been over 4 months now with no resolve! What a mess! I would not recommend this cruise line!

We had $ credit to use before end of year, so we decided on a local 4 day cruise to Ensenada from Los Angeles. The Discovery Princess is a beautiful ship and all staff were very friendly and helpful. Three weeks before embarking, we purchased a "Couples Massage" (advertised for $329) and also $118 per person to use the Lotus Spa for four days of our cruise. The Lotus Spa is wonderful!! Staff workers were friendly and helpful. Unfortunately, and I will have to say "buyer beware" we were charged (on our on-board credit card account) an additional $329 for the couples massage, and $118 each for use of the Lotus Spa! We have spoken with 4 different agents to rectify this mistake, and now, 2 months later, still being charged for services already paid for before sailing! If you wait to reserve a couples massage until you get on the ship, you most likely will not be able to reserve a time as they are usually all filled up! Our credit card company has disputed the charges for us and seem to be losing the battle! I am only posting this to let other frequent Princess Cruise Line cruisers to beware of this. If you don't schedule the Lotus Spa and Massage weeks before sailing, you most likely will not be able to obtain these services...but, if you do schedule and pay before sailing, the Lotus Spa folks will charge you again on your ship credit card account. And then, good luck getting the double charges fixed! Two weeks prior to sailing, we also paid $118 dollars each for the both of us. Yep! Once on board the ship, they charged the $118 dollars each AGAIN for the both of us. Once again, Princess Cruise Line refuses to correct this. I have been on about 8 Princess Cruises in 15 year period, but, needless to say, this last one on November 10-14 on Discovery will be our last Princess Cruise. I think they are hurting for revenue to remain a stable competitor and are trying scrupulous means to survive. As a Carnival Cruise Line stockholder (who owns Princess Cruise Lines) I will definitely be selling all my shares of stock.