Can I Buy A Vowel? For $100

I just returned from a week long cruise on the Crown and I'm not sure I will be on another one. The sad thing is that the on board experience was nice to very good, but I can't get rid of the sour taste in my mouth regarding the customer service from the line. I booked three rooms for eight people in my family. My single mom sister checked the paperwork for her and her daughter and thought nothing more until she tried to pre-register. She then found that her last name was spelled with a "I" at the end instead of a "Y". Princess assessed a $50 per person fee to make this change. When my TA and I spoke to a Princess rep there was an agreement to "split the difference". I waited until the next day to speak to customer relations and the extremely rude woman I spoke to not only would not make any accomondation, she refused to honor the previous rep's offer - basically she called me a liar that it was ever offered. A letter to Princess netted the same thing even though the person who called back was very nice. I tend to be someone who votes with my wallet - I cancelled $200 in pre-reserved Princess excursions and then booked my other excursions outside of their offerings. I did not buy anything in the boutiques even though they may have been more convienent; I found things on the islands. My plan was to take advantage of the Future Cruise booking program I had learned about from this board, but I didn't do that either. In total, my group reduced our Princess spending on this trip by about $3,000 and didn't book a future trip - but Princess did get their $100.

To be fair, we did not make the change request within 45 days of sailing because she didn't see the error. That is our fault. But I think there is a degree of reasonableness that a customer oriented business should follow. There was an option for them to reduce the charge to an amount more consistent with the need to change a computer entry. (I pointed out that Princess made a "mistake" by not anticipating what fuel prices would be when they priced trips, but I did not complain when they charged me for their mistake when they added a surcharge.) And rudeness doesn't have a place in conversations with customers.

Maybe as I look back at my pictures and relive the fun we had I may change my mind. But for now I have to turn my back on a company that wants to take but not give.

That scenario sounds a little ludicrous to me - I can understand your frustration. Now you have me worried, though, as my husband's name is spelled incorrectly on our booking. I didn't think it would be an issue - they have put an "H" in his first name, where there is none. Are you saying that they may charge me $100 to fix it?

The spelling of names is very important, that is why most reservations tell you to make sure to check for any spelling errors right after booking.

An extra letter here or one missing there, can be costly. This is a standing rule with cruise lines, no matter which one you choose to sail on. It isn't just Princess. Sorry it upset you, but since this was the passengers mistake, the cruise line has rules that they need to follow. The mistake should have been caught when the booking receipt was given.

Again, sorry you let this disrupt your vacation, but rules are rules on a ship and although some land based hotels can overlook them, ships will not.

That scenario sounds a little ludicrous to me - I can understand your frustration. Now you have me worried, though, as my husband's name is spelled incorrectly on our booking. I didn't think it would be an issue - they have put an "H" in his first name, where there is none. Are you saying that they may charge me $100 to fix it?

That will depend on how close your cruise is. I would make sure to take care of this immediately.

I did just call Princess and was told that they could not do anything about it, that I should call my TA. I looked through all my booking stuff and the name is spelled correctly everywhere except for on the booking summary on the Princess site....I will speak with my TA tomorrow and try to sort it out.

This happened to me also. We didn't receive our boarding documents until a couple of weeks before the cruise. (We called to get them) When we received them, my first name was spelled wrong. Our travel agent and Princess tried to charge us to make the change, but luckily I had kept all the E-mails which showed the error was between them and not us. There was a lot of arguing, but they changed it and dropped the charges.

To top it all off, my name is Ann, so I truly doubt I would spell it wrong! Someone had added the first letter of my last name making it Anna.

Stick to your guns if you're right. If it's your mistake, you'll probably have to suck it up!!

Your name has to match the ticket exactly, for security rules.

My father is a million miler on Delta, however he suffered a stroke years ago, before all the new rules went into effect. When we booked the most recent airline ticket, through their Website, it still had his nickname under his profile. So his ticket was purchased with nickname.

Thankfully the check in agent changed it at no charge (being a million miler does help there too). I felt really stupid because I had helped them make the reservations, and didnt even think about his name not matching his ID. We also changed his profile so this doesnt happen again.

Princess probably should have handled things more nicely, it is not as if you were trying to put a different person onboard. But please always make sure you check spelling of name.

It is sure a hard (and expensive) lesson to learn... but it is really important that your name is spelled correctly and as it appears on your passport when making travel reservations on a cruise line or an airplane. No one can depend on a travel agent or the cruise line (when booking directly) spelling even the most common name correctly.... like the poster above.... Ann became Anna because that is what the person on the phone probably heard and did not confirm back.

Maybe you should go for a "vowel renewal"

IMO, Life is too short to get oneself all worked up and hold grudges. Princess may have robbed the OP of a change fee but they robbed themselves of an awesome holiday by harboring resentment about it.

As a TA I ask everyone to be sure to check the spelling of their names when I send the confirmation. Any small mistake can happen..it may sound different over the phone, I may have hit the wrong key...etc. It's very important to have the names spelled correctly. This being said, I don't see where this is Princess's problem...yes, it is a small amount of money, and the problem seems insignificant to you, but what if every person did this? The traveller (and TA) both have responsibility. I think you really overreacted to a small detail and consequently it affected your trip.

The traveller (and TA) both have responsibility.

I agree. The TA is the first line of defense, and most probably have nightmares about the spelling of names. But, saying that, unless you received nothing during the entire booking process from either the TA or Princess that showed your name incorrectly spelled, you can hardly make Princess the culprit here.

I agree. The TA is the first line of defense, and most probably have nightmares about the spelling of names. But, saying that, unless you received nothing during the entire booking process from either the TA or Princess that showed your name incorrectly spelled, you can hardly make Princess the culprit here.

But the poster says she received paperwork, so it's back in their court. If the client receives nothing from the TA or cruiseline there would definatly be a problem.

I have an online TA and every time we make a reservation, it says in BOLD type to check all spellings of names, birth dates and the reservation particulars.

The cruise personalizer is something that everyone should become acquainted with. By signing in to your reservation, you can check that everything is correct and you can also see that your room assignment and dining selection are the way they should be. Maybe this mistake would have been caught early if the passengers would have used the personalizer.

If this is your only complaint about your cruise, my advice is to let it go and do not sour the whole experience for yourself. All cruiselines would have charged you this change fee so Princess is not alone with this requirement. Chalk it up in the live and learn column.

But the poster says she received paperwork, so it's back in their court. If the client receives nothing from the TA or cruiseline there would definatly be a problem.

I wasn't clear that the paperwork had been okay, just that the error hadn't been noticed until online registration was done. If the paperwork was OK and it was from the TA, not Princess (it must have been...Princess's paperwork would have had the spelling as they received it) the error had to be the TA's, in which case the TA should pay the $50 charge (and the charge is normally industry practice). If the paperwork was not OK and it was simply not noticed until online registration was attempted, then it is the OP's issue (or her sister's issue).

My single mom sister checked the paperwork for her and her daughter and thought nothing more until she tried to pre-register. She then found that her last name was spelled with a "I" at the end instead of a "Y".

To be fair, we did not make the change request within 45 days of sailing because she didn't see the error. That is our fault.

Direct quotes from the OP. It sounds like they didn't notice the name being mispelled..........................!

Thank you Toto:) That's how I was reading it. Thought I was going crazy for a moment:eek:

IMO, Life is too short to get oneself all worked up and hold grudges. Princess may have robbed the OP of a change fee but they robbed themselves of an awesome holiday by harboring resentment about it.

Thank you all for your comments; it is clear to me that I failed to clearly state my primary issue. Yes, I think that the $100 to change a letter is too high, especially when they couldn't tell me what was going to be done that required such a fee, but as I stated WE made the mistake in not catching the error earlier. My issue is with the way we were treated by the Customer Relations person and the refusal of Princess to try and help my sister out. In fact, if the CR person had not been so incredibly rude and arrogant (the TA on the conference call even said that she was shocked), I would have probably accepted it as a lesson learned.

But as Casshew pointed out, harboring resentment and cheating myself out of an awesome vacation would be silly. So I did not discuss this with people on the cruise and didn't post this until my return (hopefully to remind others to check carefully). And on my cruise I went to Sabatini's (great), ordered drinks when I wanted, "donated" to the casino and had fun with my family. But I spent my other money with companies besides Princess. I simply choose not to reward bad service. (My room steward, waiter and the fabulous Head Waiter Francisco were rewarded with extra tips because they gave great service).

Just take $100 worth of spa towels and call it even

I'm typically one who blames the customer on issues that the customer should have check out. BUT, on this one I side with the OP. Come on, why would it cost anything just to correct a name change regardless of fault as it may have been their, the TA's or the customers fault. Not sure that this one should cost anybody anything. Certainly not $100.

Come to think of it on my last cruise my 13 year old daughter was "Mrs" on her cruise docs. I didn't call about it and traveled with it that way, no one said a word.

Glad to hear the OP had some fun despite the fee being a sore spot.

I'm typically one who blames the customer on issues that the customer should have check out. BUT, on this one I side with the OP. Come on, why would it cost anything just to correct a name change regardless of fault as it may have been their, the TA's or the customers fault. Not sure that this one should cost anybody anything. Certainly not $100.

I've told this story here before so I won't repeat myself but I was amazed how it took 6 months for Princess to return $140 mistake they made and admitted to and how they tried to drag it out and kept asking for unrelated documentation. It felt to us and our TA that they were trying to put up road blocks until we went away. But we were stubborn out of principle and eventually got our $140 dollars back along with a bad taste about doing business with Princess.

We have spent over $100,000 dollars on vacations with Princess but they lost us, in part, to making it difficult to collect on their $140 dollar mistake. Go figure how you stay in business treating customers like that.

To the OP: I'm sorry you had this experience with Princess' Customer Service. I've been fortunate to get friendly, helpful people to assist me when I've had a problem.

As you admit, you missed the mis-spelling until it was too late to avoid the $50 change fee (after final payment.) A lesson learned: no matter who you book with, i.e., whether a TA or directly with Princess, you should always receive a confirmation with all of the booking information and if you don't, ask for one. Mistakes are made and you are your own best advocate to catch them early. IMHO, this is your (used rhetorically) responsibility so that the booking and process goes smoothly.

It's critical that your booking and PIF information is correct and that the name matches your passport or ID docs exactly. The manifest of names is submitted to Homeland Security at least 60 minutes before sailing (if you're sailing from a U.S. port.) This is not a Princess requirement but a U.S. Government requirement. When you board a ship, you're not going on the equivalent of a moving U.S. island but on a foreign-flagged entity, pretty much the same as a foreign country. Many people lose sight of this fact.

As a TA I ask everyone to be sure to check the spelling of their names when I send the confirmation. Any small mistake can happen..it may sound different over the phone, I may have hit the wrong key...etc. It's very important to have the names spelled correctly. This being said, I don't see where this is Princess's problem...yes, it is a small amount of money, and the problem seems insignificant to you, but what if every person did this? The traveller (and TA) both have responsibility. I think you really overreacted to a small detail and consequently it affected your trip.

:mad: I'm glad that you consider $100 a small amount of money. She may have over-reacted, but it would piss me off too. Even if all of the lines do it, its still a rip-off. It's just a way for them to appear to charge lower fares and then nickle & dime you to death. If they could figure out a way to do it, they would charge you if you farted!

:mad: I'm glad that you consider $100 a small amount of money. She may have over-reacted, but it would piss me off too. Even if all of the lines do it, its still a rip-off. It's just a way for them to appear to charge lower fares and then nickle & dime you to death. If they could figure out a way to do it, they would charge you if you farted!

Now that was a very adult way of expressing yourself. Are you now proud? :rolleyes: