So long Princess! They just don't care.

[brobin111]

We took the repositioning cruise from QC to FLL which was scheduled too late in the season as we had very cold and windy weather. We could deal with that but at our last port stop in Charleston, NC the tour operator messed up badly and gave us insufficient time to see both places where we stopped. Needless to say a busload of angry passengers went directly to the tour desk to complain and demand refunds for what was a virtually worthless tour.

Princess refused to disclose the contact information for the tour operator and said they would handle it. They decided to issue a credit of 50% of the tour - unacceptable! After getting nowhere with their corporate office I filed a dispute with AMEX over the disputed amount and was given the credit. That should end the matter right? Nope. A month later Princess again charged my AMEX for the amount credited and a new dispute has been opened.

What has this $100 dispute really cost Princess? It has cost them the future business of Elite level members who always book at least an Owner's Suite if not a Grand Suite. We will not sail Princess again - our future cruises will be booked with cruise lines that put their customer's satisfaction first.

[Blk_Amish]

I wouldn't call it George or Princess quite yet. If the tour happened, no matter how poorly executed, chances are they won't refund 100%. You got something, just not what you paid for or expected.

 

Pauline

Edited January 12, 2014 by Blk_Amish

[nat9511]

Charleston is in SC not NC.

[Grammyluvs]

I agree......50% would have made me happy.

[Kenswing]

Charleston is in SC not NC.

 

Maybe that's why it took so long to get there.. :cool:

[paul929207]

I got the impression you saw one site and had a very short time at the other. So 50% seems reasonable to be.

 

As to the weather, did you check the weather before you booked?

[capriccio]

We took the repositioning cruise from QC to FLL which was scheduled too late in the season as we had very cold and windy weather. We could deal with that but at our last port stop in Charleston, NC the tour operator messed up badly and gave us insufficient time to see both places where we stopped. Needless to say a busload of angry passengers went directly to the tour desk to complain and demand refunds for what was a virtually worthless tour.

Princess refused to disclose the contact information for the tour operator and said they would handle it. They decided to issue a credit of 50% of the tour - unacceptable! After getting nowhere with their corporate office I filed a dispute with AMEX over the disputed amount and was given the credit. That should end the matter right? Nope. A month later Princess again charged my AMEX for the amount credited and a new dispute has been opened.

What has this $100 dispute really cost Princess? It has cost them the future business of Elite level members who always book at least an Owner's Suite if not a Grand Suite. We will not sail Princess again - our future cruises will be booked with cruise lines that put their customer's satisfaction first.

 

Over $100 you will never sail again on a line that in the past you must have liked (or you wouldn't be Elite)? Isn't that rather drastic?

 

Sounds like you were in a bad mood due to the weather (out of Princess' control by the way and I say that as someone who will be on that cruise next fall) before you even got to Charleston. Following your 'virtually (but not completely?) worthless tour' you demanded (and expected) a full refund. You did take a tour and Princess offered you 50%. I'd say that was pretty generous. I also don't think they have any requirement to share excursion company contractual information with passengers.

 

In the grand scheme of things - especially considering how many cruises you must have taken - this doesn't seem like an earth shattering problem. Maybe it is time to let it go.

 

I hope your future cruises (and cruise lines) don't disappoint you so much.

[Astro Flyer]

I sailed the same itinerary in October 2011 & the colder weather was expected and not an issue. The tour was provided & expecting a 100% refund because it didn't meet passengers expectations is unrealistic to me.

 

Good luck finding a cruise line that will honor all of your demands & to me the type of cabin booked isn't a consideration as every passenger deserves equal treatment.

[GweninTX]

50% sounds like a decent amount! Princess cannot make weather behave!

[debandbruce]

we had a terrible tour last year on Mykonos. I was so disappointed as it did not go everywhere the tour promised, missing the spot I wished to see the most. We voiced our disappointment to customer relations when we returned to the ship. This was on Celebrity, they gave us back $10.00 of a $65.00 tour saying we did get a tour, it went to most of the places promised. I would of loved 50% back. Will I not cruise Celebrity again, of course not we love the line and won't let a little disappointment take away from some otherwise memorable experiences. I'm sorry you did not enjoy yourself on the tour, I hope the rest of your cruising experiences are wondeful.

[CI66774]

OP - no offense but you sound WAY too angry over this. I would have been ecstatic with a 50% refund. You did see some of what you paid for. I think your demand is unreasonable. Have a cup of green tea and take a chill pill. :)

[Mississippian]

If I'm reading the OP's complaint correctly, the tour operator totally screwed up the tour due to incompetence and not due to weather. I don't think a totally screwed up tour that takes up all of one's time ashore and somehow manages to fit in one "sight" should be paid anything.

 

Now if there was a good reason for missing 50 percent of the tour, that's another matter.

 

Personally, I think it is always a bad idea to take the ship's tours.

[pseudoware]

 

Personally, I think it is always a bad idea to take the ship's tours.

 

To some passengers, the assurance that the ship will wait should there be any delays w/returning from the tour is worth the extra cost. They also like the convenience of booking these directly thru the cruise line versus dealing w/external, independent operators. My parents fall into this camp. They are Elite members and say they'd be happy w/50%.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Astro Flyer]

To some passengers, the assurance that the ship will wait should there be any delays w/returning from the tour is worth the extra cost. They also like the convenience of booking these directly thru the cruise line versus dealing w/external, independent operators. My parents fall into this camp. They are Elite members and say they'd be happy w/50%.

If they're like us & sometimes have onboard credit not being used for other purchases then a Princess tour doesn't cost us anything.

[WeBeGone]

50% refund is standard if even part of the excursion happened. The only time we've ever gotten 100% was when the tour operator just didn't show up at all. For an elite passenger, you sure seem unexplainably upset over something relatively minor.

[Loonbeam]

There is one interesting note here - under most credit card merchant agreements, if the CC finds against you and issues the chargeback, you are not allowed to resubmit it without new information.

[Ethel5]

I just can't imagine giving up all the Elite benefits just because a tour wasn't as expected and you were offered 50% back. I think you need to step back, take a breath and think about it more.

[cdnphotogirl]

What would tick me off about this situation would not be the tour or only getting 50% refund but the fact that after my cruise is over the cruise line is charging my credit card for something.

[Cruise Raider]

We were on a shipboard tour through Royal Caribbean that turned out to be bust. We ended up taking a cab back to the ship as the tour wasn't exactly what they had mentioned it would be. When we got back to the ship, we immediately went to the customer service desk and were not only given a 100% refund of the tour but he also asked how much our cab ride was and threw in the cost of that as well. I remember commenting, Princess would have never refunded the entire cost of the tour without a bigger fight, much less the cab fare.

That was just very decent customer service!!

[antsp]

On ous Asia cruise a few year ago we visited ho chi minh City, we opted to the ho chi minh on your own excursion, we had all sorts of things planned, problem was the guy running the bus decided to turnit into a mini tour, we lost 2 hoursof probably a 4 hour stay. We complained to the desk on our return and we had a 100% refund.

[cherylandtk]

?.. We could deal with that but at our last port stop in Charleston, NC the tour operator messed up badly and gave us insufficient time to see both places where we stopped. Needless to say a busload of angry passengers went directly to the tour desk to complain and demand refunds for what was a virtually worthless tour...

As others have noted, Princess generally offers a 50% refund on a 'partial' tour while other cruise lines may offer more (or less). Since you accepted that offer onboard, you likely will not prevail in disputing the remaining amount of the charge. Sorry, but that is considered a contract you made by accepting the partial refund. In the future, do not accept a partial resolution if you are not happy with it.

 

As to what Princess should have offered you for this tour, how long was the original tour? What did the description say about the time spent at each of the sites? How much time were you shorted? Did you see both sites? Armed with specifics of what you experienced vs. what Princess advertised, you might prevail by contacting Princess with those details and asking for the remaining 50% back.

 

Or decide to switch to another line. If you find everything else at Princess satisfactory it does seem like a small thing to make a major change, but maybe it is time for one. Smaller things have caused bigger changes before. It's your money; if you no longer want to purchase those items, fine, Princess will find another buyer. Whether you are Elite or Blue makes no difference, Princess has no trouble selling those Suites or those insides..they are happy to keep you under those conditions. If not, well, it was good while it lasted but don't expect them to make a concession because you are Elite. Your past doesn't really mean anything outside of onboard perks, Princess figures you got what you paid for in terms of accommodations and onboard amenities so being Elite is not worth extra concessions from them. (Yeah, none of us are as special as mommy told us we were ;) )

Edited January 12, 2014 by cherylandtk

[OCruisers]

We took the repositioning cruise from QC to FLL which was scheduled too late in the season as we had very cold and windy weather. We could deal with that but at our last port stop in Charleston, NC the tour operator messed up badly and gave us insufficient time to see both places where we stopped. Needless to say a busload of angry passengers went directly to the tour desk to complain and demand refunds for what was a virtually worthless tour.

Princess refused to disclose the contact information for the tour operator and said they would handle it. They decided to issue a credit of 50% of the tour - unacceptable! After getting nowhere with their corporate office I filed a dispute with AMEX over the disputed amount and was given the credit. That should end the matter right? Nope. A month later Princess again charged my AMEX for the amount credited and a new dispute has been opened.

What has this $100 dispute really cost Princess? It has cost them the future business of Elite level members who always book at least an Owner's Suite if not a Grand Suite. We will not sail Princess again - our future cruises will be booked with cruise lines that put their customer's satisfaction first.

 

Very sorry you missed seeing what you wished in lovely Charleston, SOUTH Carolina.

 

:o Gosh, it would take much more than an unfortunate shore excursion to keep me from sailing on Princess. You've cruised enough to know that bad things can and do happen from time to time on ANY cruise line.

 

LuLu

~~~~

[Pam in CA]

The OP took the tour. They had seats on the bus and saw some sights even though they didn't see everything. As Judge Judy would say, "They ate the steak." A 50% refund is very generous.

 

I once took an all-day Princess tour from Casablanca to Marakesh, a 4-4½ hour bus ride each way. The bus A/C didn't work and it was well over 100 degrees inside both ways with no water provided. Our guide gave us a 3-hour lecture on Mohammed and Islam rather than the history, geography and culture of the region. The bus got lost on the way to Marakesh (not easy since it's a 2-lane road in the Sahara) so we missed seeing a palace. On the way back to the ship, we were running late and were stopped by Moroccan soldiers and each of us had to present our IDs. We wound up getting back to the ship almost two hours late, hot, dehydrated and exhausted. We each received a 50% refund because we took the tour, got to see most of the sites and had lunch. And we thought 50% was fair.

 

Another example: a HAL tour in Tunesia. We were driven three hours to an oasis for a 3-hour camel ride in the desert. No bus, we were distributed to 4WD vehicles, four passengers per car. I was in the front seat next to the driver. He didn't speak English, played Arabic music and played with his privates for the whole drive. My friend in the back asked, "Is he doing what I think he's doing?" Yup. Pretty disgusting. When I got back on the ship, I went to the Shore Excursion Desk. Their only response was that this was the only time they were offering this tour so there was nothing they could do.

Edited January 12, 2014 by Pam in CA

[dorisis]

Computers are the source of all evil. You got 50% back on the tour. The rest of your complaint sounds like a book keeping error and you should blame Amex. Will you cancel your Amex card?

[BMP57]

Hear Hear!