ALERT & WORD OF CAUTION: SPA SERVICES (long post)

[amyj23]

Wow! I'm angry for you! How frustrating! All this trouble probably ruined what was supposed to be a relaxing experience for you and your husband. Some people are saying not to pre-pay and that would avoid this problem, but there was recently a 20% off promotion. And if we were GOING to book a treatment, we would have done it then. So I wouldn't think someone is being foolish to pre-book something at the spa. But I tell you what, this will definitely give me pause in the future!

[cruisinpips]

I’m sorry if you are a Spa fan, but the whole thing is a scam and sham! You book a “relaxing” event and it turns into a HUGE sales pitch! Never used them, never will. My daughter and I were walking through the spa on our last cruise the first day and got scammed into the “tour”... what a bunch of BS! A couple of so called “doctors” telling us what they could do for us.... I steer clear! 

[Organized Chaos]

6 hours ago, MistyRo76 said:

My sister booked her and I a "couples massage" on the Paradise last month as a birthday gift to me. Since she booked it online, she was charged for it then. It was explained to us after our massages that since the spa is owned and run by a different company, they would have to charge her for the massage and then they would pay Carnival and Carnival would credit her the amount.

 

Passenger pays Carnival...passenger pays spa...spa pays Carnival...Carnival credits passenger. This is an absolutely ridiculous way of going about charging spa customers. Surely someone at Carnival could come up with a better method.

 

My wife has brought up a couples massage a few times for our cruise next March, but after reading this thread, NO THANKS! There ain't no way I could go into it hoping to relax knowing there's a good chance they're going to charge us twice, then WE have to spend time trying to straighten out their ridiculous payment method. I suppose we could avoid the hassle by booking the appointment on board, but now I don't have any desire to give them our money if this is how they do business. I had absolutely no idea they were a third-party company.

[Markmom18]

3 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

This is such a cluster. Why do they even sell the services in advance if they are not managed in a way that makes sense?

 

 Right!  I was thinking that Carnival has or very recently had their 20% OFF SPA treatments/Services. This is obviously to encourage Carnival Guests to pre-book. 

 

Thank you OP for the valuable heads up. 

🌸🌸 Bobbi 

[indygirl76]

14 hours ago, Mm13 said:

Ugh. I prepaid for a spa service on Fascination in June. The thought of having to deal with this annoyance is enough to make me want to cancel. I wonder what the official procedure is for pre-purchased spa services.

This happened on my last cruise as well; I thought it was a mistake so I went to Guest Services, with a polite "Whoopsy daisy, can you please fix this?" The GS supervisor (I didn't ask for a higher-up, she was working the desk) told me the official procedure was:

* Spa charges full amount (with tip) at time of treatment.

* Accounting pushes credit for the prepaid amount, on the last day of the cruise.

... but then she immediately offered - without me even asking - to go ahead and issue the credit. She called Accounting while I was standing there, and I had confirmation on my account within two minutes. No idea if it was "Accounting" at Carnival or Steiner - she didn't specify and I didn't ask.

 

So as per usual, I think it's the luck of the draw with who you talk to, and what they're willing to do for you to fix the problem.

[jmcathome]

19 hours ago, Razorbakfan said:

Nope not negative at all....a valid point, I have 20 on Carnival, more on other cruise lines.  Have never used the spa service in any of my cruises so I was ignorant to that fact.  Live and learn!

Do a survey of people who cruised more than ten times and see how many of them know that the spa is separate. Bet it is close to 75% do not because there would be no reason to assume that they would farm that out

[Butterbean1000]

12 hours ago, cruisinpips said:

I’m sorry if you are a Spa fan, but the whole thing is a scam and sham! You book a “relaxing” event and it turns into a HUGE sales pitch! Never used them, never will. My daughter and I were walking through the spa on our last cruise the first day and got scammed into the “tour”... what a bunch of BS! A couple of so called “doctors” telling us what they could do for us.... I steer clear! 

I always tell them up front that I am not interested in purchasing any products,  I'm just here for the treatment, ie., massage, facial,  whatever.  Never a problem.

[tonit964]

At this point, just dispute the charge with the CC company and let them deal with it. You've attempted 4 times to correct it on board to no avail. 

[DramaQueen22]

20 hours ago, Geargoesdown said:

I had the same thing happen when I pre bought the spa pass. I prepaid however, I was charged again on my sail and sign account. Had to go guest services and they removed it.    

Good to know.  I prepaid for the couples day pass for our Horizon cruise in September.  I will be checking my charges for sure!  Charge me twice and there will be hell to pay.

[DramaQueen22]

After reading the rest of this thread...I am wondering if it would do any good to just refuse the charges at the spa.  They would have to run your s and s to charge you, so if you've prepaid, they shouldn't be able to run your charge again.  I am going to take my prepaid receipt with me just in case.

[riffatsea]

What a mess!! Sorry this happened to you!!

I have used the spas many times on various Carnival ships but I NEVER prepay anything!

It sounds like that is the way to go to make sure nothing like your problem ever happens!

I also tell them up front that I am not interested in buying anything and they never bother me about that.

Definitely dispute this with your credit card company and let us know how it all turns out.

[Razorbakfan]

Due to the overwhelming examples of this very same thing happening (from posts here and on the facebook Carnival Talk page) I feel there are predator practices ongoing by Steiner spas.   I found an email off their FB page.  IF you have had this happen, or have been dissatisfied or maybe satisfied with their practices while you cruised, you may want to drop a short note to an email address I found there...melissa.breit@theonboardspa.com    

 

Steiner laughed at the fact that I was sharing this story on social media, and said "good luck with that".   Pretty bold.

[Squadleader]

Obviously, lots of people like and use the spa. Personally, the spa just makes me nervous because of what happened to me.

 

About 15 years ago, I told my ex-wife to go get a massage as a little gift on a cruise, she did and said she enjoyed it. On the morning of debarkation a few days later, they slipped the final statement under the door for the cruise. On the bill was a $1,000 charge for the spa. It suddenly dawned on me there was this little basket of creams and oils that had been sitting on a table in our cabin ever since my wife had gotten the massage. I asked her about it, and sure enough, she had been given the hard sell during the whole massage about this cream and that oil, and she had simply allowed all that stuff to be pushed off on herself because she didn't want to say no.

 

I took my little basket of goodies to the spa to return them, but naturally, the spa was closed since the ship was being debarked. I ate that $1,000, but to this day, no one who sails under my credit card ever has charging privileges on their room key.

 

The spa easily has the potential to suck thousands of dollars in charges out of someone who doesn't know how to say no. I'm sure my wife's masseuse won the sales prize that week!

 

[monykalyn]

Almost booked something for me and daughter as special mom/daughter time with the 20% off code. All the warnings on these boards and FB held me back, and now glad I didn't.

 

47 minutes ago, Razorbakfan said:

Due to the overwhelming examples of this very same thing happening (from posts here and on the facebook Carnival Talk page) I feel there are predator practices ongoing by Steiner spas.   I found an email off their FB page.  IF you have had this happen, or have been dissatisfied or maybe satisfied with their practices while you cruised, you may want to drop a short note to an email address I found there...melissa.breit@theonboardspa.com    

 

Steiner laughed at the fact that I was sharing this story on social media, and said "good luck with that".   Pretty bold.

wow that's arrogant. guess I will drop a line saying why I DIDN'T book anything...

 

And Go Hogs Go! oldest is geology major in Fayetteville!

[gtouch]

And I thought spa's were to help alleviate stress not cause it.

[Florings]

Oh, I hope this doesn't happen to us!  We booked and paid for the couples spa pass for the week on our October Magic cruise, when there was the 20% discount.   I guess we will have to watch it very carefully!

[Organized Chaos]

2 hours ago, Squadleader said:

Obviously, lots of people like and use the spa. Personally, the spa just makes me nervous because of what happened to me.

 

About 15 years ago, I told my ex-wife to go get a massage as a little gift on a cruise, she did and said she enjoyed it. On the morning of debarkation a few days later, they slipped the final statement under the door for the cruise. On the bill was a $1,000 charge for the spa. It suddenly dawned on me there was this little basket of creams and oils that had been sitting on a table in our cabin ever since my wife had gotten the massage. I asked her about it, and sure enough, she had been given the hard sell during the whole massage about this cream and that oil, and she had simply allowed all that stuff to be pushed off on herself because she didn't want to say no.

 

I took my little basket of goodies to the spa to return them, but naturally, the spa was closed since the ship was being debarked. I ate that $1,000, but to this day, no one who sails under my credit card ever has charging privileges on their room key.

 

The spa easily has the potential to suck thousands of dollars in charges out of someone who doesn't know how to say no. I'm sure my wife's masseuse won the sales prize that week!

 

There's a joke in there about a $1,000 spa charge and the fact that she's now your EX-wife. 😉 For that much, those had better been the greatest creams and oils on the planet.

[Organized Chaos]

I just can't get over how they bill out pre-paid services. I prefer to use cash on my S&S account, so if we were to order a massage ahead of time, for example, then use my S&S in the spa, I'd have a good chunk of my S&S funds tied up in their insane spa payment method, waiting for their credit on the last day. That's unacceptable.

[hotsauce126]

4 hours ago, jmcathome said:

Do a survey of people who cruised more than ten times and see how many of them know that the spa is separate. Bet it is close to 75% do not because there would be no reason to assume that they would farm that out

 

Spa, casino, and art gallery are all outside vendors

[ontheweb]

4 hours ago, tonit964 said:

At this point, just dispute the charge with the CC company and let them deal with it. You've attempted 4 times to correct it on board to no avail. 

Definitely the way to go. Let the credit card company spend the time instead of you. 

 

And it the charge is to Carnival as I believe you said, let them get it back from them. It sounds like that's where the prepayment went and the payment on your S&S card that eventually went to Carnival.

[BlerkOne]

On 5/1/2019 at 1:12 PM, Razorbakfan said:

 

 

 

 

You have been warned! I will NEVER use their spa services again, and will tell you the 3rd party companies customer service is a complete joke (Stiner Massage & Spa Company out of Miami).  Carnival really needs to do a better review of their 3rd party contractors antics....as for many, these services are seen a Carnival services, not necessarily a 3rd party company.

 

 

 

 

I think any cruise line you can think of outsources spa services to Steiner or Canyon Ranch. It is common knowledge. And the ticket contract is clear. The gift shops are also outsourced.

 

 

[13cheermom]

1 hour ago, Florings said:

Oh, I hope this doesn't happen to us!  We booked and paid for the couples spa pass for the week on our October Magic cruise, when there was the 20% discount.   I guess we will have to watch it very carefully!

Like I stated above we had the same experience last November while on the Breeze (pre-purchase 14-day pass with discount).  Just make sure you take all your paperwork showing where you prepaid it with discounted price with whatever form of payment you used.  When I took all the information to guest services she took care of it right then.  Took a day or two for it to show up on our account though.  We went ahead and booked same package for this November with the same 20% off spa pass.  Just plan on taking my paperwork again to make any adjustments.  Don't worry about it, just be firm when you go to guest services that you want this handled while onboard.  It can be done! 😁

[JQTravels]

We had an issue with pre-purchasing with a 20% discount.  We thought that since we had the Spa Cabin and you get discounts on multiple massages, the online purchase would go towards our discount.  NOT THE CASE.  They said we already got the  discount, so when we were ready to book another massage they started with the 20% discount instead of 30% which we would have received if we would have booked on-board.   If you plan on doing multiple massages, I would wait until you are on board to book.

We talked a little bit about it in our review of the Spa Cabin if you would like to take a look

 

 

[Organized Chaos]

6 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

 

I think any cruise line you can think of outsources spa services to Steiner or Canyon Ranch. It is common knowledge. And the ticket contract is clear. The gift shops are also outsourced.

 

I don't think it's as common as you claim. I was a member of the old Carnival FunVille forums before joining CC. Two places where people talk about everything Carnival under the sun and I never once saw it mentioned.

[OfficerAggie]

We are booked on the Glory in June. I booked and prepaid a pedicure and manicure for my wife. After reading this thread, I just canceled both! Thanks for the heads up on how they conduct business.