Error in Deluxe Beverage package pricing?

[John&LaLa]

4 hours ago, karena1 said:

We always buy the package.  We like drinks at the pool, I normally have a mimosa in the morning, husband gets his specialty coffee and we like to go to other lounges in the evenings and get what we want, not just what is on the "list".  Husband likes Espresso Martinis, cannot get those otherwise.  So for us, it is totally worth it to have the package.

 

Harmony makes espresso martini in SL. Freedom did in the CL. It's really pretty easy considering they have an espresso machine at the bar

[John&LaLa]

3 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

30% off what?  Are they going to say the regular price is $70 and offer it for $49 when most people can get it at that anyway if they continually check the prices.

 

they should issue everyone a 30% off promo code that they can use on top of whatever price they find.

 

Still to high for me, no real value at even $30

 

In my Opinion

Edited July 3, 2019 by John&LaLa

[Ourusualbeach]

Just now, John&LaLa said:

 

Still to high for me, no real value at even $30

I wouldn’t have paid $30 either.

[John&LaLa]

3 hours ago, BeachChik said:

Wow. This thread is kind of sad.

 

I understand being disappointed that they won’t honor the price but to be angry and expect other compensation for something you booked knowing good and well was a mistake is crazy. 

 

I know someone who books cruises like that🤣

[Boo's Mom]

My opinion (only): 

They need to eat their loss.  It's not a great loss.  Not in the big picture. 

They didn't give the packages away for free.  

 

They can move the loss into their "advertising" column as the fiasco has certainly brought them a lot of attention and "advertising".  

 

Show good faith with their clients and honor all $18/day packages that were sold. 

To not do so is going to hurt their reputation. 

In this day and time, reputation is very important. 

 

This was not just a glitch.  Glitches are identified immediately and stopped.  This was a communication issue and other issues.  It is multi-faceted.  There is no easy fix other than to eat the loss and move forward in the sea of cheers from their loyal customers. 

 

When they honor:  The cheers will be loud.  The advertisement value will go through the roof. 

 

All is good. 

 

Let's do this RCI. 

[Clarea]

6 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I wouldn’t have paid $30 either.

 

RC has a problem now if they decide not to honor the $18 price.  The only fair thing to do is to make things as they were before the "glitch". I'll bet their system is not reliably capable of doing that.

[John&LaLa]

2 hours ago, BeachChik said:

 

I’m sure there are some that didn’t outright know it was a mistake. Though I personally can’t imagine someone thinking $18 a day for unlimited booze makes sense. That being said it’s clear that the majority here knew it was a mistake and rushed to grab it anyway. No I don’t feel sympathy for those people and no I don’t think they are owed anything other than their money back. 

 

We unfortunately live in a society where people want something for nothing and always have their hand out for freebies. The mentality that to have good customer service they must give you something for free.  

 

If Carnival can survive the poop cruise I’m sure royal will survive this. 

 

VW thrived after Dieselgate. 😉

They even include it in their ads now. 😱

[Ourusualbeach]

1 minute ago, Host Clarea said:

 

 I'll bet their system is not reliably capable of doing that.

Yep. 

[Clarea]

Just now, Ourusualbeach said:

Yep. 

 

So if they want to make things as they were before, they would have to take someone's word about what had been purchased and the price paid.  That probably scares them.

[John&LaLa]

2 hours ago, MandyMooToo said:

At $18 I first thought there was no way it was true then thought it was a crazy deal based on posts saying reps reported it was a holiday special so I bought and was amazed. Then when I saw it was likely wrong I figured it would be canceled and I was eh about it. Oh well. The thing that upset me was the backtracking after saying they’d honor the mistake. That peeved me. But honestly, $42-44 would have been a price that I would have been very pleased to have if none of this had happened so I will still be happy if it is approximately that price in the end. We are buying it anyway🤷🏼‍♀️

 

That $18 deal still cost me $680 for our Suez Canal trip.😉

[Marstraf]

Bottom line, folks purchased the package both online and over the phone for many hours.  RCL needs to honor the rate. If they can afford 500+ million for a new ship they can stand by the price.  

[John&LaLa]

Here ya go

 

[smplybcause]

33 minutes ago, rmacaluso said:

If it’s 10,000 people it’s $2.1 million. Given that the error stayed active for 6 to 8 hours their exposure is probably in the millions. His is probably why they are taking so long to figure out what to do. 

 

Exactly, they're not having angst about a few hundred thousand. If that was it there'd be a bunch internal stuff, but they'd shrug their shoulders after a spiel about how they don't have to honor it but are in the name of customer service. It's definitely over a million dollar error. And likely millions since a million for a company with almost 2B in profit is still rounding error. 

[dodgestang]

37 minutes ago, rmacaluso said:

If it’s 10,000 people it’s $2.1 million. Given that the error stayed active for 6 to 8 hours their exposure is probably in the millions. His is probably why they are taking so long to figure out what to do. 

 

If 10,000 people tried to book the refreshment package in 8 hours....that's 1,250 people an hour....or approx 21 per minute.....or 1 every 3 seconds.   This is the same group of people who think their IT team can't get their ***** together but then thinks they can support that kind of traffic without crashing 😉

[KelJ]

3 hours ago, ninja1 said:

Just got an email. It’s from Royal Caribbean Cruise Docs, though. It’s an Adventure Confirmation, which seems wrong. And it says, in Norwegian, please download the enclosed PDF of our detailed terms as you as a traveler are obligated to read. 

The only thing enclosed is my Guest Copy of my confirmation invoice. Can’t see anything new on it, and it might have come because they took off my C&A number, or because I added it later. Nothing about The Glitch. 

My money is still on hold.

 

I, out of the blue, received a new emailed guest invoice last night (9:51 pm). At first I thought it was going to be a drink package cruise planner cancellation. I printed it off today and compared it to my months-old guest invoice, and there was no change whatsoever, but for the invoice date.  I used OBC toward the drink package, but the OBC was still listed in the invoice.  

 

I’ve read over the last couple days that many C&A members, like you, have had to re-enter their C&A numbers, but I haven’t had to do that.

 

Weird coincidence?

[micruiser2002]

So I have no money in this game but what I think is an even bigger issue is the problem with these "GLITCHES" in pricing.  I am sorry but in this day and age of technology there needs to be more control on these types of problems.  Why isn't there something similar to the Price Scanning laws like we have in MI, if an item scans for more than the price ticketed on the item the store must refund the difference plus 10 times up to $5.00.  This is to ensure companies take more ownership in making sure products scan correctly.  Why aren't online companies being held more accountable for these pricing glitches???  

 

My other comment has to do with determining who bought the packages and if these people had cancelled a previous package.  Not sure what software RCL uses but in my experience it should be very easy to query this information, either by a functional or technical user.  All history has to be maintained for audit purposes and all purchases should must be linked to a reservation.  But then again we are talking about RCL IT and I have complained to them for years on the failings of their IT department.  

[reallyitsmema]

1 minute ago, KelJ said:

 

I, out of the blue, received a new emailed guest invoice last night (9:51 pm). At first I thought it was going to be a drink package cruise planner cancellation. I printed it off today and compared it to my months-old guest invoice, and there was no change whatsoever, but for the invoice date.  I used OBC toward the drink package, but the OBC was still listed in the invoice.  

 

I’ve read over the last couple days that many C&A members, like you, have had to re-enter their C&A numbers, but I haven’t had to do that.

 

Weird coincidence?

 

They have been sending a new invoice every time I make a purchase or make a reservation for a show for at least the last six months for my bookings at least.

[awestover89]

4 minutes ago, dodgestang said:

 

If 10,000 people tried to book the refreshment package in 8 hours....that's 1,250 people an hour....or approx 21 per minute.....or 1 every 3 seconds.   This is the same group of people who think their IT team can't get their ***** together but then thinks they can support that kind of traffic without crashing 😉

Aside from the timing, it was also only available on select sailings for 2020, which would limit the total number of passengers who had an eligible cruise booked. I'm also not sure if it was available in all markets or just for US bookings. From that number you'd have to figure out how many people were actively monitoring sites like Cruise Critic or cruising Facebook groups. I'd be surprised if the total number of people who booked the glitched package was even 5,000. Probably closer to 1,000-3,000 as just a speculation.

 

But they can't even really calculate the loss based on that. The number of people who would have ordered a drink package anyway is probably only half to a third. So for the rest they didn't actually lose the $30 per person per day since they wouldn't have made the sale originally. 

 

 

[John&LaLa]

29 minutes ago, Marstraf said:

Bottom line, folks purchased the package both online and over the phone for many hours.  RCL needs to honor the rate. If they can afford 500+ million for a new ship they can stand by the price.  

 

All of their new ships are closer to a Billion

[momperson2]

I agree they should honor the price and move on.  The problem is that it was out there for quite a long time.  Even after they were aware of the "glitch".  They could of shut it down much sooner, they continue  to let many more people sign up or call in to get the deal.  AND to be told---yes it was the right price. The 30% is what the July 4th sale was going to be anyways.   A glitch would of only lasted a much shorter time.   IF some IT person put it in wrong, isn't things looked over BEFORE going on the website?  I read somewhere they are "rethinking" what they are going to do.  I hope they think LONG and HARD.  And also think about ways to improve their website

[Tasm3n]

6 minutes ago, KelJ said:

 

I, out of the blue, received a new emailed guest invoice last night (9:51 pm). At first I thought it was going to be a drink package cruise planner cancellation. I printed it off today and compared it to my months-old guest invoice, and there was no change whatsoever, but for the invoice date.  I used OBC toward the drink package, but the OBC was still listed in the invoice.  

 

I’ve read over the last couple days that many C&A members, like you, have had to re-enter their C&A numbers, but I haven’t had to do that.

 

Weird coincidence?

 

I got the same email yesterday as well.  Invoice like I just booked.  Definitely made me a bit paranoid.

[KelJ]

3 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

They have been sending a new invoice every time I make a purchase or make a reservation for a show for at least the last six months for my bookings at least.

 

Good to know. Thanks!

[awestover89]

2 minutes ago, momperson2 said:

I agree they should honor the price and move on.  The problem is that it was out there for quite a long time.  Even after they were aware of the "glitch".  They could of shut it down much sooner, they continue  to let many more people sign up or call in to get the deal.  AND to be told---yes it was the right price. The 30% is what the July 4th sale was going to be anyways.   A glitch would of only lasted a much shorter time.   IF some IT person put it in wrong, isn't things looked over BEFORE going on the website?  I read somewhere they are "rethinking" what they are going to do.  I hope they think LONG and HARD.  And also think about ways to improve their website

 

I was trying to apply for a job as a computer programmer but the careers website kept having errors. I spoke with a Royal rep at a convention and she pretty much said that 90% of their coding work is actually just outsourced to contractors from other companies.

[John&LaLa]

2 minutes ago, awestover89 said:

Aside from the timing, it was also only available on select sailings for 2020, which would limit the total number of passengers who had an eligible cruise booked. I'm also not sure if it was available in all markets or just for US bookings. From that number you'd have to figure out how many people were actively monitoring sites like Cruise Critic or cruising Facebook groups. I'd be surprised if the total number of people who booked the glitched package was even 5,000. Probably closer to 1,000-3,000 as just a speculation.

 

But they can't even really calculate the loss based on that. The number of people who would have ordered a drink package anyway is probably only half to a third. So for the rest they didn't actually lose the $30 per person per day since they wouldn't have made the sale originally. 

 

 

 

Friends were sharing the information as well via text, email, etc...

[awestover89]

1 minute ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Friends were sharing the information as well via text, email, etc...

 

And travel agents sharing with their clients.

 

I would still speculate (even though I know how much CC frowns on that :)) that the total number of beverage package bookings would be in the low thousands.