Can Someone Help Me to Figure Out This Math?

[GuinnessGal]

I am really bad at math. Honestly I am. But this one has me scratching my head :) Just logged on to My Celebrity to check on my booking and found this (see below) - balance due is showing as higher than Total less deposit.

 

I took advantage of the Columbus day $25 deposit as per the advice on this board ( thanks everyone who posted about it and the tip to put the extra $25).

 

I know its probably just a normal celebrity website screw up (and I will call them to clarify). But has anyone seen something like this before? Is there some charge that is not being reflected that could make this accurate? Or is this just another thing to add to the long list of website woes :D

 

[cle-guy]

Yep, seen it before several times.

 

The difference is the Gratuities, which is a known issue on their systems relative to promotions.

 

The total at the bottom (plus add back in the $50 deposit) assume you have to pay the gratuities, it didn't consider the free gratuities promotion.

 

The total above the deposit is the correct figure.

 

Once final pay comes around it sorts itself out.

[ScarlettMLB]

My guess is website screw up. It looks like your credit for free gratuities was removed in the Total (USD) section, but not in the Balance Due (USD) section.

 

My guess is it's an issue with the formulas they have behind the scenes. It's not simply Total - Deposit = Balance Due, but Total= Fair + Fees + Gratuities + Other Options and Balance Due = Fair + Fees + Gratuities + Other Options - Deposit. And they just missed the credit for the gratuities in the balance due part.

 

If it were me, I'd give it a few days and if it didn't fix itself, I'd call.

[TeaBag]

It looks to me like they have added in the gratuities twice and taken it off only once. The difference between the two totals is the same as the gratuities. It's the new Modern Luxury Math!

Edited October 14, 2015 by TeaBag

[123linz123]

No I have not come across anything like this, but looking at this;

 

The discrepancy is the gratuities $230.32

 

1028+

517.52=

1545.52+

230.30=

1775.82

 

minus the deposit is the same as their bottom line $10725.82

 

But the PROMO3T looks like it should have taken off the grats

Which it did on the total but not on the bottom line.

 

The first thing I would do is check in your paper work work/ online, what's happening with the gratuities, are you paying for them or are they a perk?

[Xfedcruiser]

Curt - have you seen it like this, where the gratuities were actually shown as a credit back, but the math doesn't consider it?

 

I have had free gratuities which were shown as a charge and later were credited, but this one is new to me.

[cle-guy]

Curt - have you seen it like this, where the gratuities were actually shown as a credit back, but the math doesn't consider it?

 

I have had free gratuities which were shown as a charge and later were credited, but this one is new to me.

 

Yes, I have. The "promotions" don't talk to "accounting" right away, I wonder if the OP checks back in 10 days or so, if this will look different (and correct) then.

 

It seems to take about 10 days or so for promos and perks to properly display on reservations. One place it causes grief, is people booking Select dining with Better! and selected free gratuities as a perk. The reservation will add gratuities and it looks like you have to pay, and can't see any adjustment. But in 10 days or so, it fixes itself. It's really a non issue, as by final payment all is well, no one actually has to PAY them at booing but it's a flaw for sure.

[GuinnessGal]

Yes, I have. The "promotions" don't talk to "accounting" right away, I wonder if the OP checks back in 10 days or so, if this will look different (and correct) then.

 

It seems to take about 10 days or so for promos and perks to properly display on reservations. One place it causes grief, is people booking Select dining with Better! and selected free gratuities as a perk. The reservation will add gratuities and it looks like you have to pay, and can't see any adjustment. But in 10 days or so, it fixes itself. It's really a non issue, as by final payment all is well, no one actually has to PAY them at booing but it's a flaw for sure.

 

Thanks Curt, and everyone else as well, that explains it!! Just out of curiosity, and for the sake of anyone else who wonders about this in the future, I'm going to leave it alone and see if it resolves in 10 days. I'll be sure to come back and let you all know.

 

Thanks again!

 

Karen

[boulders]

I had the exact same issue last week when I booked online. The system added the gratuities to the total to increase the balance due. I decided to cancel that booking and book with a specific Celebrity rep instead. I didn't have the issue when I booked with the rep.

[K.T.B.]

I am really bad at math. Honestly I am. But this one has me scratching my head :) Just logged on to My Celebrity to check on my booking and found this (see below) - balance due is showing as higher than Total less deposit.

 

I took advantage of the Columbus day $25 deposit as per the advice on this board ( thanks everyone who posted about it and the tip to put the extra $25).

 

I know its probably just a normal celebrity website screw up (and I will call them to clarify). But has anyone seen something like this before? Is there some charge that is not being reflected that could make this accurate? Or is this just another thing to add to the long list of website woes :D

 

 

It's very simple actually.

 

Cruise fare, taxes & fees, and gratuities add up to $10,775.82. You subtract out the $50 and you get the total of $10,725.82. The subtraction for the gratuities have not not been accounted for yet. I had the same issue with my cruise for a little while until the "system caught up". It was showing, but it was not being reflected in the balance. As long as it's showing, you're fine, even though it's off.

[varoo]

Celebrity certainly has a very strange system.

We encountered something similar when we received a price drop on a reservation.

 

As soon as the price drop was applied, our OBC disappeared from the reservation, even though we had been assured that we would not lose it.

The agent claimed that was just the way they do it and there was no need to worry because the OBC would reappear again in about 10 days.

 

I was skeptical, but it turned out that he was telling the truth, even though it was so weird and he could not explain why it would take so long

or why they would even remove the OBC in the first place, only to restore it later.

 

After all, this is 2015, not 1815.

When we make a payment online, their accounting system is able to take our money and complete the transaction immediately.

 

But when it comes to something like processing of onboard credits, or gratuities or other perks that they are issuing to us, apparently their accounting system is set up to send the transactions via pony express.

 

Edited October 15, 2015 by varoo

[GUT2407]

I see where you went wrong.:D

 

You expected the system to work.:eek:

[RiotAct]

Darn floating-point arithmetic

[varoo]

Darn floating-point arithmetic

Maybe they need someone to send their accounting department an abacus.

 

[sleepless]

When I booked, directly with Celebrity - with the Go Best promotion, the agent explained to me that the total on the invoice would include the gratuities, as I had chosen Select Dining. He told me this was internal bookkeeping only. He gave me a total including gratuities, and one without gratuities. He said the initial statement would include gratuities, but that in about 2 weeks, I would receive a second statement that would include the removal of the gratuities, as well as a breakdown of the cost of the Go Best pricing. It just has to go through the process. Within two weeks, I did receive a corrected statement.

[GuinnessGal]

LOL! Y'all are funny :) At this point I'm just super amused with the Celebrity "Modern Luxury" math :D

 

Here's the other breakdown they provided - the first one I posted appears on the Manage Reservation screen, this is the one that appears on the Make a Payment screen. Do they match? Of course not lol :)

 

Taxes and fees are showing up as $112 less (its $517.52 on the MR screen).

But if you add up those numbers the Total Shown should be $10,663.82 but its $118.30 less.

 

I now know, based on everyone's wonderful feedback, that this should all sort itself out in 10 days...but wow Celebrity...fix that Abacus :D

 

 

[pammi44]

I made 2 payments last week on my upcoming cruise. After the first payment the amount due was $400.00 more than it should have been and the same after the second payment. I recall seeing this when paying for my last cruise. It straightened itself out after a few days. In fact I was looking around in My Reservations, went back to the page with the amount due showing and it corrected itself. Funny because 1 minute before it was still wrong. And $400.00 seemed an arbitrary number. Go figure.

[GuinnessGal]

Happy to report that, as other had indicated would happen, the Celebrity math genie kicked in and the correct math is now showing up on my account. Aaah the joys and mysteries of the Celebrity website lol :D

 

[Wendy&Grumpy]

Happy to report that, as other had indicated would happen, the Celebrity math genie kicked in and the correct math is now showing up on my account. Aaah the joys and mysteries of the Celebrity website lol :D

 

Interesting. We sail in two weeks and our numbers are still off!

 

Total

Go Best Included In Fare

Cruise fare $2,728.00 USD

Taxes & Fees $208.78 USD

Gratuities $175.00 USD

Per Person Total $3,119.48 USD

Reservation Payments -$3,119.48 USD

Balance Due: $0.00 USD

 

And what we actually paid according to our latest invoice is $2923.48

 

Anyone have a guess what kind of maths are going on here?!

[goodycruising]

Thank you to those that helped with info and with the OP for coming back to tell the result. It is now Sept 2016 and the glitch is still there with the promo3t for gratuities. I will wait 2 weeks and see if my invoice shows as correct.

 

My invoice was correct previously, until I paid my final payment, and then it says my invoice and payments are the same $ amounts, but I still owe the amount for the gratuities promo. I will come back with a result also. Anything is better than sitting on the phone when it looks like it will fix itself. :)