Honoring Online Price?

[VTHokieFAM]

Was just trying to book a somewhat last-minute cruise this morning for late March on the Harmony of the Seas for my family of 4. Went to the RCCL website and selected an Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony Guarantee. Put it in my cart and navigated through all the screens entering the appropriate information (I did this at a normal pace). When I submitted payment, I got a message that there was an error while processing my payment. I double-checked cc information and resubmitted. Same error message. So I called customer service and she told me the only balcony available was almost $2K more then the one I had in my cart. I asked her if she could honor the price in my cart and told her I have screen shots to prove the price quoted. She said she could send our call to a resolution specialist, but that nothing was going to change. Talked to the "resolution" specialist who wasn't at all interested in a resolution. Seemed more like a bulldog that wanted to pummel my questions. Told me that I could book the more expensive balcony, but that he was not going to honor the price on the website. He told me that the website should have never shown me that cabin. He also said that it states on the website that they reserve the right to change things. If he doesn't have to honor the price on the website, doesn't seem like anything on the website or any printed materials would have to be honored. This seems like classic bait and switch to me. Anyone ever have this happen? I do have screenshots of the price and the error message. Is there a possibility that I can escalate to anyone to get the price that was quoted? Or is this just a lost cause?

 

Cruise vacations are starting to feel less about relaxing and getting a break and more about being herded like cattle.

[spookwife]

there is probably nothing you can do. it was a guarantee and those probably sold out as you were in the middle of your transaction. it happens. not even perfectly run websites are necessarily going to be updated every second in real time.

[Clarea]

Just another symptom of Royal's barely functional website. This one is the "bait and switch" bug.

[footzz]

What happened to you was probably another instance of dynamic pricing. These days, the price of any cruise cabin, in any category, is in a perpetual state of flux until the last one is sold.

 

The prices, based on an algorithm, can change in a manner of minutes, if not seconds.

 

You can thank the former chairman of American Airlines, Robert Crandall for it.

[Husky1987]

Few weeks ago I was looking at an Alaska Airlines flight that said "2 left at" the price. I refreshed and the price showed higher.

 

Sometimes there's something hidden and nefarious going on, and sometimes it just happens that someone else grabs the deal right before you have the chance to hit send.

[darthvadrouw]

Weird, I saw this afternoon that the price quoted on the website for my Symphony reservation was cheaper than what I had paid for a few months ago. I called Royal, they quoted me a completely different price (much higher) for the cabin, I told them that I had screenshots to prove what I was saying, the rep gave me his email address so that I could send him the screenshot, once he received it he could still not see the price on his system he then escalated the issue to his superior and called me back within half an hour with the good news that they eventually managed to honor the website price. They are going to give me back the price difference on my credit card and I have also now got 100 dollars in OBC (That was also shown on the website).

 

Maybe try calling them back, you might get a different rep that will honor the price.

[ONECRUISER]

there is probably nothing you can do. it was a guarantee and those probably sold out as you were in the middle of your transaction. it happens. not even perfectly run websites are necessarily going to be updated every second in real time.

Happened to me. Pick a last cabin, by time I checkout someone else bought it first. To OP, not "Bait and Switch" just nothing you can do, no price "guarantee's" Sorry...

[dunedinmaiden]

Was just trying to book a somewhat last-minute cruise this morning for late March on the Harmony of the Seas for my family of 4. Went to the RCCL website and selected an Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony Guarantee. Put it in my cart and navigated through all the screens entering the appropriate information (I did this at a normal pace). When I submitted payment, I got a message that there was an error while processing my payment. I double-checked cc information and resubmitted. Same error message. So I called customer service and she told me the only balcony available was almost $2K more then the one I had in my cart. I asked her if she could honor the price in my cart and told her I have screen shots to prove the price quoted. She said she could send our call to a resolution specialist, but that nothing was going to change. Talked to the "resolution" specialist who wasn't at all interested in a resolution. Seemed more like a bulldog that wanted to pummel my questions. Told me that I could book the more expensive balcony, but that he was not going to honor the price on the website. He told me that the website should have never shown me that cabin. He also said that it states on the website that they reserve the right to change things. If he doesn't have to honor the price on the website, doesn't seem like anything on the website or any printed materials would have to be honored. This seems like classic bait and switch to me. Anyone ever have this happen? I do have screenshots of the price and the error message. Is there a possibility that I can escalate to anyone to get the price that was quoted? Or is this just a lost cause?

 

Cruise vacations are starting to feel less about relaxing and getting a break and more about being herded like cattle.

 

This same thing happened to me recently. The error message from the website does make it appear as though it's a credit card problem. The second time I tried my husband's credit card but received the same error message. Even though I knew our cards were in good standing, I became alarmed and even called my credit card company to ensure there was no fraud on my card. They assured me all was fine with our cards. This happened late on a Saturday night so I had to wait until Sunday to reach customer service, but I did take screen shots of everything.

 

Once I spoke with customer service, I was told this is a known website problem. The system was actually stopping me from booking an L1 crown loft suite at the price of an L2 crown loft suite, even though it was their system providing the pricing! I told them how deceiving their error message was, making it appear as though there was a problem with my credit card instead of just being honest with a message stating a pricing error. I was told they could not honor the system pricing shown on my screen shots. I decided to book an L2 at the moment but asked for my case to be turned over to their Resolutions department.

 

After speaking with Resolutions a few days later, they did agree to move us into an L1 crown loft suite at the price their website had provided. However, I was told they rarely provide this accommodation. It may have been that the price difference was only approximately $130 per person. When I spoke with customer service earlier, I did ask if it was worth losing a repeat customer over such a small dollar amount.

 

From my perspective, it's all about integrity. That's why I felt it was worth pursuing, especially if they can't program their computer system to provide accurate pricing AND then return an error message that makes you think your credit card may have been compromised.

 

Good luck to you.

[robtulipe]

I've had this happen to me also when doing a RCI online booking.

When I called in to find out why I couldn't complete my online booking and was getting an error message. I was told by the RCI agent that any one of their agents could take or scoop a cabin category or guarantee at a certain price even if that offer was in the process of being booked by someone online. It was better to call in to do your booking as then their agent can immediately place on hold at that cabin or guarantee offer at the time it was selected in order to have it until that booking was completed. The agent then checked with a supervisor and was able to honor the price I was seeing since there was still availability but at a higher price. This was quite a few years ago so I don't know if RCCL will do the same today.

This is why agencies typically call in to RCCL to do their bookings after confirming the pricing online. I do the same if booking directly with the cruise line.

Edited February 25, 2018 by robtulipe

[VTHokieFAM]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Another cabin popped up and we booked it (I suspect this is due to a 24-hour hold expiring), but it is still about $1K more than the guarantee cabin I had in cart earlier today. Just frustrating that you can put something in your cart, navigate to check out in a timely manner and have it no longer be available. RCCL should take a cue from Ticketmaster and block the cabin while giving you a certain amount of time to complete the transaction. Would certainly help with some customer service issues. Most frustrating part was how "resolution" specialist talked to us. Makes me not want to give RCCL my business. I guess I'll just chalk it up to him having a bad day, because I know we all have those from time to time. Thanks again everyone!