Ever Get Home To A Bill Considerably Higher Than Given On Ship?

[tuggers]

This happened to me on a cruise that started in October and ended in November. I went over the final bill left on my door and it covered everything I had used or purchased.

In December when my AM EX bill came I had been charged right at $150 over and above what was on my bill. I started trying to find out what this was about in December (when I got the bill). Mid January I was getting nowhere so asked my travel agent to intervene.

She tried and tried and finally got them to promise to fax me the new bill, For a solid month they were reminded they had promised but nothing came. Thursday, after another call, the bill was finally sent by email.

I indeed did have two charges on the same day (the last day) for $75 and $70. But what for? Another call. Two complete mini bar resets. You've got to be kidding! I never so much as used a can of coke!

They start talking about investigations. Now it's been from the 1st week in November to the 3rd week in February. Who's going to know what was done?

I finally asked if they could check my prior cruise bills (and there are a LOT of them) to verify that I never use the mini bar. Put me on hold and then came back and said because I was a loyal customer they would refund the money on my say so.

I just wonder if this has happened before but for smaller amounts I would not even notice. I usually just glance at the charge and if it looks to be about what I remember I don't think about again. That will change now.

I was just wondering if anyone else has had an experience like this with billing once you leave the ship?

[Denny01]

We check our final credit card bill and up to know, haven't had any issues. But always check.

 

Denny

[Dharma517]

Nope I never had that problem but that is VERY aggravating!!! Don't you feel someone should pay you for your time involved in getting your own money back?

Jenn

[wrk2cruise]

This has happened to us twice but it was a few years back. At the time there were other posts on this board where it seemed it was not uncommon.

 

When we noticed the excess charges on the credit card Celebrity was contacted but it took a few weeks for them to get the bill detail from the ship. In both cases like you it was the full contents of the mini-nar and we don't use the mini-bar either. In both cases they credited the overcharge.

 

When we asked what could be done to prevent this in the future they suggested that we ask the butler/stateroom attendant to lock it for the duration of the cruise.

 

Frankly since they lock it the last night of the cruise anyway I don't think there is any excuse for any charges to be posted after the final bill for mini-bar consumption.

[1980dory]

I would strongly recommend disputing the charge with your credit card company if you don't get a prompt response to your request for an itemization. I would never let them drag it out for months on end.

As I recall, you only have a certain amount of time to dispute a charge.

Once you open a dispute, the charge is held in suspense until the debtor proves the validity of the charge. If they don't or can't verify or prove the charge, then you owe nothing.

[HLN500]

I had a few $ more posted to my cc then my final bill showed. Called billing dept and they didn't even bother to check what it was for but gave me an immediate credit.

[Lsimon]

I read about issues like this a couple years ago. After reading about it I checked for the first time on our following cruise and noticed our bill was over by something like $30 to $50 - I can't remember the amount but it was an even amount. I called customer service and it took a transfer or two but I eventually got to the correct person who told me what it was for and haggled a bit but without too much of an argument removed the charge.

 

Since then we've been comparing the final bill to the charge coming through and haven't noticed any difference. I also make sure that we stop by guest relations to get a final final bill, which should include any late charges, ar at least check the amount on the in-room TV and take a photo of it, so we'll have a good final total to compare.

 

I'm not only shocked they would hit you with 2 large mini-bar charges post-cruise - especially since they usually lock down the mini-bar before you get back from dinner the last night, but that they would argue about such a silly charge with you.

 

Since I've read about this and it's happened to me once, I find the practice disturbing. I don't know who is doing this nor why. I'm sure it isn't a formal policy, but suspect that it is occasionally done by some low level staff to cover something up or to balance some other shortage some place.

 

The bottom line is that everyone should hang onto their final bill and compare the exact amount to their credit card statement. Prior to reading about this I just looked to see if it was "about right" and in doing that a small difference wouldn't be noticed as we often spend a lot on a cruise and have pretty large ship-board accounts.

[bob278]

I agree with Larry. Of the two things that stood out the most to me (the time it took to get a resolution was the other), the fact that there were two complete restock charges (for different) amounts struck me as bizarre.

 

And, of course, to try to stick it to Gail who is a very frequent and savvy cruiser is laughable.

 

To paraphrase President Reagan, "Trust AND verify".

[rolfecms]

Thanks for the heads up! Will be extra vigilant in making sure the credit card bill matches the invoice.

[wvufan]

Thanks for the reminder. Last cruise we switched cabins mid cruise after another couple left, and it was a bit confusing for a while. We kept getting their statements as well as ours. I jjust double checked, it was billed right this time.

 

We check our credit cards every month-not long ago there was a $50 gasoline charge from another town. Wasn't us, and I got it removed, but it could easily have sliipped by us if we didn't routinely check.

 

OOOEEE :D:D Bob and Phyl

[The Anchor Banker]

Just a bit of advice from someone very experienced with financial instruments - use a cash account onboard. A little less convenient but avoids potential hassles which are more frequent than most realize.

[atb]

We had it happen once - and it took forever to get resolved - but when we finally got to the right people - the charge was removed.

The annoying thing was how difficult it was to find the right people. We always check our account frequently through the cruise - and again when we get our credit card statement. Also keep all those pesky slips until the credit card account is resolved.

It's always good to be reminded.

[Happy Clam]

The surprise mini bar charge also happened to us. Our credit card charge was $13 higher than our final Celebrity statement for our Solstice Dec 2009 cruise. Called Celebrity....it was a mini bar charge. Told Celebrity that on our many cruises with Celebrity/RCI that we have never ever use an item from the mini bar. The charge was credited back to Visa as a goodwill gesture. While $13 is not a significant amount, it would be interesting to know how this is happening and how best to avoid.

[shakespeare]

Happened to us twice. First time was a charge of about $3 and I just didn't feel it was worth my time and/or energy, so I let it go. Second time was over $100 so of course I called...they said it would be removed as a goodwill gesture. It was for items from the mini bar and a robe! I had to contact them several times before the credit was issued. What I found very insulting is that they had a representative call me to ask it it was clear that there was a charge for the robes. DOH!

[teajak]

Thanks for the reminder. Last cruise we switched cabins mid cruise after another couple left, and it was a bit confusing for a while. We kept getting their statements as well as ours. I jjust double checked, it was billed right this time.

 

We check our credit cards every month-not long ago there was a $50 gasoline charge from another town. Wasn't us, and I got it removed, but it could easily have sliipped by us if we didn't routinely check.

 

OOOEEE :D:D Bob and Phyl

That is the good part of checking your credit cards on line,you know at once when a charge is wrong.I check ours every 2 or 3 days, only takes a few minutes to be safe.

[zebra36]

Though it sounds as though many have had this issue resolved the fact that Celebrity says they will reverse the charges "as a goodwill gesture" makes it sond as thogh the chatges as far as they are concerned are legitimate but to smooth things over they will reverse them. I do not know how to resolve these issues but the " goodwill gesture" wording seems to cast suspicion on the claim of the cruiser. Fortunately I have not been put in this situation yet.

[shakespeare]

Though it sounds as though many have had this issue resolved the fact that Celebrity says they will reverse the charges "as a goodwill gesture" makes it sond as thogh the chatges as far as they are concerned are legitimate but to smooth things over they will reverse them. I do not know how to resolve these issues but the " goodwill gesture" wording seems to cast suspicion on the claim of the cruiser. Fortunately I have not been put in this situation yet.

 

Exactly. And the credit didn't go through until I emailed Dan Hanrahan...got the credit immediately after contacting him. I was told a representative would call me. I assumed they would call to apologize for the error and the delay in the credit. I did not expect to be asked if I thought the cards they put in the cabins explaining the charges for things like water, towels and robes were informative enough! I just wonder how so many billing mistakes are made.......and how many don't compare their actual charge to their bill...especially if it is only a few dollars differerence.

[FinelyCruising]

Knock wood we have never had a problem.

[redwinger]

Using cash works for us along with regularly checking the account on the television. A trip to guest services on the last night to finalize things, either cash back or dig a little deeper in the pocket seems to resolve things. We learned this lesson the hard way and they can't use the late credit card billing post cruise on us again. cheers

[bug_dan]

We've never had a problem with the billing. Being able to check it on the interactive tv is definitely a plus. However on our last cruise, we were the couple that left early whose cabin wvufan moved into. What was disturbing is that even though we left the ship on the 4th day of a 12 day cruise, our account was apparently kept open until the end of the cruise as wvufan got our final statement:(

[shakespeare]

I check my account daily on the interactive TV when on board...no mistakes and final bill was correct both times. It is a while after you get home when you see a charge on your credit card that makes no sense. It has only happened twice, but that seems like two times too many to me. As I said in my earlier post, the first time was only about $3 and I didn't want to deal with it, so I let it go. But when you are speaking about over $100 it is a big mistake in my opinion. I think I've used the min bar twice in all the times I've cruised and if I wanted a robe I'd buy one....not sneak one of their used ones off the ship.:eek: I would bet it is some kind of miscommunication when the cabin stewards are setting the cabins up for new guests since many of the wrong charges seem to relate to the mini bars.

[jen&mike]

Tuggers, I believe we were on the same cruise with you as I remember you from the roll call. On the Mercury we were also charged over what our final bill had stated (somewhere b/w $60-$70.00). :confused: Anyway, luckily my husband caught it within a few days of the cruise by checking our online credit card transactions. We called Celebrity immediately and they said it was for mini bar charges. They did remove the charges for us since we never took anything out of ours either. The only thing I did was move things around a bit once trying to fit a small water bottle into the fridge. :eek: I assumed I created our own problem by doing just that and vowed I would never touch a thing in the mini bar again. Now I realize this situation happened to you as well. I've read that you can ask them to remove all contents of the mini bar right from the get-go and I think I'll be doing that from now on! Jennifer ;)

[fleckle]

Many passengers do not use anything from the mini bar and want it emptied out to use for their own things. Some like to keep the ice bucket in there to slow down the melting of the ice.

 

It makes extra work for the stateroom attendant needing to stock the mini bar only to remove everything a few hours later upon passenger request.

It would be helpful if X would include an option where we could state in advance whether or not we want the mini bar stocked, like their options for beds together or apart or for dining preference.

[zebra36]

second thoughts

[puggrandma]

We also had this happen to us on our December Mercury cruise. Checked slips every few days all was fine and our final bill was correct. Upon receiving our credit card invoice Celebrity has overcharged $58.08 to the card. Immediately disputed the charge, took approximately 1 month to correct. Is this happening on all Celebrity ships or only the Mercury? :rolleyes:

 

Puggies Grandma