Ncl Double Charge

[rrlacruiser]

I contacted my bank and did a debit dispute I did get the original doubled amount back a week later, but as far as the o/d charges the bank said that it was not their issue it was up to norwegian to refund the o/d charges I know that the 145.00 is not alot of money, but I feel like I should get it back don't you?

[Toyz711]

be sure to talk to your bank manager, not just a teller. calmly explain..they can tell by the transaction numbers that it's a dupe. if any checks were sent back, unpaid, they can write a letter for you to send , that will make sure you don't get any charges from others. your own bank should be offering you some assistance or protection..or i would be changing banks. all banks offer profection on credit cards/debit cards..you bank should be helping you. after all, they allowed a dupe charge be credited to your account.

[mbisson]

I realize that NCL systems were at fault for the double billings - and it seems from other posters that they are trying to repair the error just not in a timely manner.

 

I did the daily books for about 20 years at a University Bookstore. I dreaded reading that NCL said the "merchant bank" did the double billing because I feared this was indeed what might've happened. AND if it is what happened, the NCL systems may not have been responsible at all. All bankcards/debit card transactions are cleared through, what I like to call "clearing banks" (and NCL probably more correctly called them "merchant bank"). There are only a few clearing centers in the entire country.

 

It happened (double charging to our customers), and when it did, the "bank" would (after prodding) admit that sometimes the data stream being transmitted from us to them might drop, mid transmission. If their computer asked for a retransmit, ours would automatically comply (assuming that they did not receive the data). Problem is that sometimes they had rec enough to process a transaction and ended up doing a double process. Imagine systems that do an end of day - batch process - rather than an individual transaction process! It can mean 100's or 1000's of duplicate entries! :eek:

 

When they (merchant bank) become aware that it's happened it's usually not a big deal for them to reverse the charge on a credit card (although not as simple as I made it sound ;) ). But since a debit card is tied to an individuals bank acct, it can cause a nightmare, because the money had already been removed from their acct (twice). AND that removal, as we see, can cause overdrafts. You would think that the clearing "merchant" bank would take responsibility for the overdrafts, but (in my experience) they never would. If it's a problem (like I stated) NCL probably shouldn't be held responsible as they wouldn't have done anything wrong and didn't benefit from the banks error. The cardholders bank may (as VoyageVirgin stated) be willing to excuse the overdraft charges. But who know? There position could become "not our fault".

 

I hope it all works out for you rrlacruiser and I expect that over time it will. I understand your frustration with NCL on this, (and they might go ahead and cover the overdrafts). I know where I was, it became almost SOP for us to work something between our cust svc people and the consumer, even when it honestly shouldn't have been our responsibility.

 

The inflexibility of the banks and the trying to correct the situation for the customer, when my hands were tied, can be almost as frustrating for the store (or in this case NCL) as it is for the customer! And when it happens to a merchant, it can become compounded because many customers could have been hit. I'll honestly admit, this was one of the factors that made me decide take early retirement.

 

-Monte

[rrlacruiser]

Honestly, I can see if NCL is not at fault although it was their bank that overcharged. The thing that gets me frustrated is that when I would call NCL their attitude was rotten with some of the answers I got from them all I wanted to know was when was I going to get refunded. after talking to many of people nobody would give me an honest answer until I talked to one lady who said that there was nothing they could do b/c it had happened to hundreds of customers and told me that it was a "glitch" I understand mistakes could happen and as far as my bank I can also see where they are coming from they had to charge me overdraft charges the checks would have not bounced if the money wasnt taken out in the first place of course they could have worked with me, being a good customer for years with them. The way I look at it, The bank that made the error was NCL's not mine. I am Ncl's customer it is up to NCL to correct the problem with there bank. Also an apology would have been nice, instead I had someone scream at me over the phone saying it was not NCl's fault. I am a very calm person have never raised my voice to anyone everyone should be treated with respect.., But that was uncalled for...

[mbisson]

Honestly, I can see if NCL is not at fault although it was their bank that overcharged. ...

 

Merchant banks are not actually their bank anymore than they are your bank. They are a clearing center (I'm not familiar enough to know if anyone actually has an monetary acct with them-they exist at least partly from the percentage that merchants are charged to accept credit cards). Without them there probably wouldn't be a credit card/debit card system in the country (at least not in the form it is now). I expected your response and that's where the frustration comes into it. You (understandably) want to blame NCL, and NCL may not have had anything to do with the problem.

[VoyageVirgin]

Well, I certainly would not stand for anyone yelling at me. Don't care who they are. Hopefully, you got their name and report it in writing. There is no call for treating a customer with disrespect - no matter how frustrated they are. I was a Customer Service manager for many years - and rudeness was never tolerated.

 

Monte, thanks for the clarification on merchant banking procedures :) And if that is the case I can understand why they (NCL) are saying they cannot do anything about the OD's

 

RRLA here's hoping your personal bank will practice some "customer service" for you. I would like to think mine would - or I'd be changing banks fairly quickly. Easier said than done sometimes.

[mbisson]

Monte, thanks for the clarification on merchant banking procedures :) And if that is the case I can understand why they (NCL) are saying they cannot do anything about the OD's

.

 

I'm sure I probably made some mistakes in my explanation, but that's the way it appeared to me. And I would about guarantee that some person (probably a few people) at NCL are on the phone with the clearing bank and going nuts. Also, for a company the size of NCL, I doubt that many of their cust svc people are familiar with how bank cards clear and what problems can come up. If someone wants to see more specifics try a search of "Automated Clearing House".

 

I would hope that (if NCL and the customer cannot get satisfaction from the banks) NCL would go ahead and cover the charges or somehow otherwise work something out with rrlacruiser to her satisfaction. Maybe our society is getting too dependent on computers!!! But remember, I based all this on the belief is that the problem was with the card not properly transmitting

 

BTW-absolutely agree about the idea of someone yelling at a customer-not good at all for any reason. I don't think anyone would dispute that (except for the one yelling ;) )

 

-Monte

[Toyz711]

you are frustrated, the people (at NCL) are frustrated and the situation gets worst. the same way i felt every night going home, some days i would just cry. people yelling at me for not fixing a problem with their banking, i worked for a department store, not the bank.

i do agree that you are due the over draft charges..but from the offending party and that is NOT ncl. the only computers that can and do interact with your account is the bank. i am sure that NCL was not the only company affected?

i do feel sorry for you and dealing with your bank. you should be getting more service then that. if a crook had made some charges on your account, would they not protect you? it only takes a few minutes for a officer of your bank to get with the bank (noted by the routing numbers on the charge) to find and fix the problem.

a couple of weeks ago, DH's check didn't get direct deposited. it was going to cause major problems, since the bank it gets deposted in is in another state. i took it to the local bank we use (for the small stuff), told them the problem..they wired the money (not waiting the 3 days for the check to clear) and waived the fee to wire. true, the paycheck was also through this bank, but still it wasn't their fault and they went out of their way to help. that was good customer service.:D

[Stillfloatin']

Unfortunately, good customer service is becoming increasingly rare.:(

[electricron]

Unfortunately' date=' good customer service is becoming increasingly rare.:([/quote']

 

It's a sign of the times. Out-sourcing personnel is a very common business practice in America today. It saves on the cost of labor, but it also kills worker's loyality to a company.

 

As I wrote earlier, the supervisor with a salary has a "financial" reason to answer questions with explanations from all customers, the workers answering the calls working for a commission based upon sales don't. They will answer questions required to make a sale and to keep their customers happy for future sales, but not someone elses customers. Their loyality to a company isn't bought with a regular, reliable paycheck from the company.

 

At a moment's notice, the company could out source them again to another company with even less payroll costs, and less pay.

[CruisinMatt]

It's a sign of the times. Out-sourcing personnel is a very common business practice in America today. It saves on the cost of labor, but it also kills worker's loyality to a company.

 

 

You know, I wouldn't say this is always true. My company runs an "outsource" call center in rural Minnesota, we take calls for five clients. Our solution is much cheaper than if these clients had thier own call centers, but most of our employees taking the calls, do have pride in each company as well as thier own. They want to keep the job and they like what they do. Maybe it's not the typical sweatshop scenario you are talking about.

[electricron]

You know, I wouldn't say this is always true. My company runs an "outsource" call center in rural Minnesota, we take calls for five clients. Our solution is much cheaper than if these clients had thier own call centers, but most of our employees taking the calls, do have pride in each company as well as thier own. They want to keep the job and they like what they do. Maybe it's not the typical sweatshop scenario you are talking about.

Not to get political on a cruising forum, but I bet they would have "more" loyality if they worked for the companies they take calls for; if they had the same benefits, including vacations, overtime pay, health care, and retirement.

 

The reason your solution is cheaper is because you don't offer the same benefits. If you did, you wouldn't be cheaper.

[CruisinMatt]

Not to get political on a cruising forum, but I bet they would have "more" loyality if they worked for the companies they take calls for; if they had the same benefits, including vacations, overtime pay, health care, and retirement.

 

The reason your solution is cheaper is because you don't offer the same benefits. If you did, you wouldn't be cheaper.

 

We offer all of those benefits plus more, and we are cheaper :)

[electricron]

Then you are the exception. Everyone I know that has been outsourced from a major company has lost $$$$ over it. Workers that were once praising the company they worked for once are now flaming it, and those still working for the same company are looking for opportunties to get out before they are out sourced.

[newmexicoNita]

I contacted my bank and did a debit dispute I did get the original doubled amount back a week later, but as far as the o/d charges the bank said that it was not their issue it was up to norwegian to refund the o/d charges I know that the 145.00 is not alot of money, but I feel like I should get it back don't you?

$145 is a lot of money and I certainly wouldn't want to eat if because someone else made a mistake. Yes, you should get it back from someone. NMnita

[arabrab]

$145 is a lot of money and I certainly wouldn't want to eat if because someone else made a mistake. Yes, you should get it back from someone. NMnita

 

You also want to get the charges reversed because it affects your credit rating with the bank and might even make it more difficult to open an account elsewhere -- some banks also charge more for overdrafts once you've had more than 3 or 4, so if you overdraw your account in six months, it could end up being pretty painful.

 

I'd second the suggestion that you speak directly (in person) with your branch manager or operations manager.

 

In the future you might really want to pay for cruises on a credit card rather than a debit card. People using debit cards have also found that they've been burned big time by holds placed on their accounts that temporarily have the effect of doubling the charge to be posted to the account.