What would you do? (Shady Practices)

[jgmpuma]

One of the first cases that lawyers-to-be read in Contracts law involved a department store that advertised a rabbit coat for $1 to the first person who showed up the next morning. A man shows up the next morning and demands to coat. The store told him that the sale was intended only for women, and refused to sell him the coast for $1.

 

The courts ruled in favor of the purchaser. There were no conditions listed in the ad, and the ad was never withdrawn.

 

You could probably win your case in court, but you would have to go to Mami to file it Probably not worth your time.

 

The cruise contract may address this typw of situation, but there is no cruise contract until the cruise is actually booked.

[gtalum]

One of the first cases that lawyers-to-be read in Contracts law involved a department store that advertised a rabbit coat for $1 to the first person who showed up the next morning. A man shows up the next morning and demands to coat. The store told him that the sale was intended only for women, and refused to sell him the coast for $1.

 

The courts ruled in favor of the purchaser. There were no conditions listed in the ad, and the ad was never withdrawn.

 

You could probably win your case in court, but you would have to go to Mami to file it Probably not worth your time.

 

The cruise contract may address this typw of situation, but there is no cruise contract until the cruise is actually booked.

 

Common carrier transportation sales are legally different from retail sales. Advertised prices do not have to be honored.

[jebuell]

If I owned a business, I would hope customers would understand a human error.

 

Haha, you clearly do not own a business! Only big corporations could get away with something like this. A smaller business would go under with bad feedback like this and since it could be reported to BBB, even if it was an innocent error, it could easily sink you. This is why most places would honor the price and take the hit.

[elcuchio24]

One of the first cases that lawyers-to-be read in Contracts law involved a department store that advertised a rabbit coat for $1 to the first person who showed up the next morning. A man shows up the next morning and demands to coat. The store told him that the sale was intended only for women, and refused to sell him the coast for $1.

 

The courts ruled in favor of the purchaser. There were no conditions listed in the ad, and the ad was never withdrawn.

 

You could probably win your case in court, but you would have to go to Mami to file it Probably not worth your time.

 

The cruise contract may address this typw of situation, but there is no cruise contract until the cruise is actually booked.

 

Perhaps you should read back to the poster that showed where in the cruise contract, which you must accept when you book, that if a price was shown in error CCL has to right to recoup that money. Once you accept that contract, pretty sure you would not have a leg to stand on in court.

[elcuchio24]

Haha, you clearly do not own a business! Only big corporations could get away with something like this. A smaller business would go under with bad feedback like this and since it could be reported to BBB, even if it was an innocent error, it could easily sink you. This is why most places would honor the price and take the hit.

 

Why does everyone think the BBB has anything to do with anything? It's not a government agency, more like 'consumer report', they aren't sinking anyone.

[hogwildest]

Bummer OP. I guess if you see a sweet deal, you should just book it online and not call to question it. It would be more difficult for them to change the price once you had already paid for it. If it was paid for, worst case scenario is that you get a refund and Carnival alienates a customer. Probably not worth it to them. Still, I'm sorry to hear you missed out on an awesome deal. It sucks to feel like you have something awesome, and get it taken away on a technicality. Happy travels.

[madgenius]

For what it's worth - Carnival covers this is in their cruise contract - even if you book at an erroneous fare, they can collect the difference or refund:

 

In the event that a cruise fare listed, quoted or advertised through any website, Carnival sales person, travel agent or any other source is booked but is incorrect due to an electronic error, typographical error, human error or any other error causing the fare to be listed, quoted or advertised for an amount not intended by Carnival, Carnival reserves the right to correct the erroneous fare by requesting the Guest to pay the correct fare intended, or by canceling the cruise in exchange for a full refund, but in no event shall Carnival be obligated to honor any such booking resulting from the error or otherwise be liable in such circumstances.

 

ken

 

So are you saying that Carnival reserves the right to change the price of a cruise whenever they feel like? If their quarterly profits aren't what they "intended" do they reserve the right to charge me more after the fact? That's ridiculous.

 

I'm used to dealing with companies that give excellent customer service. I seem to read a lot of accounts on this board where Carnival has essentially told the customer "screw you". Does Carnival have such low prices compared to their competitors that they can afford to give crap customer service or am I just getting a skewed picture because this is the internet? I actually don't mind paying a bit more for excellent service. If something out of the ordinary happens with respect to my purchase I rather know that the company I'm doing business with is going to take care of me. My GF and I do a mini vacation every New Years and this year we're cruising. I was thinking of making a cruise our regular thing. Do I need to switch cruise lines now before I invest too much in Carnival? Any recommendations on what lines give good, customer oriented service.

[bankerbabe]

We actually booked and paid for a cruise, through sister company Holland America, that turned out to be a price error. We not only booked the cruise, but bought our flights before we heard from HAL that there was an error. Apparently they had posted an online price for an entire weekend that was incorrect.

 

Most passengers just cancelled the cruise, but we had already purchased airfare at a good price, so we had to pony up the additional funds in order to go on the cruise.

 

Not only was the cruise line not sympathetic to our plight, they refused to believe that we purchased airfare already. Heck, anytime you can buy a flight to NYC from Oregon for $242 each you buy it immediately.

 

When I posted questions about it on the HAL CC boards I was flamed. I got a lot of "you should have known the price was wrong". The price wasn't that far off - $849 pp for a ten night sailing - and we had never sailed or researched much about HAL previously so didn't really have any idea what the going rate was. We figured it was a good sale, or an unpopular sailing.

 

So, I guess my point is this: Yes they can change the price if what is online is an error. And they will. And no matter how much you threaten to call the Better Business Bureau and anyone else you can think of, they are still going to charge the "corrected" fare.

[tootsiescurly]

Only if it is within a certain percent of the real price. If it is very mis priced they do not have to honor.

 

Not so in California and not on military installations. They have to honor the price as marked.

[Ken076]

So are you saying that Carnival reserves the right to change the price of a cruise whenever they feel like? If their quarterly profits aren't what they "intended" do they reserve the right to charge me more after the fact? That's ridiculous. That's not what they are saying here.

 

I'm used to dealing with companies that give excellent customer service. I seem to read a lot of accounts on this board where Carnival has essentially told the customer "screw you". Does Carnival have such low prices compared to their competitors that they can afford to give crap customer service or am I just getting a skewed picture because this is the internet? I actually don't mind paying a bit more for excellent service. If something out of the ordinary happens with respect to my purchase I rather know that the company I'm doing business with is going to take care of me. My GF and I do a mini vacation every New Years and this year we're cruising. I was thinking of making a cruise our regular thing. Do I need to switch cruise lines now before I invest too much in Carnival? Any recommendations on what lines give good, customer oriented service.IMO the odds of this type of situation occurring are so small that it's not worth considering. If it becomes a problem, you can cancel for a full refund. WRT other cruiseline's Policies, I'd check for similar wording in their Cruise Contract.

 

Ken

[5waldos]

I don't know about the legal aspects of this but do know that often companies will honor "mistakes". Friends got a very sweet deal flying to Fiji for something like $8.50, as did about 40 others, when they booked online. They figured it was an error but after booking, the airline did honor the price. Like the guy who bought a new car for 15,000 bananas- that was the advertisement so he arrived with a truck full of bananas. In this case the company was required to honor it- joking around was not an acceptable answer.

[kbmeow]

Still curious, how many days cruise and what did the cruise " really" cost?

[madgenius]

We actually booked and paid for a cruise, through sister company Holland America, that turned out to be a price error. We not only booked the cruise, but bought our flights before we heard from HAL that there was an error. Apparently they had posted an online price for an entire weekend that was incorrect.

 

Most passengers just cancelled the cruise, but we had already purchased airfare at a good price, so we had to pony up the additional funds in order to go on the cruise.

 

Not only was the cruise line not sympathetic to our plight, they refused to believe that we purchased airfare already. Heck, anytime you can buy a flight to NYC from Oregon for $242 each you buy it immediately.

 

When I posted questions about it on the HAL CC boards I was flamed. I got a lot of "you should have known the price was wrong". The price wasn't that far off - $849 pp for a ten night sailing - and we had never sailed or researched much about HAL previously so didn't really have any idea what the going rate was. We figured it was a good sale, or an unpopular sailing.

 

So, I guess my point is this: Yes they can change the price if what is online is an error. And they will. And no matter how much you threaten to call the Better Business Bureau and anyone else you can think of, they are still going to charge the "corrected" fare.

 

"You should have known the price was wrong". Are you kidding me? I get plenty of stuff for free or way below cost because I take the time to research a deal, get the correct combination of coupons, wait for the good sales, etc. Companies often sell things for below cost. Sometimes it's for a promotion, sometimes it's to gain market share, or whatever. When I buy something at a great price I pat myself on the back for being a savvy consumer!

 

I'll tell you what. Carnival (or any other cruise line) has ONE time to try and jack up the price like that after I book. I'll be more than happy to vote with my feet and do something else with my vacation dollars. It's not like there is a shortage of places to spend them.

[KatyAnn]

Each state has it's own laws.

 

California's Business and Professional Code 12024.2 (effective since 2005) has this language:

(a) It is unlawful for any person, at the time of sale of

a commodity, to do any of the following:

(1) Charge an amount greater than the price, or to compute an

amount greater than a true extension of a price per unit,

that is

then advertised, posted, marked, displayed, or quoted for that

commodity.

(2) Charge an amount greater than the lowest price posted on the

commodity itself or on a shelf tag that corresponds to the commodity,

notwithstanding any limitation of the time period for which the

posted price is in effect.

 

Of course it can often cost more in legal fees to collect than you could save.

[madgenius]

Each state has it's own laws.

 

California's Business and Professional Code 12024.2 (effective since 2005) has this language:

(a) It is unlawful for any person, at the time of sale of

a commodity, to do any of the following:

(1) Charge an amount greater than the price, or to compute an

amount greater than a true extension of a price per unit,

that is

then advertised, posted, marked, displayed, or quoted for that

commodity.

(2) Charge an amount greater than the lowest price posted on the

commodity itself or on a shelf tag that corresponds to the commodity,

notwithstanding any limitation of the time period for which the

posted price is in effect.

 

Of course it can often cost more in legal fees to collect than you could save.

 

I know that some companies that do business in multiple states make their company wide policy such that it complies with the laws in the most restrictive state. I guess Carnival isn't like that. Maybe nobody has tried to sue before. I'm not overly litigious... I would likely just take my business elsewhere. However, the language you quoted is for a commodity. As another poster pointed out it may not be the same for transportation. I'm certainly no internet lawyer. I'm just a customer... and I want to feel like I'm valued by the companies I do business with (not feel like I'm at war against them).

[KatyAnn]

I'm not at war with anyone either. I am not interested in asking anyone if they are kidding me or telling them how I do things.

 

I just found the topic interesting and did a google.

 

The OP booked another cruise and got some OBC. It seems that this is solved.

[gtalum]

Each state has it's own laws.

 

California's Business and Professional Code 12024.2 (effective since 2005) has this language:

(a) It is unlawful for any person, at the time of sale of

a commodity, to do any of the following:

(1) Charge an amount greater than the price, or to compute an

amount greater than a true extension of a price per unit,

that is

then advertised, posted, marked, displayed, or quoted for that

commodity.

(2) Charge an amount greater than the lowest price posted on the

commodity itself or on a shelf tag that corresponds to the commodity,

notwithstanding any limitation of the time period for which the

posted price is in effect.

 

Of course it can often cost more in legal fees to collect than you could save.

 

Common-carrier travel is not a "commodity", and it's federally regulated.

[KatyAnn]

Common-carrier travel is not a "commodity", and it's federally regulated.

 

My bad.

[gogetter]

I don't see what the big deal would have been for Carnival to have honored it. Carnival could have then went back and corrected it and said thank you for letting us know of the error. Obviously it slipped through quite a few fingers.

 

it wouldn't have hurt Carnivals bottom line. The cruisers probably would have spent the saved money on things on the ship.

 

Oh well......

[BallFour4]

I don't see what the big deal would have been for Carnival to have honored it... it wouldn't have hurt Carnivals bottom line.

 

Study a little in economics and margins that can vary from slim to fat profits are impacted by every passenger.

 

It would have been giving something away for next to nothing. Large companies that loose sight of the value of every dollar don't stay around long.

 

 

.

 

[madgenius]

I'm not at war with anyone either. I am not interested in asking anyone if they are kidding me or telling them how I do things.

 

I just found the topic interesting and did a google.

 

The OP booked another cruise and got some OBC. It seems that this is solved.

 

If for some reason I've offended you I apologize. I'm not sure if you work for Carnival or something but my comments weren't directed at you personally. Even if you do happen to work for Carnival I would imagine you're likely not responsible for company policy in a matter like this.

 

The focus of my comments weren't on how I in particular do things. My response to your post was mostly wondering if Carnival bases their company wide policy in this matter on California law since California law seems to be more restrictive in this case. Perhaps I worded it poorly.

 

However, I find it a bit outrageous that a company the size of Carnival would say something akin to "oops, we didn't mean to sell it that cheap... please pay some more". They are a major company, not some random guy selling stuff on Ebay. My comment about being at war was more about walking away from doing business with a positive feeling vs a negative feeling. Sometimes, even if you have to pay more, if you walk away from a transaction feeling like the company treated you fairly then you don't mind giving them your business in the future. Consumer sentiment matters.

 

I thought the OP asked something along the lines of "what would you guys do". Later on, I asked if Carnival (or other cruise lines) often take what appears to be a non-customer focused stance or if I was just hearing a disproportionate number of horror stories since this is the internet. I didn't see the OP say anything about booking another cruise and getting any OBC. Perhaps I missed it. If Carnival ended up taking care of the OP then good on them. That's more the kind of good customer relations I would expect from a company like Carnival.

 

In any event... I'll leave it alone. Thanks for the input.

[blindrid]

If I owned a business, I would hope customers would understand a human error.

 

Agree. When this question comes up, I always use the analogy of a car ad in the newspaper. Let's say a car is on sale for $31,999 and the newspaper ad claims the "sale" price is actually $3,199. Does that mean the car dealer could and would have to sell the car for three grand.

 

The answer is no.

[tkportersat]

The Ambassador Hotel in New Orleans posted an incorrect pre cruise package that stated free parking all week back in June and I did a print screen and they agreed to honor it for me. When I worked back at Target in the 90's we had to honor incorrectly posted prices as well. Seems like Carnival should honor it and thank the OP for catching the mistake.

 

Yes they do, just as when you go to any retail store where something is mismarked!

[Hei1980]

Yes they do, just as when you go to any retail store where something is mismarked!

 

Have been in retail for a life time and can tell you NO WAY does the retail store have to honor something that was mismarked. Do you have any idea how many customers change the price tags?