Check Those On-Board Charges!!!

[teacherman]

We just returned from an enjoyable cruise on Emerald Princess. I will be writing a review in next couple of days. However, for the first time in many cruises, when checking over our "bill" while waiting in the disembarkation lounge, we found 2 incorrect charges on my wife's part of the bill. They were for 2 rounds of drinks in Skywalkers during the last night of the cruise, at a time when we were in our cabin packing our suitcases. I went to the Purser's Desk and it took about 45 minutes to resolve the issue. They had 2 receipts, with my wife's account number, and a signature of her name (although not even close to her real signature). They had to look through the receipts of Skywalkers until they found those 2 receipts, and then look through other receipts until they could match her signature. Suggestion: 1) on some cruise lines, when you check in, you sign your charge authorization, so that is on file for very quick verification, if need be. Princess does not do this. 2) the waiter takes your card, writes down your billing number, returns your card, and then goes to enter your number into the machine, rather than actually swipe your card. As we had the card with us, someone could not have presented the card to a waiter, but perhaps just told them the card number and told them the name. I have a REAL suspicion of how this took place, but I leave it to the ship to investigate. When I first received the bill, I looked at the total, and as it was very close to what I had estimated it would be, I did not check it. Luckily, we did while waiting in the disembarkation lounge. It was a good trip, and the charges were removed. I am only sharing this with you so that you may want to look over your charges before leaving the ship.

[CruisinMinnie]

Thank you for your post on this issue. I'm very happy to hear that Princess took care of this for you. On our last Royal Caribbean cruise (Mariner of the Seas October 2010) we had charges made to our account from a bar on the last night of the cruise which the Purser's desk and Royal Caribbean have yet to reimburse us for. This after repeated visits to the desk as well as phone calls to the desk, and an email to Royal after returning from the cruise. (the Purser's desk said they would review the charge slips, but would have to do that later in the day, after we had disembarked) It's good to hear that Princess took care of this for you. That is what good customer service is all about. I look forward to reading your review of the Emerald Princess cruise. :)

[Toto2Kansas]

Sorry this happened to you.

It seems the more I read of bogus charges placed by someone else on passengers accounts, it always seems to be for the final night onboard that the charges are made, and usually for drinks at one of the clubs. It has made me wonder if they are actually an error by the server or some passengers find that somehow obtaining the name and account number of another passenger often slips through if used the final night? This sort of thing seems to be the highest posted about complaint I have read about lately with incorrect charges. Just makes you go Hummmmmmmmmmmm????

Good way to solve this problem is for the cruise line to again only scan the passengers cruise card, and not just write down numbers or take the passengers word for the name and account number.

[BWDscotty]

Thanks for the heads-up. This is something we all need to be mindful of.

 

We are in the habit of passing by the Purser's Desk every other day or so and printing a copy of our bill. Very easy to do on Princess ships. This helps to recognize erroneous charges right away.

 

In your case, the charge being present the last night, you may have noticed the difference easier if you would have been comparing the charges for only a day or two, rather than the bill for the entire cruise.

 

I'm glad you found the erroneous charge. Probably just a typo on the servers part, but, excess charges could easily add up if not watched carefully.

[silkismom]

Same thing happened to us on the Sapphire in Jan, again the last night at Skywalkers. We did the same thing and the signature was very obviously not my DH, so they took them off. I think there are some "scam artists" out there.

[willysgrandma]

This is exactly why Princess needs to move into the 21st century and start giving guests the ability to review the purchases on the t.v. screen in the cabins. Almost every other cruise line does this and it allows guests to fix problems right away.

 

I am tired of hearing how much it will cost to convert the ships to have this ability. If other lines can do it, so can Princess.

[Treven]

I too have had this happen, but not on a cruise ship. I was spending a week at a resort in Mexico a few years ago. It was only over 1 drink - $5, but I knew it wasn't mine. :(

After several minutes and re-signing my signature for several different staff, they finally accepted the fact that I didn't sign for that particular drink. :)

[Potstech]

It is not that hard to do. Just go down any passageway and pick a name and cabin number. When you order something like a drink in the bar just tell the waiter your spouse has the card and give him the bogus name and room number. Done complete fini. That waiter will not want to wait for your spouse to return as it will prevent him form getting other orders.

Have I done this? No. Can it be done? You decide.

[Bob++]

And you can see why the last night would be the best - Even canny cruisers like BWDScott wouldn't see the error until they were waiting to disembark.

 

How many people could be bothered to go and dispute a $10 or even a $20 error when they are in going home mode.

[Putterdude]

I wonder about the feasibility of issuing the servers with card scanners?

[Langley Cruisers]

It is not that hard to do. Just go down any passageway and pick a name and cabin number.

 

Yes, this was very interesting for us to discover as we took our first Princess cruise two years ago. Thought it was a nice touch at first to have the names by the door but obviously, could be considered somewhat precarious. If we cruise Princess in future, we will remove our names by the front door.

[Front Row]

Many years ago I worked for a shady Long Distance Company. Errors were made on monthly bills and the company policy was to fix and credit ONLY the customers who called and challanged the charges.

 

I'm sure that Princess is not doing this but it taught me a lesson to never accept any bill with out a close review.

[hansi]

That's why I always ask for a copy of the receipt and compare it against my statement.

[teacherman]

This is ONLY my guess: On day 6 of a 10 day cruise, we bought 2 bottles of water to take ashore from one of those rolling carts in the Horizon Court. I had both cruise cards in my pocket, and I took out my wife's and gave it to the server. He WROTE on the receipt slip: "2 bottles at $2.00 each" and at the bottom, he printed my wife's cruise number (taken from the card), and very neatly WROTE her first initial and last name. He handed it to me to sign it. I said it was my wife's card, that I had given him the wrong one. He said I could sign it. So, I did. He gave me my copy of the receipt. When we looked through the phony charge receipts, her name was signed almost exactly like the way the server wrote it, not anything like she signs her own name. It is my understanding that ALL of those written out slips are saved and, sometime later in the day, are given to one of the venues with a receipt machine (in this case, one of the dining rooms) where they are logged in and a real receipt is printed over his written one. So, somewhere in the process, someone copied her signature (as HE had written it) and the card number. After seeing the phony charge slip signature, this is all I can think may have happened.

[Toto2Kansas]

That's why I always ask for a copy of the receipt and compare it against my statement.

Question? How will comparing actual receipts you request help you to prove there is a bogus charge on your account? You wouldn't have a receipt for it if you didn't make the purchase, but that wouldn't prove anything. They would still have to go through each receipt in the stack of hundreds of receipts to prove the signatures didn't match. Or do you keep all of the receipts just so you know for sure you didn't make the charge?

[L38]

I get a print out twice before the last day then on last day I only have to check the last couple of entries. Also princess should hook up the tv to show your bill for checking like hotels do... or give receipts to cross reference to.

[pablo222]

This is exactly why Princess needs to move into the 21st century and start giving guests the ability to review the purchases on the t.v. screen in the cabins. Almost every other cruise line does this and it allows guests to fix problems right away.

 

This poster's incorrect charge was on the last night at skywalkers.

 

Should I stay up and watch the billing channel all night, to make

sure nothing sneaks on before I disembark?

 

Most people aren't going to take care of a incorrect late night charge

until the next morning, regardless of how they learn about it.

[RickEk]

Personally, I think it's just a matter of the server writing down the folio number and somewhere along the line it gets transposed. I don't think there is any malicious intent among the crew to falsify the receipts... how would they benefit by that? I guess other passengers could be using other passenger's names and cabin numbers, but in my experience, the server needs the folio number, not the cabin number. The obvious fix is to scan the card for every order. If you don't have your card... well, then, you need to go get it. Simple.

[JLC@SD]

Suggestion: 1) on some cruise lines, when you check in, you sign your charge authorization, so that is on file for very quick verification, if need be. Princess does not do this.

 

:confused::confused:.......Every Princess cruise I have been on, my wife and I both have had to sign charge authorization cards at check in.

[LINCS GIRL]

We had the same thing on Monday, we paid our account on Sunday afternoon all bar a couple of dollars which was a coffee whilst queuing at the desk to pay.. I also had kept all my receipts through the fortnight and got a print out from the desk when passing and checked them off, no problem. On the last day a complete print out was pushed under the door and imagine my shock when a very large bar bill had be put on my account at 9.30pm from crooners bar when we were on late sitting in the restaurant and didn't leave until 10.30pm? I went to the desk and joined a very long queue to query this bill. After being made to wait 20 minutes whilst all the receipts were collected from the bar and brought to the reception strangely enough they couldn't find the receipt that related to this round of drinks. After another 10 minutes of quick fire questions they finally gave me the cash as my credit card had already been charged! It makes you wonder what is going on as this seems to happen on every cruise to someone?:mad::confused:

[Spender Nui]

This is exactly why Princess needs to move into the 21st century and start giving guests the ability to review the purchases on the t.v. screen in the cabins. Almost every other cruise line does this and it allows guests to fix problems right away.

 

I am tired of hearing how much it will cost to convert the ships to have this ability. If other lines can do it, so can Princess.

 

 

We got off the Emrald Princess in March. They had a card reader at the Captain's Club desk. You could swipe your card and it printed a statement for you right on the spot. Very convenient and easy to use.

[Toto2Kansas]

:confused::confused:.......Every Princess cruise I have been on, my wife and I both have had to sign charge authorization cards at check in.

 

I agree, this is standard procedure!

[teacherman]

Not to belabor this, as I was just telling my experience, but we do save all of our charge receipts. When I took her bill to the desk and questioned it, they were the ones who saw the charge was made at about 7:00 pm in Skywalkers, and they were the ones who looked through Skywalker receipts to fined the bills with her (not) signature on it. When I said it was not her signature, and offered to go get her from the disembarkation lounge, they said not to bother her. They then looked for some other charge on HER account (the water). They found that receipt and told me the "signature" looked just like the other one. I then showed them where I had signed the water receipt, and where the attendant had neatly written her name and portfolio number. THAT signature matched the phony signature. AND, to the best of my memory, when I pre-registered on line, I gave them my credit card number and authorized her and my use of it. At terminal check-in, they did not swipe my card (I had it out) as they said I had done it on line. I do not remember signing anything at check-in. We do not drink very often, and we only had charges for a few beers and 2 bottles of wine. So to find somebody buying 2 rounds of vodka only 20 minutes apart looked "funny" to me.

[Putterdude]

That is interesting, we have never been requested to sign ours except one time when I was getting some cash at the casino cage.

[gooch47]

They don't use cabin numbers, they use folio numbers. How could someone get your folio number off the name tag on your door?