Celebrity, Why Can't You Be Reasonable?

[Bo1953]

On 6/30/2020 at 8:44 AM, llawrence said:

This might have something to do with an email I got from the Florida Attorney General, last week....I sent a letter to the NC attorney General in June about Celebrity not willing to refund money on cruise with confidence cancellation rebooks that were also cancelled...I could not find other suitable  and affordable cruises to work with our schedules. celebrity did not respond to NC....so they sent it on to FL.......I got a reply from FL saying they were looking into the thousands of complaints on price gouging, bait and switch, non refunds by the cruise lines....it appears to be a blanket letter.....not just about Celebrity......I imagine this could lead to some sort of class action  taken about these same problems.....

Nahhh, not even in your wildest imagination will ANY class action get traction, but will make a few attorneys some bucks...

 

bon voyage

[llawrence]

I know your are right.....which is okay.....we want the cruise industry to survive....But not everything they are doing is in the best interest of their consumers....I know we feel differently about Celebrity in regards to booking cruises in advance...sometimes we would book years in advance.....now it’s a month or so....because of their policies on refunds.

[Bo1953]

22 hours ago, llawrence said:

I know your are right.....which is okay.....we want the cruise industry to survive....But not everything they are doing is in the best interest of their consumers....I know we feel differently about Celebrity in regards to booking cruises in advance...sometimes we would book years in advance.....now it’s a month or so....because of their policies on refunds.

ll - It does make sense to book almost last minute, for many who do so.

 

You are correct about some things they are doing is not always in the best interest of 'us' consumers.....but it does seem like there is some flexibility in the mix, too.

 

I think the policy on refunds have not 'changed' much with the exception as of late for those who have booked and have sailings cancelled, or unless there is another standard policy you are thinking about related to refunds?

 

bon voyage

[llawrence]

Maybe it’s us and they way we have been treated by celebrity...we have over 7000 in future cruise credits with celebrity....we have rebooked several times and those cruises have been cancelled.....giving us more cruise credits.....we do not get the extra 25%, as we keep rebooking with FCC.  We have been told that does not apply....Refunds are never an option...we are long time Celebrity Cruisers but we are also over 70....We are running out of cruises we wish to take,because we have opted for shorter cruises...normally we would have 4-6 cruises booked with deposits..but because we don’t want to ties up more money we have not advanced booked. That is revenue celebrity is losing....we are just two people, but what I am reading many more members feel as we do.

 

[elaineb]

I spent many hours on the phone to try a lift and shift for next year - spoke to a variety of CSR's and their supervisors.  We had a 6 night on the Equinox for October 2020, and there was no budging them to a 7 night (albeit it was 1 year and 8 weeks and not 4 from the original date).  Final payment is due next week, and since they haven't cancelled, we will.  Not smart on their part as we ending up booking an 8 night on RCCL for less than the price of our 6 night.  I would have liked to stay with Celebrity, but keeping the purse strings tight as I will be retired next year.

[LGW59]

On 7/16/2020 at 10:12 AM, elaineb said:

I spent many hours on the phone to try a lift and shift for next year - spoke to a variety of CSR's and their supervisors.  We had a 6 night on the Equinox for October 2020, and there was no budging them to a 7 night (albeit it was 1 year and 8 weeks and not 4 from the original date).  Final payment is due next week, and since they haven't cancelled, we will.  Not smart on their part as we ending up booking an 8 night on RCCL for less than the price of our 6 night.  I would have liked to stay with Celebrity, but keeping the purse strings tight as I will be retired next year.

I guess my experience is quite different.  Had a 12 day Med on APEX cancelled in May 2020, I opted for the 100% refund, as I had already paid in full.  Took a total of about 60 days for the entire refund, but I thought they handled it very well.  Had another cruise booked for Sept 2020 on Summit, $1000 deposit.  Was able to rebook for next year with the FCC of $1,250.  Doing this was easy peasy.  Re "not smart on their part"  you do realize that Celebrity and RCCL are one and the same, or perhaps you don't, anyway, the point is your $ is with the same company.     

[TeaBag]

So, OP, what did you end up doing?  We were in a similar position and cancelled our cruise a day before FP as we knew it was not going to sail.  Celebrity cancelled 3 days later.  We did receive half of our deposit back in cash.

[hcat]

On 7/15/2020 at 7:01 AM, Bo1953 said:

Nahhh, not even in your wildest imagination will ANY class action get traction, but will make a few attorneys some bucks...

 

bon voyage

Hi Bo

Maybe no successful Class Action relief,   but State Attorneys General have wide investigative and prosecutorial powers that  can bring about change..no cost to Consumers,

[johnhunter0]

Brief:  We have been "misinformed" (frankly, lied to) by two Celebrity agents on two different phone calls (3Aug and 17Sept), who confirmed full refunds . . . only to receive an email of future cruise credit in lieu of refund this week !   We are 70s and may not be able to cruise again.  Celebrity isn't standing by its agents promises (which included discussion of a very specific amount).  Since cancellation, we get small refunds that I cannot correlate with anything on their invoice.  And they are not even acknowledging two missing shore excursion refunds which are obvious, basic items.

If they are crashing and burning because of COVID, they should admit it . . . they should not lie to me on the phone.

I will climb the corporate hierarchy and pursue the credit card angle as recommended above.  Thanks to all of above discussion. Just and old fashioned guy.

[Bo1953]

23 hours ago, johnhunter0 said:

Brief:  We have been "misinformed" (frankly, lied to) by two Celebrity agents on two different phone calls (3Aug and 17Sept), who confirmed full refunds . . . only to receive an email of future cruise credit in lieu of refund this week !   We are 70s and may not be able to cruise again.  Celebrity isn't standing by its agents promises (which included discussion of a very specific amount).  Since cancellation, we get small refunds that I cannot correlate with anything on their invoice.  And they are not even acknowledging two missing shore excursion refunds which are obvious, basic items.

If they are crashing and burning because of COVID, they should admit it . . . they should not lie to me on the phone.

I will climb the corporate hierarchy and pursue the credit card angle as recommended above.  Thanks to all of above discussion. Just and old fashioned guy.

j - sorry for the issues you are experiencing with X for sure, not good!

 

Did you ask for confirmation of the refunds by email? That will be, most likely, an overriding factor other than asking that tapes be pulled of your conversation.

 

I trust this can be resolved to your satisfaction.

 

bon voyage

[johnhunter0]

Giving them credit, the cruise line pulled the tapes on their own . . . finally agreed to stand behind their employee agents' mistakes . . . and we received a complete refund.

[Edward51]

On 6/22/2020 at 12:06 AM, Retty2Go said:

That's ridiculous. Our reservation was for a 19 night cruise going in the opposite direction in April 2021 on the Solstice. The next cruise is April 2022 on the Eclipse for 18 nights. Some members of our roll call said their TA's could not re-book them on the 2022 Eclipse voyage because it was *less* nights, and that they could only get the November 2021 Honolulu-Sydney segment, instead. I was able to Lift and Shift to April 2022 without a problem. I was prepared to do battle, but only had to hold about half an hour with a nice Captain's Club rep. I made the reservation directly with Celebrity. I would b!tch, and fire my TA if I were you.

Hopefully this not to late.  Two more days to the 30th.   We booked this same cruise through a TA and were denied the “lift and switch” because it was one day less.  I phoned the TA and demanded to know why Celebrity would deny us when it is us who is losing 5% of our cruise with one less day!    Don’t let anyone tell you there is nothing they can do.  Ours was accepted today, Sept 28.