Bogus Charges on the Royal

[pris993]

not only can you have someone else's charges, but we found they charged us more for a bottle of wine because the menu was wrong.... took 3 days to get it corrected.   I look over my charges every other day... keeps us and them on track.  This happens on all lines... had wrong charges on Celebrity too... luckily we don't drink a lot so wrong charges are obvious. 

  

[CI66774]

I had a bogus charge on my last Princess cruise and just called them. They took care of it over the phone.

[Aus Traveller]

In our 70+ cruises we have had an incorrect charge a few times. Sometimes the mistake has been corrected very quickly, but on a couple of occasions, it has required lengthy investigation, even having to prove that my signature was different from the one on the docket.  The shop manager I was speaking to couldn't see what to me were obvious differences.

 

It is concerning if the new Medallion system results in charges going onto the account of someone who is nearby when an order is placed.

 

Other than this possible 'Medallion issue', it is caused by human error. It is not a deliberate bogus charge.

[Pierlesscruisers]

1 hour 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 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

 

Just as a question of curiosity, if Princess is so bad, why do you even cruise on their ships? Why not go on other lines?  I base this on what seems to be your feelings toward anything Princess. "...implemented for the convenience and increased profits for Princess..."...They certainly will never do anything for your convenience..."  "...do it on a sea day when there is absolutely nothing to do on the ship..."  "...there are lots of other lines out there that do exactly the same cruises as Princess..."

 

And, if, as you hinted at. you don't cruise Princess "... If I cruised on Princess..."  then why do you spend time on the Princess board when you apparently so dislike the line it is concerned with?

 

Just wondering.

 

Tom

[Haboob]

2 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

In our 70+ cruises we have had an incorrect charge a few times. Sometimes the mistake has been corrected very quickly, but on a couple of occasions, it has required lengthy investigation, even having to prove that my signature was different from the one on the docket.  The shop manager I was speaking to couldn't see what to me were obvious differences.

 

It is concerning if the new Medallion system results in charges going onto the account of someone who is nearby when an order is placed.

 

Other than this possible 'Medallion issue', it is caused by human error. It is not a deliberate bogus charge.

 

The Medallion system should (yeah, that's a weasel word) result in fewer mis-charges.

 

The clerk/bartender/whoever is looking at a photo of the person being charged and is supposed (yeah...) to compare it to the pax making the purchase.  You supply the

picture.  "Cute" isn't in your interest, make it unmistakably you.

 

If you do get mis-charged, insist on pointing an accusing finger at the clerk, etc.

[polmcs]

On our Oz-Fiji Cruise last year we had the PBP, but about once every two days I would find a beverage charge (usually for the dinning room) show up on our folio, so I would have to visit the passenger service desk to get it removed. 

 

My main fear is that when sailing the Royal this coming Thanksgiving where we have S+S is that when I try to order a drink, I get told that I’ve reached my limit, when I’m usually nowhere near, as someone else’s drinks got assigned to my folio. I had an instance on the Oz-Fiji Cruise where the waiter told me that I was at my limit after ordering a drink, where I knew that I had less than 10 drinks. Luckily, I had just ordered my nightcap and was going to retire for the evening, so I wasn’t going to push it. 

[Iamcruzin]

This is not news. This has happened several times over 30 years of cruising on multiple cruise lines before they even had electronic billing. In June on Royal Caribbean I was charged for drinks and I had a drink package. They had no explanation for this. I checked my account via the room TV at 1:00am and immediately went down to guest services to have it corrected. There was no line at that time.

[donaldsc]

3 hours ago, Pierlesscruisers said:

 

Just as a question of curiosity, if Princess is so bad, why do you even cruise on their ships? Why not go on other lines?  I base this on what seems to be your feelings toward anything Princess. "...implemented for the convenience and increased profits for Princess..."...They certainly will never do anything for your convenience..."  "...do it on a sea day when there is absolutely nothing to do on the ship..."  "...there are lots of other lines out there that do exactly the same cruises as Princess..."

 

And, if, as you hinted at. you don't cruise Princess "... If I cruised on Princess..."  then why do you spend time on the Princess board when you apparently so dislike the line it is concerned with?

 

Just wondering.

 

Tom

 

I only cruise on Princess when there appear to be no alternatives.  We took the grand kids on trips to Alaska twice and Princess seemed to be the best choice for those trips.  The kids loved AK and enjoyed the ship.  Me much much less so but remember the trip was for the kids. 

 

A summer ago, Princess had a cruise that did the Norwegian coast but also went to Spitsbergen in Svalbard.  Lots of ships do the Norwegian coast but almost nobody does Spitsbergen so I did not have many choices.  In hindsight, we should have done the Norwegian coast in a small ship and then flown to Svalbard but the trip was enjoyable.  

 

We did more Princess cruises years ago until the Princess ships got oversized and I discovered the wonders of small (<1000) ships.  I regard anything greater than about 1000 passengers as way too big and Princess offers almost no options for ships that size.  Most of my recent cruising has been done on Azamara because we like the R class ship.  We are going to try a 24 day future cruise on the Oceania.

 

DON

 

 

[Lucky TGO]

5 hours ago, pms4104 said:

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

 According to what’s going on you got that right. 😳 

Tony

[leck57]

7 hours 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 got off the Royal and the staff procedures for using the Medallion were all over the place. At the Outrigger bar they asked me to place my medallion against the reader. At Crooners it was give them your room number. In the Casino give them your room number but then they confirmed your name,  whereas at other places they seemed to take an age tapping numbers in to their screens before they could process payment. I think in time it will lead to faster service.

[Adventures ahead]

Bartenders are humans and make mistakes, even with a Medallion order when a passenger's picture and cabin number pop up on their screen. Princess knows and fixes the charges, just takes a few minutes. I was surprised at how often there was no line at passenger services last week on the Crown. Princess would also know which staff member took the order and they're probably spoken to.  Training new staff is a work in progress.

[dockman]

How many people who get an incorrect bill in THEIR favor where they know full well they bought drinks etc and did not get charged would go to the guest service and tell them they were undercharged?  I suspect not many, but a few are probably totally honest and others figure it's their lucky day.

[Potstech]

On our last cruise on the Royal we got a $1000.00 charge on our account from the jewelry store.  It took 3 days to get it off our account.  The Royal is the worst ship for staff services that we have ever seen.  If we had not continually checked it might have taken weeks once off the ship to get it removed. 

[Iamcruzin]

9 hours ago, polmcs said:

On our Oz-Fiji Cruise last year we had the PBP, but about once every two days I would find a beverage charge (usually for the dinning room) show up on our folio, so I would have to visit the passenger service desk to get it removed. 

 

My main fear is that when sailing the Royal this coming Thanksgiving where we have S+S is that when I try to order a drink, I get told that I’ve reached my limit, when I’m usually nowhere near, as someone else’s drinks got assigned to my folio. I had an instance on the Oz-Fiji Cruise where the waiter told me that I was at my limit after ordering a drink, where I knew that I had less than 10 drinks. Luckily, I had just ordered my nightcap and was going to retire for the evening, so I wasn’t going to push it. 

That is a real concern as these types of charges happen more times than not. 

Edited August 20, 2019 by Iamcruzin

[voljeep]

not saying it ever intentionally happens ... but ... if you should happen to bribe/tip a server/waiter/bartender ... then just maybe ... who really knows/keeps up with who gets charged when having the PBP unless you limit out ???

[Iamcruzin]

34 minutes ago, dockman said:

How many people who get an incorrect bill in THEIR favor where they know full well they bought drinks etc and did not get charged would go to the guest service and tell them they were undercharged?  I suspect not many, but a few are probably totally honest and others figure it's their lucky day.

Unless it’s something specific like jewelry or liquor, glancing at a bill for over charges isn’t going to flag a drink or two that wasn’t charged  to your account, especially if you have a drink package.

[Pierlesscruisers]

46 minutes ago, dockman said:

How many people who get an incorrect bill in THEIR favor where they know full well they bought drinks etc and did not get charged would go to the guest service and tell them they were undercharged?  I suspect not many, but a few are probably totally honest and others figure it's their lucky day.

 

Well said, and very true.

 

Tom

[MissP22]

1 hour ago, Potstech said:

On our last cruise on the Royal we got a $1000.00 charge on our account from the jewelry store.  It took 3 days to get it off our account.  The Royal is the worst ship for staff services that we have ever seen.  If we had not continually checked it might have taken weeks once off the ship to get it removed. 

I take it that the charge happened when the ship had the Medallion already installed? 

If so, it seems that the new charging system does indeed have some problems that were never anticipated.

If the crew were more vigilant when applying a charge it shouldn't be a problem.

 

I'll be checking my account numerous time per day from now on and possibly doing as some other posters have mentioned, shielding the Medallion from being registered unless you need it at certain times. 

[satxdiver]

I have had incorrect charges in the past but not very often.  The PSD has always taken care of it but sometimes some investigation is required.  I have had similar problems on other cruise lines some of whom like to argue.  Years ago I was on a RCL ship and was charged for a trip to the salon.  The PSD wanted to argue with me but I pointed out that what little hair I had left was kept very short so then they said it was my partner who did it.  Finally they relented and removed the charge.  I have been on one OM ship so far and did have to contest a charge which the PSD removed.  Now that we have our folios on our cell phone via Princess@Sea or the newer OceanReady, I check my folio about every few hours and after every purchase.  Quick to do and I can find any extra charges almost immediately.  This is a lot easier than having to print out my folio every day.  Moral is to watch your folio all the time and not at the end of the cruise. 

[K.T.B.]

I think this happens on every cruise line.  It's happened to me on both Carnival and Celebrity.  In every case they reversed the charges,  It's a real PITA to wait in line, but it's the price we all pay for automation/computerization.

[c-boy]

15 hours ago, jwattle said:

 

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

 

hey I'm not drivin' anywhere, besides it will loosin' up my joints for the dance floor or wallet for the casino 😀😘

[cruzsnooze]

I bought a 10 pack of credit card RFID blockers for $1 free shipping on ebay a while ago. I tested them with my RFID reader that opens my community gate and they worked. I keep my credit cards in one and have one ready to slip the medallion into with a small binder clip to make sure it doesn't escape. Cheap insurance against being tracked or getting charged for something I didn't buy. 

[Potstech]

4 hours ago, voljeep said:

not saying it ever intentionally happens ... but ... if you should happen to bribe/tip a server/waiter/bartender ... then just maybe ... who really knows/keeps up with who gets charged when having the PBP unless you limit out ???

Accusing crew members of being dishonest? 

[Potstech]

3 hours ago, MissP22 said:

I take it that the charge happened when the ship had the Medallion already installed? 

If so, it seems that the new charging system does indeed have some problems that were never anticipated.

If the crew were more vigilant when applying a charge it shouldn't be a problem.

 

I'll be checking my account numerous time per day from now on and possibly doing as some other posters have mentioned, shielding the Medallion from being registered unless you need it at certain times. 

Was before the Medallion which made it even stranger.

[PoohUnderstands]

21 hours 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 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

Don't worry Don.  You don't have to have medallions sent to you.  Pick up when check in at port.  Then go to Guest Services and ask to opt out of medallion and they will give you a cruise card to use, just like other cruise lines.

 

Pooh