New practice regarding auto gratuities removal.

Apparently it is now company policy after being confirmed by P&O Customer Services that if you remove auto gratuities that every time you order anything onboard and you sign a receipt the words "OPTED OUT" are printed on the receipt. Surely this is a breach of the Data Protection Act but does not seem to be bothering them.

Seriously? Are we going to have to do a walk of shame after signing our receipts too ;p

Cancel them on Day 13.

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Easy for me to solve I have a cruise on Britannia next May that I booked in September 2017 and have regretted ever since and seriously been considering cancelling it but now my mind is made up.

Is this an April Fool joke? Must be

Is this an April Fool joke? Must be

No somebody has started a thread on another TA forum and said when rang P&O Customer Services to confirm it was told that it is now "practice".

If this is for real, I cannot see what it would achieve. The members of staff who benefit from the Service Charge are Cabin Stewards and waiting staff. You aren’t presented with bills from any of them, so if it is designed to make people feel awkward it fails. The staff who would present you with a bill (e.g. wine waiters) receive a commission on each sale and do not receive a distribution from the service charge, so wouldn’t care less.

If true, it seems as though P&O are now seriously panicking about the numbers removing the service charge. Good. People power is hopefully winning and they will eventually be forced to increase cruise prices for everyone and pay the staff a decent wage, meaning that everyone pays equally and staff will be incentivised to go above and beyond, as many of us will continue to reward good service with cash tips.

Cancel them on Day 13.

I agree, cancel them on the last evening just before retiring for the night. Should keep the night staff busy.

Alternatively wait until they deliver the invoice and dispute it at reception on disembarkation day as an unauthorised charge.

Do you care if they write "OPTED OUT" on your receipt? I shall reduce my autograts to £1 for the whole cruise next month, lets see what they write on the receipt then!!!

Does this mean that gratuities are charged in one lump at the end of the cruise, or are they charged daily and you can cancel retrospectively?

Cancel them on Day 13.

 

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Hi....has this now come into practice...if so can someone who is now on a cruise or has just returned please confirm if this is the " new policy". Oh dear if it is....a wrong move on P&O 's part....trying to shame people into conforming to their way when people who do remove tips/gratuities/service charge prefer to pay direct for good service. There have been many many threads regarding tips/gratuities/service charge and the easy answer is to incorporate them into the fare....as our next cruise is. P&O are dragging their feet in doing this....probably for their own advantage ....so are trying a different approach but it's a totally wrong approach. People may not accept the " stick" approach and will vote with their wallets/purses. P&O shot themselves in the foot....again

I have a theory that this is ahead of charging gratuities for purchases where person has opted out.

IT changes always take a while to implement and bed in so you would roll out the system changes before implementing new policy.

To pre-empt questions about late opt-out, under such a policy a retrospective charge for purchases can still be made if that is made clear on the opt-out form.

This is just a theory but I don't believe P&O would spend money on IT changes just to shame people into not opting out.

An interesting topic, we are due to board Ventura today so will soon find out.

However I don't really see the connection with on board purchases, since drink prices are supposed to include a gratuity element.

Apparently it is now company policy after being confirmed by P&O Customer Services that if you remove auto gratuities that every time you order anything onboard and you sign a receipt the words "OPTED OUT" are printed on the receipt. Surely this is a breach of the Data Protection Act but does not seem to be bothering them.

Hi, I came off Ventura on Friday and I removed my AG’s on day 2. I have checked all my receipts and none of them had the words “Opted Out” printed on them. Don’t believe everything you read ;).

No somebody has started a thread on another TA forum and said when rang P&O Customer Services to confirm it was told that it is now "practice".

In that case it must be true then.;)

Does this mean that gratuities are charged in one lump at the end of the cruise, or are they charged daily and you can cancel retrospectively?

 

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They are charged in one go, usually around the 2nd day of the cruise. You can ask for them to be removed at any time during your cruise, including the last day.

My mum and dad sail on Ventura today too. I won’t mention this to them as they had quite a stressful journey to their hotel yesterday with road closures etc and I think Dad was going to opt out and tip in cash as he’d seen some posts about AGs. I’ll leave it until they’re back and then ask them. We sail on Azura the day before they return so I think I’m going to reduce the amount of AGs and then tip in cash. See if we get a letter in the ‘pigeon hole’ from P&O asking why we’ve reduced them ;)

I hope everyone who sails today has a lovely cruise!

Sam.

Didn’t see this on our bar receipts on Oceana - returned 7 June. We were asked to complete a form before the AG were removed though - basic details (name/cabin/MDR) then your reasons for reducing/removing AG

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Now more people will remove them to see if it comes up.

Apparently it is now company policy after being confirmed by P&O Customer Services that if you remove auto gratuities that every time you order anything onboard and you sign a receipt the words "OPTED OUT" are printed on the receipt. Surely this is a breach of the Data Protection Act but does not seem to be bothering them.

We will continue to pay AG but what this action will do is have hundreds of people queuing on the last day to remove AG.

Yes there will be a seperate queue for reception with a big sign saying ‘gratutities cheepskates queue here’.:)

If this is for real, I cannot see what it would achieve. The members of staff who benefit from the Service Charge are Cabin Stewards and waiting staff. You aren’t presented with bills from any of them, so if it is designed to make people feel awkward it fails. The staff who would present you with a bill (e.g. wine waiters) receive a commission on each sale and do not receive a distribution from the service charge, so wouldn’t care less.

 

If true, it seems as though P&O are now seriously panicking about the numbers removing the service charge. Good. People power is hopefully winning and they will eventually be forced to increase cruise prices for everyone and pay the staff a decent wage, meaning that everyone pays equally and staff will be incentivised to go above and beyond, as many of us will continue to reward good service with cash tips.

Maybe P&O should take a good look at doing this.

Does this mean that gratuities are charged in one lump at the end of the cruise, or are they charged daily and you can cancel retrospectively?

 

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An interesting topic, we are due to board Ventura today so will soon find out.

However I don't really see the connection with on board purchases, since drink prices are supposed to include a gratuity element.

Hi, I came off Ventura on Friday and I removed my AG’s on day 2. I have checked all my receipts and none of them had the words “Opted Out” printed on them. Don’t believe everything you read ;).