Princess called and discussed cruises and suddenly a booking showed up?

[FrankieJayIII]

I got a call on Friday afternoon to talk about a future cruise.   I was discussing options and ideas of cruises.   I never made any commitment for a cruise and today I went into my account on Princess to look at the cruise I have coming up and there was a new cruise in my account!
 

440 days away!   The deposit was not made.  It says that $0 has been paid and was due yesterday.   I didn't add this cruise to my account, I didnt pay any deposits. 

 

What should i do?  Call them?  Let it fall off my account?  Does this hurt my reputation?   I didn't even receive any emails about this. 

 

Please let me know what you would do, and what I should do!

[cr8tiv1]

No money, no deposit, booking will drop off.  No worries.  

[fpsphil]

They’ve gotten super aggressive selling future packages. I’ve been getting calls from a different princess number about purchasing full vacation bundles with hotel that I don’t need at the moment. My CVP said there’s a new list that’s based on if you’ve bought fcds onboard

[caribill]

22 minutes ago, fpsphil said:

They’ve gotten super aggressive selling future packages. I’ve been getting calls from a different princess number about purchasing full vacation bundles with hotel that I don’t need at the moment. My CVP said there’s a new list that’s based on if you’ve bought fcds onboard

 

That different Princess number might be not a Princess number but one from a travel agency selling Princess cruises and cruise packages.

[fpsphil]

1 minute ago, caribill said:

 

That different Princess number might be not a Princess number but one from a travel agency selling Princess cruises and cruise packages.

No it was Princess. Pretty much another department. Was given a direct extension number to call back on the main line

[donaldsc]

2 hours ago, fpsphil said:

No it was Princess. Pretty much another department. Was given a direct extension number to call back on the main line

 

There are sites out there that masquerade very well as a Princess site.

 

DON

[azbirdmom]

Let it drop off.  I know that sometimes my TA does a booking to quote prices to me.  That way it "holds" the price until I decide.  And if I don't want it, the booking will simply fall off as others have said.  Still getting an unsolicited call about booking is a little shady.

[fpsphil]

6 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

There are sites out there that masquerade very well as a Princess site.

 

DON

Kind of hard to masquerade when the number takes you to the main princess menu when you dial it back

[Rick&Jeannie]

It's a business entity called "Princess Promotions".  There is a VERY loose association with Princess...that's how they know all of your Princess account details and can speak "knowledgeably" about your history & such.  It's discussed in several other threads here on CC.  I've received one of the calls myself.  I simply will not do any type of business with *anybody* through a "cold call".  Princess is really scrambling to drum up more bookings.

[Guest ldtr]

 

 

 

If they were trying to talk you into doing a future cruise purchase, that also gave you credits to be used for hotels and other "benefits" the call was probably from Open Network Exchange.  They apparently have a program in conjunction with Princess and have been very aggressively calling passengers.

 

The people running open network exchange started  and have sold a business called

International Cruise and Excursion   since renamed to Arrivia.  That business, was set up to enable people to trade timeshare weeks for cruises.  It apparently had arrangements with the major cruise companies.

 

This is the Better Business Bureau customer review page for that company

 

https://www.bbb.org/us/az/scottsdale/profile/travel-club/arrivia-inc-1126-36004895/customer-reviews

 

If the call had  a timeshare sales feel to it,  this is an article about one of the founders from back in 2012

 

https://inbusinessphx.com/in-business/marcia-rowley-trading-timeshares#.ZAQmQHbMLIU

 

Edited March 20, 2023 by ldtr

[startedwithamouse]

Wow, it sounds like there's an incentive for them to get bookings. Similar to banks opening up new accounts for customers without their knowledge.

[arizonaperson]

OP wanted to know what to do. As others have said you didn’t pay any money  and didn’t give a credit card ,so it should go away.

But for the OP and everybody else the solution is to quit answering and giving vacation and personal information to somebody you don’t know ,that would probably be what to do. And then these companies that are cold calling you wouldn’t have a business. I would never give anybody calling me on my home phone or my cell phone any information of dates of when I want to go on vacation. If I want  go on vacation I know exactly what to do and it certainly won’t be by answering a phone call from somebody I don’t know. So this will continue as long as all of you are answering the phone and talking to these people!!

Dont trust anyone 

[FrankieJayIII]

33 minutes ago, arizonaperson said:

OP wanted to know what to do. As others have said you didn’t pay any money  and didn’t give a credit card ,so it should go away.

But for the OP and everybody else the solution is to quit answering and giving vacation and personal information to somebody you don’t know ,that would probably be what to do. And then these companies that are cold calling you wouldn’t have a business. I would never give anybody calling me on my home phone or my cell phone any information of dates of when I want to go on vacation. If I want  go on vacation I know exactly what to do and it certainly won’t be by answering a phone call from somebody I don’t know. So this will continue as long as all of you are answering the phone and talking to these people!!

Dont trust anyone 

I like and approve this message.  Thank you.

[Guest ldtr]

38 minutes ago, arizonaperson said:

OP wanted to know what to do. As others have said you didn’t pay any money  and didn’t give a credit card ,so it should go away.

But for the OP and everybody else the solution is to quit answering and giving vacation and personal information to somebody you don’t know ,that would probably be what to do. And then these companies that are cold calling you wouldn’t have a business. I would never give anybody calling me on my home phone or my cell phone any information of dates of when I want to go on vacation. If I want  go on vacation I know exactly what to do and it certainly won’t be by answering a phone call from somebody I don’t know. So this will continue as long as all of you are answering the phone and talking to these people!!

Dont trust anyone 

Just to let people know when the people from Open Network Exchange call they start the cll going over your complete sailing history from Princess.  Your Captains Club status, exactly how many cruises you have taken, what type cabins you tend to book, etc.

[cruisingrob21]

As others have said, its a booking "hold" - it will drop off in 3-5 business days.  It's a trick to sometimes reserve a booking under a nearly expired promotion so that the price holds until a new promotion is active.  If the new promotion is better than the old, its a simple new booking, if not, you have a day or two of insurance built in with a lower price.

 

As they say, two can play at this game (or whatever game princess is ultimately playing).  To say that Princess is only loosely affiliated with these folks is true, but also a bit false. I'm sure they know exactly what this other company is doing and hence giving them large amounts of past cruiser data that even travel agents don't have access to unless they are keeping their own tallys.

 

It's sad that its gotten to this point - I get it, they have a lot of debt to clear through and a 2 new ships coming soon.  But sometimes I miss the late 2000s, to early teens Princess Cruises - before the tech, and even before Jan Swartz was in charge.

[caribill]

4 hours ago, ldtr said:

Just to let people know when the people from Open Network Exchange call they start the cll going over your complete sailing history from Princess.  Your Captains Club status, exactly how many cruises you have taken, what type cabins you tend to book, etc.

 

Any travel agent I have used also has access to that information.

[SargassoPirate]

My easy breezy solution is I don't answer the phone unless it's someone in my contact list.  If it's not, I silence the ringer and see if they leave a message.  More often than not, they don't.

 

 

 

 

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, SargassoPirate said:

My easy breezy solution is I don't answer the phone unless it's someone in my contact list.  If it's not, I silence the ringer and see if they leave a message.  More often than not, they don't.

 

 

 

 

I've been finding lately that they don't even get as far as leave a message if I do not answer calls from numbers I do not recognize.

[HappyInVan]

On 3/19/2023 at 10:19 PM, FrankieJayIII said:

Please let me know what you would do, and what I should do!

 

Same problem as making charitable donations. The organization outsources sales to an aggressive entity that will bother you, and use psychological tricks. The marketeer's cut may be as high as 50%.

 

For Princess, the important thing is that their terms and conditions may allow them to share your info with third parties, until you cancel permission.

 

With HAL, I've opted out of 'Email, Phone, Instant Message, Text Message, Mailing Address'. Phew!

Edited March 21, 2023 by HappyInVan

[Honolulu Blue]

2 hours ago, SargassoPirate said:

My easy breezy solution is I don't answer the phone unless it's someone in my contact list.  If it's not, I silence the ringer and see if they leave a message.  More often than not, they don't.

I go a step farther for my cell phone - I don't answer unless I'm expecting a call.  Period.  The people that know me understand and will leave a message or text.  Legit businesses with legit business will leave a message.  The rest rarely bother with messages, so their call was obviously unimportant. 😊