Travel protection plan added without my knowledge

[neverbeenhere]

Let’s see the commission on a travel policy is what? 20%? 

[TwizzlersAddict]

Also happened to me this afternoon, when I did a price adjustment on two cruises. When I called back the C&A rep said its added to all bookings automatically when you call in, but the previous rep should've noticed it and deleted it, since I didn't ask for it

They really need to fix this.  

Edited July 16, 2019 by TwizzlersAddict

[brillohead]

4 hours ago, not-enough-cruising said:

 I would just call my credit card company and tell them that it is a fraudulent charge and refuse to pay it, let them fight with the insurance company 

 

2 hours ago, ONECRUISER said:

Not 100% but if do that dont think you will be able use that Card with any future Royal purchases. 

 

1 hour ago, Ocean Boy said:

So your card gets black listed because you legitimately dispute a charge for something you did not want and did not authorize to be charged to your card. Not to mention RCI making you jump through hoops to correct their mistake and unauthorized charge. That is very big of RCI.

People need to realize that disputing a fraudulent charge is supposed to be a LAST resort, not a first one.  

Do everything you can through normal channels first, before going nuclear.  

[not-enough-cruising]

2 minutes ago, brillohead said:

 

 

People need to realize that disputing a fraudulent charge is supposed to be a LAST resort, not a first one.  

Do everything you can through normal channels first, before going nuclear.  

A fraudulent charge has no “normal channels”

[CruiseGal999]

20 hours ago, Aduntu said:

I called to upgrade my cabin a couple of days ago and just noticed the $89 charge for the Travel Protection Plan. After 20 minutes on the phone, I was told that they cannot remove it for me and I would have to contact Aon Affinity myself. According to the rep, they are having an issue where it's added automatically when changes are made to the reservation, and the person processing the request didn't catch it.

 

Be on the lookout if you make any changes.

 

This happened to me on NCL.  BUT my PCC did remove it from my reservation.  The fact that we were well before final payment MAYBE part of the ease to remove it.  I don't know ... but I caught it and was NOT happy.  I had already paid an outside company for ins. coverage. 

[brillohead]

1 minute ago, not-enough-cruising said:

A fraudulent charge has no “normal channels”

Not necessarily.  For example, in this case, calling RCI got the charge removed.  

[not-enough-cruising]

2 minutes ago, brillohead said:

Not necessarily.  For example, in this case, calling RCI got the charge removed.  

Why should I have to make a call and waste my time reversing a credit card charge that I never initiated? 

Since when does the victim of a crime negotiate with the perpetrator of said act?

[brillohead]

3 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Why should I have to make a call and waste my time reversing a credit card charge that I never initiated? 

Since when does the victim of a crime negotiate with the perpetrator of said act?

Oh for crying out loud.  Shall I go find the tin foil to make you a hat?  

In an ideal world, Royal's IT department would fix the error and this would stop happening automatically.  However, we all know that's unlikely to happen overnight.  

Is this a stupid annoying thing to have happen?  Absolutely.  But calling this a "crime" with a "victim" is just a bit much.  

[not-enough-cruising]

20 minutes ago, brillohead said:

Oh for crying out loud.  Shall I go find the tin foil to make you a hat?  

In an ideal world, Royal's IT department would fix the error and this would stop happening automatically.  However, we all know that's unlikely to happen overnight.  

Is this a stupid annoying thing to have happen?  Absolutely.  But calling this a "crime" with a "victim" is just a bit much.  

It is a crime 

 

it is the definition of fraud, no different than reaching into someone’s pocket and stealing cash from their wallet. 

[iWillSailAway]

Happened to me too.  

 

It was a last minute booking and I did it on the phone.  The invoice sent immediately afterwards was correct.  But for some reason there was a second invoice the following day adding the travel protection charging. By then I had left for my travel and didn’t catch the error until I came back.

 

After I came back I noticed a strange charge on my credit card and it was separate from the cruise. It took a few google search to realize it was travel insurance I never asked for.   

 

When I called I was told since the cruise was in the past so I had already “used” the travel protection and there was nothing they could do. 

 

I disputed through my credit card and got my money back. 

 

So far I have not had any trouble using the same credit card with Royal. 

[Ocean Boy]

1 hour ago, brillohead said:

 

 

People need to realize that disputing a fraudulent charge is supposed to be a LAST resort, not a first one.  

Do everything you can through normal channels first, before going nuclear.  

I never said disputing the charge should be a first option. However, RCI should not make things difficult for a customer when the mistake is certainly theirs. I should not have to call a third party insurance carrier and have to deal with them. It is RCI's responsibility to do what has to be done to correct their mistake. And I also would have no intention of sitting down and taking the time to write a letter in order to correct their mistake. The more the burden gets put on me the more likely I would follow the path of least resistance in order to protect my assests. You don't charge anything to my account unless I ok it. Just admit to your mistake and fix it.

 

This is right in line with past bogus towel and cabin frig charges. RCI's IT keeps finding more ways to be incompetent.

[ONECRUISER]

2 hours ago, brillohead said:

 

 

People need to realize that disputing a fraudulent charge is supposed to be a LAST resort, not a first one.  

Do everything you can through normal channels first, before going nuclear.  

I pointed out the Consequences 

[brillohead]

1 hour ago, Ocean Boy said:

RCI's IT keeps finding more ways to be incompetent.

No argument from me on that one!

It almost seems like the marketing department is in charge of the IT department.... they have all these splashy pages on their website showing the "fun" of being on a cruise, but nothing substantive when you're looking for hard facts about the whole thing.  

I've been active on the "general public version of the internet" from the early days of dial-up internet, and consider myself to be a pretty website-savvy individual.  The Royal Caribbean website is horribly non-intuitive when it comes to website navigation.  

When you consider how easy it is to disseminate information in this day and age, it's downright pathetic how crappy a job the RCI website does of the job!

[travelplus]

On 7/15/2019 at 8:54 PM, Aduntu said:

I called to upgrade my cabin a couple of days ago and just noticed the $89 charge for the Travel Protection Plan. After 20 minutes on the phone, I was told that they cannot remove it for me and I would have to contact Aon Affinity myself. According to the rep, they are having an issue where it's added automatically when changes are made to the reservation, and the person processing the request didn't catch it.

 

Be on the lookout if you make any changes.

I would keep it. You never know if you will need it or not. Yes it was a mistake so perhaps they can refund you the cost and keep it on there as a Gesture of Goodwill.

[travelplus]

11 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

Yep, it should be an easy fix without a lot of jumping through hoops. I'd personally call back and ask to speak to a supervisor before sending the letter.

Either ask for a Chargeback and you can keep the plan or wit your Credit Card company contest the Travel Protection charge if you don't want it. You never asked for the insurance so its vital that they reverse it without a letter.

[GatorMomInNC]

This is the kind of thing that really torques me off!!  I know I am going to get a lot of pushback, but this does in fact sound like a deceptive an unfair trade practice.  They default to adding the insurance, forcing customers to decline it, but then they add it anyway!?!    Everyone seem to think it is incompetence on the part of RCCL and that this is par for the course - which if I were RCCl I would be embarrassed that is the opinion of loyal customers.  But this particular practice, from the amount of responses on this board, it sounds widespread.   Which means that RCCL knows or should know, given repeated complaints, that it is widespread.  It give the appearance that RCCL is INTENTIONALLY: a) automatically putting an unwarranted and unwanted charge on customer's account and b) creating barriers to removing said charge.   They need to get their s@#% together and stop this before they get a well deserved class action lawsuit, the result being the finally stop doing this and passing the buck to the customer/victim.

[Clarea]

7 hours ago, brillohead said:

 ...

It almost seems like the marketing department is in charge of the IT department.... ...

 

Bingo.

[sparks1093]

12 hours ago, Tee & Chilli said:

Should a group of people get together and write individual letters to the Attorney General in Florida? Maybe something can be done if they see a pattern.

As long as they correct the error when confronted I don't think there is much the AG can do, mistakes do happen and they typically aren't actionable.

[sparks1093]

10 hours ago, not-enough-cruising said:

A fraudulent charge has no “normal channels”

You should give the business the opportunity to correct the error. An error isn't fraud.

Edited July 17, 2019 by sparks1093

[sparks1093]

 

7 hours ago, travelplus said:

I would keep it. You never know if you will need it or not. Yes it was a mistake so perhaps they can refund you the cost and keep it on there as a Gesture of Goodwill.

Third party insurance is very likely less expensive and would provide more robust coverage. If the passenger was going to keep it, even if not asked for, they would have to pay for it.

[not-enough-cruising]

11 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

You should give the business the opportunity to correct the error. An error isn't fraud.

This is NOT an error, people aren’t asked to call multiple departments at multiple businesses; write a letter, and wait weeks for a refund for an ERROR. 

 

[sparks1093]

7 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

This is NOT an error, people aren’t asked to call multiple departments at multiple businesses; write a letter, and wait weeks for a refund for an ERROR. 

 

No, you shouldn't have to do all of those things but that doesn't change an ERROR into fraud. What this is is a horrible instance of customer (non)service coupled with an IT glitch.

Edited July 17, 2019 by sparks1093

[not-enough-cruising]

10 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

No, you shouldn't have to do all of those things but that doesn't change an ERROR into fraud. What this is is a horrible instance of customer (non)service coupled with an IT glitch.

To each his own, but when it happens hundreds of times, over and over and refunds are refused then it’s fraud and/or theft in my book. 

 

FWIW American Express agreed with me 

[sparks1093]

36 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

To each his own, but when it happens hundreds of times, over and over and refunds are refused then it’s fraud and/or theft in my book. 

 

FWIW American Express agreed with me 

I'm glad you received a refund.

[HBE4]

6 hours ago, GatorMomInNC said:

This is the kind of thing that really torques me off!!  I know I am going to get a lot of pushback, but this does in fact sound like a deceptive an unfair trade practice.  They default to adding the insurance, forcing customers to decline it, but then they add it anyway!?!    Everyone seem to think it is incompetence on the part of RCCL and that this is par for the course - which if I were RCCl I would be embarrassed that is the opinion of loyal customers.  But this particular practice, from the amount of responses on this board, it sounds widespread.   Which means that RCCL knows or should know, given repeated complaints, that it is widespread.  It give the appearance that RCCL is INTENTIONALLY: a) automatically putting an unwarranted and unwanted charge on customer's account and b) creating barriers to removing said charge.   They need to get their s@#% together and stop this before they get a well deserved class action lawsuit, the result being the finally stop doing this and passing the buck to the customer/victim.

 

I mostly agree with you. I'd stop short of calling it deceptive and unfair trade practice just yet as it could be a legitimate system glitch that recently occurred.  But as they acknowledge it is an error (or issue as the CS rep admitted), it needs to be corrected or will soon become a deceptive practice that warrants a lawsuit or a consumer group being contacted....or even a news outlet that has  consumer protection reporter.

 

In the meantime, it's just horrible customer service. Even the usual Loyal-to-Royal cheerleaders have been unable to defend the practice.

 

To the OP's credit, at least he presented the problem in a way as to  not get flamed like so many others do when pointing out the problems with Royals land-based customer service inadequacies

.