Bogus Charges on the Royal

[Bwana Tom]

My wife and I just returned from a B2B 14 night cruise departing from Vancouver B.C. to Alaska on the Royal Princess. On that cruise we incurred 3 bogus charges on our account. Two of those were for drinks that we did not order and one was for 2 meals at the Crown Grill when we had a coupon to get one of the two free. Each time the ship was very cooperative and reversed those charges without a problem or argument at the customer service desk, but each time it required standing in line and spending some of our valuable cruise time. We only caught those charges by printing out our charges on a daily basis. One of those charges was for a bucket of beer and the other was for a single beer.  When we asked why we were getting charged for those drinks we were told it was most likely the bartender was paying careful attention when selling a drink to a customer using the ship’s Ocean Medallion system. Doing so he was likely using his Ipad to record the sale to the person when we happen to walk past and our ID popped up on the his screen and he didn’t notice it. He hit the charge button and we got the bill. This seems to be a real glitch in the system, particularly if the bartender isn’t paying careful attention. Both times we were never inside the confines of the bar itself. We had simply walked past at the wrong time. For this reason I would recommend everyone review their charges on a routine basis. I don’t really want to pay for someone else’s drinks when I don’t even know them.

[Sea Hag]

Back in April, an erroneous charge for a premium drinks package was put on our account. Neither of us drink at all. We were able to get it taken off, but it did take some effort and was annoying. I guess anything that can happen will, but I can't see why these things seem to happen so often.

[ceilidh1]

This isn’t unique to royal or to medallion! I check my bill daily and have had incorrect charges on almost every sailing. It’s far faster and easier to get them removed as you notice them than waiting until the last day!

 

[voljeep]

humans, huh ?  ... but, yeah - we check fairly often, but the most aggravating is getting a 'final bill' the last night

... reviewing ... going to bed ... then seeing a bogus charge on the bill slipped under your door during the night, and having to go to customer service on disembarkation morning ...

[grapau27]

3 minutes ago, Sea Hag said:

Back in April, an erroneous charge for a premium drinks package was put on our account. Neither of us drink at all. We were able to get it taken off, but it did take some effort and was annoying. I guess anything that can happen will, but I can't see why these things seem to happen so often.

These charges have happened to us on P&O and Royal Caribbean.

There was threads on both forums where lots of people were getting erroneous charges during and after their cruises.

[Colo Cruiser]

22 minutes ago, Bwana Tom said:

My wife and I just returned from a B2B 14 night cruise departing from Vancouver B.C. to Alaska on the Royal Princess. On that cruise we incurred 3 bogus charges on our account. Two of those were for drinks that we did not order and one was for 2 meals at the Crown Grill when we had a coupon to get one of the two free. Each time the ship was very cooperative and reversed those charges without a problem or argument at the customer service desk, but each time it required standing in line and spending some of our valuable cruise time. We only caught those charges by printing out our charges on a daily basis. One of those charges was for a bucket of beer and the other was for a single beer.  When we asked why we were getting charged for those drinks we were told it was most likely the bartender was paying careful attention when selling a drink to a customer using the ship’s Ocean Medallion system. Doing so he was likely using his Ipad to record the sale to the person when we happen to walk past and our ID popped up on the his screen and he didn’t notice it. He hit the charge button and we got the bill. This seems to be a real glitch in the system, particularly if the bartender isn’t paying careful attention. Both times we were never inside the confines of the bar itself. We had simply walked past at the wrong time. For this reason I would recommend everyone review their charges on a routine basis. I don’t really want to pay for someone else’s drinks when I don’t even know them.

These charge errors are nothing new.

It has been going on for many many years.

I just hope it is not getting worse now with implementation of the Medallion. 🤔

[c-boy]

so the moral of the post is if we are carrying our medallion steer clear of bars to avoid buying drinks for strangers .

[John99]

Erroneous charges happen on all cruise lines just as other have indicated.  We always check our on board account every day either at the kiosk or Passenger Service deck.  We never had a problem having charges remove.  I often wonder weather charges that should be against our account end up on someone else’s account? 

[Italy52]

We were on the Royal B2B to Alaska in June and had a couple of bad charges as well.  First was double charge for tokens in the laundry room and the second was for drinks.  The Guest Services people did credit us back the amount charged to us in error.  We have always checked our bill daily and will continue to do so no matter what ship we are on.

[brisalta]

41 minutes ago, c-boy said:

so the moral of the post is if we are carrying our medallion steer clear of bars to avoid buying drinks for strangers .

You could always wrap them in some metal foil and take them out only when you want to use them.

[antsp]

On my next cruise, that’s Medallion I will be wearing a tinfoil hat, I’m not having Princess reading my mind..............

 

 

wouldnt take long...........

[AF-1]

c-boy; you would be correct

[Haboob]

1 hour ago, Bwana Tom said:

⋮

When we asked why we were getting charged for those drinks we were told it was most likely the bartender was paying careful attention when selling a drink to a customer using the ship’s Ocean Medallion system. Doing so he was likely using his Ipad to record the sale to the person when we happen to walk past and our ID popped up on the his screen and he didn’t notice it. He hit the charge button and we got the bill.

⋮

 

That's troubling in a different way as well.  It means the bartender wasn't watching his customer well enough to know whether to cut them off as too inebriated.

[PoohUnderstands]

1 hour ago, c-boy said:

so the moral of the post is if we are carrying our medallion steer clear of bars to avoid buying drinks for strangers .

I have a credit card sized RDIF case.  I put just the quarter sized medallion in it. I just open the case when I want to use the medallion.  Closed, no one can charge me or know where I am!

 

Pooh 

Edited August 19, 2019 by PoohUnderstands

[pms4104]

1 hour ago, c-boy said:

so the moral of the post is if we are carrying our medallion steer clear of bars to avoid buying drinks for strangers .

Or wrap it in several layers of foil

[pms4104]

37 minutes ago, Haboob said:

 

That's troubling in a different way as well.  It means the bartender wasn't watching his customer well enough to know whether to cut them off as too inebriated.

As troubling is that charges have to be deleted from one person's folio ... and Princess has to eat the charges because there's no way to know who really made the purchase.

 

And who say Happy Hour is gone?

[Adventures ahead]

We just returned from a Medallion cruise. You can check your account on Ocean Concierge, don't need to get in a line or print it out. I noticed a charge for two glasses of wine at a bar. Customer services printed the receipt that had the details on it, time, place and items 'in case we forgot'. Couldn't have been us... we were in the dining room at the time, not near that bar. I asked how this could happen, didn't the bartender need to scan our medallion? Answer was that the bartender may not have been fully trained and simply accepted the order verbally and punched in our cabin number in error.  Really?  Anyway, the charge was easily reversed without much effort. Yes, someone got free wine!

[NavyVeteran]

This is definitely not new with Medallion. I have received incorrect charges several times - not always for drinks. Most of the time, it is because the Princess employee manually entered the incorrect folio number when making the sale manually (without using a computer).

 

Sometimes a bartender will incorrectly charge for a drink that should be included in the PBP. That usually happens when the order is taken manually in the dining room, in the buffet, or by the pool and the person taking the order then gives it to a bartender who enters it.

 

I check my folio every two or three days just in case.

[ceilidh1]

21 minutes ago, Adventures ahead said:

We just returned from a Medallion cruise. You can check your account on Ocean Concierge, don't need to get in a line or print it out. I noticed a charge for two glasses of wine at a bar. Customer services printed the receipt that had the details on it, time, place and items 'in case we forgot'. Couldn't have been us... we were in the dining room at the time, not near that bar. I asked how this could happen, didn't the bartender need to scan our medallion? Answer was that the bartender may not have been fully trained and simply accepted the order verbally and punched in our cabin number in error.  Really?  Anyway, the charge was easily reversed without much effort. Yes, someone got free wine!

We just returned from our cruise on Royal and I was surprised that, other than International Cafe and gift shop, the medallions were not scanned or looked at for charges at all! Every bar tender and every waiter/waitress simply asked our cabin number. The bar tenders did have the screens with pictures/cabins but none of the servers were using them so I can see how mistakes could be made. It kind of defeats the purpose of the medallion!

 

We did have one incorrect charge in the two weeks. A room service charge that definitely wasn't ours as we hadn't ordered room service. It was apparently for 2 glasses of Prosecco - I confirmed that it wasn't me and laughed when the front desk agent asked if it was the other person in the room. Considering the 2nd passenger was my 12 year old DD I think they would have a bigger issue on their hands if she had charged it! It was removed without any further questions....

[Mackenzie1]

I’m on the Caribbean Princess now, and when I ordered a drink from the lobby bar, the bartender did not have to take my medallion. He could read it from where he was standing. Yes, this may create issues. 

[pms4104]

4 hours ago, c-boy said:

so the moral of the post is if we are carrying our medallion steer clear of bars to avoid buying drinks for strangers .

Another thing to keep in mind:  don't window shop at Effy

[donaldsc]

4 hours ago, Bwana Tom said:

My wife and I just returned from a B2B 14 night cruise departing from Vancouver B.C. to Alaska on the Royal Princess. On that cruise we incurred 3 bogus charges on our account. Two of those were for drinks that we did not order and one was for 2 meals at the Crown Grill when we had a coupon to get one of the two free. Each time the ship was very cooperative and reversed those charges without a problem or argument at the customer service desk, but each time it required standing in line and spending some of our valuable cruise time. We only caught those charges by printing out our charges on a daily basis. One of those charges was for a bucket of beer and the other was for a single beer.  When we asked why we were getting charged for those drinks we were told it was most likely the bartender was paying careful attention when selling a drink to a customer using the ship’s Ocean Medallion system. Doing so he was likely using his Ipad to record the sale to the person when we happen to walk past and our ID popped up on the his screen and he didn’t notice it. He hit the charge button and we got the bill. This seems to be a real glitch in the system, particularly if the bartender isn’t paying careful attention. Both times we were never inside the confines of the bar itself. We had simply walked past at the wrong time. For this reason I would recommend everyone review their charges on a routine basis. I don’t really want to pay for someone else’s drinks when I don’t even know them.

 

First of all, does anyone force you to use the medallions as I am convinced that they were implemented for the convenience and increased profits for Princess.  They certainly will never do anything for your convenience.  If I cruised on Princess, I would never use the Medallions and if they tried to force me, there are lots of other lines out there that do exactly the same cruises as Princess.

 

Second of all, you said that you wasted valuable cruise time standing in line.  How long did you actually have to stand in line and couldn't you do it on a sea day when there is absolutely nothing to do on the ship.

 

DON

[Mike45LC]

I check my folio every few days, because it is easier to correct any errors while on board (and before the long lines on the last day).  There have been a few errors, usually drinks that I never purchased (we are non-drinkers, but we spend time in Crooners where all of our libations are covered under Soda and More), and once two fountain sodas and a mocktail that we did get but which were part of the Sodas and More package.

 

There has never been a problem getting the errors corrected on board, and the ten minutes taken to get it fixed was never a significant issue for me.

 

But for anyone concerned about the Medallions, the 99 Cent Store has aluminum credit card holders for a dollar.  I had my credit cards protected in one against possible scanners in Europe last month.

 

[jwattle]

4 hours ago, AF-1 said:

c-boy; you would be correct

 

4 hours ago, c-boy said:

so the moral of the post is if we are carrying our medallion steer clear of bars to avoid buying drinks for strangers .

Lmao...c-boy not going near a bar on a cruise? 😀 😘

 

[bemis12]

52 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

 

First of all, does anyone force you to use the medallions as I am convinced that they were implemented for the convenience and increased profits for Princess.  They certainly will never do anything for your convenience.  If I cruised on Princess, I would never use the Medallions

 

 And you kids get off my lawn!