Ideas for solving serious customer service issue?

[waterbug123]

 

We booked directly through Celebrity and were given a $1,000 onboard credit......we ended up spending more than $2,000 on shore excursions.

 

He said yes and suggested that I book the excursions online and then cancel and rebook them onboard on the first day of the cruise. He said this would result in me receiving a credit to my credit card for the cancelled excursions and would allow me to use the onboard credit.

 

Immediately upon boarding the ship... We were told... that shore excursions booked in advance and cancelled onboard would only result in a nonrefundable onboard credit.

 

 

At the end of our cruise, we had a credit balance of $1,176.24. The additional credit was for an excursion cancelled due to weather. Our credit card was refunded $694. I have never received an explanation for the missing $482.24.

 

So let me see if I have this right: You got a $1000 OBC when you booked. Then you booked excursions in advance and when you cancelled these onboard, you were initially told you could only get an OBC, not a refund. You don't say what the value was of the excursions that you booked in advance... was it more than $1000? If not, and you say you spent $2000 on excursions anyway, why not just take the credit and add it to the original $1000 credit, and let it all cover the $2000 in excursions that you booked?

 

 

Are you sure you didn't get $1,000 credit back? Did you onboard purchases (tips, drinks, etc) get netted against the credit?

 

I guess what I'm saying if you spent $450 onboard and then got a credit of $1,000 you would get a "net" credit of $550 back to your card.

 

Dodger has a point. Perhaps some of the un-returned credit is due to charges in addition to shore excursions that you racked up onboard. You still haven't really given full details. Maybe if you post the value of the excursions you booked and paid for in advance, and separately list the value of any excursions you booked for the first time once you boarded, clarify which one got cancelled due to weather, and post the total amount of non-excursions charges you incurred onboard (drinks, specialty restaurants, photos, gift shop souvenirs, spa appointments, casino spending etc.) someone will be better be able to figure out if you really got shortchanged on the refund or not. :)

[sanchoucsb]

So let me see if I have this right: You got a $1000 OBC when you booked. Then you booked excursions in advance and when you cancelled these onboard, you were initially told you could only get an OBC, not a refund. You don't say what the value was of the excursions that you booked in advance... was it more than $1000? If not, and you say you spent $2000 on excursions anyway, why not just take the credit and add it to the original $1000 credit, and let it all cover the $2000 in excursions that you booked?

 

Dodger has a point. Perhaps some of the un-returned credit is due to charges in addition to shore excursions that you racked up onboard. You still haven't really given full details. Maybe if you post the value of the excursions you booked and paid for in advance, and separately list the value of any excursions you booked for the first time once you boarded, clarify which one got cancelled due to weather, and post the total amount of non-excursions charges you incurred onboard (drinks, specialty restaurants, photos, gift shop souvenirs, spa appointments, casino spending etc.) someone will be better be able to figure out if you really got shortchanged on the refund or not. :)

 

Hi - thanks for helping to try and figure this out. We booked over $2,000 in excursions online before the cruise. Once onboard, we tried (and thought we succeeded) to cancel and rebook $1,000 of them so that we would use our onboard credit.

 

Our final statement for the cruise, including all charges and credits, shows a balance due of -$1,176.24.

 

Finally, to the official Celebrity representative who posted twice in this thread, did you receive my email? It was a few days ago and I still haven't heard from anyone. If you didn't get it, please let me know.

 

Thank you,

Daniel

[Celebrity Cruises]

Hi - thanks for helping to try and figure this out. We booked over $2,000 in excursions online before the cruise. Once onboard, we tried (and thought we succeeded) to cancel and rebook $1,000 of them so that we would use our onboard credit.

 

Our final statement for the cruise, including all charges and credits, shows a balance due of -$1,176.24.

 

Finally, to the official Celebrity representative who posted twice in this thread, did you receive my email? It was a few days ago and I still haven't heard from anyone. If you didn't get it, please let me know.

 

Thank you,

Daniel

 

Hi Daniel,

 

It was received, and we forwarded it to the proper department that should be able to assist. If you don't hear from anyone soon, please feel free to let us know, and we'll see what the status is.

[Jade13]

Hi - thanks for helping to try and figure this out. We booked over $2,000 in excursions online before the cruise. Once onboard, we tried (and thought we succeeded) to cancel and rebook $1,000 of them so that we would use our onboard credit.

 

Our final statement for the cruise, including all charges and credits, shows a balance due of -$1,176.24.

 

Finally, to the official Celebrity representative who posted twice in this thread, did you receive my email? It was a few days ago and I still haven't heard from anyone. If you didn't get it, please let me know.

 

Thank you,

Daniel

 

It sounds like all of the excursions were not canceled properly which is why they did not get charged back to your credit card.

 

I guess what I would have done was to go on the computer and cancel them myself (or gone on the computer to see that the Celebrity Rep had canceled them) once I had confirmed they were rebooked. Now in saying that since we are not first time Celebrity cruisers we do have some free internet minutes.

 

When you book online and then cancel excursions, you get an email confirmation confirming the cancelations and amount being refunded to your credit card.

 

Do you have a confirmation for any of the cancelations? If not, the obvious answer is that they were not canceled.

Edited February 13, 2014 by Jade13

[sanchoucsb]

All:

 

The issue has been resolved. I received a phone call from Celebrity corporate guest relations and the gentleman was very apologetic. He said he looked into the situation and it was "immediately obvious" that they had made a mistake. We will be receiving a credit for the full amount due.

 

Of course, I am happy to be finally receiving the amount owed to me. However, I am a bit bothered that this mistake would apparently have been "obvious" to anyone who investigated it properly. What did they do the four times I emailed them? I was contacted by a different corporate guest relations representative who flatly refused to assist. Did she investigate this before calling? What about the people who responded to my credit card dispute? I am troubled that it took a public complaint for Celebrity to finally look into this and discover that it was their error.

 

Anyway, thanks to Celebrity for finally doing the right thing. And a big thanks for everyone here for your questions, suggestions and assistance.

 

Daniel

[robsmom]

The part about this that seems off to me is that you had a bill at the end which still showed you having an OBC for the 1000. If they cancelled the excursions and credited 1000K to your credit card, they should have then charged them to your on-board account. your end of cruise statement should have shown the excursions and you should have had a zero balance (minus the extra issue that you had from a refunded excursion). By the way, if they cancelled that extra $176 excursion and if you paid for that on your credit card they should have given you a refund back to your source of payment (credit card) and not OBC that is not refundable. Did you see the excursions charged to your on-board account statement?

[sunshine nana]

I'm happy this worked out for you. I thank you for starting this thread. We also have a nice OBC coming and before we took the 15% discount a few months ago, we also had free gratuities and OBC of $300 from Celebrity. I had considered booking excursions now and then canceling and rebooking on board. Thanks to you, I won't do that. We have made arrangements for private excursions with our roll call and since we do not have the 123 anymore, I'm sure we will use our OBC for gratuities (we have traditional dining) and wine.

[Lsimon]

It has always been our experience over the years that excursions booked in advance but cancelled after the cruise begins result in a credit posted to our on board account. This is based on personal experience with a few excursions personally cancelled over the years, reports from friends and positings I've read on these boards. I believe I've also read this someplace on Celebrity documents, possibly excursion confirmations and/or excursion booklet fine print, but I have not looked back to confirm this.

 

So I believe the OP's problem originated with the customer service rep's incorrect answer that this could be done. I'm also sure that Celebrity management and policy would never endorse procedures that would require such mass cancellation and rebooking busy work for the busy staff at the excursion desk. That would be just ludicrous.

 

I hope Celebrity comes through in full for the OP since it is not the OP's fault that they got this incorrect information.

 

The only time I've heard of excursion cancellations being refunded to the credit card they were charged to is if they are cancelled far enough in advance of the sailing date to be processed before the cruise. I think the cut off for this is something like 4 days before sailing date.

[tink33]

 

I spent the next three days working with a Guest Relations manager (named Princess, ironically). After she allegedly made phone calls to Celebrity's corporate office, she agreed that we were entitled to a $1,000 refund on our credit card. She cancelled and rebooked $1,000 worth of shore excursions and assured us that we would receive a $1,000 refund on our credit card. Based on her assurances, I dropped the issue and made no attempt to use the onboard credit.

 

Thanks again to everyone for your interest and your assistance.

 

Daniel

 

 

I also had a customer service issue that Princess did not resolve. Once it was turned over to someone else, the problem was solved. I am happy to hear that Celebrity made things right.

[johhnnyt]

Perhaps I missed it, but I think the key here is what type of on board credit you were given. If the credit was given by Celebrity, then you have to use it on board and there is no refund for an unused OBC. If it was given by a Travel agent, then it's refundable.

 

When you are on-board, any charges are first charged against the non-refundable OBC.

 

It sounds like you had a $550 on board credit from your travel agent....and you had a $450 on board credit from celebrity. If you didn't spend the $450 then you lost the rest, but the $550 was refundable and you received that back after the cruise.

 

I'm just guessing...but I think the key here is how much of that $1000 was a non-refundable on board credit and how much was refundable. It is not unusual to have both types of credits and when you are onboard, you can see this on your bill because non refundable show with a code of OBCN and refundable shows as OBCR..

 

Hope this helps....

 

Always tricky when you try and cash out OBC, since it is ONBOARD credit, especially when your only point of reference is that "the rep told me I could", glad they showed exceptional customer service and went above and beyond what they were obligated to do

[sanchoucsb]

Always tricky when you try and cash out OBC, since it is ONBOARD credit, especially when your only point of reference is that "the rep told me I could", glad they showed exceptional customer service and went above and beyond what they were obligated to do

 

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Celebrity admitted today that it was their mistake.

 

Daniel

[DebbieMacG]

Always tricky when you try and cash out OBC, since it is ONBOARD credit, especially when your only point of reference is that "the rep told me I could", glad they showed exceptional customer service and went above and beyond what they were obligated to do

 

I don't think this is correct, surely Celebrity are refunding the payment that the OP made for the excursions on their credit card done before the cruise? They aren't really cashing out OBC. As the OP said Celebrity have admitted it was a mistake and their fault, how is that above and beyond? :rolleyes:

Edited February 14, 2014 by DebbieMacG

[Jade13]

It has always been our experience over the years that excursions booked in advance but cancelled after the cruise begins result in a credit posted to our on board account. This is based on personal experience with a few excursions personally cancelled over the years, reports from friends and positings I've read on these boards. I believe I've also read this someplace on Celebrity documents, possibly excursion confirmations and/or excursion booklet fine print, but I have not looked back to confirm this.

 

So I believe the OP's problem originated with the customer service rep's incorrect answer that this could be done. I'm also sure that Celebrity management and policy would never endorse procedures that would require such mass cancellation and rebooking busy work for the busy staff at the excursion desk. That would be just ludicrous.

 

I hope Celebrity comes through in full for the OP since it is not the OP's fault that they got this incorrect information.

 

The only time I've heard of excursion cancellations being refunded to the credit card they were charged to is if they are cancelled far enough in advance of the sailing date to be processed before the cruise. I think the cut off for this is something like 4 days before sailing date.

 

You may be right about canceled excursions going back to the onboard account/folio, but since excursions can be canceled up until the cancelation date these should have been refundable credit and refunded back to the credit card at the end of the cruise.

 

Otherwise if not than all excursions booked pre-cruise are non-refundable which is not the case per the terms and conditions as far as I know (which the exception of flight and overnight tours that become non-refundable much earlier).

Edited February 15, 2014 by Jade13

[Jade13]

Always tricky when you try and cash out OBC, since it is ONBOARD credit, especially when your only point of reference is that "the rep told me I could", glad they showed exceptional customer service and went above and beyond what they were obligated to do

 

I am unclear why you think they went above and beyond what they were obligated to do.

 

The OP received $1,000.00 OBC and spent over that amount while onboard.

[Jade13]

All:

 

The issue has been resolved. I received a phone call from Celebrity corporate guest relations and the gentleman was very apologetic. He said he looked into the situation and it was "immediately obvious" that they had made a mistake. We will be receiving a credit for the full amount due.

 

Of course, I am happy to be finally receiving the amount owed to me. However, I am a bit bothered that this mistake would apparently have been "obvious" to anyone who investigated it properly. What did they do the four times I emailed them? I was contacted by a different corporate guest relations representative who flatly refused to assist. Did she investigate this before calling? What about the people who responded to my credit card dispute? I am troubled that it took a public complaint for Celebrity to finally look into this and discover that it was their error.

 

Anyway, thanks to Celebrity for finally doing the right thing. And a big thanks for everyone here for your questions, suggestions and assistance.

 

Daniel

 

Glad to hear that this was resolved!

[Lsimon]

You may be right about canceled excursions going back to the onboard account/folio, but since excursions can be canceled up until the cancelation date these should have been refundable credit and refunded back to the credit card at the end of the cruise.

 

Otherwise if not than all excursions booked pre-cruise are non-refundable which is not the case per the terms and conditions as far as I know (which the exception of flight and overnight tours that become non-refundable much earlier).

 

I never said excursions booked pre-cruise are non-refundable. All I said is that if they are cancelled after the cruise begins that the refund is given as a credit to the on board account (fully refundable) as opposed to a refund to the original pre-cruise credit card.

 

I am unclear why you think they went above and beyond what they were obligated to do.

 

The OP received $1,000.00 OBC and spent over that amount while onboard.

 

I think OP should get what the Celebrity phone rep incorrectly told him he should get. But for better or worse I do not believe that is the way their system is designed to work nor the way it applies to everyone else.

 

Celebrity has two ways of buying excursions: In advance where one can be assured of a reservation on an excursion that is available the first moment they look at it online or they can wait and book on board and accept the risk that an excursion might sell out before their on board order is filled. The OP wanted to get the assurance of the in advance reservation but still take the benefit of paying for it with on board credits. The two don't normally come together like that. For example what would have happened to the OP if their excursion had a waiting list. When they attempted to cancel then re-book on board the excursion would have been (or should have been) instantly snapped up by the next in line on the waiting list as they cancelled and no longer available to rebook even moments later.

 

The fact is that very few excursions sell out but some do.

Edited February 15, 2014 by Lsimon

[jkgourmet]

Delete

Edited February 15, 2014 by jkgourmet