Princess Cruise Line: I HAVE to VENT!!!!!

[nycglitter]

I had to cancel a cruise once and the credit was almost immediately visible as a refund on my online statement. But, I was dealing with a TA.

 

NYC, I'm going to take your experience as a lesson to transfer my onboard bookings to my TA the second I get home. That way, I'll be dealing with my TA getting the refund generated rather than directly with Princess.

 

Thanks for the reminder.

Very wise! I wish I had done the same!

 

I, for one, commend you for your patience!! You have explained yourself very well. Unfortunately some of the answers have been so concentrated on defending Princess that they missed the whole point. As I read you, you are not so upset about the fact that a mistake was made but rather about the terrible service and treatment you received in trying to get it resolved. I don't blame you!

 

I would say that my first reaction might also be to withdraw my business and that is certainly an option. Maybe, also, after you get your money back you could speak with a person of authority at Princess and express the customer service failures.

 

I have found that the front-line employees at most customer service centers can be frustrating in these situations. But, usually there is someone over them that cares about their failures. That person will usually attempt to make it right for you in order to regain your confidence in their product and hopefully change some policies to stop the practice from happening again.

 

Best of luck!

 

Thank you.:D I am relieved that you actually understood my point! I was beginning to think that I was crazy. I did finally get to someone who listened to my frustrations and they were very sympathetic. I do feel better about the situation, just saddened that most people excuse poor customer service. I long for the days when people took pride in their job and wanted the best for their customers.:rolleyes:

[bdjam]

I hate to get into it again, but this is an irresponsible statement. I don't necessarily agree with offshoring these jobs, but because I've been involved with the practice, I don't agree that our personal information is any less safe than it would be in the US. The threat is in interception of personal data, not how it's handled in other countries. Frankly, the people working in call centers in other countries are actually highly educated - more than the reported high school students working for Princess in their call centers - and while there may be some language issues, they are very capable of handling customer service issues - especially when they've been trained properly.

 

Having people scream at you about issues that you're trying to help alleviate isn't an easy job. Before condeming anyone - foreign or national - it would be good to take a walk in their shoes. The four years I spent in a call center were the worst of my professional life.

My apologies...I attributed a quote to another poster with the same screen name "initials." I stand by my comment, however the originator of the quote in my post was incorrectly identified. I've reported myself and asked the moderators to revise my post.

[nycglitter]

Sad your wonderful cruise turned into this. We truly ejoyed reviewing your photos...all of them!

 

Thanks, probably painful to sit through!!! :)

[newman's dad]

While I appreciate your obvious and extensive credit knowledge. None of what you said applies to my situation. As it turns out, the additional charges were in fact not on my folio, but charges that remained pending and then ultimately disappeared on my credit card because because they were "test" charges. Apparently Princess will "test" a credit card at different intervals throughout a cruise to ensure that you have sufficient room on your credit card. Most people are probably not as anal as I am with my credit card statements and would not have noticed them because they disappear before your next billing cycle. I have never encountered anything like that in all of my years of using credit cards. It actually took Princess a fair amount of time to figure out that is in fact what happened.

 

 

So all of this was preauthorizations not actual charges as you made it sound. This is a comon pratice for car rentals as well. Not princesses fault no a charge just an authorization. It appears you flew off the handle because you credit card company failed to tell you this. You owe Princess a big sorry for needlessly bashing them.

[Desert Cruizers]

I called Princes in Calif from last cruise, and that was merely to handle a Cab fare, because getting in 2 hrs late to Seattle off our Panama Cruise, our bus couldn't get us to airport in time. No fault of Princess, but 13 foot waves slowed arrival. Needless to say Princess remimbursed all our Transfer fees, even though we had used them up to our Seattle trip to Airport. I believe their Calif Office is in Santa Clara.

[txflyer]

So all of this was preauthorizations not actual charges as you made it sound. This is a comon pratice for car rentals as well. Not princesses fault no a charge just an authorization. It appears you flew off the handle because you credit card company failed to tell you this. You owe Princess a big sorry for needlessly bashing them.

 

Ok, NYCGLitter...PLEASE help clarify... removing the 'preauthorization' charges was simple. The problem was getting your FCCs credited back to your account after Princess had committed to do it.??

[Sandytoes]

nycglitter

 

 

I just had a similar situation on my RC- AOS cruise.

 

After dinner my husband went and got the bill. We were looking over it and realized there were several drink orders right in a row. Each one in less than a minute. We checked our receipts and at that pacific time we only ordered 2 drinks. Everything else was fine.

We waited on this long line. We explained to the Desk Relations lady we didn't order all these drinks in less than a minute. She looked at us like we were trying to get away without paying for the drinks. I told her it is impossible for us to drink 5 "Drink of the Day" in less than a minute.

Well, she said she'll take care of it and only highlighted 2. Which we didn't realize until we got back to our stateroom.

We then had to go back, wait on line, and wait until she was available being we didn't want to explain the whole situation to another G.R. clerk. We showed her that she only took off 2 and not 4 orders. She had to go over the whole thing again. By now it's pass midnight.

She told us that the bill will be reviewed and if changes are made they will show on the TV in the morning.

In the morning, we tried to check our bill on the TV but it stated it was available.

We went for an early breakfast being we were getting ready to disembark. When we returned to our cabin there was the bill. With the corrections.

 

I wonder if bar staff, waiters purposely put extra charges on passenger's on board accounts to increase their tips?

[Desert Cruizers]

My husband always goes down and gets a printout, in the last week to double check all charges. He saves all receipts and accounts for every charge when he gets back to our room. Granted your not getting a receipt with Drinks, but other purchases.

[MercedMike]

 

Fast forward 2 weeks and 5 additional phone calls and that brings you to today. I just got off the phone with a supervisor regarding the fact that despite being told that my depost had been refunded, it hadn't been. She told me that they just discovered that the requests for refunds were being sent to INDIA and ending up dead. No one was ever going to see the requests and without my 5 phone calls, the refund would never have been processed. The supervisor blamed it on their technical department (:confused:?)

 

The process left such a bad taste in my mouth, it will be quite some time before I would ever consider another Princess Cruise. It's a shame too because we rather enjoyed the cruise (for the most part) and would have tried them again (as evidenced by the future cruise credit). I have literally spent more time post cruise with Princess Customer Service trying to remedy this than I did to book the cruise. Go figure.

 

You know, I just have to say this. This is exactly why you need a good local Travel Agent on your side. Your TA should have handled all of this for you. Spending hours on the phone dealing with Customer Non-Service departments is their job. In fact your story is pretty much how my DW the TA spends her days. Every week I hear three or four such stories that she is busy straightening out for her clients.

 

It is, let's face it, not a really big deal. just a matter of straightening up the accounting. The problem is the huge frustration from all those phone calls and different answers from different people. When you have a professional to handle all that for you, it helps greatly! Let your TA get frustrated. That is how she earns her commission.

[nycglitter]

Double post

[nycglitter]

While I appreciate your obvious and extensive credit knowledge. None of what you said applies to my situation. As it turns out' date=' the additional charges were in fact not on my folio, but charges that remained pending and then ultimately disappeared on my credit card because because they were "test" charges. Apparently Princess will "test" a credit card at different intervals throughout a cruise to ensure that you have sufficient room on your credit card. Most people are probably not as anal as I am with my credit card statements and would not have noticed them because they disappear before your next billing cycle. I have never encountered anything like that in all of my years of using credit cards. It actually took Princess a fair amount of time to figure out that is in fact what happened.

 

 

So all of this was preauthorizations not actual charges as you made it sound. This is a comon pratice for car rentals as well. Not princesses fault no a charge just an authorization. It appears you flew off the handle because you credit card company failed to tell you this. You owe Princess a big sorry for needlessly bashing them.[/quote']

 

I believe you may have a comprehension issue, so let me try to simplify this for you. This had NOTHING to do with my credit card, and everything to do with PRINCESS. If pre-authorizations are a common practice for Princess then that shoud have been able to be explained to me in a matter of minutes. Make sense? Instead, their poorly trained customer service reps had to pass me to several different people until I finally was able to speak to someone in accounting who actually knew their stuff.

 

And by the way, I did not make it sound like they were actual charges, I thought they WERE actual charges. Obviously I didn't know what they were (and neither did Princess), which is why I made the frustrating calls in the first place. Like I said, I just wanted an explanation for the charges, should not have been that complicated! Ok? Alrighty then!;)

[nycglitter]

Ok, NYCGLitter...PLEASE help clarify... removing the 'preauthorization' charges was simple. The problem was getting your FCCs credited back to your account after Princess had committed to do it.??

 

 

Actually it was both. Initially when I sat down to examine my credit card bill, I noticed a bunch of miscellanious charges and the fcc charge, plus an extra fcc charge. That is when I decided to simplify things (or so I thought) by just going to the source to ask what the charges were (except the fcc charge - which I knew and wanted removed). That is where this whole mess began. Had they said they were "preauthorizations" I would have understood. Unfortunately it took several attempts to get someone who could explain this. As for the fcc, that too was a problem for them due to the issues explained earlier.

 

In any case, all of the drama could have been avoided by a solid customer service rep from the onset.

[newman's dad]

And by the way, I did not make it sound like they were actual charges, I thought they WERE actual charges. Obviously I didn't know what they were (and neither did Princess), which is why I made the frustrating calls in the first place. Like I said, I just wanted an explanation for the charges, should not have been that complicated! Ok? Alrighty then!;)

 

So! Again you can't or don't understand. You have jumped down the throat of a poor employee about charges that weren't billed only authorized to you. Because the employee had no idea what you were mad about you blame them? Another example you buy gas most all swipes of your card only authorize $1.00 but what you actually buy gets charged to your account. Some but only a few authorize $100.00- $500.00 on your card placing a hold on that amount for 24 hours. When the charges arrive you are only charged for the gas you used.

 

Your credit card company should have told you it was an authorization not a charge and the call to Princess was not needed. Now you have yelled at several employees at Princess and defamed the company needlessly.

What you should do is call back princess and apologize for the way you acted and the same with this forum.

 

The reason they preauthorize is people will charge up large bills then when they charge them at the end of the cruise they don't have enough available credit.

[jakzak]

Are you really this dense or are you just trying to start something. Apologize to Princess for what! If Princess wants to take the chance that people will overspend that is thier business. To be safe maybe Princess should start processing actual charges nightly. If a person reaches thier limit the pursers desk can then ask for a different credit card or a cash deposit. It's the cruise line that will not allow it's customers to pay cash for anything. By reading some of your posts I wonder if you work for Princess.

[nycglitter]

And by the way' date=' I did not make it sound like they were actual charges, I thought they WERE actual charges. Obviously I didn't know what they were (and neither did Princess), which is why I made the frustrating calls in the first place. Like I said, I just wanted an explanation for the charges, should not have been that complicated! Ok? Alrighty then!;)[/quote']

 

So! Again you can't or don't understand. You have jumped down the throat of a poor employee about charges that weren't billed only authorized to you. Because the employee had no idea what you were mad about you blame them? Another example you buy gas most all swipes of your card only authorize $1.00 but what you actually buy gets charged to your account. Some but only a few authorize $100.00- $500.00 on your card placing a hold on that amount for 24 hours. When the charges arrive you are only charged for the gas you used.

 

Your credit card company should have told you it was an authorization not a charge and the call to Princess was not needed. Now you have yelled at several employees at Princess and defamed the company needlessly.

What you should do is call back princess and apologize for the way you acted and the same with this forum.

 

The reason they preauthorize is people will charge up large bills then when they charge them at the end of the cruise they don't have enough available credit.

 

Okay, I have stated SEVERAL times that I never lost my temper. I never yelled. I asked politely for an explanation so I could stay on top of things. Conversely, I was yelled at and hung up on. You think that is OK, well then, good for you. You obviously have low standards. Or, perhaps it was you on the phone...Hmmmm.... In any case. I owe Princess nothing. It was MY experience, you clearly don't get it and that is fine. I don't have to do business with you!!! I am done with you. Enjoyed your pathetic attempts to put words in my mouth. Generally people are pretty great on Cruise Critic. Not you however.

[mdmomof7]

Newman's Dad - Wow! Waaayyy off here! No more froo froo drinks for you. When you sober up, then come post and maybe you'll make some sense! Geesh!

[Desert Cruizers]

Mike I have used our TA here locally for the past 8 years.This is her job, and with the exception of the late arrival into Seattle due to high seas, and needing the cab instead of using the Transfer Bus, we have never experienced a problem. When I asked her about the Cab fair we had to pay, we were able to get it taken care of promptly. I was expecting the cab fair reimbursed, not intire Transfer fees. I deal withour TA or a representative of her office when I book.

[newman's dad]

When I returned home and saw my credit card statement, I saw the correct charge for my on-board purchases, including the future cruise credit, and several RANDOM charges that could not be accounted for ($800 total). This is where you should have called you credit card company no Princess. After a series of phone calls to their billing department it was clear that they had issues with their accounting practices and as they had trouble clearing up the $800 in additional charges. These weren't charge just authorizations a simple call to your credit card company could have told you this. It was at that point that I asked that my future cruise credit be refunded. This shows you were out of control when you called. How did the customer service rep know what you were upset about when you didn't even know.

 

Fast forward 2 weeks and 5 additional phone calls and that brings you to today. Again, Your fault. I just got off the phone with a supervisor regarding the fact that despite being told that my depost had been refunded, it hadn't been. She told me that they just discovered that the requests for refunds were being sent to INDIA and ending up dead. No one was ever going to see the requests and without my 5 phone calls, the refund would never have been processed. The supervisor blamed it on their technical department (:confused:?)

 

The process left such a bad taste in my mouth, it will be quite some time before I would ever consider another Princess Cruise. It's a shame too because we rather enjoyed the cruise (for the most part) and would have tried them again (as evidenced by the future cruise credit). I have literally spent more time post cruise with Princess Customer Service trying to remedy this than I did to book the cruise. AGAIN YOUR FAULT Go figure.

 

Sorry about the rant (believe it or not, this is the condensed version of the actually run around), but just thought you should know that if your are expecting any refund, or for that matter a certain level of customer service, THE CUSTOMER SERVICE SHOULD HAVE BEEN FROM YOUR OWN CREDIT CARD COMPANY you are in for an uphill battle.

 

Pheww! I feel better now. Thanks for listening!

[newman's dad]

While I appreciate your obvious and extensive credit knowledge. None of what you said applies to my situation. As it turns out, the additional charges were in fact not on my folio, but charges that remained pending and then ultimately disappeared on my credit card because because they were "test" charges. Apparently Princess will "test" a credit card at different intervals throughout a cruise to ensure that you have sufficient room on your credit card. Most people are probably not as anal as I am with my credit card statements and would not have noticed them because they disappear before your next billing cycle. I have never encountered anything like that in all of my years of using credit cards. It actually took Princess a fair amount of time to figure out that is in fact what happened. Because they were the wrong party to ask.

 

As for the rest, I feel as though I have explained it a million times and continue to get "help" on subjects that don't apply. I was merely venting as to the frustration I felt due to some of the folks at Princess who have not been trained properly on their own systems. Give them a break how can they help? You were complaining about a charge that wasn't made it was only an authorization.(This was actually told to me by the supervisor. New bunch of folks out of training taking phone calls when they are still not clear on the policies and how to work with "live" customers. Not my words, that came from Princess).

 

I don't know about where you work, but I know that any job I have ever held, customer service has always mattered. Any time you interact with the public, it is extremely important to LISTEN and the RESOLVE the problem. This is important on both ends of the phone I was never hostile, always calm, and explained my concerns clearly to the Princess call center representatives. In return, I was yelled at, hung up on and left on hold for inordinate amounts of time. Give us a break if this happened you would have written to Princess with the complaint the calls are all recorded. Bet the recording would be much different Would that be acceptable to you?

 

I see nothing Princess did wrong. I bet they told you right off the bat to dispute the charge with your card company.

[Fuzzzy]

They do not speak English even if they think they do. ou cant hear them because their voices are soft

They do not understand English

They can only work from a code book

 

I have totally given up hoping they will ever get anything right

 

However sooner or later they rip companies and individuals off and then things get bought back in house meanwhile our estimation of any company who outsources call centres to India goes down the pan

Over 380 million people in India speak English. That is more than in the USA

[Crown Prince]

Newman - He is the one we feel sorry for - with a "Dad" like THAT!!! :(

That "Dad" is totally out of control and just rants on.

 

NYGLITTER: I think that He is the only one on this board who just does not Get It!

 

It IS a fault of Princess Purser's Desk for not removing the hold when you pay off your Folio.

NYG: I had two > $3000 charges on my debit card for MONTHS before I realized that it was making my cheques bounce.

I had to look this up in my Notes to Self. While on the phone with the Fraud Department at Citibank, this is what I was told:

 

"Meagan said to demand an AUTHORIZATION REVERSAL before paying off the account so that the HOLD comes off the account."

 

This is a written receipt that the Purser should give you, not some Electronic thing that cannot be seen. You should not have to ask for it; however, demanding this upon paying your Folio will ensure that no more "Holds" or "Charges" will be incurred.

Thank you, very much, Glitter, for reminding me of this.

[newman's dad]

It IS a fault of Princess Purser's Desk for not removing the hold when you pay off your Folio. You don't get it either! Princess authorizes the test charge. The hold remains according to the credit card companies policy. Some credit card companies remove the hold after only 24 hours others leave it on since the charge was authorized and if it is sent through they have to pay it. Alot of this depends on your available balance on your credit card at the time. Removing a $800.00 hold for someone who only has $1000.00 available may not happen. But the same hold for someone with thousands of available credit is no big deal. The other thing they consider is a persons pay history.

NYG: I had two > $3000 charges on my debit card for MONTHS before I realized that it was making my cheques bounce.

I had to look this up in my Notes to Self. While on the phone with the Fraud Department at Citibank, this is what I was told:

 

"Meagan said to demand an AUTHORIZATION REVERSAL before paying off the account so that the HOLD comes off the account." This could take up to a week for it to be removed from your credit card.

 

This is a written receipt that the Purser should give you, not some Electronic thing that cannot be seen. You should not have to ask for it; however, demanding this upon paying your Folio will ensure that no more "Holds" or "Charges" will be incurred.

Thank you, very much, Glitter, for reminding me of this.

 

Thanks, for your comment about my dog he is smarter than people that anwser questions about things they know little or nothing about.

[cactusrose]

Newman's Dad. . . Princess sends an electronic file to place the hold for the charges and then sends a file to reverse the holds once the charges are actually placed against your credit card. So the fact that they charge the credit card and leave the hold on too IS their fault. Really you are persecuting the victim here and owe them an apology.

[LasVegas_Qtpie]

Newman, PLEASE come live with me!

 

You have a bona-fide retard for a Dad!

[AZbeachboy]

My husband always goes down and gets a printout, in the last week to double check all charges. He saves all receipts and accounts for every charge when he gets back to our room. Granted your not getting a receipt with Drinks, but other purchases.

 

I do the exact same thing and not only with cruise lines. It paid off this June when the Shearton Tahiti double billed my credit and added charges that amounted to about $60 extra, a total of $925.

 

I Called the credit card company and faxed by receipts from the hotel along with my reservation and what my rate was to me and they had it straighened out within a week.

 

Since then I have heard of others who had double billing from taht hotel. It also had something to do with pre-billing to get the cheaper rate.

 

BTW, I received a receipt for every drink I bought on board. I thought every one did. Don't you sign the slip and they give you the back copy.