Shareholder benefit rant

[3rdGenCunarder]

The Shareholders Onboard Credit is a scam. They don't give it to you, even if you write to the president of HAL. They claim you don't submit it correctly. How can you not submit "correctly" if you send the required paperwork to the designated place in the instructions.??????? It is like SimonSays game.

 

Plus, they refuse to give it to you post-cruise. They cheat you out of it and then they still cheat you when you complain.

 

They say you will get it prior to your cruise when you check and ; surprise, when you are on the ship, it is not there. It does not show 9n any cruise documentation.

 

HAL lies.

 

Do you send it in with a cover letter, specifying your name, reservation number, etc? All you need to send is your basic info and proof of ownership. Did you accidentally black out your name on the proof of ownership when you blacked out the account number and other personal info?

 

Don't give up. When you cruise, take copies of the paperwork you sent to HAL. If the credit doesn't appear, go to the front desk and show them that you DID send it in correctly.

 

HAL has never failed to give us our credit, but I take the copies just in case. Cunard fails about half the time, so I make sure I've got my proof. I show the front desk the papers, and the credit does show up. I don't think any line will give it to you after the cruise, so you have to ask about it right away.

[thinfool]

HAL will not deal with individuals if they are using a travel agent. They tell you to have the travel agent contact them for you.

 

Carnival Corp cruise lines accept shareholder requests from any interested party, be it the passenger or a TA or a PCC, PVP, etc. This is true for HAL, Princess, Carnival, etc. Personal experience.

 

There have been instances where the travel agent was told by HAL I was getting the credit and it did not happen.

 

All a whim of some clerk; but, sanctioned by the president of HAL. That is how they save money. So, therde is no reason to stop doing it.

 

The president of HAL has nothing to do with the shareholder credit. It is totally implemented and sanctioned by Carnival Corp. No individual cruise line under the Carnival umbrella can say yay or nay to granting it or applying it.

 

Real case: On our last cruise I faxed my request into the HAL fax line. I waited a few days and then went onto the HAL website, fired up the chat window and asked the very pleasant person on the other end if he/she could check to see if my request had been processed. The answer was, yes it had and yes it was already applied to my booking. No TA, PCC, (whatever) involved at all.

 

I would add that, if your communications with HAL are expressed as stridently as your postings here, then it could be possible that your various requests have been lost in the ether.

[Hlitner]

HAL will not deal with individuals if they are using a travel agent. They tell you to have the travel agent contact them for you.

 

There have been instances where the travel agent was told by HAL I was getting the credit and it did not happen.

 

Be glad you get the credit when you want it. I am just telling you my experiences that it is a scam. You do it the same way many times and sometimes you get it sometimes you don't. All a whim of some clerk; but, sanctioned by the president of HAL. That is how they save money. So, therde is no reason to stop doing it.

 

Funny thing, but on our near 500 HAL days we have never had any problem getting our shareholder credit. And it is the same with Princess (another CCL owned company) where we have booked hundreds of days and always easily gotten our shareholder credit.

 

The only "scam" is the ridiculous current policy over at RCI (RCI, Azamara and Celebrity) where they will not allow cruisers to combine their shareholder credit with any promotions (effectively making the shareholder credit worthless). Fortunately, CCL has a much more cruiser-friendly policy and we have never been denied.

 

Hank

[DaveOKC]

HAL will not deal with individuals if they are using a travel agent. They tell you to have the travel agent contact them for you.

 

There have been instances where the travel agent was told by HAL I was getting the credit and it did not happen.

 

Be glad you get the credit when you want it. I am just telling you my experiences that it is a scam. You do it the same way many times and sometimes you get it sometimes you don't. All a whim of some clerk; but, sanctioned by the president of HAL. That is how they save money. So, therde is no reason to stop doing it.

 

I think you are being a bit harsh calling this benefit a Scam. I have used it many times, never an issue and MANY others on this board have stated that they have gotten great service (notice back within the hour) from this HAL department. Do a Search on this board for Shareholder benefit and you will see what I mean.

 

In addition, I have never had HAL deny my shareholder credit due to using other promotions (and trust me I have used MANY different promotions, sometimes several different ones on the same cruises). Try this on other cruise lines.

Edited February 7, 2017 by DaveOKC

[whogo]

HAL will not deal with individuals if they are using a travel agent. They tell you to have the travel agent contact them for you.

 

There have been instances where the travel agent was told by HAL I was getting the credit and it did not happen.

 

Be glad you get the credit when you want it. I am just telling you my experiences that it is a scam. You do it the same way many times and sometimes you get it sometimes you don't. All a whim of some clerk; but, sanctioned by the president of HAL. That is how they save money. So, therde is no reason to stop doing it.

You have travel agent problems, not Holland America problems.

[luv2bmovin]

Sorry to hear you had problems. I submitted mine via snail mail earlier in January and received the credit in about a week from mailing. Faxing has also worked for me in the past but maybe you were the victim of the complications of HAL's move. Hope you enjoy an uncomplicated cruise:)

[jebhoward3]

My phone number is always included in a note asking them to phone me if any questions. I also always request a confirmation email be sent to me and include my email address. This has always worked and I have received several thousands of dollars in onboard credit over the years. Only once did they need to phone me - I had sent a paper that did not include all the correct info as USAA whom I purchased the stock through had changed the format of their forms. Was easy to then find the correct form and faxed it in. It's never taken HAL more than 2 days to send an email confirming onboard credit. Sometimes only an hour. Great benefit and certainly no scam.

[cruiserzoid]

It is NOT a travel agent problem; it is HAL's deceit that is the problem. They say it is not done "correctly" sometimes even though it has been done the same way before and was "correctly" done apparently since I got the credit then. They will not elaborate at what is "incorrectly" done.

 

Get a dictionary and look at the definition of "scam".

 

This has been my experience.

[3rdGenCunarder]

My phone number is always included in a note asking them to phone me if any questions. I also always request a confirmation email be sent to me and include my email address. This has always worked and I have received several thousands of dollars in onboard credit over the years. Only once did they need to phone me - I had sent a paper that did not include all the correct info as USAA whom I purchased the stock through had changed the format of their forms. Was easy to then find the correct form and faxed it in. It's never taken HAL more than 2 days to send an email confirming onboard credit. Sometimes only an hour. Great benefit and certainly no scam.

 

I always get the credit from HAL, but never get the email confirmation, despite asking for it in my cover note.

[rotjeknor]

Never had an issue with it , scanned the papers and mailed it . Within a day obc was added.

The upcoming cruise is booked through a TA , when I mailed HAL last week they told me the request has to go via the TA ... I did that last friday and am still waiting .

In the past it was combined with other deals like mariner bonus etc.

 

 

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[RJ2002]

We've never had an issue having our request for the CCL stockholder OBC processed, for 16 cruises so far across both HAL and Princess. I guess we are lucky after hearing about cruiserzoid's experiences. Something doesn't sound right.

[kazu]

Carnival Corp cruise lines accept shareholder requests from any interested party, be it the passenger or a TA or a PCC, PVP, etc. This is true for HAL, Princess, Carnival, etc. Personal experience.

 

 

 

The president of HAL has nothing to do with the shareholder credit. It is totally implemented and sanctioned by Carnival Corp. No individual cruise line under the Carnival umbrella can say yay or nay to granting it or applying it.

 

Real case: On our last cruise I faxed my request into the HAL fax line. I waited a few days and then went onto the HAL website, fired up the chat window and asked the very pleasant person on the other end if he/she could check to see if my request had been processed. The answer was, yes it had and yes it was already applied to my booking. No TA, PCC, (whatever) involved at all.

 

I would add that, if your communications with HAL are expressed as stridently as your postings here, then it could be possible that your various requests have been lost in the ether.

 

 

Totally agree. I use a TA and always request my stock OBC directly. Never a problem.

 

Incorrectly done? Perhaps the poster sent it before the board had approved it or not in sufficient time for the cruise. Who knows?

 

I do know that you get more flies with honey though and the 'tone' of an email, letter or telephone call can influence how much someone wants to help at the receiving end ;)

[WVU_Neal]

I have never had a problem with faxing the info to HAL. However, I no longer have a fax machine, so I emailed the info. I got a response from HAL that said they would process that stockholder benefit for that cruise, but I would have to snail mail the info in the future as their computer system "is not secure" enough ! What??? They have names, birthdates, passport numbers, credit card numbers...but the system is not secure???? Snail mail it is, I guess for all our future cruises.

 

 

No need for snail mail. There are several free online fax services that will take your scanned documents and fax them. Did that last fall to HAL. Quick and easy.

 

Neal

[serendipity1499]

The Shareholders Onboard Credit is a scam. They don't give it to you, even if you write to the president of HAL. They claim you don't submit it correctly. How can you not submit "correctly" if you send the required paperwork to the designated place in the instructions.??????? It is like SimonSays game.

 

Plus, they refuse to give it to you post-cruise. They cheat you out of it and then they still cheat you when you complain.

 

They say you will get it prior to your cruise when you check and ; surprise, when you are on the ship, it is not there. It does not show 9n any cruise documentation.

 

HAL lies.

 

This is untrue! HAL does not lie & they certainly don't cheat..I've collected more than $1800 in shareholder credit since we bought this stock, & never had a problem! Why are you having your Travel Agent send the info to HAL..

 

Do it yourself & take a copy of your confirmation with you on your cruise.. You may never need it but, we always take our confirmation with us..

 

Be sure you send a copy of your last stock brokerage summary indicating that you have 100 shares in your name.. If it's done properly you should have no problems..We always get confirmation within an hour..

 

Nanner have you been able to get your FAX through yet?

[Vict0riann]

Hi, Nancy, Nice to hear from you!:) When are you sailing? I'm just wondering how far ahead to request our shareholder credit.

[StartrainDD]

I must have missed the notice about the office move...

 

In any case, I faxed my documents last Friday (Feb 3) in the afternoon eastern time. I asked to be e-mailed when the credit for our upcoming Veendam cruise was applied and had the e-mail in less than an hour.

 

In all our HAL and Princess cruises since buying the stock we've not had any issue obtaining the shareholder's credit. I always book through an agent and also have always handled the shareholder's credit directly with HAL.

 

Sorry to those having challenges.

[Cruise_More_Often]

We use a TA, but I always fax in my shareholder credit requests directly to HAL and receive an email reply within an hour. I always take the printed emails with me in case the credit does not show. They always show.

[john2003]

It is sad to have this called a scam. Never had a problem. Always do it myself although I book with a TA.

 

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[3rdGenCunarder]

I always take care of the shareholder OBC, although we do book with a TA. Because of the move, I decided to fax instead of snailmail. I used an online service this afternoon and it failed. So I called the number for World Cruise Reservations to see if the fax number had changed. And it has. So the PDF you can find online is out of date.

 

New fax number for shareholder benefit requests is 206-270-6080.

[Nanner]

This is the first time I had any problem with the shareholder OBC, which is why I was so put off by the hassle. I think part of it was the HAL office move, but still...

 

Today I received email notification that the credit was posted, and it shows on our reservation.

 

I was also informed the NEW fax number for World Cruise reservations is 206- 270-6080. (as noted above) You might want to write that down, in case you need it before they change the web pages.

[cruiserzoid]

How nice of HAL to inform potential cruiser Shareholders of this change!:o:rolleyes:;):(:(

 

They knew they were moving. It was not an earthquake or cyclone that forced them to suddenly move. An honest company with no intentions of running a scam would have informed individuals so they could submit their request for credit easily.

 

SHAME ON HAL !!

[3rdGenCunarder]

How nice of HAL to inform potential cruiser Shareholders of this change!:o:rolleyes:;):(:(

 

They knew they were moving. It was not an earthquake or cyclone that forced them to suddenly move. An honest company with no intentions of running a scam would have informed individuals so they could submit their request for credit easily.

 

SHAME ON HAL !!

 

 

I don't know how you get the contact information, but I search online for Carnival (not HAL) shareholder benefit and get to the website for Carnival Corp. Then a couple of clicks gets me to a page that lists all the companies and the contact info for requesting benefits.

 

This page is a pdf, not a "live" webpage. It's usually posted when the renewal of the benefit is announced, which happens once a year. Yes, somebody should update this, but that won't happen at HAL. And it may not happen until the next announcement.

 

This information comes from Carnival Corporation, the parent company of HAL. As other posters have said, HAL does not control the rules, they just get the requests and act on them (for most people, anyway).

[kazu]

This is the first time I had any problem with the shareholder OBC, which is why I was so put off by the hassle. I think part of it was the HAL office move, but still...

 

Today I received email notification that the credit was posted, and it shows on our reservation.

 

I was also informed the NEW fax number for World Cruise reservations is 206- 270-6080. (as noted above) You might want to write that down, in case you need it before they change the web pages.

 

Thanks very much Nanner :) I had best amend my WP that is always ready to go for the next cruise :)

 

Much appreciated.

 

How nice of HAL to inform potential cruiser Shareholders of this change!:o:rolleyes:;)

 

They knew they were moving. It was not an earthquake or cyclone that forced them to suddenly move. An honest company with no intentions of running a scam would have informed individuals so they could submit their request for credit easily.

 

SHAME ON HAL !!

 

OMG, stop beating your dead horse. Enough people have posted saying they always get it. I take my email with me "in case".

 

You have not proven that HAL is running a scam other than your claims that you have NOT backed up with the reasons. Something is very wrong in Denmark and I don't think it's with HAL headquarters.

 

The website is updated for email and instructions on a regular basis. Did you expect a personal email? I don't. I check each year to make sure the stockholders have approved and follow the instructions.

 

Since you never outlined what your problems were and just keep making these claims which could be construed as libel, I would suggest that you either prove your point or not keep using the words "scam" and "dishonest".

 

And yes, I know what the words mean and do not need to look them up in the dictionary.

[Traveler 13]

I have always scanned my documentation and e-mailed it to my PCC at HAL and she take care of it without any problem.

[JVilleGal]

Mine have been sent off and accepted! Thank you all for updating me and reminding me to get this detail handled.

 

 

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