Question about being charged because we did NOT eat at specialty dining

[MickeyandLV]

When we got home from our October cruise on Discovery Princess, we received the email with our onboard charges. There was a charge of $11 titled Miscellaneous Food Charge on the last night of our cruise. We had not purchased any food/drinks on the cruise, especially on the last night. We had checked our charges daily to make sure no errors. (one cruise we were charged for alcoholic beverages which we did not drink). The email said to contact them if there were any questions about the charges.  I emailed and said we did not purchase any food/drinks.  I received an email today.  Princess says the charge is correct because we DID NOT eat at a specialty restaurant. Since when do we get charged for NOT eating at a specialty restaurant?  We ate in the main dining room one night and the buffet the other nights. We did not book Princess Plus or Premier, we were Princess Standard. We enjoy casual dining, so we do not do specialty.  I emailed back for more of explanation of the charge, but not planning on hearing anything.  I know $11 is not that much money, but I just want to know why.

[memoak]

Again my take is to use a CVP who can look into this. The answer you got makes no sense. 

[Honolulu Blue]

56 minutes ago, MickeyandLV said:

When we got home from our October cruise on Discovery Princess, we received the email with our onboard charges. There was a charge of $11 titled Miscellaneous Food Charge on the last night of our cruise. We had not purchased any food/drinks on the cruise, especially on the last night. We had checked our charges daily to make sure no errors. (one cruise we were charged for alcoholic beverages which we did not drink). The email said to contact them if there were any questions about the charges.  I emailed and said we did not purchase any food/drinks.  I received an email today.  Princess says the charge is correct because we DID NOT eat at a specialty restaurant. Since when do we get charged for NOT eating at a specialty restaurant?  We ate in the main dining room one night and the buffet the other nights. We did not book Princess Plus or Premier, we were Princess Standard. We enjoy casual dining, so we do not do specialty.  I emailed back for more of explanation of the charge, but not planning on hearing anything.  I know $11 is not that much money, but I just want to know why.

If you don't get any acceptable response from your most current email, I advocate sending a snail mail letter to Johnny in Santa Clarita. See if he wants to get involved in this. You might be surprised by the answer. I've been surprised by the responses when I've done this.

 

Good luck, whatever you choose to do.

[MickeyandLV]

54 minutes ago, memoak said:

Again my take is to use a CVP who can look into this. The answer you got makes no sense. 

I had debated about contacting our CVP, but I hated to bother her for such a little thing. Of course, I do need an answer before our next cruise.

 

[dog]

28 minutes ago, Honolulu Blue said:

If you don't get any acceptable response from your most current email, I advocate sending a snail mail letter to Johnny in Santa Clarita. See if he wants to get involved in this. You might be surprised by the answer. I've been surprised by the responses when I've done this.

 

Good luck, whatever you choose to do.

What is his contact?

[Wandawithdogs]

Not sure what they charge for.... but did you wine taste? Room service?

[Honolulu Blue]

57 minutes ago, dog said:

What is his contact?

I've used the general mailing address that's available from various websites and Internet searches

[Thrak]

Email Contacts

 

First line of contact:

customerrelations@princesscruises.com
 
Princess Cruises Executive Contacts

 

Collin Steinke
Director, Customer Relations
24305 Town Center Drive
Santa Clarita, CA 91355
csteinke@princesscruises.com

Lorna Warren
Vice President Guest Services
24305 Town Center Drive
Santa Clarita, CA 91355
lwarren@princesscruises.com

 

Chief Executive

John Padgett
President
24305 Town Center Drive
Santa Clarita, CA 91355
jpadgett@princesscruises.com

Also, try jpadgett@HAGroup.com (I've read that this is the only one to use but...)
===========================================

[dog]

1 hour ago, Thrak said:

Email Contacts

 

First line of contact:

customerrelations@princesscruises.com
 
Princess Cruises Executive Contacts

 

Collin Steinke
Director, Customer Relations
24305 Town Center Drive
Santa Clarita, CA 91355
csteinke@princesscruises.com

Lorna Warren
Vice President Guest Services
24305 Town Center Drive
Santa Clarita, CA 91355
lwarren@princesscruises.com

 

Chief Executive

John Padgett
President
24305 Town Center Drive
Santa Clarita, CA 91355
jpadgett@princesscruises.com

Also, try jpadgett@HAGroup.com (I've read that this is the only one to use but...)
===========================================

Thanks for taking the time to post this.  Very helpful!

[kywildcatfanone]

You have to check your account daily.  I had an $11.80 bar charge yesterday and had to go to GS and get it removed.

The bartenders don't pay attention sometimes to whose medallion they charge to.

I didn't even go up to the bar, but was sitting in a lounger about 10 feet away.

 

On disembarkation day, I check my account before walking off and grab screen shots or print one out in case the emailed one doesn't match.

[Cruise Raider]

9 hours ago, MickeyandLV said:

I had debated about contacting our CVP, but I hated to bother her for such a little thing. Of course, I do need an answer before our next cruise.

 

CVPs generally will direct you to submitting your complaint on the After Cruise issues on the website.  I’ve had luck with using that method.  
Anything before the cruise can either be handled by your CVP or Crew Chat.  
 

I was charged for using my premier package recently on the Discovery to get two coffees on the disembarkation morning.  
I still have no answer if it is allowed or not but I did get my money back via a check through Bottomline Technologies.  They could not refund the amount charged for taxes in LA.  
I was also charged for corkage on the last night of the cruise for a bottle of wine that we purchased onboard and took it with us to the restaurant.  I also asked for that money to be returned and again, it worked.  
I am a bit concerned about the extra charges I see showing up on my folio lately but not until I am off the ship.  I am working on getting a specialty dining charge reversed for a future sailing.  I am working with my CVP for that but they can’t find where it was charged.  It is on my credit card statement, though.  
 

[TxChick51]

$11 sounds like an additional entree in MDR (steak, lobster etc), but if you never ate in MDR, that doesn't make sense either.  Stick with it. $11 isn't a lot, but it's the principle of the thing. If 3,000 passengers each had an $11 charge they didn't challenge, that's a $33,000 bonus for the cruise line.

[BlueCO102]

Slightly off topic, but to perhaps clarify what the specialty dining charge is for Raider: I noted that when you make a reservation for specialty dining with Plus or Premier, Princess will charge the card on your account for the cost of the dining. The cost is then removed later and the dining is "charged" to the package.

[PescadoAmarillo]

12 hours ago, MickeyandLV said:

Princess says the charge is correct because we DID NOT eat at a specialty restaurant.

Every time I think that I can no longer be surprised by anything Princess says or does…I am. This makes absolutely no sense, and any Princess customer service employee with an iota of knowledge would understand that. I agree, send their response via snail mail to the contacts @Thrak kindly provided.  They need to see what is being sent/said to their guests. 

[skynight]

"any Princess customer service employee with an iota of knowledge would understand that."

That is the issue. Princess has replaced experienced customer service employees. I do think that the did not comment may be from someone that does not have a full grasp of English.

Wondering? If you keep your medallion in an RFD protector and only remove it when needed would that reduce the possibility of being charged for food, drinks you did not purchase?

[Honolulu Blue]

28 minutes ago, TxChick51 said:

$11 sounds like an additional entree in MDR (steak, lobster etc), but if you never ate in MDR, that doesn't make sense either.  Stick with it. $11 isn't a lot, but it's the principle of the thing. If 3,000 passengers each had an $11 charge they didn't challenge, that's a $33,000 bonus for the cruise line.

To me $11 sounds low for an additional entree by about half. IIRC, I was charged about $20 for a room service item from one of the specialty dining rooms.

[Cruise Raider]

39 minutes ago, BlueCO102 said:

Slightly off topic, but to perhaps clarify what the specialty dining charge is for Raider: I noted that when you make a reservation for specialty dining with Plus or Premier, Princess will charge the card on your account for the cost of the dining. The cost is then removed later and the dining is "charged" to the package.

I have made several specialty dining reservations with the premier package and have not been charged, even on the same reservation don’t know why this was charged and they can’t even find where I was charged but there was a charge on my credit card for $78.  The screen clearly shows that I had a dining credit.  My CVP had to send it to their IT team.  

 

Edited December 8, 2023 by Cruise Raider

[BlueCO102]

14 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

I have made several specialty dining reservations with the premier package and have not been charged, even on the same reservation don’t know why this was charged and they can’t even find where I was charged but there was a charge on my credit card for $78.  The screen clearly shows that I had a dining credit.  My CVP had to send it to their IT team.  

 

I agree. I've seen a similar issue with the exact same numbers when booking an advance reservation through the app with the premier package. In my case, the charge to my CC has always been reversed, like with a hold.  Looks like the hold never got reversed for you. Good luck.

Edited December 8, 2023 by BlueCO102

[Cruise Raider]

2 minutes ago, BlueCO102 said:

I agree. I've seen a similar issue with the exact same numbers when booking an advance reservation through the app with the premier package. In my case, the charge to my CC has always been reversed, like with a hold.  Looks like the hold never got reversed for you. Good luck.

It was sitting in pending for a few days and only bothered with it when it became a final charge.  
I tried to submit it online .. never heard a thing back.  Then, I spent over an hour on the phone with someone over crew chat and that was no help.  As she got further into the problem, she disconnected.  Now, I’ve turned it over to my CVP, who has in turn turned it over to their IT dept.  

I have several cruises booked with the premier package.  I only made a reservation for one reservation sailing on the date of the charge.  But, that’s not on the cruise I was working on.  So, really not sure what could be happening here.  
 

[Tedferg]

5 hours ago, kywildcatfanone said:

The bartenders don't pay attention sometimes to whose medallion they charge to.

I didn't even go up to the bar, but was sitting in a lounger about 10 feet away.

Most times we were asked for cabin number rather than medallion scan. One time I said 'Emerald 415' and server responded 'M415', confusing Emerald with Emmm. I think this is part of the problem as well as mis hearing cabin number. Most times they would also confirm my name, but sometimes not.

[MickeyandLV]

GOOD NEWS.  I received an email this morning and they are going to send me my $11 back.  No explanation of why yesterday they said no but today they said yes.  I had sent a reply email to them last night asking for an explanation of why we were charged.  No answer to that question, just a "Here is a your check is in the mail" email.  Thanks everyone for your thoughts. A few things I noticed after I posted this question.  Why did they only charge my husband and not myself? We wondered if there is a charge if someone books a specialty and does not show up.  Maybe they just charged the wrong account.  I noticed that they do not use the medallion anymore to charge things.  When we went to buy something in the shops all they ask is our room number.  Happy cruising everyone.

 

[dickinson]

Glad it is resolved for you!

[ldubs]

Sounds like Princess is implementing a new non-participation fee (including 18% svc charge).  🙂

[Ombud]

2 hours ago, MickeyandLV said:

GOOD NEWS.  I received an email this morning and they are going to send me my $11 back.  No explanation of why yesterday they said no but today they said yes.  I had sent a reply email to them last night asking for an explanation of why we were charged.  No answer to that question, just a "Here is a your check is in the mail" email.  Thanks everyone for your thoughts. A few things I noticed after I posted this question.  Why did they only charge my husband and not myself? We wondered if there is a charge if someone books a specialty and does not show up.  Maybe they just charged the wrong account.  I noticed that they do not use the medallion anymore to charge things.  When we went to buy something in the shops all they ask is our room number.  Happy cruising everyone.

 

Had someone ask me for my room # in Good Spirits to make sure she was charging the correct medallion. She had a few popping up on her screen but only mine had my room #

[SargassoPirate]

24 minutes ago, Ombud said:

Had someone ask me for my room # in Good Spirits to make sure she was charging the correct medallion. She had a few popping up on her screen but only mine had my room #

I don't recall these sorts of issues with the old sea pass cards.

 

Not all whiz bang technology is beneficial.  

Edited December 8, 2023 by SargassoPirate