So upset. Reservation accidentally cancelled by Carnival - any recourse?

[firefly333]

:cool:There was a thread a week or two ago almost the same as this one, it made me check my cruise in Feb. I knew the due date was coming up, sure enough it is due while I'm on my cruise in 2 weeks so I called to make sure it was in auto pay, it was in auto pay but never hurts to check!!;)

 

if it was me, Id call and pay it off early if I knew I wouldnt be home to double check the payment went thru. Call me too cautious.

[roswellmom]

 

During the course of the conversation, it came out that the email address they sent my mother’s Payment Due notice to was actually mine, spelled incorrectly. (As an example, imagine booking a cruise for Katherine Jones and inputting her email address as catherine@zyx.com.) Because the email obviously bounced, Carnival didn’t advise us that final payment would have to be made manually OR that final payment was due. While they acknowledged this and my sales rep apologized profusely, the escalations agent refused to honor the original price (or even throw in anything extra for our $510) because I hadn't responded to a phone call 10 days earlier from the sales rep asking if it was a mistake that the reservation had been cancelled. (In my defense, I’d failed to listen to it right away because they’d called me SO many times early on asking if I was ready to book the cruise, I assumed it was another courtesy call.)

 

I’m so upset about his, I can barely talk about Carnival or our cruise without still getting fired up. I acknowledge my part in not responding to the call fast enough *after* the cancellation happened, and fortunately, my parents are still going on the cruise. But this seems so unfair and it’s put such a huge damper on an otherwise exciting time. Is there anything else anyone would suggest I do at this point?

 

Don't give up so easily. They had your wrong email address and you should remind them of that. We were on a Carnival cruise with our phones turned off and not reading emails when Carnival called to advise that we were past due for our final payment of our next cruise. I called them 3 or 4 days later and they accepted our payment and kept our reservation.

 

I recommend that you contact Carnival again and talk to another PVP. A good PVP with Carnival can be very valuable. :)

[Gailerina]

Don't give up so easily. They had your wrong email address and you should remind them of that. We were on a Carnival cruise with our phones turned off and not reading emails when Carnival called to advise that we were past due for our final payment of our next cruise. I called them 3 or 4 days later and they accepted our payment and kept our reservation.

 

I recommend that you contact Carnival again and talk to another PVP. A good PVP with Carnival can be very valuable. :)

 

1) How was carnival to know it was a wrong email?

2) Can you imagine how many how many bounce emails they get?

 

This is not Carnival's fault at all. They did what they are suppose to. The OP did not listen to the phone call.

 

I have read people saying they called Carnival a few days after final payment and were fine, so I'm not sure how long after the final payment she finally called.

 

I would have checked the day I saw a payment come off my card to make sure my parents were covered.

[BeagleOne]

OP, did you give them the wrong email address spelling by accident, or did the Carnival rep mis-type it when sending the email? If the former, I don't think you have any recourse, but if the latter, you might be able to work with them to get some help, even though you mistakenly ignored the follow-up phone call.

 

Never hurts to try, the worst they can do is say no. But you're going on a cruise soon with your whole family and you will have a great time! Which is the most important thing.

[bplazo]

papayagirl - I'm thinking this is not particularly Carnival's fault, and you're probably out of luck. Having said that, your remaining hope might be to call, get a supervisor, briefly explain your situation in about two concise sentences, and ask how you can talk to someone in the so-called "guest resolutions" department to plead your case. ken

 

Ken, I agree with you. Maybe Carnival can meet them halfway with some obc credit. Mistakes happen and I think an increase of $510.00 is quite a bit. Just keep asking to speak to someone else.

 

 

Good luck, OP.

[firefly333]

I agree, you need to get to guest solutions dept as ken says .. and plead your case.

 

btw they dont send notices to anyone .. its up to everyone to check their own online account and pay when it is due... so saying they never told you it was due.. they dont tell anyone.

 

I dont think that argument will get you anywhere.. even though you say they agree they didnt notify you it was due.. .. they dont notify anyone that I know of. Its your responsibility.

[cruzsnooze]

What I would do is call the resolution dept again. I would state the problem and say "it was mostly my fault but Carnival did have a hand in it" so could we split the difference at $250? That is a win win for both parties. Always allow the party to walk away feeling good and thinking there was a reasonable compromise.

[T. Advisor King]

What I would do is call the resolution dept again. I would state the problem and say "it was mostly my fault but Carnival did have a hand in it" so could we split the difference at $250? That is a win win for both parties. Always allow the party to walk away feeling good and thinking there was a reasonable compromise.

 

There's nothing wrong with trying, but I don't really think this statement is true. Carnival had no hand in it. The OP contracted with Carnival and agreed to make a payment by a certain date. The fact that Carnival essentially did the OP a number of favors by sending reminders is irrelevant. As a result, the fact that the email address was incorrect (even if it was incorrectly recorded by the Carnival agent) is also irrelevant.

 

If you have a contractual obligation to pay, it does not matter that the counterparty employs a system of "reminders". It is still your obligation to pay the required amount, in full, on time.

[kansas kruiser]

if it was me, Id call and pay it off early if I knew I wouldnt be home to double check the payment went thru. Call me too cautious.

:cool: Thanks!! I'm kinda like you, better safe than sorry!! I'll call the TA next week to get it done!!:) Whats a couple of days??

[iheartpoco]

What a crummy situation!

 

I feel for ya, OP, I've certainly made my share of costly mistakes. One time I put diesel in my car because I thought that was French for "gas". (I was 17 and decidedly uni-lingual.) Had to get a new carb put in, and I think it cost about $400. I was working at McDonald's at the time, making $4.75/hour. At least your mistake won't become a hilarious anecdote to be re-told by friends and family for years to come. (Tho' it is kind of funny to me now...)

 

At this point, it's probably better just to not think of the extra $$$ you spent. Just move forward and enjoy a wonderful vacation with your family. My family lives far away now, so I don't get to see them very much - enjoy every minute that you have together!!

 

Thanks for posting your story; I bet that if nothing else, you have reminded some other people to check their payment due dates, and helped them to save money!

[americaneskimo1]

This could have happened to our family over the summer. We have been on many cruises and the balance has always been auto pay (i never even knew there was another option). This summer I saw the email saying payment was overdue! We had 6 other family members going and no one else noticed the email! When i called to make the payment I complained and they apologized. Carnival should really be clearer about payment options and remember to ask if you want auto pay when booking.

I think not being consistent with payment processing and getting the email wrong does mean they have some responsibility!

Good luck! And no matter what happens enjoy your cruise!

[lindfaz]

papagirl: sorry to hear about your story....but you snooze, you looze.

Carnival doesn't have to babysit, you are responsible to see your payments are met on a timely basis or else.... You shouldn't expect any entitlement if you do not meet your end of the contract. Read the entire contract with Carnival. It explains it all. Many people don't read their contract and then expect Carnival to give them considerations. Sorry, but welcome to the real world. Enjoy your cruise with your parents.

[Rosefloater]

OP - Sorry this happened to you. But, it is your fault and not Carnival's that your mom lost her cabin due to non-payment. Just be thankful they still had the same cabin (or any cabin in the same category).

 

This is why I keep a post-it next to my computer of when the final payment is due.

 

About the email address: I always have them spell it back to me. More often than not, they misspell it.

[mikel24m]

I’ve been reading the boards regularly since the Spring, but I’ve never posted before, so first, a big thank you to everyone here for their amazing advice. I’m going on a Western Caribbean cruise leaving Nov 3, and you guys have told me everything I could ever need to know about planning a vacation for 7 people (ages 5-83), and I don’t know how I would’ve done it without this board. So forgive me for making my first post so long and ranting, but I’m hoping you’ll have some more great advice to help me get through a bit of a mess.

 

Back in April, I booked our cruise over the phone with Carnival for me, my husband and my two kids. The next day, my parents confirmed they wanted to go too, so I called back and spoke to another rep (the original person wasn’t working) who helped me book a balcony cabin across the hall for them, on their credit card. Both reps told me final payment would be due in August.

 

Around Aug 20, I saw a charge on my AmEx for our remaining balance, and I assumed my mom’s card was charged at the same time. It wasn’t until earlier this week that we realized it never was, so I called Carnival on Monday.

 

It turns out that my reservation was set up to auto-charge the balance, but my mom’s wasn’t. (Something I was not aware of – I definitely wouldn’t have intentionally set it up this way.) Carnival says they sent an email to my mom on Aug 21 letting her know the payment was due, and when she didn’t respond or submit a payment, they cancelled her reservation. After more than an hour on the phone, the only option we were given was to rebook their same cabin (which was luckily still available) … for $510 more. Reluctantly I finally agreed because this is the first family cruise we’re ever doing, and we’ve all been looking forward to it for so long that I didn’t want to let the cabin get booked up by someone else.

 

During the course of the conversation, it came out that the email address they sent my mother’s Payment Due notice to was actually mine, spelled incorrectly. (As an example, imagine booking a cruise for Katherine Jones and inputting her email address as catherine@zyx.com.) Because the email obviously bounced, Carnival didn’t advise us that final payment would have to be made manually OR that final payment was due. While they acknowledged this and my sales rep apologized profusely, the escalations agent refused to honor the original price (or even throw in anything extra for our $510) because I hadn't responded to a phone call 10 days earlier from the sales rep asking if it was a mistake that the reservation had been cancelled. (In my defense, I’d failed to listen to it right away because they’d called me SO many times early on asking if I was ready to book the cruise, I assumed it was another courtesy call.)

 

I’m so upset about his, I can barely talk about Carnival or our cruise without still getting fired up. I acknowledge my part in not responding to the call fast enough *after* the cancellation happened, and fortunately, my parents are still going on the cruise. But this seems so unfair and it’s put such a huge damper on an otherwise exciting time. Is there anything else anyone would suggest I do at this point?

 

Its sad to say but my thoughts on this are if you have a cruise booked and that the cruise line keeps calling maybe its for a reason

 

And for some reason Im thinking if I booked with friends or family and my CC was charged I would give them a ring and just check or bust chops we were charged and going cruisin

 

As far as emails they send me a confirmation via email every cruise when I book ,you parents didnt get the first email with the booking number ? Seems strange to me

[prattmom]

There's nothing wrong with trying, but I don't really think this statement is true. Carnival had no hand in it. The OP contracted with Carnival and agreed to make a payment by a certain date. The fact that Carnival essentially did the OP a number of favors by sending reminders is irrelevant. As a result, the fact that the email address was incorrect (even if it was incorrectly recorded by the Carnival agent) is also irrelevant.

 

If you have a contractual obligation to pay, it does not matter that the counterparty employs a system of "reminders". It is still your obligation to pay the required amount, in full, on time.

 

 

The only thing I can see here is that as a new cruiser she thought her parents' booking would be done just like hers. Hers auto-paid so she had no reason to think theirs had not. I would imagine it would be easy to make that assumption. As seasoned cruisers it is easy to forget all the little things that we just do because we know we have to....

 

Sorry, OP, but I'm sure you will have an amazing time. We keep trying to get my parents to join us, but they won't :(

[LovesCruising]

As sad as it is that this happened, it is the responsibility of the cruiser to know when their final payment is due and make sure it gets paid.

 

This is why I advise folks who are fairly new to cruising to use a trusted travel agent to prevent rookie mistakes like this.

 

To be clear, Carnival did not "accidentally" cancel your booking...

 

it was cancelled because you did not make the final payment....which is ultimately your responsibility and the reason Carnival will not rebook at the original price.

 

OP I too am sorry this happened to you - have to agree with the above poster - a travel agent probably would not have allowed this to happen to you. They would have reminded you your payment was due.

[AmberTeka]

It happens to everyone until we learn to double check everything.

 

My learning experience was booking a short package flight + hotle to Las Vegas at Thanksgiving. I arrived at the airport after a 2 hr drive and putting dogs in kennels to find no flight reservation. Used a TA but they were gone for the holiday so I did not have a clue what the problem was. Flew standby, looked for hotel once we arrived, flew standby to return. Contacted TA was told that they never forwarded CC info to package provider with no apology, nada. Learned what I should have know. Get confirmation numbers and verify payments were made. Carry hardcopy receipts of everything....

 

Live and learn. I'm sure your parents know it was an honest mistake that has happened to them as well. If money can fix it, it's not that big of a problem compared to other things like health issues.

 

I wondered about this poor lady...did she not get cruise confirmations from Carnvial? there should have been one for every reservation...they send them to the same e-mail..and it clearly states..DATE DUE for FP.

 

My learning experience...I always take some $$$ to pay for early morning room service..Not pay..$3 tip.....and usually I keep them in the drawer close to the phone..easy access. So my DH had taken some money from the safe...In $50 dollar bills..and handed me one..I just laid it down.

So DH is in there..he is talking....wanting to go to the buffet..I am telling him to go and run some energy off before coming back....Coffee is there..I had the Delivery person 3 dollars. I thought. He did have a big smile.

After he left..I started looking for the Fifty. Gone. Realized I had tipped the Guy $52 for two cups of coffee. What to do? If I called..it could get the guy in trouble. They work hard..are not rich people..supporting family back home. NO. Not on my conscience. Will he bring it back. No. don't blame him. some passengers are nutty as bessie bugs.

 

SO...I decided he would spend that money in some way to help people. It was not a tip..it was a donation to charity. To helping people work and improve their lives.

It became my husband's favorite story. The $52 dollar cup of coffee. Several passengers we met..asked me to just call their cabins and they could get me a cup of coffe for half that price...

Live and Learn. I am still very glad I let it drop. The price of that coffee..maybe it bought some child in Bosnia...books for school. Food. paid the rent.

The mills of the Gods grind slowly..but they grind exceedingly fine...............I need some good Kharma.

and also..What would Jesus do? Shut up and blame myself? I think so. I need some brownie points there too................so all is well.

Husband still loves telling the story of my "cup of coffee". He has gotten fifty dollars worth of laughs out of it.

[Andoria]

I agree, you need to get to guest solutions dept as ken says .. and plead your case.

 

btw they dont send notices to anyone .. its up to everyone to check their own online account and pay when it is due... so saying they never told you it was due.. they dont tell anyone.

 

I dont think that argument will get you anywhere.. even though you say they agree they didnt notify you it was due.. .. they dont notify anyone that I know of. Its your responsibility.

 

 

Thankfully this is something I learned on this board. My brother and parents were shocked that they weren't notified for final payment and I told them that's why I was reminding them every week for a month.

 

OP I hope you have a great cruise anyway.

[PAPERBKWRITER]

So sorry this happened to you. An expensive lesson to learn. Years ago I gota letter (no puter then) from NCL asking if I was still going on my cruise since they hadn't heard from me. Heard from me? Then the light went on. The final payment wasn't automatic like I thought. I was lucky I didn't lose my deposit and miss the cruise.

[papayagirl]

Thanks everyone for the helpful replies. I did confirm the spelling of my first name and email address (it's the same 5 letters before the @ symbol), but somehow it was still entered incorrectly. I never received any emails from them - not even a booking confirmation. I was disappointed that they were pretty poor with communication, but not all hotels and airlines do this, so I had no way of knowing something was up. Now I know, and it was an expensive lesson learned. I'll try pleading my case one more time, and know to use a travel agent next time.

 

And btw - the current cruise price was actually closer to $700 more, but they agreed to give my parents the retuning guest rate (which is the same hmy dad wouldve ben eligible for as retired military if he could dig up his discharge papers) to knock $200 or so off the price. So at least it's something.

 

I'm off to go camping now, so I won't be online for a while. Thanks again!

[Sparky2]

I agree, you need to get to guest solutions dept as ken says .. and plead your case.

 

btw they dont send notices to anyone .. its up to everyone to check their own online account and pay when it is due... so saying they never told you it was due.. they dont tell anyone.

 

I dont think that argument will get you anywhere.. even though you say they agree they didnt notify you it was due.. .. they dont notify anyone that I know of. Its your responsibility.

 

OP - Didn't your parents (or you for your parent's reservation) receive a Cabin Confirmation email? They state right on the email when final payment is due.

 

My understanding (?) is that they give you a 5 day leeway to make the payment.

 

Edit - OP - Just saw that you posted the answer to my questions.

[firefly333]

OP - Didn't your parents (or you for your parent's reservation) receive a Cabin Confirmation email? They state right on the email when final payment is due.

 

My understanding (?) is that they give you a 5 day leeway to make the payment.

 

Edit - OP - Just saw that you posted the answer to my questions.

 

Yep, OP didnt get the confirmation, probably because they had her email incorrect.. and didnt call back to ask for one, probably never looked online to see when it was due.

 

I was given a choice if I wanted auto pay and I said no.. had a card hacked and had to change. I usually book so far in advance, who knows a year in advance which card I want it on. My PVP usually asks me though if I want auto payment or not. Its a choice.

 

OP had hers set to auto pay.. but not her parents, and neither of them thought to check to see if it was paid.. back in August, its now way into Sept before they noticed the booking was cancelled for nonpayment.

 

I do think its not much good to me putting the final payment date on the confirmation so far in advance.

 

btw .. as far as saying .. OP should choose a TA .. this will solve the problem. I have had TAs who did not notify me too .. when I asked why.. they told me, the final payment date was on the confirmation they sent me when I booked.

 

BIG ASSUMPTION .. so now OP says she learned her lesson book with a TA next time... WRONG. Not every TA sends out payment notices... all this means is next time OP cant call Carnival about her booking if there is a problem .. now she has to go thru the TA to resolve .. and all this calling to Carnival she is doing now will not be allowed. great advice.. get a TA.??

[NewKansasKruiser]

I would call back again. I would ask for the original person that booked the first one correctly. Explain it nicely and if I get nowhere with that person or their higher up, I'd call back again. Each time I have called with questions, I get a different answer on things. Sometimes they are basically the same answer with different spins that make it different. I would be very nice, but I wouldn't give up. :) They had the email wrong so they should accept responsibility for me. Maybe even offer that you'll pay the $500 more but would like an OBC for the amount (I've found they give OBC's more easily than reducing prices). Good luck! And if all else fails...watch for price drops on that cruise and submit for that if you are booked ES.

 

I’ve been reading the boards regularly since the Spring, but I’ve never posted before, so first, a big thank you to everyone here for their amazing advice. I’m going on a Western Caribbean cruise leaving Nov 3, and you guys have told me everything I could ever need to know about planning a vacation for 7 people (ages 5-83), and I don’t know how I would’ve done it without this board. So forgive me for making my first post so long and ranting, but I’m hoping you’ll have some more great advice to help me get through a bit of a mess.

 

Back in April, I booked our cruise over the phone with Carnival for me, my husband and my two kids. The next day, my parents confirmed they wanted to go too, so I called back and spoke to another rep (the original person wasn’t working) who helped me book a balcony cabin across the hall for them, on their credit card. Both reps told me final payment would be due in August.

 

Around Aug 20, I saw a charge on my AmEx for our remaining balance, and I assumed my mom’s card was charged at the same time. It wasn’t until earlier this week that we realized it never was, so I called Carnival on Monday.

 

It turns out that my reservation was set up to auto-charge the balance, but my mom’s wasn’t. (Something I was not aware of – I definitely wouldn’t have intentionally set it up this way.) Carnival says they sent an email to my mom on Aug 21 letting her know the payment was due, and when she didn’t respond or submit a payment, they cancelled her reservation. After more than an hour on the phone, the only option we were given was to rebook their same cabin (which was luckily still available) … for $510 more. Reluctantly I finally agreed because this is the first family cruise we’re ever doing, and we’ve all been looking forward to it for so long that I didn’t want to let the cabin get booked up by someone else.

 

During the course of the conversation, it came out that the email address they sent my mother’s Payment Due notice to was actually mine, spelled incorrectly. (As an example, imagine booking a cruise for Katherine Jones and inputting her email address as catherine@zyx.com.) Because the email obviously bounced, Carnival didn’t advise us that final payment would have to be made manually OR that final payment was due. While they acknowledged this and my sales rep apologized profusely, the escalations agent refused to honor the original price (or even throw in anything extra for our $510) because I hadn't responded to a phone call 10 days earlier from the sales rep asking if it was a mistake that the reservation had been cancelled. (In my defense, I’d failed to listen to it right away because they’d called me SO many times early on asking if I was ready to book the cruise, I assumed it was another courtesy call.)

 

I’m so upset about his, I can barely talk about Carnival or our cruise without still getting fired up. I acknowledge my part in not responding to the call fast enough *after* the cancellation happened, and fortunately, my parents are still going on the cruise. But this seems so unfair and it’s put such a huge damper on an otherwise exciting time. Is there anything else anyone would suggest I do at this point?

[firefly333]

I would call back again. I would ask for the original person that booked the first one correctly. .

 

They were both booked correctly, OP still doesnt know its a choice you can pick auto pay or not..

 

She got neither confirmation, for her cabin or her parents, so both had the incorrect email addy. (not just one).

 

OP also got a phone call when the email not answered, which she says she didnt listen to and deleted from her messages when they called to say the payment had not been paid. She assumed it was just to sell her something, so deleted the phone message without listening to it.

 

What is to say she would have read the email if she got it if she didnt listen to a phone message? They did call her about the nonpayment.

 

I would more describe this as a series of bad circumstances, than that either cabin was not booked correctly.

[peptobysmol]

I had a somewhat similar nightmare. Back when Cruise Value existed, I had my Visa autodrafted for final payment for myself and 3 other families. I got a phone call call from CCL but missed it. They called again but I still wasn't home. I was assuming that they were trying to sell another cruise as I frequently visit the CCL site for updates/new cruising opportunities. I got on the Cruise Value website doing the same thing and found that it was no longer working. Only THEN did I call CCL and found out that Cruise Value never applied the final payment from my Visa to my account and that of the other 3 families. Fortunately it was "just in time" and I had to make myself my own TA to complete the booking. I had to charge the balance again on my Visa. I successfully disputed the charge and was refunded my initial final payment. Whew!