Suspicious Mini-bar charges

[Clarea]

As Pinnacle you only got 2 glasses of water? Heck, on our Feb. Navigator cruise we got 8 bottles of water.:D

I've found that the number of "free" bottles of water varies ship to ship and even cruise to cruise.

[grapau27]

Months ago I might have agreed with you, but many, many, many charges later (including to me), I consider this outright theft. When decades ago groceries went to bar scanning and eliminated price tags on individual items, many stores softened the fear of overcharging by giving you the item free if you brought the overcharge to their attention. RCI has overcharged many thousands of people, a small percentage of whom have caught the mistake and gone to the trouble of getting it reversed, often with the insult of being told that "the charge was being reversed as courtesy". RCI is stealing all the money they can, and insults you you if you find the overcharge and provides ZERO compensation for your trouble. I emphatically reject the idea that this is just a crappy IT system (even though their IT system is crappy).

 

Thom

The first time i rang it cost me more on the phone call than the overcharge.

I told them this and asked for the cost of the call back but they wouldn't entertain my request.

[island lady]

I've found that the number of "free" bottles of water varies ship to ship and even cruise to cruise.

 

So true!! Sometimes it's just a couple...sometimes it is 8-10!! :o

 

What was that comical term you use? Something like I always say..."The only thing consistent on RCI..is inconsistency" But your term was cuter. :cool:

[Clarea]

So true!! Sometimes it's just a couple...sometimes it is 8-10!! :o

 

What was that comical term you use? Something like I always say..."The only thing consistent on RCI..is inconsistency" But your term was cuter. :cool:

Really Consistently Inconsistent? (RCI)

[Life is Good Cruising]

On Anthem in a GS, we had 2 large glass bottles of complimentary Evian water.

 

As Pinnacle you only got 2 glasses of water? Heck, on our Feb. Navigator cruise we got 8 bottles of water.:D

 

The 2 large glass Evian water bottles were in addition to the 4 or 6 small bottles water we also received. Don't know where you're reading 2 glasses of water :confused:

[island lady]

Really Consistently Inconsistent? (RCI)

 

That's the one!! Thanks!! Love it!! :D:D

[SRF]

I was referring to RC,IT where we have been overcharged several times but never undercharged.

 

My point was, thousands sail, some have charges.

 

But who would report they did NOT get charged or they got a suspicious credit?

 

So you cannot go by reports. They are biased to those complaining.

[SRF]

Months ago I might have agreed with you, but many, many, many charges later (including to me), I consider this outright theft. When decades ago groceries went to bar scanning and eliminated price tags on individual items, many stores softened the fear of overcharging by giving you the item free if you brought the overcharge to their attention. RCI has overcharged many thousands of people, a small percentage of whom have caught the mistake and gone to the trouble of getting it reversed, often with the insult of being told that "the charge was being reversed as courtesy". RCI is stealing all the money they can, and insults you you if you find the overcharge and provides ZERO compensation for your trouble. I emphatically reject the idea that this is just a crappy IT system (even though their IT system is crappy).

 

Thom

 

How do you know how many have been charged?

 

And if their system shows you have a mini bar charge, and you say you do not, how do they know you do not? Do you think that people never lie about mini bar charges? So yes, absent any proof, they reverse the charge as a courtesy. To avoid calling you a liar.

[grapau27]

My point was, thousands sail, some have charges.

 

But who would report they did NOT get charged or they got a suspicious credit?

 

So you cannot go by reports. They are biased to those complaining.

TBH one is too many.

[nelblu]

The 2 large glass Evian water bottles were in addition to the 4 or 6 small bottles water we also received. Don't know where you're reading 2 glasses of water :confused:

 

 

Sorry, senior moment.:D

[happicruzer]

Having had suspicious bottles left and found in the minibar, I am confident there are those who use and do not get charged. Water in a vodka bottle comes to mind.

 

Another reason I had everything removed - at least the next cabin owner got the previous owners leavings. And yes, someone might think I should be charged.

 

Poor housekeeping when that happened and pointed out to a butler who didnt catch his error when leaving the opened, refilled bottle.

Judy

[A&L_Ont]

I called RC today and they credited my account. I just said that there was an error and I didn’t even have to state that we were sailing Star Class. There was no questions from the phone agent.

[TravelerThom]

How do you know how many have been charged?

 

And if their system shows you have a mini bar charge, and you say you do not, how do they know you do not? Do you think that people never lie about mini bar charges? So yes, absent any proof, they reverse the charge as a courtesy. To avoid calling you a liar.

Did you just call me a liar? If so, that is clearly in violation of CC guidelines.

 

The total Cruise Critic membership (of whom a significant percentage have not participated in years) is about 1% of the annual passenger load of RCI. My guess is that way less than 50% (I highly doubt that it is 10%) of the people who were falsely charged even notice the overcharge. Probably less than half of those do anything about it (the over charge is almost always less than $20). Only a small percentage of those complain about it Cruise Critic. If you look back through this and other similar threads I have conservatively estimated that RCI is making $3Million a year on these over charges. I complained about and was begrudgingly refunded a false charge of (if I recall correctly) $6.28. If you honestly feel that I took the effort to spend half an hour of my time to cheat RCI out of $6.28 you must know some pretty sleazy people; IMO my time is worth way more than $12/hour, but I refuse to be cheated. BTW that false charge was on the first leg of a B2B cruise when I had told the room steward that he could skip my cabin on turn-around morning, so I don't think the cabin door was ever open for someone else to have walked off with the bottle. I don't think that the issue is at the room steward or water-stocker level, but rests further up the accounting chain.

[grapau27]

Did you just call me a liar? If so, that is clearly in violation of CC guidelines.

 

The total Cruise Critic membership (of whom a significant percentage have not participated in years) is about 1% of the annual passenger load of RCI. My guess is that way less than 50% (I highly doubt that it is 10%) of the people who were falsely charged even notice the overcharge. Probably less than half of those do anything about it (the over charge is almost always less than $20). Only a small percentage of those complain about it Cruise Critic. If you look back through this and other similar threads I have conservatively estimated that RCI is making $3Million a year on these over charges. I complained about and was begrudgingly refunded a false charge of (if I recall correctly) $6.28. If you honestly feel that I took the effort to spend half an hour of my time to cheat RCI out of $6.28 you must know some pretty sleazy people; IMO my time is worth way more than $12/hour, but I refuse to be cheated. BTW that false charge was on the first leg of a B2B cruise when I had told the room steward that he could skip my cabin on turn-around morning, so I don't think the cabin door was ever open for someone else to have walked off with the bottle. I don't think that the issue is at the room steward or water-stocker level, but rests further up the accounting chain.

I agree with you and i personally do not like to be cheated even for a small amount.

I happily tip well over the top but there is a principal involved when you are falsely charged for something you didn't have.

I thought once the 2 big bottles of water were removed from our cabins that would be the end of mysterious post cruise charge's.

[Life is Good Cruising]

Sorry, senior moment.:D

No problem, I get them too :D

[SRF]

Did you just call me a liar? If so, that is clearly in violation of CC guidelines.

 

The total Cruise Critic membership (of whom a significant percentage have not participated in years) is about 1% of the annual passenger load of RCI. My guess is that way less than 50% (I highly doubt that it is 10%) of the people who were falsely charged even notice the overcharge. Probably less than half of those do anything about it (the over charge is almost always less than $20). Only a small percentage of those complain about it Cruise Critic. If you look back through this and other similar threads I have conservatively estimated that RCI is making $3Million a year on these over charges. I complained about and was begrudgingly refunded a false charge of (if I recall correctly) $6.28. If you honestly feel that I took the effort to spend half an hour of my time to cheat RCI out of $6.28 you must know some pretty sleazy people; IMO my time is worth way more than $12/hour, but I refuse to be cheated. BTW that false charge was on the first leg of a B2B cruise when I had told the room steward that he could skip my cabin on turn-around morning, so I don't think the cabin door was ever open for someone else to have walked off with the bottle. I don't think that the issue is at the room steward or water-stocker level, but rests further up the accounting chain.

 

Reading comprehension is KEY.

 

No, I did not call you a liar. I said that RCI or a hotel has no way to verify if you contest a charge for mini bar use. THEIR system says you used something. YOU say you did not. You could be telling the truth, you could be lying. So they remove the charge, AS A COURTESY, instead of arguing with you and/or calling you a liar. I would guess that the majority of the time, the person is trying get out of paying for something they actually consumed. But not always, there are mistakes.

 

In most hotels, the minibar is handled by a dedicated minibar person. And many hotels use an automated system, that if you even pick up a item, you are charged for it.

 

I also do not agree with your math, but that is another topic.

[toras]

No, I did not call you a liar. I said that RCI or a hotel has no way to verify if you contest a charge for mini bar use.

 

But this is not an isolated incident - hundreds if not thousands have called about this exact same problem. They must know about the issue, but could not or would not fix the problem at source, until they eliminated the water altogether (which indicates they do not know how to fix the accounting error).

 

For the company, they say "as a courtesy" to avoid admitting that it is a known issue. For the customer, it is an insult.

[SRF]

How do you know that thousands have called? Not just your fuzzy math, but any proof?

 

And heck, with all the other stupid issues with RCI IT systems, funny charges are actually LIKELY.

[ThirstyCruiser]

How do you know that thousands have called? Not just your fuzzy math, but any proof?

 

And heck, with all the other stupid issues with RCI IT systems, funny charges are actually LIKELY.

 

Grab a cup of coffee (well, maybe you'll need the whole pot) and read the hundreds of posts in this one thread alone:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2434965&page=34

 

Are there just as many bogus credits appearing to other people. Sure, if you'd like to believe that. Hundreds of credits every week would certainly raise red flags that would cause them to fix THAT issue in a new york minute. But hundreds of thousands of dollars in mini bar / water sales? No red flags, our customers must love that water!!! Oh, and lets fire that junior associate who dares ask how we can be selling many more bottles of water than we are buyng from our wholesalers.

[grapau27]

Grab a cup of coffee (well, maybe you'll need the whole pot) and read the hundreds of posts in this one thread alone:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2434965&page=34

 

Are there just as many bogus credits appearing to other people. Sure, if you'd like to believe that. Hundreds of credits every week would certainly raise red flags that would cause them to fix THAT issue in a new york minute. But hundreds of thousands of dollars in mini bar / water sales? No red flags, our customers must love that water!!! Oh, and lets fire that junior associate who dares ask how we can be selling many more bottles of water than we are buyng from our wholesalers.

Witty post.

These charges appear on other cruiselines too so someone has their fingers in the pie lol.

[TravelerThom]

How do you know that thousands have called? Not just your fuzzy math, but any proof?....

The only group that could prove how many have called would be RCCL, and I doubt they are releasing that embarrassing number. However I made a good living analyzing statics. RCCL carried 5,754,747 passengers in 2016. CruiseCritic has 26,007 members. Those numbers are not fuzzy. Although the many CC members haven't posted within the last 5 years, and the vast majority of CC members have never sailed on RCCL, nevertheless assume that every CC member (actually vastly less than this) sailed on RCCL in 2016, that represents 0.452% of the RCCL passengers (or inversely there are 220 passengers who are not and never have been a member of CC for every CC member who could have possibly sailed on RCCL). Take the number of complaints in the one thread you have been referred to and multiply that number by 220 and you are already in the tens of thousands complaints right there. Furthermore it is highly likely that many defrauded passengers never noticed the small charges added to their bill after they left the ship, and that many of those who did notice didn't feel it worth their time to complain. The numbers lead to an obvious conclusion to anyone who thinks about them with an open mind.

[TravelerThom]

These charges appear on other cruiselines too so someone has their fingers in the pie lol.

While I'm sure that every cruise line has occasional incorrect charges (and no doubt occasional missed charges), as far as I know (I might be wrong on this) no other cruise line has this systematic on-going multitude of fraudulent post-cruise charges.

 

Are continuous complaints like this appear in relation to other cruise lines?

[grapau27]

While I'm sure that every cruise line has occasional incorrect charges (and no doubt occasional missed charges), as far as I know (I might be wrong on this) no other cruise line has this systematic on-going multitude of fraudulent post-cruise charges.

 

Are continuous complaints like this appear in relation to other cruise lines?

Quite a few have posted this fact on P&O UK.