Princess kept unused refundable on board credit balance. How can I recover?

[Ready2go11]

My family and I traveled in two cabins on the Royal Princess over Thanksgiving. We loaded gift cards to our onboard accounts and didn’t end up needing them.  When we left the ship we each had a credit balance and we thought the unused balance of approximately $300 each would be loaded back to the gift cards. instead we received a check for $15.59 by mail for refunds of port charges. I called Princess three times and they referred the matter to their accounting office. However, no one ever got back to us after these calls. 
.

In January I filed a complaint on the Better Business Bureau website. Princess responded that they owed me another $65 and that they had sent a check for that amount to me. More than two weeks later I have not received that check. I provide a detailed one board account statements and explanations to them and rejected the BBB response. I asked for a phone call to discuss the accounts. They replied that I had received the refund I was due, and they considered the matter closed. 
 

To absorb the credit balance in our on board accounts, they reversed promotional OBC from the booking, shareholder OBC, added back crew appreciation that was part of our booking package and billed us for random charges, all in the days after we were already back. 
 

We are furious that they took our money, doctored our on board account statements after we got off the ship and that they refuse to address our concerns or even talk to us about it. This is dishonest and fraudulent. 
 

Any suggestions for next steps are appreciated. 

 

[Guest ldtr]

Do you have a copy of your print out from your last day of the cruise? As well as your booking summary showing all of the inclusions?

 

If you do you might try Elliot Advocacy or small claims court

 

Once you took it to Better Business Bureau it would have been pretty much out of the hands of customer service and probably in the hands of their legal department.

 

Are you certain of the terms of the gift cards?  Are you sure that they convert to refundable OBC?  I am not familiar with those used for Princess, but I have seen some with other companies that once applied cannot be refunded.

 

I did find two interesting lines in the terms and conditions.  The first would indicate that unused funds will not be added back to the card once it is used and the second may indicate that it is not refunded as cash.  Otherwise applying it to a cruise, then trying to get it refunded would create an avenue for a refund.  Those two lines would indicate to me that they are not treated the same as cash and might just be a use it or lose it situation.

 

I have never used one, but just saying that one could argue that the terms and conditions could support the lack of a refund.

 

1. Gift Cards cannot be reloaded, meaning funds may not be added to Gift Cards after activation.

 

2. Gift Cards are not refundable or redeemable for cash, except where required by law

Edited February 24, 2023 by ldtr

[Steelers36]

4 minutes ago, ldtr said:

Are you certain of the terms of the gift cards?  Are you sure that they convert to refundable OBC?  I am not familiar with those used for Princess, but I have seen some with other companies that once applied cannot be refunded.

Gift card dollars are not forfeited.  Only bonus gift card dollars can be forfeited if not used and PCL has not offered any bonuses for over a year now.

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, Ready2go11 said:

Any suggestions for next steps are appreciated. 

Scan all your evidentiary documents.  Compose a nice letter to Customer Relations.

 

Send it all to:  CustomerRelations@PrincessCruises.com

 

 

BTW, you have not indicated whether you have checked your gift card balances to see if any funds are back on them or not.

[Guest ldtr]

3 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Scan all your evidentiary documents.  Compose a nice letter to Customer Relations.

 

Send it all to:  CustomerRelations@PrincessCruises.com

 

 

BTW, you have not indicated whether you have checked your gift card balances to see if any funds are back on them or not.

I expect they are probably past that point once they went the BBB route.

[trbarton]

A suggestion to everyone, I’m aware that this won’t solve their problem. Load the OBC onto your Medallion at the casino into a slot machine & then cash it out. I’ve done this before & never had any problems   
 

Tom😀

Edited February 24, 2023 by trbarton

[brisalta]

Have you checked your gift card balance by using the "Balance Inquiry" feature at:

https://www.princess.com/learn/cruise-gifts-celebrations/overview/gift-cards/ ?

 

 

[justafem]

I know on carnival, if you apply a GC to a specific venue, it must be used that that venue, no refunds if not used.  I've heard that people apply too much to their bar account and the last night, buy drinks for everyone, or give the bartenders a huge tip, to minimize the loss.

 

I know this isn't the carnival board, but am using that as an example that doesn't work in this situation.  Just musing.  

 

Anyhow, after comparing your precruise onboard credit (you'll have also received another email with your adjusted onboard after the stock credit was added) emails, with the final bill.  If things were changed post cruise, the only way to get them to pony up is going to be court.  That's a choice you'll have to make. 

[Bwana Tom]

10 hours ago, Ready2go11 said:

My family and I traveled in two cabins on the Royal Princess over Thanksgiving. We loaded gift cards to our onboard accounts and didn’t end up needing them.  When we left the ship we each had a credit balance and we thought the unused balance of approximately $300 each would be loaded back to the gift cards. instead we received a check for $15.59 by mail for refunds of port charges. I called Princess three times and they referred the matter to their accounting office. However, no one ever got back to us after these calls. 
.

In January I filed a complaint on the Better Business Bureau website. Princess responded that they owed me another $65 and that they had sent a check for that amount to me. More than two weeks later I have not received that check. I provide a detailed one board account statements and explanations to them and rejected the BBB response. I asked for a phone call to discuss the accounts. They replied that I had received the refund I was due, and they considered the matter closed. 
 

To absorb the credit balance in our on board accounts, they reversed promotional OBC from the booking, shareholder OBC, added back crew appreciation that was part of our booking package and billed us for random charges, all in the days after we were already back. 
 

We are furious that they took our money, doctored our on board account statements after we got off the ship and that they refuse to address our concerns or even talk to us about it. This is dishonest and fraudulent. 
 

Any suggestions for next steps are appreciated. 

 

This is continuing problem at Princess getting refundable OBC returned and has been going on ever since the restart of the cruises. I don’t know whether it is fraudulent activities on their part or simply terrible bookkeeping practices. As it has gone on for so long I’m leaning forward “fraudulent” though.

Our last cruise we were short in our refund check and I eventually after many phone calls and using their on-line chat I sent a snailmail letter to John Padgett with all the appropriate documentation. I received no response whatsoever so about a month later I think send Jan Swartz an email and included spanned copies of all of my documents clearly showing the shortage in the payment. After a couple of weeks I received a call from a gal at Customer Relations that eventually refunded MOST of the amount shortage. By that time I accepted the check she sent simply because I was tired of the hassle.

A few months after that incident in January of this year we took another cruise and once again when we received our refundable OBC check it was short again, this time for $191.19. I called the person I talked to last time and explained the situation to her. Even though she pulled our records up on her computer she wouldn’t comment or do anything about the shortage and simply told me to send an email to Customer Relations. It has now been a week and I haven’t heard anything back from them.

While my problem is a little different than your own, my refundable amount came from my military vet credit and a few other things and yours should have been even more straightforward with gift cards. Nevertheless, this shortage refund problem continues to happen with Princess.

In this last case I was holding back providing my entire pursuit of my funds until I heard back from Customer Services, but I fully intend to do that on Cruise Critic once I get it resolved. Hopefully that will eventually happen as I hope yours gets resolved as well.

Good luck and I hope you eventually get what is owed to you. No one should have to go through this kind of a hassle.        

[latebloomer56]

Wow guess we were really lucky last Oct. They owed us 312.00 in refundable OBC and got a check about a month after the trip.

[13cheermom]

Yes, last March we had an excursion that was paid for with gift cards that got cancelled once we were onboard the ship.  It went back to our onboard account so I went to guest services and inquired as to how we would receive the money back.  I was told it definitely was refundable funds that would be sent by check within a couple of weeks of returning home.  I was definitely surprised because was sure it would be reloaded as a gift card (original form of payment).  We did receive a check for the full amount of refunded excursions within that timeframe.  It was a pleasant surprise. 😀

[Uncle Sugar]

We too have encountered problems with obtaining correct OBC refunds after completing several post- pandemic cruises. As long-time Princess customers with lots of earned OBC, both refundable (military) and non-refundable, we’ve been dismayed by our recent experiences wherein our onboard account folios were entirely accurate when disembarking, but post-cruise inexplicably altered.

 

Per normal procedures, while making onboard purchases, non-refundable OBC is used first, and, when exhausted, then refundable OBC is applied. Also, when on B2B cruises, all are linked together and considered one voyage—with each B2B leg rolling over to the next leg (for folio account purposes).

 

As an example, we completed several B2B voyages last month encompassing a total onboard stay of almost 1-1/2 months. While onboard we regularly printed out our account folios to ensure accuracy and requested a final printout the morning we departed. Everything was OK. Our disembarkation folio was correct in all respects and indicated we were due a substantial refund of remaining refundable OBC (over $500). We had spent all of our non-refundable OBCs (shareholder, FCD, promo) on various shipboard purchases, but still had, as indicated, considerable refundable OBC remaining. We expected this refundable OBC amount would be referred to Corporate Finance for the usual refund check issued by Bottomline Technologies.

 

But, surprisingly, the resultant check from Bottomline Technologies shorted us by about 66 percent. We only received about one-third of the expected refundable amount. We promptly followed up with Guest Services, who furnished us their copy of our final folio account. Upon examining the folio used by Guest Services, we noticed that it arbitrarily wiped out several of our earned pre-cruise non-refundable OBC amounts—listing them as after-the-fact charges time stamped after we had disembarked. This makes no sense whatsoever. The result, of course, was reduced non-refundable OBC, thus increasing the amount of refundable OBC applied to our onboard purchases.  This particular issue, from our most recent cruise, is still pending and has not yet been resolved in our favor.

 

As mentioned above, we’ve experienced this questionable procedure on other post-pandemic cruises too. Each time we’ve had to spend much time speaking with Guest Services directly (after long call holds) and sending several substantiating emails with documentation. Each time we have prevailed and obtained the refund to which we were entitled, but the time and hassle to do so was considerable—and unnecessary.

 

We too suspect that our recent disappointing experiences associated with post-cruise refundable OBC may not be a coincidence or even inadvertent—based upon the fact we’ve undergone similar episodes after other recent prior cruises. If so, this is quite disturbing.

[Guest ldtr]

22 minutes ago, Uncle Sugar said:

We too have encountered problems with obtaining correct OBC refunds after completing several post- pandemic cruises. As long-time Princess customers with lots of earned OBC, both refundable (military) and non-refundable, we’ve been dismayed by our recent experiences wherein our onboard account folios were entirely accurate when disembarking, but post-cruise inexplicably altered.

 

Per normal procedures, while making onboard purchases, non-refundable OBC is used first, and, when exhausted, then refundable OBC is applied. Also, when on B2B cruises, all are linked together and considered one voyage—with each B2B leg rolling over to the next leg (for folio account purposes).

 

As an example, we completed several B2B voyages last month encompassing a total onboard stay of almost 1-1/2 months. While onboard we regularly printed out our account folios to ensure accuracy and requested a final printout the morning we departed. Everything was OK. Our disembarkation folio was correct in all respects and indicated we were due a substantial refund of remaining refundable OBC (over $500). We had spent all of our non-refundable OBCs (shareholder, FCD, promo) on various shipboard purchases, but still had, as indicated, considerable refundable OBC remaining. We expected this refundable OBC amount would be referred to Corporate Finance for the usual refund check issued by Bottomline Technologies.

 

But, surprisingly, the resultant check from Bottomline Technologies shorted us by about 66 percent. We only received about one-third of the expected refundable amount. We promptly followed up with Guest Services, who furnished us their copy of our final folio account. Upon examining the folio used by Guest Services, we noticed that it arbitrarily wiped out several of our earned pre-cruise non-refundable OBC amounts—listing them as after-the-fact charges time stamped after we had disembarked. This makes no sense whatsoever. The result, of course, was reduced non-refundable OBC, thus increasing the amount of refundable OBC applied to our onboard purchases.  This particular issue, from our most recent cruise, is still pending and has not yet been resolved in our favor.

 

As mentioned above, we’ve experienced this questionable procedure on other post-pandemic cruises too. Each time we’ve had to spend much time speaking with Guest Services directly (after long call holds) and sending several substantiating emails with documentation. Each time we have prevailed and obtained the refund to which we were entitled, but the time and hassle to do so was considerable—and unnecessary.

 

We too suspect that our recent disappointing experiences associated with post-cruise refundable OBC may not be a coincidence or even inadvertent—based upon the fact we’ve undergone similar episodes after other recent prior cruises. If so, this is quite disturbing.

Which refundable OBC's did they wipe out?  After the cruise?

 

I have not have any problems with shareholder, veterans, FCD's, marketing promotions or excursion discounts. 

 

Edited February 24, 2023 by ldtr

[Uncle Sugar]

1 hour ago, ldtr said:

Which refundable OBC's did they wipe out?  After the cruise?

 

I have not have any problems with shareholder, veterans, FCD's, marketing promotions or excursion discounts. 

 

They did not wipe out any of our refundable OBC (all military). What was done, after we disembarked, several non-refundable OBCs were inexplicably listed as “Charges” on the Guest Services rendition of our final folio. Because they were charges, they reduced the amount of non-refundable OBC we had available for our onboard purchases by about 30 percent. Since the non-refundable OBC was smaller, more of our purchases were then applied to our refundable OBC balance. This had the effect of reducing our refundable OBC as submitted to Bottomline Technologies.

 

How do we know that some of our non-refundable OBCs were removed? Because the Reference codes on the Guest Services version of our final folio listed them as separately as “SZ” (Shareholder), “FZ” (Future Cruise Deposit), and “BZ” (Promotional). These particular codes all had a time stamp almost ten hours after disembarkation and fell under the "Charges" category of “$$COMPUTER." Bottom line, the Guest Services folio did account for all of our earned non-refundable OBCs, but then removed some of them after-the-fact—very curious.

 

In contrast, as previously mentioned, the final folio printout which we obtained on the ship (from Passenger Services Desk) the morning of our departure was fully accurate in all respects and displayed the correct refundable OBC amount remaining in our account. All earned/authorized pre-cruise OBCs, both refundable and non-refundable, throughout the entire duration of our cruise (multiple B2Bs), were listed/credited properly.

[Ready2go11]

52 minutes ago, Uncle Sugar said:

What was done, after we disembarked, several non-refundable OBCs were inexplicably listed as “Charges” on the Guest Services rendition of our final folio. Because they were charges, they reduced the amount of non-refundable OBC we had available for our onboard purchases by about 30 percent. Since the non-refundable OBC was smaller, more of our purchases were then applied to our refundable OBC balance. This had the effect of reducing our refundable OBC as submitted to Bottomline Technologies.

 

How do we know that some of our non-refundable OBCs were removed? Because the Reference codes on the Guest Services version of our final folio listed them as separately as “SZ” (Shareholder), “FZ” (Future Cruise Deposit), and “BZ” (Promotional). These particular codes all had a time stamp almost ten hours after disembarkation and fell under the "Charges" category of “$$COMPUTER." Bottom line, the Guest Services folio did account for all of our earned non-refundable OBCs, but then removed some of them after-the-fact—very curious.

 

What happened to us is exactly what is listed above!  We have checked the gift cards, and they still have zero balances. The folio print out shows the gift cards being added to our accounts and each is listed as refundable credit. 
 

With the BBB complaint we uploaded the folio with notes and highlights on the questionable post- cruise charges and included our booking documents showing OBC and crew appreciation was included in the fare paid. The first items on the folios show the included OBC loaded and the shareholder OBC.  Its just after we got off the ship they took them back. I just can’t believe they won’t even talk to us to explain their reasoning and refuse to refund. 
 

I will try the customer service email and again include the pdf of documentation supporting what the refund should be.
 

thank you everyone for your suggestions and commiseration!