Excursion Price Deception

[ParksvilleCruiser]

The sound you hear is my head hitting up against a brick wall (see futility of narrow perspectives).

 

Make it clearer?? "...absolutely nothing is on sale (in my case and no doubt many others)... If stating "in my case" is not crystal clear for you, there's not much more I can say. On behalf of Celebrity and the schemers in its marketing department...thank you for your support.

[Bo1953]

The sound you hear is my head hitting up against a brick wall (see futility of narrow perspectives).

 

Make it clearer?? "...absolutely nothing is on sale (in my case and no doubt many others)... If stating "in my case" is not crystal clear for you, there's not much more I can say. On behalf of Celebrity and the schemers in its marketing department...thank you for your support.

 

p - it may be that your case needed to be taken directly to X and not CC possibly?

 

In my case as well, there were NO discounts available, but we did not come here to talk about the fine details or disappoint of it. We just continue to plan our fun for the sailing. Discounts on what we had planned to do would have been a bonus and not a sore point when we did not find them, in our thoughts.

 

We trust you will have a great sailing despite nothing being available on sale for it. Maybe once you board there will be something on sale, but then again it may not apply to what you want it to be on.

 

Always looking for deals when advertized and not finding them can be causes for headaches, too...

 

bon voyage

[Alakegirl]

COincidentally, i received an email this morning from a favorite retailer announcing a sale up to 30% off. I went to the website and for ths items I wanted they were out of my size, so there was nothing on sale for me. I don’t feel deceived, just unlucky. Perhaps I should be contacting the Attorney General? ;)

 

If you do follow through with your complaint to the Florida consumer protections office, please come back and let us know how it works out for you.

[not-enough-cruising]

COincidentally, i received an email this morning from a favorite retailer announcing a sale up to 30% off. I went to the website and for ths items I wanted they were out of my size, so there was nothing on sale for me. I don’t feel deceived, just unlucky. Perhaps I should be contacting the Attorney General? ;)

 

 

 

If you do follow through with your complaint to the Florida consumer protections office, please come back and let us know how it works out for you.

 

 

 

Excellent, relevant post

 

Thank You

 

 

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[nanamobo]

I too received the email and contacted Celebrity for our cruise May 2, 2018 to Panama Canal. I was informed that none of the excursions for this cruise were 20% off. I felt the advertising was deceptive. They should of listed which trips/ships have the discounts. So far I still have $500 worth of excursions holding in my purchase out box......

[mom says]

The sound you hear is my head hitting up against a brick wall (see futility of narrow perspectives).

 

Make it clearer?? "...absolutely nothing is on sale (in my case and no doubt many others)... If stating "in my case" is not crystal clear for you, there's not much more I can say. On behalf of Celebrity and the schemers in its marketing department...thank you for your support.

 

Speaking of narrow perspectives...? It seems that you are either unable or unwilling to consider any other than your own. And happy to descend to name calling anyone who disagrees with you. Why is it deceptive advertising because they haven't discounted excursions on every single sailing on every ship and itinerary? Did they advertise that as a fact? No, they didn't. I see you're new to CC. Are you also new to cruising?

 

Our airline of choice just announced a big fare sale. Should I be outraged that this sale is not available for every single flight to every destination that they fly to ( including the one we're going to next month)? Or is it reasonable to assume that they would only have sales for selected flights to only selected destinations? I see no difference in the Celebrity sale you're so upset about.

[HokiePoq]

But it's not true that "nothing is for sale". There were plenty is excusions for sale. Just none on your sailing.

 

Blasts like these are meant to drum up interest. It got you to examine all your excursion options.

 

They send them to everyone. Just like the ones that encourage you to buy a drinks package even if you already have one.

 

They can't filter out who should get and who shouldn't get any particular marketing email. Their data base isn't that sophisticated.

 

Expect to get emails selling internet, spa treatments, even though you might already have them reserved.

 

Mine had no discounts either. However I've noticed on some cruises on more than one line that onboard bookings can be more than what I've booked ahead of time. Maybe it was just a price increase since my booking as soon as they become available, or maybe a discount means "Don't wait and pay more when you are aboard". We always book early after having tablemates on an Aust-NZ X cruise not be able to book any excursions as they were all sold out.

[fshagan]

The only way you will get a US company to stop false advertising is to report them to the official government watchdog agency, the FTC. Use this link to start the complaint: https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/GettingStarted?NextQID=254&Url=%23%26panel1-9#crnt

[Alakegirl]

WHat was false about the advert?

[Luvcrusn]

If I see a brick and mortar store with a sale sign in the window, experience has taught me that what I want to purchase is either sold out or not on sale, or was on sale yesterday, or tomorrow, or listed in the fine printed exclusion category. I guess I come to all sales with the skepticism those experiences have bred in me. Buyer beware, read the fine print, expect little, and if lightning strikes and what I want is actually available and on sale, I thank my lucky stars and enjoy the bonus! I highly recommend this mindset. All stores, brick and mortar and cyber offer sales to bring up customer interest, but you always need to do your homework.

[Wickets]

The problem was the email was sent to look like a targeted sale for our one booked cruise. There was not one excursion that was on sale, but it was impossible to figure this out. I booked to use up our obc credit, but they are not getting more excursion money from us. Since it is now impossible to get share holders benefits and needing a lawyer to figure out pricing, maybe it is time to look at alternatives vacations.

 

 

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[TeeRick]

Back to the OP's (Parksville Cruiser) initial point. Celebrity sent a general marketing email to their inbox (and a million others) and advertised an excursion sale. But there were no excursions on sale for their particular cruise. Kind of lousy email technique- maybe should have selected and targeted only passengers on sailings with at least one excursion on sale. But perhaps that was too difficult for them. I agree that the OP should be disappointed and perhaps a bit upset, but don't think you can call this deceptive marketing worthy of the attention of the FL AG's office. It was just sloppy marketing IMO.

[ParksvilleCruiser]

Good to know not everyone here has drank the Celebrity kool-ade. Yes, Wickets, that’s exactly the problem. Irrelevant that somewhere out there, someone found an excursion at a discounted price. Irrelevant that some folks recognize a scam and avoid it. Irrelevant that some folks do their homework before buying online. The point is that a consumer should not have to do homework to avoid being scammed by a reputable business.

 

Reputable businesses avoid uncertainty in their sales techniques and avoid ripping off consumers, whether the consumers have done their homework or not. It is not reputable to send consumers an email claiming products are on sale when absolutely nothing those consumers can buy is on sale (not a case of not-my-size, or not-my-taste, or “bad luck”, or limited inventor – zero sale inventory for those particular consumers), and doing so in a fashion that suggests to those consumers that the listed prices are sale prices. That is deceptive. Not terrible tar-and-feather-them deceptive, but deceptive.

 

My point is that some consumers fall victim to questionable business practices, and that those businesses should be called out, if for no other reason than to stop these practices. This is the simple concept of consumer protection. We all benefit from consumer protection. We all suffer when scams are accepted (“I just move on”), excused, condoned and bizarrely (see above) even commended (“Got you to check the excursions”).

 

I understand. Most people here are cruise line cheerleaders and, for them, anyone dumb enough to fall for a scam deserves what he/she gets.

 

Hopefully, from reading these comments, someone will avoid being scammed, and perhaps even take steps to hold businesses accountable for unscrupulous behavior.

 

Nothing more for me to say on this topic so I will say nothing more.

[Jade13]

. The point is that a consumer should not have to do homework to avoid being scammed by a reputable business.

 

 

Hopefully, from reading these comments, someone will avoid being scammed.

 

 

You haven’t bought any excursions, so haven’t been either ripped off or scammed.

 

If I was that unhappy I would just not take the Celebrity excursions and book private ones.

 

 

 

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[ano]

Office of Attorney General

State of Florida

The Capitol PL01

Tallahassee, FL 32399

 

Go for it

+1

You can not book an excursion for a cruise you are not booked on. Cruise lines employ this powerful technology, I think they call it a "computer" that has the processing power to determine if an excursion YOU are booked on is in fact "for sale" and if it is, send YOU a personalized link to that very cruise. So the excuse "We Didn't Know that No Excursion on your cruise was for sale" doesn't hold water. Let Pam Bondi (Florida's Attorney general) know if you felt pressured to buy an excursion because of this "sale."

[ano]

COincidentally, i received an email this morning from a favorite retailer announcing a sale up to 30% off. I went to the website and for ths items I wanted they were out of my size, so there was nothing on sale for me. I don’t feel deceived, just unlucky. Perhaps I should be contacting the Attorney General? ;)

 

If you do follow through with your complaint to the Florida consumer protections office, please come back and let us know how it works out for you.

 

Aww REALLY. You think when a retailer has a clothing sale, but nothing on sale was your size is the SAME THING as a cruise line saying excursions were on sale, but just not for the cruise they KNOW you are booked on? REALLY?? The Florida Attorney General IS the way to go. On several occasions I have complained to my state's Attorney General. I ALWAYS receive a call back to document the complaint, and in two cases (one a scammer, one a SPAMMER) the perpetrator was shut down. In one case I was even asked to submit a written affidavit of what happened.

[sanger727]

While I understand the OPs point. There’s two reasons I don’t have any issue with celebrity’s marketing.

1. Shore excursions are 100% refundable pre-cruise; so if you booked them mistakenly, thinking they were on sale. You can always refund them once u realize they aren’t. So truly, all that is wasted is your time.

2. As far as ads that are just time wasters. I get at least 2 of those a week from various cruise lines, including celebrity; advertising the cruises are now $500 off or BOGOHO. Guess what, my fare either increases or didn’t change. Most ads the cruise lines send out are time wasters. I generally ignore them.

 

 

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[fshagan]

+1

You can not book an excursion for a cruise you are not booked on. Cruise lines employ this powerful technology, I think they call it a "computer" that has the processing power to determine if an excursion YOU are booked on is in fact "for sale" and if it is, send YOU a personalized link to that very cruise. So the excuse "We Didn't Know that No Excursion on your cruise was for sale" doesn't hold water. Let Pam Bondi (Florida's Attorney general) know if you felt pressured to buy an excursion because of this "sale."

 

Segmenting email that way is probably not possible within X's system for promotional email. It is typically sent from mail servers set up for promotional mail so the various mail services know it is bulk mail. They probably don't keep your personal information on that server at all.

 

The email sent specifically for your cruise, like the confirmation, etc., is done by completely different servers to keep their reputation squeeky clean and not end up in the promotions folder.

 

It is possible to do what you indicate. The company I work for does it for businesses that send up to a quarter million email messages in a broadcast (we are for small to medium sized businesses). We provide the tools to segment the customer list by any number of attributes. Email is not free for legitimate advertisers (ours cost .003 each), so the cost of doing it our way exceeds the benefit for many companies.

[Kingofcool1947]

On Monday, December 18, 2017, I received an email from Celebrity stating I only had a few hours left to take advantage of an "Up to 20% Off" sale on excursions. I checked the Celebrity website for excursions being offered for our January 5, 2019, cruise aboard the Millennium; Singapore to Hong Kong. For each excursion, there was only one price listed, i.e., no distinction between the "regular" price and the "sale" price, and no indication of the savings. I called Celebrity customer service and was told the only way to determine the savings was for me to download Celebrity's excursion brochure and compare the regular prices listed there with what was listed as the sale price on the celebrity website. Are you kidding me? Can you imagine, say, a dress store, posting a sign outside saying, "Up to 20% Off", and discovering that inside the only way to know how much you're saving is by looking up each dress in a catalog and comparing prices between what's listed there and what's on each price tag for each dress? The best part of this is that I called Celebrity back and spoke to a second customer service representative. She checked for me and discovered that not a single excursion for my Singapore cruise was subject to any discount whatsoever. What Celebrity did here is send me (and no doubt thousands of other customers) an email urging me to buy excursions at a sale discount of "up to 20% off", list excursion prices with no way of knowing from that site the amount of the discount, and all of this for excursions that were not discounted a single penny. Obviously what Celebrity was hoping for was that when customers found just one price listed for each excursion as part of a so-called sale, customers would assume every price is the sale price. Yes, I know up to 20% includes 0%, but any store trying this trick would be run out of business. I wonder how many Celebrity customers have fallen for this scam. I understand Celebrity's head office is in Miami, Florida. This deceptive practice is outrageous, and should be investigated by Florida's Attorney General, who is responsible for consumer protection.

 

How is it deceptive? CSR told you to download the brochure. You didn’t. That’s on you, not Celebrity.

[Just Plain Jazz]

Post #23:

I will only belabor this point one last time, recognizing the futility posed by some folks' inability to get beyond their own narrow perspectives.

 

Post #26:

there's not much more I can say.

 

Post #38:

Nothing more for me to say on this topic so I will say nothing more.

 

Should we start a class action on behalf of all those lured into continuing to read this thread after the promise in post #23? Where is the truth in advertising here? I have just lost 30 minutes of my life, which I'm sure the Attorney General can easily value. The third promise had better be true, but I'll bet it isn't :')

[poffles]

The sound you hear is my head hitting up against a brick wall (see futility of narrow perspectives).

 

Make it clearer?? "...absolutely nothing is on sale (in my case and no doubt many others)... If stating "in my case" is not crystal clear for you, there's not much more I can say. On behalf of Celebrity and the schemers in its marketing department...thank you for your support.

 

I feel your pain while reading this thread and I hear what you are saying loud and clear. Not sure why some here feel the need to challenge you so strongly and go so far as to tell you to sail with someone else ... really.

 

I think sending a mailing to me (yes I got one too) who is booked and saying '20% off' excursions for your upcoming cruise is definitely deceiving. Yes others do this too but does that make it right? If the mailing was more clear in saying 'some excursions are 20% off' ... 'see if any for your sailing are on sale' ... that would be totally different and wouldn't feel so deceptive. And before anyone jumps on this please note I said FEEL deceptive which is based on perception and experience. I have grown to ignore most what Celebrity sends me now and consider it spam, even the stuff 'directed' to me for my booked cruise :)

 

Enjoy your cruise and hopefully one of the many 'sales' directly marketed to us actually apply to us :)

[Grandmaanne7]

I feel your pain while reading this thread and I hear what you are saying loud and clear. Not sure why some here feel the need to challenge you so strongly and go so far as to tell you to sail with someone else ... really.

 

I think sending a mailing to me (yes I got one too) who is booked and saying '20% off' excursions for your upcoming cruise is definitely deceiving. Yes others do this too but does that make it right? If the mailing was more clear in saying 'some excursions are 20% off' ... 'see if any for your sailing are on sale' ... that would be totally different and wouldn't feel so deceptive. And before anyone jumps on this please note I said FEEL deceptive which is based on perception and experience. I have grown to ignore most what Celebrity sends me now and consider it spam, even the stuff 'directed' to me for my booked cruise :)

 

Enjoy your cruise and hopefully one of the many 'sales' directly marketed to us actually apply to us :)

Well said.

 

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[Fouremco]

I feel your pain while reading this thread and I hear what you are saying loud and clear. Not sure why some here feel the need to challenge you so strongly and go so far as to tell you to sail with someone else ... really.

 

I think sending a mailing to me (yes I got one too) who is booked and saying '20% off' excursions for your upcoming cruise is definitely deceiving. Yes others do this too but does that make it right? If the mailing was more clear in saying 'some excursions are 20% off' ... 'see if any for your sailing are on sale' ... that would be totally different and wouldn't feel so deceptive. And before anyone jumps on this please note I said FEEL deceptive which is based on perception and experience. I have grown to ignore most what Celebrity sends me now and consider it spam, even the stuff 'directed' to me for my booked cruise :)

 

Enjoy your cruise and hopefully one of the many 'sales' directly marketed to us actually apply to us :)

 

You do understand that there's a world of difference between saying "20% off" and "up to 20% off"?

[Fouremco]

Aww REALLY. You think when a retailer has a clothing sale, but nothing on sale was your size is the SAME THING as a cruise line saying excursions were on sale, but just not for the cruise they KNOW you are booked on?

Actually, I thought it was a very good comparison. Those handling the mass promotional mail outs have no idea what specific cruises the individual recipients have booked.

[Ma Bell]

I looked back at the many emails I got for this promotion and they all, say up to 20% of in the subject line, and up to 20% off in a large banner when the email is opened and also 20% off on "select" excursions in the body of the message. These emails do not just entail excursions but other packages as well. Hardly deceptive in any way if you read them.