Suspicious Mini-bar charges

There are quite a number of current Cruise Critic threads that end up discussing after-disembarkation charges for one or both of the bottles of Evian that are RCI cabins. Yes, I’m sure that some of these bottles were in fact consumed, and those are legitimate charges, but there are MANY claims that the full bottles were there when the passengers vacated the cabin, yet charges still were added.

Based on Roll Calls that kept a list of all who had posted to that thread and based on the number of people who have signed up for the M&M (always more than attend), I’d say that members of Cruise Critic represent less than 1% of the passengers on-board.

I think I’m about average in checking my credit card charges – I skim down the bill, see if I recognize the merchants and see if the charged amount looks reasonable (I used to carefully keep each bill and check the precise amounts, but after years of finding very few anomalies I decided that was more trouble than it’s worth). Only because there were numerous recent CC postings about RCI over charges did I do a precise check on RCI’s charge for my January cruises – and yep they charged me an additional $6.16. The first friend I checked with had been late charged $12.32.

Given the number of people who (1) check their precise billed amount, (2) are a member of CC and (3) take the time and effort to actually post about the improper charge, I estimate that every CC post about those charges easily represents thousands of such charges, most of which are never caught and reversed. Assuming that is true, where does the money go? RCI (the cruise line, not the entire corporation) has over 70,000 passengers per week. If you get an extra $10 from one tenth of them, that is ~$3.5 million per year. IMO the risk versus reward to RCCL as a corporation does not make them a likely suspect (but, as always, I could be wrong). I can’t figure out how the stocking person delivering the bottles of Evian could make much money out of this (he could probably sell a few bottles at deep discount on the ship, but he personally would have a hard time getting them off the ship to sell). The ship supply officer could be accepting fewer bottles than he is signing for, and splitting the difference with someone in the delivery company, but these late charges seem to be across the fleet, and I think it unlikely that multiple supply officers are in collusion. If there is fraud, that leaves my most likely suspect as someone in accounting who has figured out how to add mini-bar water charges to random bills, somehow sequester those funds in a special account that is used to reimburse the disputed reversed charges without leaving a trail, and is then sending the remaining funds to his bank account in the Cayman Islands (or similar). As far a financial fraud goes, this is far from the most complicated.

I got off the Oasis on 5 Feb 2017 and did not receive any form of electronic Final Invoice after I disembarked. There are however several reports here on CC of even more recent passengers receiving electronic Final Invoices (some with added charges, some without) apparently without requesting them. Has RCI started doing this across the fleet within the last 10 days? Could this be because they have they realized that something is wrong in billing? If my hypothetical rouge accountant is out there, this might be a good time to head to Brazil (which essentially does not extradite for non-violent financial fraud).

Any more conspiracy theories out there?

Haha, you've put an awful lot of thought into that theory; none of that has ever crossed my mind when reading the posts about overcharges. I just assume it's lazy (or overworked and over-rushed) employees doing a poor job of looking for the water bottles when passengers leave.

Royal probably has a lot of extra revenue on their books from mistaken charges, but an equal amount of credits given to passengers in the form of on board credit for complaints and dissatisfaction and refunds for incidences that didn't go quite right. It all evens out on their end. Some day someone will probably file a class action lawsuit and everyone who has ever been charged for missing mini bar items will get a piece of the settlement; probably $2 per person, except the main person on the lawsuit who will get $10 million, and the lawyer, who will get $30 million, lol.

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There are quite a number of current Cruise Critic threads that end up discussing after-disembarkation charges for one or both of the bottles of Evian that are RCI cabins. Yes, I’m sure that some of these bottles were in fact consumed, and those are legitimate charges, but there are MANY claims that the full bottles were there when the passengers vacated the cabin, yet charges still were added.

 

Based on Roll Calls that kept a list of all who had posted to that thread and based on the number of people who have signed up for the M&M (always more than attend), I’d say that members of Cruise Critic represent less than 1% of the passengers on-board.

 

I think I’m about average in checking my credit card charges – I skim down the bill, see if I recognize the merchants and see if the charged amount looks reasonable (I used to carefully keep each bill and check the precise amounts, but after years of finding very few anomalies I decided that was more trouble than it’s worth). Only because there were numerous recent CC postings about RCI over charges did I do a precise check on RCI’s charge for my January cruises – and yep they charged me an additional $6.16. The first friend I checked with had been late charged $12.32.

 

Given the number of people who (1) check their precise billed amount, (2) are a member of CC and (3) take the time and effort to actually post about the improper charge, I estimate that every CC post about those charges easily represents thousands of such charges, most of which are never caught and reversed. Assuming that is true, where does the money go? RCI (the cruise line, not the entire corporation) has over 70,000 passengers per week. If you get an extra $10 from one tenth of them, that is ~$3.5 million per year. IMO the risk versus reward to RCCL as a corporation does not make them a likely suspect (but, as always, I could be wrong). I can’t figure out how the stocking person delivering the bottles of Evian could make much money out of this (he could probably sell a few bottles at deep discount on the ship, but he personally would have a hard time getting them off the ship to sell). The ship supply officer could be accepting fewer bottles than he is signing for, and splitting the difference with someone in the delivery company, but these late charges seem to be across the fleet, and I think it unlikely that multiple supply officers are in collusion. If there is fraud, that leaves my most likely suspect as someone in accounting who has figured out how to add mini-bar water charges to random bills, somehow sequester those funds in a special account that is used to reimburse the disputed reversed charges without leaving a trail, and is then sending the remaining funds to his bank account in the Cayman Islands (or similar). As far a financial fraud goes, this is far from the most complicated.

 

I got off the Oasis on 5 Feb 2017 and did not receive any form of electronic Final Invoice after I disembarked. There are however several reports here on CC of even more recent passengers receiving electronic Final Invoices (some with added charges, some without) apparently without requesting them. Has RCI started doing this across the fleet within the last 10 days? Could this be because they have they realized that something is wrong in billing? If my hypothetical rouge accountant is out there, this might be a good time to head to Brazil (which essentially does not extradite for non-violent financial fraud).

 

Any more conspiracy theories out there?

Just to add to this but in reading many of these threads it has appeared that some ships seem to have more than others and that has varied. Whether that is just a random coincidence based on who posted I don't know. This did make me question whether it was a head office charge, which I doubt, or something that is being done on board by employees such as a F&B manager or even at the HD level as they would be responsible for overall sales goals which they could be receiving a bonus for attaining.

Maybe Miami is aware (how could they not be) and the sending out of the invoices via e mail is part of their effort to make people aware of the charges so that they can get a better grasp on the problem and stop it.

Thanks for posting. I'm one of those that always reviews my credit card statement for accuracy. So far I've never had any erroneous charge from RCI or any other cruise line. So far! I'm glad others have posted their experiences with RCI on CC as an FYI.

I don't know about conspiracy, but I do think that Royal is aware of this (how could they not be?) and is choosing to ignore it. We were hit with the $6.16 charge, and several on our board posted that they were also hit with the varying charges. FWIW, I left the water bottles right on the counter, and actually took a picture of them before we left the cabin because I had heard about the bogus charges. The lady at Royal blamed it on the cabin steward - threw him under the bus! This was on Anthem in January.

Pretty much a non-issue now as you have to request items. The fridge is now empty when you board. Can't remember if water is still on the counter. It's hard to charge people when the items aren't even in the room anymore. I've actually had a soda or two from the minibar in the past and never been charged for them. I wonder how many people have that happen. No one's going to come back and report that as a new thread.

I was charged $12,27 on FR. I was in the room the morning of departure when the Mini-Bar was checked and it was noted that no H2O was used. When I called the charge was instantly removed with no questions.

Pretty much a non-issue now as you have to request items...

It is true that the fridge is no longer stocked with soft drinks, etc, but there are two 1 liter bottles of Evian on the desk that despite being untouched are resulting in many "mini-bar charges".

I was charged $12,27 on FR. I was in the room the morning of departure when the Mini-Bar was checked and it was noted that no H2O was used. When I called the charge was instantly removed with no questions.

I'm another one that just got the dreaded mini bar charge. Just off the BR Thursday and got an emailed Sea Pass bill (First time ver for that) with the $6.19 charge on it. It took a few minutes on the phone this morning but we are getting credit. Thought it odd that she needed my credit card number, would have thought they still had that.

Please contribute to my tracking site

http://rclminibarcharge.weebly.com

This sort of thing happens everywhere...not just on ships! All you need to do is dispute the charge...they will take it off.

It has happened a few times to us.You ring an 0844 number and are on the line for up to 10 minutes and they only refund the disputed amount so the cost of the call makes it pointless so we don't bother now but that is probably what they hope for.

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This sort of thing happens everywhere...not just on ships! All you need to do is dispute the charge...they will take it off.

I agree that they will take it off, but I strongly disagree that this sort of thing happens everywhere. We have stayed in many hotels with mini-bars, and have never been charged incorrectly. And the fact that this is so prevalent on Royal indicates that there is a problem.

This sort of thing happens everywhere...not just on ships! All you need to do is dispute the charge...they will take it off.

Uh, no, this does not happen "everywhere".

My two theories:

Sinister Theory

Some evil genius in their IT department got baked one night watching "Office Space" and coded something into the system to add these extra charges in a pseudo random manner and funnel the funds to their Swiss account. He is currently sitting next to Milton on a beach, both sipping Mai Tais.

Innocent Theory

With the mini bars being emptied, their IT department was supposed to code:

If Room Steward records bottled water consumed

Charge

Else

No Charge

End If

But instead he coded or was given a spec that said to code:

If Room Steward records bottled water not consumed

No Charge

Else

Charge

End If

And no one told the room stewards they have to specifically list the water as still there and officially report it as still there.

FWIW, I left the water bottles right on the counter, and actually took a picture of them before we left the cabin because I had heard about the bogus charges.

Two seconds after you take that picture, and before you leave the room, you can take both bottles of water. The picture doesn't really prove anything.

How about this theory

Bad tippers get extra charge from room steward?

I need to go back through my cc statements, I seem to remember a small addition to our November cruise, that we let go,

I bet it was a charge for water we never used. We had a package

I wish they would remove the water, it gets in the way ,

Maybe every one should also email the head of royal caribbean (seen email a dress given out on here) every time they are charged

Maybe if you don't tip the luggage porters at the beginning of the cruise it gets added to your bill at the end.;)

It has happened a few times to us.You ring an 0844 number and are on the line for up to 10 minutes and they only refund the disputed amount so the cost of the call makes it pointless so we don't bother now but that is probably what they hope for.

 

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Where are you calling from? The RCI number I would call is toll free.

Where are you calling from? The RCI number I would call is toll free.

Not everywhere in the world adopts the no-cost 1-800 number afforded to those in North America. Therefore, to make the call actually costs the customer.

#beyondyourfence

Where are you calling from? The RCI number I would call is toll free.

Not everywhere in the world adopts the no-cost 1-800 number afforded to those in North America. Therefore, to make the call actually costs the customer.

 

#beyondyourfence

Since you don't post where you're from (I should have googled 0844 to get my answer) is why I asked you a very non offensive question. No need to get upset over a simple question. Plus your #reference is uncalled for!

My toll free call to get the charge reversed COST me 20 minutes of my life. Other than as a protest against this continual crap screwing me and lots of other customers, getting back $6.16 which never should have been charged in the first place is not worth 20 minutes of my life. Damn right it costs me and other passengers.

Your time is no more valuable than mine! Has nothing to do with my comment. Do I think it's BS that anyone has to make the call, "damn right". But it's worth it to me if that's what it takes. "Damn right"! Write RCI/RCCL and file a complaint.

I use my EE phone in the UK which charges 50p per minute so the 10 minute call would cost £5 or about 6 dollars.

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