WineCountryCruiser

12 hours ago, RLK33853 said:

Positive Outcome/Resolution

 

Just providing an update regarding our missing refundable OBC.  Received a call last evening from a Princess Onboard Experience Support Specialist (Customer Service Representative) who informed me she wanted to clear my issue up.  Apologized for the six months it took for the issue to get to her, and then said she was looking at my February final account and confirmed that Princess had sent out a cheque in the wrong amount.  To resolve the discrepancy she asked if I wanted a new cheque or could she just give me the missing OBC for my next cruise.  This seemed to be the simpler method so I agreed and the matter was settled.  Of interest was that she also said that she would be giving both myself AND my wife the OBC.  I looked today and she was true to her word - she doubled the missing funds - with the missing amount in my name, as well as the missing amount in my wife's name.

 

Moral to the story - keep asking for your issues to be resolved; include your documentation; and be polite.  Although it took a long time, it was nice to see that Princess took the issue seriously and resolved it.

Very happy to hear that Princess stepped up and resolved your issue in your favor.  You might want to confirm the status (refundable or non-refundable) of the OBCs that were provided for your next cruise.

We ended up emailing our documentation to senior staff in Customer Relations.  Our primary reason for doing so is to understand why the post-disembarkation changes to our stateroom account were made.  Our upcoming Island Princess cruise in October involves extremely similar circumstances and we do not want to go through this again.

Craig

9 hours ago, Crystabel said:

I had a problem with receiving promised FCC once and escalated my situation to Princess executives. My issue was finally resolved. Be sure to keep your explanation to the point and courteous without blaming anyone specifically. 

 

 

Collin Steinke
Director, Customer Relations
24305 Town Center Drive
Santa Clarita, CA 91355
csteinke@princesscruises.com
 
Mario Siebaldi
Senior Vice President Guest Experience
24305 Town Center Drive
Santa Clarita, CA 91355
msiebaldi@princesscruises.com

 

Jpadgett@Princesscruises.com

 

President, Holland America Group
JSwartz@Princesscruises.com

 

Billing office - 1-480-870-1580

Thanks for the contact information.  I do not blame any individual for what happened though I do find fault with the mechanism by which the final statement is derived.  Until you leave the ship, you can review your statement and speak with Guest Services about erroneous entries.  After that, you can review the final statement produced by post-disembarkation processing but have very limited ability to speak with anyone about seemingly erroneous entries.  Should you be fortunate enough to speak with someone at Customer Relations, they can, as happened to me, simply stand by their numbers without explaining why their numbers are right and yours are wrong.  And that's not right!

8 hours ago, ldtr said:

Keep in mind that if you dispute via credit card and Princess disputes and wins you might end up being banned.  Neighbor of ours (very frequent cruiser) son filed a dispute, lost, and is now banned from Princess.  In his case it was for a much larger amount and Princess had the cruise contract on their side, but it does indicate that Princess does take disputes seriously.

 

A Princess final bill is like an accounting statement. It can get confusing because of how they credit and debit between accounts billed to the same credit card

 

I expect the computer charges could be  how they account for non refundable being subtracted or some other accounting debit, not an actual computer charge.

 

I would take a look and make sure of the totals of charges, non refundable obc and refundable obc, separate put accounting transfers between accounts paid by the same credit card and run the numbers separately from how they present it.  Then compare that to the final bill.

 

I agree that the "$$COMPUTER" charges are not likely to be true charges but the reclassifying of charges from non-refundable to refundable or vice versa.  The problem is that the final non-refundable and refundable credit balances shown on the MedallionClass app were exactly as I expected.  As has occurred on previous cruises, Princess applied charges to non-refundable credits prior to applying them to refundable credits.  Given the specific credit amounts, the only way that they could have come up with the refund amount was to apply some charges to refundable credits and then some charges to  non-refundable credits - leaving a lot of non-refundable credits to be discarded and a smaller amount of refundable credits to be returned to me.  This just doesn't make sense to me.

I understand about the dispute issues.  But it seems that if post-disembarkation processing alters my final totals, Princess will always win.  If it results in refunding less money to me than I am due, they win.  If it results in producing or increasing a balance owed, they win again.  Unfortunately, we can't know the impact of post-disembarkation processing until we've left the ship and we have to live with whatever they claim to be the final amount owed or to be refunded.

3 hours ago, PacnGoNow said:

I bet you’re right, in addition to maybe new or outsourced accounting, is my guess.

 
Continual problems with IT and post cruise accounting.  

 

I know that Princess does read some of the threads on Cruise Critic.  If they happen to read this one, perhaps it will prompt someone to at least consider that there is a problem and initiate a review.

Just now, Steelers36 said:

Hi again.  I am willing to bet that @RLK33853's story is the one I was thinking of as similar to yours.

Yep.  It sounds very similar.  Really makes me wonder.

5 minutes ago, RLK33853 said:

We had a similar issue in February.  We were on B2B cruises and had refundable $100 on each leg.  I checked with the front desk after the 1st leg, plus prior to leaving the ship on the second leg, and was assured that each $100 would be paid out = $200.

 

Fast forward 6 weeks and we received a cheque for $116???   Not sure how $200 ended up being $116 - I could see $100, but not a random number like $116.

 

Our travel agent has escalated this issue on 3 different occasions without any kind of reasonable explanation.  We are on our fourth back and forth with them at present.  This was our 46 Princess cruise and we have never experienced anything like this.

Ours was also a B2B and we did almost exactly what you did.  All seemed OK until it wasn't.  We've done 64 Princess cruises and also never experienced anything like this.  As a retired software engineer, it makes me wonder if there is a glitch in the software being used at Princess HQ for post-disembarkation processing. That's one of the reasons that decided to start this topic - to see who else might have had the same thing happen to them.

5 minutes ago, Ombud said:

Something strange happened to me too. Disembarked last September with 35+ refundable OBC. Emailed customer service when I didn't get a check w/I a month. Didn't get it before December cruise. 2 more emails. Frustrated call to my CVP who contacted Customer Relations. There wasn't a way to get a check (🤯) but they agreed to comp me 100 obc. Came thru as non-refundable so disembarked April cruise owing. Now I make sure I always owe something. 

Glad that you got some something back.  I agree - make sure that you always owe something.  That way if "$$COMPUTER" charges are applied post-disembarkation, you can dispute those charges via your credit card issuer.

2 minutes ago, leck57 said:

There was someone on FB very recently that posted exactly this problem and about the "Computer " charges. It might be worth checking it as I think it is also ongoing.

Will look into that.

3 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

I used to have success with asking (firmly if needed) to be transferred to Guest Relations or Solutions.  It depended on who I got.  But I confess have not needed to do this since the Philippine call center became big player.  

 

I do agree that best to have that final statement in hand to verify against the email.  I do think part of the delay in any dispute is they have to go back to the ship's purser's office and make inquiries, etc.  But anyone in PCL accounting at HQ ought to know what the "$$COMPUTER" means.

 

Yes they should know.  Based on post-cruise conversations with someone in the onboard financial department of the cruise in question (we became friends while onboard), the onboard purser's office is effectively out of the loop once the accounting data for the cruise is transferred to Princess HQ.  They can be very helpful while you're onboard but there's little they can do once you've disembarked.

1 minute ago, theloo said:

I have a similar problem.  I had refundable and non -refundable OBC.  They debited the non-RF first.  When I asked them to correct it on board, they told me it would be fixed.  It was not.  My post cruise folio, which had a refund due, was zeroed out.  I called and sent a message through princess.com, but have heard nothing in nearly 3 weeks.

Unfortunately, the connection between onboard and Headquarters staff doesn't seem very solid when it comes to the accounting side of things.  About the only way to reach Customer Relations is through email.  From my experience, other paths to reach them don't seem to work.

11 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

Are you working with a TA?  Sometimes they are able to reach someone in Accounts/Revenue.  

 

Left the ship on Friday. Today is Wednesday.  I received my survey, but not an "updated" folio.  I do have printed copies and a screen shot.

I do work with a TA but she was unable to do any better than I did.  Given Princess' ability to make changes to your account without your knowledge after you've left the ship, the extremely difficult path to contacting someone in Customer Relations who might be able to help is especially troubling.  I wonder how many other cruisers have had this happen to them and just didn't know it.

1 minute ago, Steelers36 said:

I have read one or two stories the align with yours.  The person (sorry, don't ask me who now) had a major loss of Ref OBC due to PCL re-allocating monies in some strange way.  I cannot recall the specifics, but sounds like what happened to you.  

 

I have never walked off a ship with a credit balance.  And I have no plans to do so in the future.

 

I do think you are owed an explanation for their calculations.  Have you tried calling in and asking to speak with Customer Relations?  And I'd ask for a senior person there due to your lengthy wait for answers.  "$$COMPUTER" may equal PCL Creative Accounting.

Sadly, there is no way to reach Customer Relations by phone and I've tried, without success, to reach them through the standard Princess telephone tree.  It's actually quite difficult, if not impossible, to even have a Princess agent let you speak with a supervisor.

One big goal of my post is to remind people that it is essential to get a printout of your statement just prior to disembarking and compare it to the final statement that you receive from Princess via email after disembarking.  I suspect that this may not be common practice.

2 minutes ago, GJCruiser said:

I would never leave a ship with credits held by the cruise line. Go to the casino that last day and be sure you sufficiently charge off the credits left and get the cash.

Given what happened, that's what we're likely to do.  After so many years of cruising with Princess without this sort of post-disembarkation alteration to our account, we were just blind-sided.  Now we know,.

13 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

I have never seen that.  If you’re going on another cruise, I would go to GS and ask them what that would mean on a folio?  Maybe that would help to understand.

 

Did you have medallionNet?  Did you use the computers in the Internet Cafe?  

I had previously spoken with Guest Services to confirm the distribution of my OBCs between refundable and non-refundable and they did.  I did have, and use, MedallionNet on my own laptop.  The issue did not appear until after we left the ship.

Having cruised with Princess for almost 20 years, I have learned that errors in our stateroom account, though uncommon, do occur.  As a result, I check my stateroom account balance on the MedallionClass app each day to ensure that the day’s charges are correct, and that the refundable and non-refundable onboard credit balances are also correct.

On a recent cruise, I had onboard credits classified by Princess as non-refundable and others classified by Princess as refundable.  While sitting in the disembarkation lounge waiting to leave the ship at the conclusion of the cruise, I did a final check of my stateroom account using the MedallionClass app to verify that everything was what I expected.  As expected, the information in the app showed that I had a substantial credit balance – of which the vast majority was refundable.  After arriving home that day, I received the final statement of our stateroom account via email from Princess.  To my surprise, the amount to be refunded to me was well under half of the refundable credit balance shown on the app.  This was caused by the application of a series of unknown charges identified as having been applied on disembarkation day.

I emailed Princess Customer Relations the following day requesting resolution of the matter.  Two weeks later, having received no acknowledgment of receipt or response to my email, I re-sent the original email after updating it to include my detailed analysis showing what I believed was the correct amount to be refunded to me.  I did get an acknowledgement that the re-sent message had been received but there was still no reply.  The updated message was then re-sent two additional times, but Princess did not provide a response until almost seven weeks after we disembarked the ship.  Their response included an attachment containing a detailed list of all charges and credits to my stateroom account that I was asked to review.

My review of the details provided by Princess showed that every charge and credit was as expected up to the time that we disembarked the ship.  At the end of the list of charges and credits was a series of charges labeled as “$$COMPUTER” that were applied over two hours after we disembarked.

An exchange of emails resulted in Princess stating that all charges in the final statement of our stateroom account that I received on disembarkation day were correct – though no explanation was provided regarding the charges identified as “$$COMPUTER”.  I then emailed Princess Customer Relations requesting an explanation of those charges.  To date, I have yet to receive a response to that request.  I have another Princess cruise scheduled that includes a similar set of non-refundable and refundable credits.  Without an explanation of the post-disembarkation “$$COMPUTER” charges, I am concerned that I will be unable to avoid a recurrence of what happened on my recent cruise.

Has anyone else had a similar experience or is this unique to me?

I was going to ask a question about the balconies as we are considering a balcony one way on the Island through the Panama and an obstructed ocean view the other way. The web site was very helpful.

Has anyone been in E622 or E623.

If you were ging both ways would you change or just stay in the same cabin?

Is it too hot on the balconies in November through the canal?

Perhaps you move around the ship during the canal time?

Thanks for any info provided.

We sailed on the Coral westbound through the canal in the spring of 2005 and are sailing eastbound through the canal on the Island this October. It's a fantastic experience. Be sure to check out the shipboard naturalist lectures on the history of the canal and its construction.

Do move around the ship during canal time so that you see the transit from a variety of perspectives. There's a lot to see.

If we were going both ways, we'd stay in the same cabin. None of the moving stuff!

Enjoy your cruise!

Craig

That was a really helpful website!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For anyone cruising on the Coral or the Island, it is a must-see when selecting a stateroom.

Craig

I made a post about this after my Island cruise to the Panama Canal a year or two ago. We were in the next to the last cabin [forget the number], a mini., on the Caribe deck. Very calm waters throughout. We had terrible vibration at night when the ship picked up speed. Now I am a Navy vet and no pussy, but it really rattled I don't see why I haven't read of anybody else complaining over the years!?

DW and I were in C712 on the Coral (the Island's sister) westbound through the canal in 2005 and really didn't notice the vibration. Yes, there was definitely ship motion during the first couple of days on the Pacific side but nothing that we couldn't cope with. We're in C705 on the Island eastbound through the canal this October. It'll be interesting to see if the vibration is there. I wonder if the problem was corrected in a subsequent drydock.

Craig

There are differences but they're not the same kind of differences as on the other ships. The Coral and Island are more complicated in terms of what cabins have covered/uncovered balconies. There's an awesome website out there put together by a CC member, with coded deckplans and photographs, which is enormously helpful, however I don't have the website address saved on this particular computer. Maybe someone else can post it.

I believe this is the website you're thinking about.

http://mysite.verizon.net/res76zxu/princessbalconies/index.html

Craig

We were upgraded to this mini-suite for our Alaskan cruise. It is the last room on the Caribe deck. Does anyone know if there is a viewing deck past our room or what is in that area of the ship (hard to tell from floorplan). My concern is that we are close to a viewing deck or other public area. We prefer privacy. Thanks for your help!

My wife and I were in C712 on the Coral transitting the Panama Canal. There is a public viewing area at the end of the coridor going aft. There was quite a bit of foot traffic during the transit of the canal. Very little at other times. It didn't pose a problem for us.

Craig