Credit Card Charged in error

[bee-ess]

Nice to see that the photo used is a ferry:)

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4528776/Passengers-fury-cruise-firms-charge-twice.html

[Cappers]

I bet Martin Lewis would know how to deal with this fiasco! Or Anne Robinson ;p it is truly stunning that p&o are behaving as though it's a minor irritation and very arrogant of them to I think. We checked our accounts yesterday and there doesn't seem to be anything there thankfully. Hasn't this happened before though? I seem to recall getting a similar email after returning from a cruise saying that the final account payment had been accidentally put through again but that it was the 3rd party at fault,,I think it was this time last year after we had been on Britannia.

[kruzseeka]

Nice to see that the photo used is a ferry:)

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4528776/Passengers-fury-cruise-firms-charge-twice.html

 

Pathletic isn't it? The standard of journalism these days!

[the english lady]

I have been following this since it came to light. Yes we have been effected, and I did receive an email.

Is part of the problem that it was a 3rd party doing this...so Pando would have no idea who was effected until it started to unravel. Pando do not keep card details. They were not aware the 3rd party did keep them. Pando had taken payments at the correct time, and as far as they were concerned that was it.

Fast forward and 3rd party do something. Pando would have no idea this had happened, until customers started contacting them. Maybe a few in the beginning so they didn't realise how big the problem was getting. I am not sticking up for them just showing how they may not have had any idea of the scale until it blew up. As for Cundard/Pando/Princess not contacting customers quick enough , they would be checking the 1000's of payments taken during that period. That takes time.

I am sure when this has been resolved the 3 lines will endeavor to do what they can for clients..however all getting upgrades on their next cruise will not be a goer...maybe some obc. They have said they will cover costs incurred by this. I am sure as the true scale becomes known as its the start of the working week ..things will move forward faster.

[FAB1]

Hasn't this happened before though? I seem to recall getting a similar email after returning from a cruise saying that the final account payment had been accidentally put through again but that it was the 3rd party at fault,,I think it was this time last year after we had been on Britannia.

 

Yes, I remember this happening a few months ago. This thread from July 2015 also makes interesting reading. Clearly this has happened a few times.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2240080

[Eglesbrech]

I just wonder how P&O etc would react if it happened the other way round. On the law of averages someone, somewhere will be on a ship and be unable to pay their onboard account because this money has been taken / frozen in their credit or debit card.

 

I have also been following this story on a number of sites and there are some real horror stories, people unable to pay bills, no cash flow at all as thousands of pounds frozen in accounts, trying to pay for groceries or petrol and finding they had no money to do so at the till.

 

They have said that they will pay for any charges but that does nothing for people who have been humiliated at a check out. You try telling the petrol station you have no money after filling the car with fuel!

 

I think I am most annoyed by P&O buck passing to the 3rd party in the brief email they sent, it showed little empathy to the situation people would find themselves in. The contract I have is with P&O and it is their responsibility to ensure the ongoing quality and reliability of any third party supplier they choose to use. Telling people to contact their bank or the supplier is equivalent to telling a diner who did not enjoy their steak to contact the farmer who reared the cow.😀

 

English Lady, I hope you are right and things do move faster now that the working week has started. I also hope they have the good grace to do something other than just pay for the bank charges that they created in the first place (not to mention the time taken to make calls etc to sort it all out). Even a very small gesture would be nice to acknowledge the distress they have caused but somehow I doubt they will do anything at all. I hope however that I am proved wrong in this.

[kruzseeka]

It may also affect some people's credit rating - how will P&O rectify that?

[davecttr]

Checked at the bank this morning, it appears I have been lucky - phew

[smj777]

Checked my bank this am - not lucky, still £3800 gone and well overdrawn.

[davenew]

I have just spoken to P&O after checking my credit card statement I have been charged today nearly £600.

They have a problem and credit cards have been charged even though bookings have not been made.

They are trying to reverse them all but do not know when it will be resolved. Anybody else had this problem today?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I have received two emails from P&O over the weekend, stating that their third party processor, Elavon Merchant Services had processed pre authorised payment from our debit card. When I phoned them, they had nothing on their system to show it, and, as we had payed via a travel agent and not P&O, we had been notified incorrectly !!

I called my bank this morning and found out that P&O had requested payment for an amount that proved to be the deposit we paid on 2nd March for our cruise in August- via the a well known tv TA.

I received loads of apologies, and when I said that this is going to cost you loads of OBC, I was told that they had not yet decided how they were going to "satisfy" those that had been effected.

She told me that it could take 7 days before I get the credit put back into my account. :eek:

 

At least they sent emails with the warning, but as we only received them "in error", how many other people have not had them, but have still had the charges taken from them ??

Edited May 22, 2017 by davenew

[davenew]

Checked my bank this am - not lucky, still £3800 gone and well overdrawn.

WOW, at least mine was only £520

[davenew]

The alert provides very little information and the replies on Facebook aren't much better.

 

Financial regulations and incryption requirements are pretty tight and they should never retain or be able to access this kind of information after a transaction is complete. It also begs the question who the third party is that has customers bank and credit card details? I thought we were dealing with P&O.

 

I think the PR department are going to be very busy as there are issues here beyond the money removed illegally from accounts.

 

Lots of very unhappy people.

It's ELAVON MERCHANT SERVICES

[davenew]

Just over £2700 pending to go out on my card,luckily my credit card .i imagine anyone who has had this happen on their main bank account could have all sorts of problems

Ours was with dd card so we avoided the cc surcharges at the time :eek:

[davenew]

I made the final payment for a July cruise at my TA by DD on the 11th of March. Does this problem include payments via a TA?

 

I will have to go to the bank tomorrow for a complete statement from the beginning of March.

 

Were these incorrect charges applied recently and I have not had any email

We paid via TA, and were told we weren't effected and received the email in error !! Called bank this morning, and we ARE effected - so just keep checking. I suppose if it was going to happen, then it would have been over the weekend

[Eglesbrech]

I have received two I was told that they had not yet decided how they were going to "satisfy" those that had been effected.?

 

 

P&O Cruises Hi we are looking at compensation on a case by case basis. If this is something which you are interested in pursuing then please do feel to contact us either by email to:

customerservices@pocruises.com

Picked this up on a reply on Facebook. It seems they have decided and no surprises P&O will do nothing unless you contact them.

They managed to take money from people,s accounts in one blanket swoop but unless you make the effort to get a bank statement showing the charges, get a phone bill showing all the calls you have had to make etc then tough. I wonder just how long it will take for them to deal with all these complaints as there will be thousands I suspect.

There is a general call for compensation for everyone affected on a number of forums. According to their replies that is just not going to happen. There is actually a degree of arrogance in the way they are replying to people.

Making a mistake is one thing, compounding it with being unhelpful and arrogant to paying customers is quite another. And we will probably all pay for the error and any associated costs in higher costs onboard.

[Two 2 Tango]

I am also affected, luckily it won't cause me much damage but, being a bit suspicious could it have been done to give themselves a free payday loan to get them over a sticky patch? Just in case anyone experienced a strange email I got a few days ago asking me how I rated the booking experience for my "upcoming cruise" which incidentally was the one I went on in March the same one they have took the money twice for. It would therefore seem to me that it could have been P&O who actually requested payment for the upcoming cruise. Hope that doesn't sound too complicated

this is a section of the email that came on the 16/5/17 for a cruise I went on in March:

 

"Booking Reference: WR8Q9H

It’s great to hear that you’ll soon be on board Oceana for your holiday with us. Before we have the pleasure of welcoming you, we wonder if we might ask a favour?

We’re always looking for ways to improve our booking experience and would be very interested to hear what you, as a valued passenger, think. Your insights could even help improve your future experience"

 

 

Last time with Carnival group stuff the loyalty.

Edited May 22, 2017 by Two 2 Tango

[Josy1953]

Wow, it looks like we are one of the lucky ones. We have paid over £5000 to P&O since January as final payments on 2 cruises and we have only been hit by a pending payment of £50.76 which is the amount of our final statement from April. The only thing that I can think is that the final payments were made on my debit card to avoid charges but I always automatically give them my credit card at check in (I don't know why I do that). I would be very annoyed if they had taken £5000 from my debit card as I would have been well overdrawn.

[verynervous]

I haven't had any communication from P and O. Should I ask them to pay my direct debits?

[insanemagnet]

There is a general call for compensation for everyone affected on a number of forums. According to their replies that is just not going to happen. There is actually a degree of arrogance in the way they are replying to people.

 

I completely agree it is arrogant they ask people to demonstrate they have suffered a loss before handing out compensation

 

Utterly outrageous behaviour.

 

P&O should be posting out envelopes with bundles of £50 inside to anyone that has sailed with them in the last 10 years just on the offchance they were involved.

[Eglesbrech]

I completely agree it is arrogant they ask people to demonstrate they have suffered a loss before handing out compensation

 

Utterly outrageous behaviour.

 

P&O should be posting out envelopes with bundles of £50 inside to anyone that has sailed with them in the last 10 years just on the offchance they were involved.

 

Read the thread properly, I was responding to an earlier point.

 

Also did you not read the sentence about "everyone affected"?That would be people who have actaully been inconvenienced by all it this, not random passengers. Your sarcasm is not appreciated nor is it in any way appropriate in these particular circumstances.

 

The behaviour that is outrageous is P&O,s taking money from people's bank accounts with no permission, then buck passing, then expecting the customer to run around to sort it all, then asking the customer to spend yet more time contacting them yet again. What are they doing for the customer?

[smj777]

Here is a copy of an Email I sent to Customer services at P&O today.

 

"I paid the balance on our cruise, Ventura N716 sailing on 23/6/17, £3,524.38 on the 7th. March. On the 20th. of this month, May, a further payment to P&O Cruises, for the same amount was taken from my account.

 

I know that you are aware of this problem, but I feel that I should let you know that I will be incurring interest charges for my account being overdrawn, loss of interest on money transferred to my current account from a savings account. I have also spent a good deal of time and money on the telephone and online in connection with this incident.

 

 

I will be grateful if you will acknowledge this Email , at the same time confirming that you will reimburse me for my losses and compensate me for my necessary efforts."

 

 

I will let this forum know of any reply I receive.

[insanemagnet]

Read the thread properly, I was responding to an earlier point.

 

I did.

 

Let us take a look at the response you made to a question about how P&O were going to "satisfy" those affected and your response concluded with

 

Picked this up on a reply on Facebook. It seems they have decided and no surprises P&O will do nothing unless you contact them

That seems reasonable. If P&O have plans in place to refund the money / holds swiftly, if nobody has noticed then why worry them..

They managed to take money from people,s accounts in one blanket swoop but unless you make the effort to get a bank statement showing the charges, get a phone bill showing all the calls you have had to make etc then tough.

 

So you expect them to just hand over money. How much? Whatever is asked for? I will ask for £5k then please.

I wonder just how long it will take for them to deal with all these complaints as there will be thousands I suspect.

 

Probably longer if they have to first contact every customer as you want.

There is a general call for compensation for everyone affected on a number of forums. According to their replies that is just not going to happen.

 

You are just reporting here, but compensation for what? Compensation is for a loss, so what justification is there for blanket compensation where there has been no loss.

There is actually a degree of arrogance in the way they are replying to people.

 

 

If you are not supporting the general call for handout, would you like to justify the "arrogance"?

Making a mistake is one thing, compounding it with being unhelpful and arrogant to paying customers is quite another.

 

 

And yet again you using the "arrogant" word.

And we will probably all pay for the error and any associated costs in higher costs onboard.

 

 

We certainly will if they write to everyone as you want them to.

[Florry]

Can I just point out that P&O won't have any liability as this will fall to the third party who in turn will have insurance provision to cover these eventualities. Insurers will require an identifiable loss to compensate against.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Florry]

If P&O do make any discretionary payments they will usually require those affected to sign something to say they won't disclose on social media etc.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[David Owl]

As I am not overdrawn, all I will actually lose is around £1.40 in interest (assuming that they repay in the next few days)

 

However I have spent a fair amount of time shuffling some cash around to meet some bills.

 

I assume that when Carnival and the third party settle up, it won't be just for the cash that they have lost but will include the effort in fixing it and some compensation.

 

I would have thought that they could make a token gesture such as some OBC or even just a couple of beers.