Unpleasant Experience on Debarkation

[Clydesmom7865]

Wow.

 

As I began to read this, I was about to "chastice" the OP and tell them they should use a Credit Card. Of course, it turns out they did.

 

Celebrity was in the wrong here. Plain and simple.

 

Stinks, but I am guessing this is a rare situation.

 

There is nothing within reason the OP could have done. Sure, there are things that could be done, but not reasonable - like going to the desk at 6am to double check. Unacceptable.

 

Not as rare as you would think. The same thing happened to me. I was on Equinox last December and gave them a platinum card when I checked in. I did not use the card in any port and checked the TV daily to keep up with the account. The last day on board thought it odd when I got a phone message in the state room about my onboard account and needing to "settle it" with guest relations. I thought nothing of it and then hit it big in the casino later in the day. I decided to go to GR and pay the account in cash with it. Which I did and got a receipt. I asked the desk agent if anything else I bought could be charged to the credit card on file and was assured yes.

 

No problem right? WRONG. Same thing happened to me: I go to disembark and get the evil buzz of deadbeats. Go back to GR against the flow of traffic to be told I had a $22 balance from the bar last night. When I asked why they didn't charge my card as agreed they claimed they didn't have one. I gave them the exact same card and they disappeared in back and came back and said "all set."

 

When I asked why they said the original card "didn't scan right" which is garbage because I would not have got a sign and sail card if they didn't have it. They really need to work this out somehow. This was the only rotten spot on the whole cruise but was really embarrassing and difficult to resolve and then get off the ship through the masses.

[Algebralovr]

Not as rare as you would think. The same thing happened to me. I was on Equinox last December and gave them a platinum card when I checked in. I did not use the card in any port and checked the TV daily to keep up with the account. The last day on board thought it odd when I got a phone message in the state room about my onboard account and needing to "settle it" with guest relations. I thought nothing of it and then hit it big in the casino later in the day. I decided to go to GR and pay the account in cash with it. Which I did and got a receipt. I asked the desk agent if anything else I bought could be charged to the credit card on file and was assured yes.

 

No problem right? WRONG. Same thing happened to me: I go to disembark and get the evil buzz of deadbeats. Go back to GR against the flow of traffic to be told I had a $22 balance from the bar last night. When I asked why they didn't charge my card as agreed they claimed they didn't have one. I gave them the exact same card and they disappeared in back and came back and said "all set."

 

When I asked why they said the original card "didn't scan right" which is garbage because I would not have got a sign and sail card if they didn't have it.

 

Actually, you would be surprised by how many people pay with cash instead of a card. When I cruised in February, we did not initially secure the account with a card. I had $175 in OBC, pre-paid grats and pre-purchased drink packages. When we checked in, we confirmed that we would be setting up our account in cash and were directed to take care of that at Guest Services at some point. We were given our cards and on we went! We did eventually go and put the cash we brought onto the account, once we decided to do the behind the scenes tour that was $150 per person. Eventually, we ended up giving them a card for the small balance that would be due, but I was told that they would contact us when the balance due hit $500 or so. But no card is necessary to sail.

[spencerdrivecruiser]

Had the reverse problem.

 

B2B and didnt redo my credit card.

 

On the last day there was a $3.33 credit on my shipboard account.

 

Stopped at the Gangway and told I could not proceed off the ship.

 

Down to Guest Services raging mad after being told I needed to give direction on this credit.

 

For $3.00 I lost 45 mins of valuable time.

 

Lesson Learned:

 

The final night of the cruise around midnight I go to a very empty Front Guest Services Counter, Get a final printout of my folio and ask several times, "Is this my FINAL statement?"

 

Have had ZERO problems since with that dreaded BUZZ sound going off upon debarkation.

[Shippy]

So as a newbie to cruising, should I learn from this unfortunate situation that it's best to stop charging to your Seapass for a specified amount of time before debarking? We need to get off a ship in Rome on the early side to make a plane and would hate to see this happen.

 

We cruise all the time. A few months ago we were leaving from the ship in Fort Lauderdale, carrying are own luggage off. We have done this many times.

Got off the ship OK & immediately ran into a backup eventhough we were amongst the first off.

Seems the customs agency had an 'unusual' amount of people call in sick.

There were only 2 lines. The back was unbelieveable. I do not know how long it took them to bring in other employees. It took us quite awhile to get through but manageable. I am sure others behind us would have missed connections.

When you have thousands of people getting off at once, any issue causes a big backup quickly.

[lovestx]

Had the reverse problem.

 

B2B and didnt redo my credit card.

 

On the last day there was a $3.33 credit on my shipboard account.

 

Stopped at the Gangway and told I could not proceed off the ship.

 

Down to Guest Services raging mad after being told I needed to give direction on this credit.

 

For $3.00 I lost 45 mins of valuable time.

 

Lesson Learned:

 

The final night of the cruise around midnight I go to a very empty Front Guest Services Counter, Get a final printout of my folio and ask several times, "Is this my FINAL statement?"

 

Have had ZERO problems since with that dreaded BUZZ sound going off upon debarkation.

 

Thanks for this very helpful, concrete piece of advice!

[LMKohler]

Did you receive a printed invoice showing the charges the night before? On our recent cruise we did not and that is new for us. If you had received the printed invoice you would have known exactly what the charges were and if anything was missing.

 

By not getting the printed invoice, I now have to keep track of our charges on the last day, make a note of it and make sure I'm not charged mini bar charges (which has happened in the past) when I check my account when I get home.

 

What happened to printed invoices?

 

Lucy

[travelberlin]

You can also have a problem if you are doing a B2B and don't realize, or are not told, that you need to have your credit card swiped when you begin the second part of the B2B. The first time I did a B2B I didn't know this and received a call from Guest Relations on day four of the second cruise telling me that there was a problem with my card. The problem was that it need to be swiped and activated. Hopefully,the experiences shared on cruise critic will help others to expect and minimize problems.

 

Yes the same happened to me in a back to back. But what first happened was that I have also got the "buzz" before debarking after my first cruise. I mean before the back to back. I have got a funny lookf from seccurity and the one said " oh maybe you are a B2B passenger? ". Since this was the case there was no problem. However now I wonder why I have got the "buzz" in the first place::confused:

[jcrandle]

My experience as a B2B cruiser with a credit balance has been very different. On three cruises with credit balances, where I had a credit card on file for excess charges to be placed against, I received a statement from guest relations showing the credit balance, I left the ship with no issues, and a fes days later received an email that my credit card had been credited the amount of the credit balance.

 

Nothing could have been more efficient!

[kymbakitty]

This EXACT scenario played out on Princess. A really good friend of mine described his experience and it was yours to the "t."

 

Although he didn't share your feeling of being a criminal, he was really irritated because they made him go to guest relations and he had the same credit card on file w/unlimited credit....so I chalk it up to computer hiccups.

 

:-)

[CarolinaMamma]

We just had a major credit card screw up with guest relations, too.

 

I was traveling with my family of 5, and all of us were linked to my Amex card. The third day of the cruise we got a note on our door saying the card had not gone through. They let us make a free ship to shore call to Amex, to find out what the problem was, and Amex had frozen my card because of a fraud attempt. We had told them we were going on vacation, so it was not our travel expenses that set off the fraud alert, but someone trying to validate the card number through a third party site that is often used by identity thieves.

 

Anyway, after getting off the phone with Amex, we explained the situation to GR and then gave them my husband's Amex card to use.

 

That afternoon, we got another note on our door, printed 45 minutes after our visit to GR, saying they had tried and failed to run the FROZEN credit card number. Went down there again, gave them the new card, they said everything was all right.

 

That night, my husband tried to get a mocktail for my son at the Cova Cafe and they said the account had been de-activated. Another trip to guest relations.

 

Then, when we got back to our cabin, another note on the door.

 

I was pretty livid by this point. It is stressful enough having a fraud attempt on your card while you are away from home and unable to get online or on the phone and check things out (not Celebrtity's fault) and every time we got one of their notes on the door it added to the stress. We worried that maybe my husband's card had been compromised, too.

 

So I went down to GR and said, "what is the problem? We gave you a new card this morning." the lady said, "We don't have the new card number." I said, "How does this keep happening?" we both sat there, bewildered, for a minute, then I said, "Couod it be because we have 5 people in our family and you have only been changing the card for one person at a time?" she said, "oh,yes, that is probably what is happening, and I can't change it for you now. Your husband will have to come down here and bring the card so I can swipe it again."

 

To me, there was just a lack of common sense on the part of GR when we first explained the situation to them. My husband and I were both there, so they should have at the very least, updated his account when they linked the new card to my account. Really, they should have had the sense to look at who else was linked to that frozen card. It's not as if our 5, 8 and 12 year olds are going to have their own credit cards. They are going to be linked to ours.

 

We still had a great cruise, but all those notes on the door, the denied drink, and four trips to wait in line at gust relatiions cast a bit of a shadow over our cruise

I very, very much appreciate that GR allowed me to use their phone to call Amex, as I was on the phone for 22 minutes, and at $8 per minute, that would have cost a bundle. I only wish that GR had had the sense at the time to update all of our accounts and save us the hassle of repeated visits.

[Aussieflyer]

Customer service seems to be severely lacking here. Apart from the insanity with the "excess" charges there is also the factor that the OP was made to feel a criminal on leaving in a very public way. We have seen the same happen to others (thankfully not us) and have always commented that it is very poor form from Celebrity. I have found as a whole that the security staff are also less than responsive and in some cases downright rude in the way they address the paying customer (which is what we are). We have always received an account in the wee hours on the last night usually under the door. Has this practice been discontinued? If so we like others have suggested will be at guest relations bright and early to check all is in order.

Being stopped as spencerdrivecruiser was for a $3 is IMO ludicrous.