Carnival Steals your money!!! Please read

[Hersheepeg]

OK, my GF and I went on a Carnival cruise (Liberty) last month. At the conclusion of the trip we had a $4.75 credit on our account. The protocol that everyone was told is that they will mail you out a cheque. Ok big deal $4.75.... But when the cheque never showed up, my girlfriend decided to call to see what the hold up was. Carnivals NEW policy is if you are owed $5.00 or under they immediately donate it to charity!!! Really....Im glad they made that decision for me. Where is the tax receipt. Do you think if you owed them $4.99 they would waive it? No way. This company is getting more junkier and junkier, with bonehead decisions and policy's.

 

Off topic, a few more examples.....

 

Guys burger joint. Open limited hours...... So if your at port 5 of the 7 days, you likely will only have the opportunity to enjoy a good burger on "at sea" days. Why not have it open till 11:00pm instead of 6:00pm? Cheap. That's why.

 

The Stir fry grill. Even more limited hours LMAO. I believe it was open noon till 3:00. WOW.

 

Carnival will be pricing themselves out of business with the limited times to eat, and stealing peoples money...

[crooooze]

Wow, how'd you do that? I've been cruising for 15 years and never found a way to walk off the ship with a credit! :D

[Seago2]

I wonder what charity?

[Pookeybear1966]

HMMMM...Like $4.75 would give you such a HUGE tax refund!

[Cruizinman]

Well thats just ridiculous .

[bar1068]

Ok, I'll admit, I never heard of this protocol of mailing checks at cruise end, must be something "new". We've had balances, albeit larger than $4.75 at the conclusion of a couple of our cruises, and we were handed a check before we got off the ship. Would seem to make less sense and be more "costly" to mail a check for such a small about, but your know, cut backs and all...being cheap...etc.

[klct39lg]

I wonder what charity?

 

St. Judes. We were aware of the under $5 donation.

[laurenfl15]

You were so upset about four dollars that you created a username on this website and took the time to write your first post?!

 

I'm sorry.. but it must be very difficult going through life getting upset about every little thing. Take a deep breath....

[frayedend]

HMMMM...Like $4.75 would give you such a HUGE tax refund!

 

Perhaps not but how many of those 4.75s added up give Carnival a nice charity deduction. Although I don't know how it works in the countries they actually pay taxes to.

 

In any case if this is true (and I'm not certain I believe it) then it is wrong. They have no right to do that unless it is written in the contract.

[Hersheepeg]

Ok, I'll admit, I never heard of this protocol of mailing checks at cruise end, must be something "new". We've had balances, albeit larger than $4.75 at the conclusion of a couple of our cruises, and we were handed a check before we got off the ship. Would seem to make less sense and be more "costly" to mail a check for such a small about, but your know, cut backs and all...being cheap...etc.

 

 

We were on the Victory and they cut a check at the end of the cruise. For some reason the Liberty said they were mailing them out.

 

By the way we were on back to back cruises, and we could not deposit the credit from the Victory to the Liberty. We had to cash the cheque at home. Just a fyi.

[ViolaSwamp]

I am sure the guy isn't sad about the $4.75. It's the principle, that CCL just took it upon itself to take the $ without asking and CCL will get the tax writeoff... take that amount times thousands of cruise refunds <$5 and you are talking a sizeable chunk of its customers' money that CCL essentially helped themselves to.

[DGP1111]

. . . Oliverboots a credit is a credit which means is due to you, I not know how Carnival can pull that off legally and just take your money and "donate" it to what they call charity, heck is it the "Triumph cost charity"?? Certainly unethical I say and agree on how you feel.

 

St. Judes. We were aware of the under $5 donation.

 

One of the VIFP Club benefits for Diamond members is a "One-time donation to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital".

 

My conjecture is that those funds have a potential source beyond what I'd initially assumed.

 

.

[gjsmth]

HMMMM...Like $4.75 would give you such a HUGE tax refund!

Maybe not a huge break tax wise but multiply this by the number of ships and people with <$5 credit and your talking about a good sum of money. Carnival should not be making this decision on your/ours behalf with out passenger approval, it's the passengers money not Carnivals. Give the passenger(s) the option to donate.

[Cruisegirl6]

If I had a credit and not received it and found out it got donated first thing I would say where is the proof that it was donated did Carnival send you a letter stating this? Secondly, didn't know that they donate to St. Jude and its a wonderful cause but I rather not have Carnival make up my mind what to do with my credit, its just wrong. If I had a credit even a small one go to the gift shop and get a candy bar or two.

 

We donate to charities every year and rather do it myself.

[jeansaussie1]

I sailed in November 2012 and did get a paper check back for $4.89.

 

The donation to charity must be a recent change.

[vegadog2]

OK, my GF and I went on a Carnival cruise (Liberty) last month. At the conclusion of the trip we had a $4.75 credit on our account. The protocol that everyone was told is that they will mail you out a cheque. Ok big deal $4.75.... But when the cheque never showed up, my girlfriend decided to call to see what the hold up was. Carnivals NEW policy is if you are owed $5.00 or under they immediately donate it to charity!!! Really....Im glad they made that decision for me. Where is the tax receipt. Do you think if you owed them $4.99 they would waive it? No way. This company is getting more junkier and junkier, with bonehead decisions and policy's.

 

Off topic, a few more examples.....

 

Guys burger joint. Open limited hours...... So if your at port 5 of the 7 days, you likely will only have the opportunity to enjoy a good burger on "at sea" days. Why not have it open till 11:00pm instead of 6:00pm? Cheap. That's why.

 

The Stir fry grill. Even more limited hours LMAO. I believe it was open noon till 3:00. WOW.

 

Carnival will be pricing themselves out of business with the limited times to eat, and stealing peoples money...

 

OMG !!! How dare them. I think in a company like carnival it probably cost $25.00 to write a check. I hope you had a GREAT cruise.

[Hersheepeg]

I sailed in November 2012 and did get a paper check back for $4.89.

 

The donation to charity must be a recent change.

 

 

Yes my GF was told its a brand new policy for 2013.

[cruisebie]

I'm glad the OP posted this as I have never heard of this policy. It must be something fairly recent or decided on a ship by ship basis, based on the posts I'm seeing that indicate they got a paper check. In the unlikely event I ever have a credit left at the end of a cruise, I'll just have one more fru fru drink to use the money. If this is the policy, it should be clearly communicated to pax in advance.

 

Also, I agree that the hours for some of the alternative dining options are too short. It would be nice to be able to take advantage of them when you return to the ship after a long day in port.

[luddite]

Oh man, that IS lousy! Words cannot express the feelings this story generates. Good luck to you.

[firefly333]

I always post to people to go down the night before and close out your account and ask for the cash.

 

Now I know its a even better idea than before. I dont want to mess with some little check was my thinking...cash is better.

 

I know guys burgers are open from Noon to 6 pm. So that would not surprise me they are open limited hours. Its posted on CC.

[Hersheepeg]

Carnival also told her they will have to got to the accounting department to handle the refund now. It may take 6-8 weeks.... Just a question. If you refused to pay your $4.99 tab, and told Carnival you would donate it to charity when you got home, what do you think they would say?:p

[Pookeybear1966]

Well then I guess I'll just have to spend every penny of my $570.00 OBC on booze and fun on my upcoming cruise! I wouldn't dare give anything to charity.

[Pookeybear1966]

Carnival also told her they will have to got to the accounting department to handle the refund now. It may take 6-8 weeks.... Just a question. If you refused to pay your $4.99 tab, and told Carnival you would donate it to charity when you got home, what do you think they would say?:p

 

They'd just charge your CC and you'd be even :D

[Cruizinman]

Carnival also told her they will have to got to the accounting department to handle the refund now. It may take 6-8 weeks.... Just a question. If you refused to pay your $4.99 tab, and told Carnival you would donate it to charity when you got home, what do you think they would say?:p

You would have to sign a waiver agreeing to pay before they let you debark.

[cooncat_mom]

I'm sorry you didn't get your $4.75 back. When you set up a cash account, it's a good idea to ask what happens at the end of the cruise if there's money left over. With Carnival, we usually have a check under the door on the last morning, but with RCI we had to go down and get a cash refund. (I love cash - I spend so much less!) I'll make sure to check with CCL every time now, though. Although, to be honest, if I found out any credit under $5 went to St Jude's, I wouldn't claim it...But I understand, it's the principal of the thing....