WORD TO THE WISE and FCC!

[Keys Kathy]

BEFORE you get off the phone with Celebrity- after waiting 2 hours, make sure you not only get the FCC certificate numbers, but the AMOUNT they are giving you too!

 

We paid $1790.20 for the cruise and they only gave us credit for $1388. 

 

The X agent asked me how much it was supposed to be, and I read her the amount off my booking confirmation. It never occured to me that they wouldn't credit me the full amount without letting me know, especially after waiting ANOTHER half hour while they worked on the credit. I didn't find out about the discrepency until I received written confirmation. By then, I was off the phone with an over top frustration level.

 

Payment is due on my next cruise on Monday, so I need this to be corrected by then. I have to report to the hospital at 6:30 Monday morning for surgery, so I really need to get this done.

 

I responded back to the e-mail I received AND wrote Celebrity One Touch. 

 

What do you think my chances are of having this straighted out on time?

 

BTW, I was supposed to have my FCC by November 20th. 

 

Frankly, I am getting a bit disgusted with Celebrity. Who should I use to replace them? My Elite-Plus benefits don't mean much anymore. 

 

Edited November 25, 2021 by Keys Kathy
add

[OCruisers]

This doesn't help you ... but it's a good reminder to me why I use my long time travel agent so I don't have to deal with this sort of thing myself.

Do very much hope you'll get things worked out.  

[Fouremco]

The full booking amount usually includes items that will be refunded directly to your credit card, very possibly in multiple smaller payments. The FCC will be lowered by the total amount of the refund. The speed with which Celebrity issue FCCs and refunds seems to vary quite significantly, so keep your fingers crossed.

 

[CHOPPERTESTER]

If it was for a Panama Canal or Alaska cruise, $400 in port fees and taxes will be refunded to your method of payment and will not be part of the FCC which is cruise fare only. Ditto for anything pre-paid like dining, excursions etc and their payment will also be returned to your form of payment and not be part of the FCC.

Edited November 26, 2021 by CHOPPERTESTER

[Arizona Wildcat]

1 hour ago, Keys Kathy said:

BEFORE you get off the phone with Celebrity- after waiting 2 hours, make sure you not only get the FCC certificate numbers, but the AMOUNT they are giving you too!

 

We paid $1790.20 for the cruise and they only gave us credit for $1388. 

 

The X agent asked me how much it was supposed to be, and I read her the amount off my booking confirmation. It never occured to me that they wouldn't credit me the full amount without letting me know, especially after waiting ANOTHER half hour while they worked on the credit. I didn't find out about the discrepency until I received written confirmation. By then, I was off the phone with an over top frustration level.

 

Payment is due on my next cruise on Monday, so I need this to be corrected by then. I have to report to the hospital at 6:30 Monday morning for surgery, so I really need to get this done.

 

I responded back to the e-mail I received AND wrote Celebrity One Touch. 

 

What do you think my chances are of having this straighted out on time?

 

BTW, I was supposed to have my FCC by November 20th. 

 

Frankly, I am getting a bit disgusted with Celebrity. Who should I use to replace them? My Elite-Plus benefits don't mean much anymore. 

 

As others said, you will get several refunds dribbled out.  Port charges for example come separately as do credits for any upgrades including prepaid gratuities and beverage packages.  

When we cancelled a cruise last year it took about 12 weeks for all the refund to reach us. Am sure someone will note this has been discussed in several threads.

What chance do you have of this being completely sorted by Monday.  None.

[TeaBag]

Kathy, I hope your surgery goes well.  I'm sorry that you have to have this worry on top of going into the hospital.

I phoned Celebrity to refare on the latest 50% off sale and the rep (in Jamaica) gave me the new price but in the process I lost my OBC on the previous booking and my $700 FCC as she said she couldn't apply them?  I phoned again and yes, the wait time is disgusting, and I did get a confirmation but I'm still not sure if I got credit for the FCC's as there is no mention of them on the invoice.  I saved a little less than $300.  I'm so tired of Celebrity's ways of doing things that I'm booking with another company.  We are Elite+ too, with about 35 cruises and 2 more to go.

You are asking for a replacement.....we have chosen Azamara and have 4 cruises booked with them.  However, we have yet to sail with them but everything I read is positive.  They cancelled a cruise we had booked with them in 2022, because of the Australian debacle, and much later offered the same cruise for 2023 but it was about $4000 more.  I wrote to them and they very kindly let me have the price of the cancelled 2022 cruise.  Colour me very happy with them so far.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

[jelayne]

Deleted

Edited November 26, 2021 by jelayne

[jelayne]

51 minutes ago, TeaBag said:

 

You are asking for a replacement.....we have chosen Azamara and have 4 cruises booked with them.  However, we have yet to sail with them but everything I read is positive.  They cancelled a cruise we had booked with them in 2022, because of the Australian debacle, and much later offered the same cruise for 2023 but it was about $4000 more.  I wrote to them and they very kindly let me have the price of the cancelled 2022 cruise.  Colour me very happy with them so far.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

Teabag, good for you👏.  You had better luck than I did,  they refused to give me the 2022 price when we rebooked.  We will be cancelling our cruise.   We were trying to decide between the one we have booked on A vs part of the X  52 N cruise.  We like the Celebrity on board experience better and hearing that Azamara    Isn’t being consistent in honoring the 2022 price makes the decision easy.

[Keys Kathy]

5 minutes ago, jelayne said:

Teabag, good for you👏.  You had better luck than I did,  they refused to give me the 2022 price when we rebooked.  We will be cancelling our cruise.   We were trying to decide between the one we have booked on A vs part of the X  52 N cruise.  We like the Celebrity on board experience better and hearing that Azamara    Isn’t being consistent in honoring the 2022 price makes the decision easy.

Well, Celebrity wants to make THEIR problem my problem. They can't process the FCC on time, and their wait time is rediculous.

 

I have better things to do with 2 hours of my time than to sit on hold with a cruise line and when I asked to be compensated for my time, they offered me a WHOLE $25. OBC! I said no thanks. 

 

Every heard about cutting off your nose to spite your face? I asked for dinner. It would have cost them about $45. in real money, they said no. It will cost them thousands in the long run. We didn't get to Elite plus by not spending money. Hey, their choice. 

 

I remember a restaurant who's certificate I won. We didn't use it all. There was about $7.00 left on the certificate. They said we couldn't keep it. Think about it, had we gone back with our $7.00, we would have spent at least $20.00 to use their $7.00. Not good thinking on their part. We never went back.

 

There is always someone who wants my business. I will find them. 

[Covepointcruiser]

This is why we always use a travel agent.   There is no additional charge to use an agent so why would I spend my valuable time on the phone with the cruise line.   Our agent takes care of all of this.

[Keys Kathy]

49 minutes ago, Covepointcruiser said:

This is why we always use a travel agent.   There is no additional charge to use an agent so why would I spend my valuable time on the phone with the cruise line.   Our agent takes care of all of this.

That is the worst part. I AM the Travel Agent! Just know whe it comes to holding on the phone, they treat us just as bad if not worse as they do direct callers.

[LGW59]

2 hours ago, Keys Kathy said:

That is the worst part. I AM the Travel Agent! Just know whe it comes to holding on the phone, they treat us just as bad if not worse as they do direct callers.

How are treating you “bad”?  If you are on hold it’s because others called in before you.

[Keys Kathy]

2 hours ago, LGW59 said:

How are treating you “bad”?  If you are on hold it’s because others called in before you.

I think any company that keeps people on hold is treating them "Bad". My point is that although they ask if you are a travel agent, which means you make a living selling their product, they have no respect for your time OR anyone else's. 

 

I can't imagine someone calling my office and being put on hold for more than 3 minutes. I can't imagine anyone calling my office and staying on the line longer than that. I call that customer service.

 

Celebrity has forgotten what that is. If there lines are oh so busy, they need to hire more people or use a call back system. 

[Keys Kathy]

This begs the question, what amount of time is a reasonable amount to be on hold? I say 10 minutes max.

[GeriatricNurse]

7 hours ago, Covepointcruiser said:

This is why we always use a travel agent.   There is no additional charge to use an agent so why would I spend my valuable time on the phone with the cruise line.   Our agent takes care of all of this.

Actually, there IS an additional charge to use a travel 'agent', ('advisor, 'consultant'), because  I was charged $60 by my 'agent' to book my AC flights, (that I could have booked myself, online, from their website, in less than one minute)!!! 🥵

[sanger727]

1 hour ago, GeriatricNurse said:

Actually, there IS an additional charge to use a travel 'agent', ('advisor, 'consultant'), because  I was charged $60 by my 'agent' to book my AC flights, (that I could have booked myself, online, from their website, in less than one minute)!!! 🥵

 

That's a problem with that travel agent. Not travel agents in general. Most travel agents do not charge the customer a fee. 

[zitsky]

@Keys Kathy you have a really nice attitude.  Wish you were my travel agent so I was never on hold for more than a few minutes.  I can't believe people who call X and are on hold for an hour or two.

[Pickels]

Do they put you on hold so that you will eventually lose patience and log on to their website?  Hmmm? 

[Fouremco]

16 hours ago, Keys Kathy said:

That is the worst part. I AM the Travel Agent! Just know whe it comes to holding on the phone, they treat us just as bad if not worse as they do direct callers.

If you are a travel agent, how could you not know that part of payment would be refunded to your credit card and that your FCC would not be for the entire amount? That's the type of basic information I would have thought any TA dealing with cruise lines would be well aware of.

[Keys Kathy]

I would be happy to use the website, but you can't do much on it. You can't get a human to actually do their job and give you the FCC that they were supposed to send out on Nov 20th! 

 

I spent another hour and a half on the phone today because they shorted me $209. Hence the warning to find out WHAT they credit you with before hanging up. 

[Keys Kathy]

1 minute ago, Fouremco said:

If you are a travel agent, how could you not know that part of payment would be refunded to your credit card and that your FCC would not be for the entire amount? That's the type of basic information I would have thought any TA dealing with cruise lines would be well aware of.

I am aware of what is supposed to be credited to your card and what should go forward as FCC. After removing the Taxes, which will go back to the credit card, I was still shorted. It had something to do with the commission, which they withheld. The didn't blah, blah, blah and they need to contact who knows who to get it corrected which could take weeks or months to correct. He finally just credited the new booking with the amount I was shorted, which was over $200.

[SusieV]

This happened to my parents who booked with that big travel agency that everyone has complaints about lately. They are definitely not getting the correct 125% FCC that they're owed and because we had no idea that when you upgrade a cabin they have to remove the FCC and reissue (WHY this makes no sense!) it now seems some of the FCC has disappeared again and I don't know if they're up for another fight about it.

[LGW59]

4 hours ago, Keys Kathy said:

I would be happy to use the website, but you can't do much on it. You can't get a human to actually do their job and give you the FCC that they were supposed to send out on Nov 20th! 

 

I spent another hour and a half on the phone today because they shorted me $209. Hence the warning to find out WHAT they credit you with before hanging up. 

It’s called pandemic staffing issues across the service industry, celebrity is not immune from it.

[Keys Kathy]

11 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

It’s called pandemic staffing issues across the service industry, celebrity is not immune from it.

People want to work for companies that pay them decently and treat them with respect. X hire LOTS of people in India, so it is not a US problem. Who would want to work there knowing they are going to have lots and lots of complaints because they systems in place simply do not work?

 

FYI, the Agent that answered my call after 10 minutes at 8:01 this morning, put me on hold for an hour while she was on hold with the FCC department, which means she in not accomplishing anything for anyone. They are not allowed to "call back". 

 

Nice job Lisa! Your system is a total failure! 

[Keys Kathy]

28 minutes ago, SusieV said:

This happened to my parents who booked with that big travel agency that everyone has complaints about lately. They are definitely not getting the correct 125% FCC that they're owed and because we had no idea that when you upgrade a cabin they have to remove the FCC and reissue (WHY this makes no sense!) it now seems some of the FCC has disappeared again and I don't know if they're up for another fight about it.

Hats off to Lisa! You really have this figured out! It is simple math. 

 

Customer paid X. It is right on the reservation confirmation. Subtract taxes and port charges that are going back to the credit card. Initiate credit card credit.

 

Multiply the balance by 125% = credit due to traveler. Issue voucher to traveler. The entire process shouldn't take more that 15 minutes. 

 

Do this in a timely matter= happy customers. Can't do the math? = Unhappy customers that you will loose to another carrier, just as you have lost me and many other people.

 

95% of the transactions are that easy. For those that are more difficult due to multiple cancellations / FCC, allow those agents 30 minutes to finish it. 

 

Reward those that get the job done, fire those that can't. They are not limited to hiring in the Miami area because many people are working from home.

 

Sounds like it is time for Indeed!

 

Easy peasy, perhaps they should hire some fifth graders.