Phantom credit card charge by Carnival

[babygrljaz]

40 minutes ago, mhlcanada said:

Didn't know you have to let cabin steward know about towels you took from the pool and returned at the pool.  Do you have to sign towels in and out?  There is not enough signage to make passengers aware of this.  

No you don't have to let them know. I'm saying I do it so I'm certain I don't get charged

[babygrljaz]

20 minutes ago, tonit964 said:

I understand that,

I realize they will charge you for the towel and rightfully so, but do it before you're off the ship so you have a chance to explain or dispute it. The paper sign in sheet at the towel hut is archaic. If they can swipe your card for everything else, why can't they for checking out and turning in towels?

They have to do an inventory first. That can't be done until after you're out of your room. Now if you're talking about the ones from the towel hut that's different I have no clue how they do those. I always make sure they check mine off as returned before a walk away. If no one is there I either get someone or do it myself. They leave the clipboard out. You're right swiping our card would be so much better control

[mhlcanada]

9 minutes ago, babygrljaz said:

They have to do an inventory first. That can't be done until after you're out of your room. Now if you're talking about the ones from the towel hut that's different I have no clue how they do those. I always make sure they check mine off as returned before a walk away. If no one is there I either get someone or do it myself. They leave the clipboard out. You're right swiping our card would be so much better control

I am talking about taking towels from the hut, not from the cabin. We signed the towels out at the towel hut but just returned them without checking them in as we didn’t know we had to. On the Celebrity ships we just take the towels at the pool and dropped them in the bucket at the pool when done. This is our first time cruising with Carnival…likely our last. Their service is not as good as the more premium lines like Princess, Celebrity, Holland America. For example, you have to pay to chat with fellow passengers on the Carnival Hub whereas it is free on the other lines.

[n6uqqq]

59 minutes ago, Badfinger said:

If you are 100% sure it is a bogus charge, call your cc company and dispute it.  If not, and since you lost your statement (which might not help per the other post about charges after midnight) then you will have to play the game. 

Doing this will get you on the "no sail" list with Carnival. Better just to contact them and tell them you didn't take any towels. They will fix it eventually.

[n6uqqq]

1 minute ago, mhlcanada said:

I am talking about taking towels from the hut, not from the cabin. We signed the towels out at the towel hut but just returned them without checking them in as we didn’t know we had to. On the Celebrity ships we just take the towels at the pool and dropped them in the bucket at the pool when done. This is our first time cruising with Carnival…likely our last. Their service is not as good as the more premium lines like Princess, Celebrity, Holland America. For example, you have to pay to chat with fellow passengers on the Carnival Hub whereas it is free on the other lines.

But the towels they are saying are missing are likely your room towels. I have had this happen twice over 17 years. Room steward reports them as gone (hence the 855am time) and then you get charged. They will remove it for you but it takes a while. 

[DeniseTr]

On 8/15/2024 at 8:29 AM, dctravel said:

We were charged for an unreturned pool towel on disembarkation day at the pool towel pickup/drop off place on Lido (which wasn't possible, since we didn't have any pool towels that day and never went to Lido). I contacted them through the online form and they got back to me about 48 hours later by phone, so make sure you pick up any south Florida numbers that might call. I had my sign and sail statement, and a screen shot of the total charge from my credit card company, and they quickly refunded me the difference. Not sure what the game is with that, but it was quite annoying when I thought we were all square when we got off the ship.

 

The way Carnival does towel is ripe for this type of charge, as it isn't ever clear how many towels anyone has, especially when you drop them off upon re-boarding at a port if there aren't clean ones available. We have started just keeping our wet towels if there aren't any clean ones to be had and just having our cabin steward replace them so there is no chance we ended up with fewer towels than when we started.

 

If you leave a wet/dirty pool towels in cabin, will the steward automatically replace it or do you have to ask? It's annoying to have to go up to Lido to exchange.

[tonit964]

27 minutes ago, DeniseTr said:

If you leave a wet/dirty pool towels in cabin, will the steward automatically replace it or do you have to ask? It's annoying to have to go up to Lido to exchange.

They will. Leave them on the bathroom floor with your other towels and they will replace them. 

[nascartim]

If I go somewhere to borrow something, and they ask me for personal info, like my name and room number, I assume they want me to return it, in doing so, when I return said item, I'm going to make darn sure they know I returned it so they don't track me down.

[ontheweb]

15 hours ago, mhlcanada said:

Got Carnival to send me copy of account statement, which is different from the one we received the night before. New charge for ‘towels’ was posted at 8:55am on disembarkation day. We already left the ship so was not aware of the charge nor able to dispute it. We had returned the towels at the pool after use.  Requested Carnival to refund $42+ charge but have not heard back.

Wishing you good luck getting the charge reversed.

[DeniseTr]

12 hours ago, mhlcanada said:

I am talking about taking towels from the hut, not from the cabin. We signed the towels out at the towel hut but just returned them without checking them in as we didn’t know we had to. On the Celebrity ships we just take the towels at the pool and dropped them in the bucket at the pool when done. This is our first time cruising with Carnival…likely our last. Their service is not as good as the more premium lines like Princess, Celebrity, Holland America. For example, you have to pay to chat with fellow passengers on the Carnival Hub whereas it is free on the other lines.

Carnival could implement RF tracking pretty easily if they wanted, scan towels when distributed, scan when returned, which would be easier than current method. 

I'm guessing that a lot of people get charged for towels that they returned and dont dispute charges, which would mean there wouldn't be financial incentive for carnival to change.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/roadwarriorvoices/2015/02/06/yes-your-hotel-knows-that-you-just-stole-that-towel-because-they-sewed-a-microchip-in-it/83191436/

[angelsfort]

I feel that it's my personal responsibility to ensure that if I had to "check out" a pool towel, that I make sure that I "check in" that towel when I am finished with it.   It just makes sense that if they asked for your cabin number when you checked it out... then they are tracking them...  and if you don't make sure it's officially checked back in, then there's a good chance you'll get charged for that towel

[Knights on the Beach]

14 hours ago, mhlcanada said:

I am talking about taking towels from the hut, not from the cabin. We signed the towels out at the towel hut but just returned them without checking them in as we didn’t know we had to. On the Celebrity ships we just take the towels at the pool and dropped them in the bucket at the pool when done. This is our first time cruising with Carnival…likely our last. Their service is not as good as the more premium lines like Princess, Celebrity, Holland America. For example, you have to pay to chat with fellow passengers on the Carnival Hub whereas it is free on the other lines.

 

On Disney, you don't have to sign towels in and out either - however our Disney cruise was easily double the cost of most of our Carnival cruises so I wouldn't expect everything to be the same. We'll be on our first Celebrity cruise early next year and we're looking forward to it. Once again, the price is considerably higher but it includes internet, drinks and gratuities so I think the final cost should be comparable to Carnival. Nothing is free on a cruise but some cruise lines include things at no additional cost that other cruise lines have an upcharge for. It's good to have options; we can all choose the cruise lines that work best for us.

 

I do hope you receive a refund. Please come back and let us know if you get it resolved.

 

 

[ChutChut]

I don't get the checking in and out of pool towels. Never had to do this on Disney, Princess, Cunard, etc. What does Carnival think guests are going to do? Take the towels with them?

[BossyKat]

Yes.  Didn't you see the picture of the lady at the airport with the luggage mat?

 

[staceyglow]

1 hour ago, ChutChut said:

I don't get the checking in and out of pool towels. Never had to do this on Disney, Princess, Cunard, etc. What does Carnival think guests are going to do? Take the towels with them?

Have you ever been to Cozumel and noticed that many of the cabs have their seats covered with old Carnival towels? 

[Mike45LC]

1 hour ago, ChutChut said:

I don't get the checking in and out of pool towels. Never had to do this on Disney, Princess, Cunard, etc. What does Carnival think guests are going to do? Take the towels with them?

Some passengers bring pool towels to the beach and abandon them. 

[DeniseTr]

4 hours ago, angelsfort said:

I feel that it's my personal responsibility to ensure that if I had to "check out" a pool towel, that I make sure that I "check in" that towel when I am finished with it.   It just makes sense that if they asked for your cabin number when you checked it out... then they are tracking them...  and if you don't make sure it's officially checked back in, then there's a good chance you'll get charged for that towel

Sure, if there is someone there to check it in. However last carnival cruise I went on, the towel area was unmanned a lot of the time. I got so I just grabbed a new one and tossed oldone in basket.

[n6uqqq]

4 hours ago, angelsfort said:

I feel that it's my personal responsibility to ensure that if I had to "check out" a pool towel, that I make sure that I "check in" that towel when I am finished with it.   It just makes sense that if they asked for your cabin number when you checked it out... then they are tracking them...  and if you don't make sure it's officially checked back in, then there's a good chance you'll get charged for that towel

That is true for checked towels. I am guessing the vast majority of charges are for when the room steward marks your room pool towels as gone. That is what incurs the a..m. charges for towels. Quite a racket charging 40 something dollars for the towels that are usually ratty worn out looking things. I don't know who would even want to take them. 

[mfs2k]

5 hours ago, DeniseTr said:

Carnival could implement RF tracking pretty easily if they wanted, scan towels when distributed, scan when returned, which would be easier than current method. 

I'm guessing that a lot of people get charged for towels that they returned and dont dispute charges, which would mean there wouldn't be financial incentive for carnival to change.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/roadwarriorvoices/2015/02/06/yes-your-hotel-knows-that-you-just-stole-that-towel-because-they-sewed-a-microchip-in-it/83191436/

RF tracking is very expensive. 

[n6uqqq]

7 minutes ago, mfs2k said:

RF tracking is very expensive. 

And someone would have to scan all those dirty towels. Not going to happen! 

[mfs2k]

3 minutes ago, n6uqqq said:

And someone would have to scan all those dirty towels. Not going to happen! 

 

I work for hotels and researched this. They're not scanned individually. 

What happens is the towels are all stacked clean or dirty in a giant laundry cart and wheeled past a scanner which tracks each RFID chip in the software.  It can count hundreds of items at a time.  But the scanners, software and chips ($0.50ea) are really costly. And you cant reuse them when you discard the linen.  You have to removed them from the database.

[Elaine5715]

19 hours ago, mhlcanada said:

I am talking about taking towels from the hut, not from the cabin. We signed the towels out at the towel hut but just returned them without checking them in as we didn’t know we had to. On the Celebrity ships we just take the towels at the pool and dropped them in the bucket at the pool when done. This is our first time cruising with Carnival…likely our last. Their service is not as good as the more premium lines like Princess, Celebrity, Holland America. For example, you have to pay to chat with fellow passengers on the Carnival Hub whereas it is free on the other lines.

 

19 hours ago, n6uqqq said:

But the towels they are saying are missing are likely your room towels. I have had this happen twice over 17 years. Room steward reports them as gone (hence the 855am time) and then you get charged. They will remove it for you but it takes a while. 

If you did not check towels back in, this was not a phantom charge.  You did not properly return the towels.  If the attendant was not there to receive them, it is possible another guest took them.   

[n6uqqq]

13 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

 

If you did not check towels back in, this was not a phantom charge.  You did not properly return the towels.  If the attendant was not there to receive them, it is possible another guest took them.   

And of course when the attendant did come back they have zero clue whose towels are left there. I would never drop off towels at an unattended station if I had checked them out. That is pretty much guaranteed a charge.

[mhlcanada]

4 minutes ago, n6uqqq said:

And of course when the attendant did come back they have zero clue whose towels are left there. I would never drop off towels at an unattended station if I had checked them out. That is pretty much guaranteed a charge.

Yes, I should take some responsibility for not checking towels back in when checking out was needed.  However, there was no attendant at the moment of towel return and no clear signage on what we are supposed to do, so Carnival should also take responsibility.  There is no motivation for them to rectify the process if guests don't question and just pay up.  I will let this forum know when (or if) I hear back from Carnival.  

[n6uqqq]

7 minutes ago, mhlcanada said:

Yes, I should take some responsibility for not checking towels back in when checking out was needed.  However, there was no attendant at the moment of towel return and no clear signage on what we are supposed to do, so Carnival should also take responsibility.  There is no motivation for them to rectify the process if guests don't question and just pay up.  I will let this forum know when (or if) I hear back from Carnival.  

They will take care of you, it will just take some time.