Compensation - Millennium Alaska - Interrupted and Canceled Cruises

[varoo]

As I reported last month, our future cruise credits were applied to the new cruises very efficiently and we never had to bother with certificates at all.

 

But after reading about so many people finding mistakes in their Celebrity accounts, I decided to take another look at our account today, just to be sure everything was still correct and nobody had changed our cabin.

 

To my consternation, the exact amounts of the FCCs that had previously appeared on our account as credits were now showing as Balance Due! :eek:

 

We had long ago paid off the full remaining balance for the cruises.

Celebrity had already refunded the FCC amounts to our credit card.

Yet somehow those same FCC amounts were now reincarnated as Balance Due.

 

I called Celebrity, got transferred around, and received profuse apologies. :o

They immediately corrected the errors on the account and sent me updated invoices.

 

But nobody could explain how or why such a strange thing had happened.

All they would say was that they had made some system changes and had been having problems.

 

Now I am wondering if I had not spotted the errors and the account had remained with a Balance Due showing on each cruise reservation whether the cruises would have been canceled.

 

[nealberk]

The $250 "smells" like the hotel reimbursement which was capped at $250. That's my guess!!

Probably so. That was on the page that they sent out to us with the details for disembarking. But since the letter said that they would be at our destination point to help us get around, I put no more credence in it than I do in anything else they said.

 

Now, I should add that my wife called them while at the Anchorage airport and that they told her over the phone that it was $250 hotel PER PERSON (not per cabin) and that there was a $75 per person per diem for food.

 

Got to love it!

[GIGGLER]

We were scheduled on the August 30th And Sept 6 th sailing. Yesterday our FCC arrived but in someone elses name.

We got our refund in Oct.

[nealberk]

And the saga continues. What it boils down to is that

1) we did not include our food receipts (the wrong attachment was included with the e-mail)

2) we did not send them an itemized receipt from the bus company for the trip to Seward from Anchorage just the line item from our visa bill from Alaska Tour and Travel. Now, this was done over the phone the night before so there was no hard copy receipt.

 

What should have happened was that Celebrity should have contacted us asking for clarification, not totally ignoring our request. Very poor customer service on their part.

[sandyss]

And the saga continues. What it boils down to is that

1) we did not include our food receipts (the wrong attachment was included with the e-mail)

2) we did not send them an itemized receipt from the bus company for the trip to Seward from Anchorage just the line item from our visa bill from Alaska Tour and Travel. Now, this was done over the phone the night before so there was no hard copy receipt.

 

What should have happened was that Celebrity should have contacted us asking for clarification, not totally ignoring our request. Very poor customer service on their part.

 

Hi Neal. Have you contacted Alaska Tour and Travel for a receipt? They should be able to generate one for you - even after the fact.

 

Good luck.

[cruisingronnie]

And the saga continues. I used our FCCs on a sailing that is due to sail in 3 days. I received an email 1/2 hour ago stating that my reservation was cancelled. This was after I have received all the proper documentation/confirmation, invoice showing taxes and port charges paid, ordered and received luggage tags, booked dining reservations and completed the on-line check in.

In a state of panic, I called Celebrity who confirmed that yes, both cabins were automatically cancelled by the system and my 2 connecting cabins went back into their available inventory. The only thing the agent could do was open another reservation and put a 24 hour hold on both cabins so I don't lose them. I am fuming right now! Any suggestions on how to deal with this will be greatly appreciated. I've already spent hours if not days getting our refund, flight/meal reimbursements and FCCS squared up from the Aug 16th sailing.

[sandyss]

And the saga continues. I used our FCCs on a sailing that is due to sail in 3 days. I received an email 1/2 hour ago stating that my reservation was cancelled. This was after I have received all the proper documentation/confirmation, invoice showing taxes and port charges paid, ordered and received luggage tags, booked dining reservations and completed the on-line check in.

In a state of panic, I called Celebrity who confirmed that yes, both cabins were automatically cancelled by the system and my 2 connecting cabins went back into their available inventory. The only thing the agent could do was open another reservation and put a 24 hour hold on both cabins so I don't lose them. I am fuming right now! Any suggestions on how to deal with this will be greatly appreciated. I've already spent hours if not days getting our refund, flight/meal reimbursements and FCCS squared up from the Aug 16th sailing.

 

That's really frightening! We're you given a reason for the mixup?

 

We've applied our FCCs to a January cruise. We leave for our January cruise 5 days ahead of our actual cruise date. I'd hate to have an email waiting for us when we arrive in Sydney.:eek:

[cruisingronnie]

That's really frightening! We're you given a reason for the mixup?

 

We've applied our FCCs to a January cruise. We leave for our January cruise 5 days ahead of our actual cruise date. I'd hate to have an email waiting for us when we arrive in Sydney.:eek:

 

No reason given as the agent did not have additional info. Will update tomorrow once I speak with a supervisor. Have also composed an email to contact at corporate guest relations. It will be a sleepless night:(

[sandyss]

No reason given as the agent did not have additional info. Will update tomorrow once I speak with a supervisor. Have also composed an email to contact at corporate guest relations. It will be a sleepless night:(

 

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. That kind of foul up should never happen. That's absolutely inept on the part of Celebrity.

 

Did you get notified directly by Celebrity or by your TA? If you used a TA, he/she should get it straightened out for you quickly.

 

But I would also make calls to Guest Relations and the Captains Club.

 

Please post and let us know what happened. At the very least, Celebrity should upgrade you for causing this needless stress.

[cruisingronnie]

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. That kind of foul up should never happen. That's absolutely inept on the part of Celebrity.

 

Did you get notified directly by Celebrity or by your TA? If you used a TA, he/she should get it straightened out for you quickly.

 

But I would also make calls to Guest Relations and the Captains Club.

 

Please post and let us know what happened. At the very least, Celebrity should upgrade you for causing this needless stress.

More ineptness from celebrity ... I was instructed to call in at 7 this morning. Well, the supervisors that can look into the situation are in at 9am. Since I was using a FCC, I booked directly through Celebrity. My TA told me that when FCCs are used, the TAs do not receive any commission on the sale. As such, I did not want to bother my TA although she would have been happy to make the arrangements.

The Celebrity agent that I was speaking with last night hinted that the FCCs were not applied properly and they may have been a balance owing on the account, therefore it got cancelled. To be continued.....

[sandyss]

More ineptness from celebrity ... I was instructed to call in at 7 this morning. Well, the supervisors that can look into the situation are in at 9am. Since I was using a FCC, I booked directly through Celebrity. My TA told me that when FCCs are used, the TAs do not receive any commission on the sale. As such, I did not want to bother my TA although she would have been happy to make the arrangements.

The Celebrity agent that I was speaking with last night hinted that the FCCs were not applied properly and they may have been a balance owing on the account, therefore it got cancelled. To be continued.....

 

Call Guest Relations at 800-256-6649 and Captains Club at 800-760-0654. Since you booked directly with Celebrity, it is obviously Celebrity's goof up, and hopefully one of the people in those departments can fix the problem for you quickly.

 

Good luck. My fingers are still crossed for you.

[travelberlin]

As I reported last month, our future cruise credits were applied to the new cruises very efficiently and we never had to bother with certificates at all.

 

But after reading about so many people finding mistakes in their Celebrity accounts, I decided to take another look at our account today, just to be sure everything was still correct and nobody had changed our cabin.

 

To my consternation, the exact amounts of the FCCs that had previously appeared on our account as credits were now showing as Balance Due! :eek:

 

We had long ago paid off the full remaining balance for the cruises.

Celebrity had already refunded the FCC amounts to our credit card.

Yet somehow those same FCC amounts were now reincarnated as Balance Due.

 

I called Celebrity, got transferred around, and received profuse apologies. :o

They immediately corrected the errors on the account and sent me updated invoices.

 

But nobody could explain how or why such a strange thing had happened.

All they would say was that they had made some system changes and had been having problems.

 

Now I am wondering if I had not spotted the errors and the account had remained with a Balance Due showing on each cruise reservation whether the cruises would have been canceled.

 

How can you see in your account if it has been paid in full or if there is a balnce due? When I look at my reservations I see no information on that.

[cruisingronnie]

Call Guest Relations at 800-256-6649 and Captains Club at 800-760-0654. Since you booked directly with Celebrity, it is obviously Celebrity's goof up, and hopefully one of the people in those departments can fix the problem for you quickly.

 

Good luck. My fingers are still crossed for you.

Thanks for your support. Reservations were reinstated. I have detailed my experience on the thread titled "Cruise was automatically cancelled by the system - anyone experience this before" I started another thread to draw attention to the fact these mess ups do happen and that we should all be aware.

[nealberk]

Still trying to get reimbursed for our August 15th cruise. While Celebrity is more than willing to piece meal out payments, it appears that they want everything perfect before they will give a reimbursement. Our latest is for the bus service from Anchorage to Seward. We did everything over the phone and received a statement from Chase bank that we made the payment to the bus company. We sent this statement to Celebrity. Unfortunately although it the bus company's name and their phone number and was for the day we were supposed to get in to Seward, it is not enough for Celebrity who want an official receipt. Can anyone else believe this nonsense?

 

Oh, and they have not said anything about the rest of the receipt. I guess they will find a fault somewhere else and continue to delay payment.

This is long since being to the point of ridiculousness.

[nana541]

Guess they don't get either of these two terms "common sense" and "customer service" ohhhh wonder what those are!

[Cindy]

I received an e-mail late yesterday afternoon that my FCC from the cancelled Millie cruise has been applied to my Constellation cruise in May. That closes the book on the cruise that wasn't...hopefully my one and only!:)

[gblotter]

We did everything over the phone and received a statement from Chase bank that we made the payment to the bus company. We sent this statement to Celebrity. Unfortunately although it the bus company's name and their phone number and was for the day we were supposed to get in to Seward, it is not enough for Celebrity who want an official receipt. Can anyone else believe this nonsense?

While still onboard Millennium, I remember being told by multiple Celebrity employees to "just send in your credit card statement" for reimbursement of the get-home expenses. So that is what I did.

 

Of course, the accountants in the main office said that wasn't enough and they requested actual receipts. Fortunately I had anticipated this situation and I saved most of the receipts (all except for one minor dining expense at the airport).

 

My airline reservations for the flight home from Vancouver were made by phone with a credit card, but I requested a printed receipt (for both the ticket and the change fee) from the gate agent specifically for this purpose.

[nealberk]

Well, I contacted the bus company and they were kind enough to send me an e-mail copy of the receipt.

 

Now Celebrity is asking for food receipts- which I have already sent them twice. Maybe try number 3 is a charm?

 

They are also balking about the price of the hotel room being more than $250. Now, I know we received the letter to our room stating that we were entitled to $250 per person. But that letter also said that there would be a Celebrity rep at the airport. There wasn't. We called Celebrity and they said that there was no limit to the hotel, all hotel expenses would be covered regardless. The saga continues.

[gblotter]

Well, I contacted the bus company and they were kind enough to send me an e-mail copy of the receipt.

 

Now Celebrity is asking for food receipts- which I have already sent them twice. Maybe try number 3 is a charm?

 

They are also balking about the price of the hotel room being more than $250. Now, I know we received the letter to our room stating that we were entitled to $250 per person. But that letter also said that there would be a Celebrity rep at the airport. There wasn't. We called Celebrity and they said that there was no limit to the hotel, all hotel expenses would be covered regardless. The saga continues.

Persistence is key. I lost track of the number of phone calls I had to place to Celebrity and Costco Travel in order to move things along. Without those calls, I can't imagine how long it would have taken. Even with my nagging, it still took three months.

 

Given that $250 was documented in the letter, I'm not sure you will win that argument over hotel expenses - but good luck.

 

It seems you are nearing the end. Hang in there.

[nealberk]

Nothing at all this week. It seems the SOP is for them to send you an email, you respond immediately, the email gets put into their queue where one bedraggled person processes emails from everyone who has ever had a question to Celebrity, and eventually your response comes back to the to top of the queue. Not very efficient.

 

As for the $250 limit on hotel. I would agree with you except for the fact that the person who we contacted at Celebrity when the person who was supposed to meet us at the airport (as stated in the same letter) was not there said that it was all hotel bills. Celebrity cannot keep any of their stories straight.

 

Patience is a virtue so I am just plugging away at it. It has become a game.

[wallie5446]

Neal! Stop by the DFW thread and say 'Hello'!

[nealberk]

Neal! Stop by the DFW thread and say 'Hello'!

Hi, Wallie, you guys still getting together? We have not been to one of the meet and greets in years. Will look over there and see what is going on.

 

Meanwhile, after sitting on our last email for three weeks without a reply, I sent Celebrity a terse email stating that 3 weeks was an inordinate amount of time and although it might put me back to the bottom of the queue, I felt it was necessary to remind them again that they have not replied.

 

Bottom line is that they do not want a receipt, they want ITEMIZED receipts for dinner. Wish they had stated that in the beginning when we were on the ship or when we called them up from the Anchorage airport where the reps were supposed to meet us.

 

I would love to see their in house employee handbook for handling travel reimbursement. Bet it is nowhere as bad as the hoops they are making us jump through.

 

I am waiting for the itemized receipts from Simon and Seafort's and the Coastal Classic. I will send them off to Celebrity. If that does not get results, the next step will be consulting my attorney.

[nealberk]

Can't find the new DFW thread. Can you give me a link? (yes, I am lazy)

[bring2521]

Hi All

 

We received a full refund, less the gratuties. We did stay on the ship for the entire week so didnt expect to get gratuties back nor should we have. We had a fine time onboard and couldnt have been happier with our service.

 

I question I have (and cant remember for the life of me) is on the FCC should we have recieved the full amount of what we spent originally or was it only suppose to be the "Cruise Fare" portion only? :confused:

 

Thanks!

[gblotter]

I question I have (and cant remember for the life of me) is on the FCC should we have recieved the full amount of what we spent originally or was it only suppose to be the "Cruise Fare" portion only? :confused:

FCC is for amount of cruise fare only (not including taxes, fees, or other add-ons).