Celebrity Fraud/Scam ???

[JVilleGal]

Tried twice today - Got the same message:

 

We are currently unable to process your request. Please try again later.

 

You tried calling in on their direct customer service line..... If you have been saying you have an existing reservation, then don't push that button. You need ANY live person in the phone!

[wallie5446]

You tried calling in on their direct customer service line..... If you have been saying you have an existing reservation, then don't push that button. You need ANY live person in the phone!

 

She is booked thru a TA, a 'live' person wont be able to help.

 

Keep trying Suzanne

[Cruise Raider]

I had the same thing happen to me. I booked this through Celebrity so went directly onto their site to pay my entire outstanding balance. The notification on their site, followed by an e-mail with the same content, stated that my cruise would be cancelled if not paid in full after I paid the entire balance. They stated I owed an additional $283. When I called, the rep down there had no detail on my final invoice and stated I needed to pay the balance due or again, my cruise would be canceled. So, you can see, I empathize with the OP. The girl had to go talk to her supervisor - came back and stated that they found that I did prepay my gratuities, but still owed another $50 or so (cannot remember the exact amount). But, I knew I had paid in full, that was the only choice on my screen. She said they re-fared the cruise (after my final payment :confused: - what?). I explained that she couldn't just arbitrarily do that and I think that stunned her. I sent her my invoice, which outlined my payment -- they sent it to me to remind me of my final payment, so thought they might actually have a copy of it. She didn't receive it but wasn't going to let her off the phone until this was cleared up. End's up, she gave me the wrong e-mail address -- so resent it to the corrected e-mail address. She finally received it but still had to go back to her supervisor -- back on hold. After nearly 2 hours from start to finish, I got this cleared up and guess what -- I had paid my full balance off the first time around.

 

Do I think the OP over-reacted?? -- not that much. Maybe the choice of words were unfortunate, but it is frustrating fixing other's errors. Now, I need this cruise to relax! :D

[Tiggertastic]

Sometimes they over promise and under deliver. I'm now into my 8th phone call to resolve something, promised 5 times to do something and didn't, eventually they did and offered me 100obc. Now 6weeks later I've still not received it, had 2 people promise to reissue an invoice and haven't so now spending time and money trying to get them to give me the compensation offered for messing up the first time.

[yorkyred]

Am surprised after reading this thread that so many participants feel the OP was out of line and should expect mistakes happen, gratiuities should be paid and don't we all know of Celebrity's IT errors so we just need to deal with it?

 

How complacent have we got that we assume the OP knew of such IT issues, and even more worrying is that the feedback seems to be we should just shut up and put up. Sorry but when a multi million dollar company cannot fix an issue that results in financial discrepancies and we, the customer should just deal with it...well I,m a little flabbergasted.

 

I have had it happen to me and read of many other similar scenarios occurring with their internal accounting system and it's simply not acceptable in any capacity.

 

Would you be just as accepting if you went to your local bank and withdrew $50 from your account only to see it go onto overdraft by $25..... Even though you knew you had $100 in there. Would you walk away thinking oh well, they'll fix it, they've been having a few system issues lately?.

 

What if it was your TA. Instead of praising a good TA would you be posting of their incompetence? Would you just put up with it?

 

I didn't think so.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

The point was more it's an error and not some level of intentional fraud.

[yorkyred]

Sometimes they over promise and under deliver. I'm now into my 8th phone call to resolve something, promised 5 times to do something and didn't, eventually they did and offered me 100obc. Now 6weeks later I've still not received it, had 2 people promise to reissue an invoice and haven't so now spending time and money trying to get them to give me the compensation offered for messing up the first time.

 

I think they are pretty poor on the admin side that's for sure. I cancelled a cruise and re booked through a TA. Confirmation email stated the wrong amount of refund, short by £200. It's now past the latest date for my money to be refunded and a further email has still not been replied to. I've actually used emails this time rather than phoning and as such avoiding their charge per minute but I guess it's back to that later today. So yes not fraud but they really need to look at the pre booking service we receive.

[Suzanne123]

You tried calling in on their direct customer service line..... If you have been saying you have an existing reservation, then don't push that button. You need ANY live person in the phone!

 

No, I am clicking on the "view" link next to Dining Preferences on the web site Manage Reservation. That's when I get the "We are currently unable to process your request. Please try again later."

 

It's not really a big deal, as I wasn't going to remove the gratuties in the end anyway. It just bothered me a little that they are telling me I can't get either first or second seating confirmed dining this far out from sailing and they insisted on adding tips to my invoice.

 

I've had the anytime dining in the past, and it turned out to be OK, so I'm still excited about the cruise. :)

[PoppyandNana]

Yes, that is what I am hoping will happen.

 

Question - Does Celebrity notify my TA if and when I get first seating? As someone else posted, it's really hard to believe tha both first and second seating are sold out 9 months in advance.

 

Ah I'm not sure about that. We booked a Jan 2016 in June while on board the Summit. As with everyone else fixed times were booked. As such we had to pay the grats along with the deposit at that time. There was no option to pay them at final payment.

 

What's going on with this fixed dining being booked so far in advance? Has anyone out there been able to select one of the two times for recent bookings. How far out were you?

Edited July 15, 2015 by PoppyandNana

[JVilleGal]

The OP should let her TA sort this out.... That's what TA's are for. HOWEVER, if the TA is not doing their job OP should call Celebrity direct and say the TA won't do her job and appeal for assistance, they will help!

[yoj13]

Ah I'm not sure about that. We booked a Jan 2016 in June while on board the Summit. As with everyone else fixed times were booked. As such we had to pay the grats along with the deposit at that time. There was no option to pay them at final payment.

 

What's going on with this fixed dining being booked so far in advance? Has anyone out there been able to select one of the two times for recent bookings. How far out were you?

 

Your post is really interesting and I have just seen it after posting my experience today. We have tried to book a cruise 15 months before the sail date and both early & late dining options have no availability. There are hundreds of cabins available on the cruise we were interested in, but something is just not right. If Celebrity are playing with fire, they might just get their fingers burnt.

[north29]

Do you seriously think a large company like Celebrity would risk their reputation to perpetrate a deliberate and totally unnecessary scam like this? Sloppy accounting on Celebrity's part but hardly "fraud".

 

It's a mistake, get over it and be proud of your husband for reminding you to do what every sensible person should do and to check that you are not being overcharged.

 

Exactly what I was thinking.

Like what was said STUFF HAPPENS in technology glitches look at all the breaches containing important personal info.

Heck I cannot log on to book a cruise, says I do not exist, tried making a new PW or Username, but my email was already taken LOL, stuff happens all the time in the cyberspace.

[cruiser1247]

I had the same thing happen to me (once in 9 cruises) but because we only book on board we had a copy of our booking. When I called Celebrity to correct them they acknowledged that there was a computer error and we owed nothing, which I already knew.

[Loujul]

On my upcoming trip to Spain, the government taxes were recorded on my reservation at $130 per person. Last week when I went to check the cost of the cruise with the new incentives, the same tax was $118. Tax is tax. If my TA didn't rebook for me to take advantage of an incentive, I would have paid an extra $24. Multiply that by all the $24s from other cruisers. No computer glitch there.

[Cruise Raider]

On my upcoming trip to Spain, the government taxes were recorded on my reservation at $130 per person. Last week when I went to check the cost of the cruise with the new incentives, the same tax was $118. Tax is tax. If my TA didn't rebook for me to take advantage of an incentive, I would have paid an extra $24. Multiply that by all the $24s from other cruisers. No computer glitch there.

 

Those taxes / port charges, when lowered, have always been refunded on my folio on the cruise.

[Loujul]

Thanks for that info. I'll be sure to check that in the future..

[yorkyred]

I think they are pretty poor on the admin side that's for sure. I cancelled a cruise and re booked through a TA. Confirmation email stated the wrong amount of refund, short by £200. It's now past the latest date for my money to be refunded and a further email has still not been replied to. I've actually used emails this time rather than phoning and as such avoiding their charge per minute but I guess it's back to that later today. So yes not fraud but they really need to look at the pre booking service we receive.

 

And 45 minutes on the phone today sitting in a queue and never getting connected which probably cost around another £5 on the phone bill, so another email fired off with an auto response. I wonder how patient Celebrity would be if I owed them £1370 ?

[junetraveler2014]

I went to make a payment on-line for our up and coming cruise. I made the partial payment and only half was recorded. Checked my bank and was told all of the payment was deducted. Called Dan, my X vacation planner and he immediately knew the problem and fixed it. He asked if I could call him direct and make my payments.

 

Seems the computer drops or adds things it shouldn't. I prefer calling a real person anyway. I detest Cyborgs :(. I will call Dan!:D

[Tiggertastic]

We stopped using the online payment when it took the dollar amount as pounds and then had to wait 3 weeks for celebrity to refund the extra 1900 they took

[AJ28]

I paid the balance of my cruise online with Celebrity a week before it was due.

 

The balance included gratuities because we had elected to have open dining. However despite that the screen said I still owed an amount that was the same as the gratuities I'd already paid. I got my paperwork out to check what I'd already paid and it was very clear that I had indeed paid in full and owed nothing further.

 

There was nothing I could do except wait for the receipt to come through, which it did the next day showing a nil balance to pay. There are obviously long term issues the Celebrities payment process. They need to sort these 'glitches' out because it causes unnecessary anxiety to their passengers, especially if they are sending out emails threatening to cancel cruises.