Canadians Beware of Royal Caribbean's 24hr Hold Policy

[soccercrazy]

I am Canadian also... I booked a cruise for January 25 th, 2014 directly with RC.. All transactions were done in Canadian dollars on my visa... I bought the drink packages for hubby and myself also, but changed my drink package ( now that we can ) and got my visa refunded in Canadian dollars..No exchange rate to deal with...

 

I didn't know this, I have always used TA, thanks for the info :D

From one Canuck to another :p

[Merion_Mom]

so they post this tragic sob story and don't check back?

 

has anyone on here ever had to pay for a 24 hour courtesy hold?

 

if it smells like a duck and quacks like a duck..

 

The free 24 hour courtesy hold is a feature of the website.

 

If the OP was talking to a Royal Caribbean CVP on the telephone, this would not have been apparent.

[robtulipe]

I am Canadian also... I booked a cruise for January 25 th, 2014 directly with RC.. All transactions were done in Canadian dollars on my visa... I bought the drink packages for hubby and myself also, but changed my drink package ( now that we can ) and got my visa refunded in Canadian dollars..No exchange rate to deal with...

Even if you are Cdn you can chose to do your booking in USD which you must do if you have a Next Cruise Deposit in USD.

[jaspercat]

I too hope that the OP comes back.

 

[goodycruising]

The OP talked of a 2.5% service fee from the credit card company. I have had that issue in Australia with paying on the RCI Australian site, which ends in .com.au in Aussie dollars as listed on the site. I was charged a 2.3% single currency international transaction. As RCI is an international company the bank feels the need to rip into us for some totally incomprehensible reason.

 

If I book through a local online TA, the price is within a dollar and no fee. I choose to go through RCI as then I can do things on my booking direct online. Through the TA we have to go through them with anything we want to change EG: Traditional to MTD. We just use a card that does not have this stupid fee.

 

Sounds like it may have been within final payment timeframe, and then payment in full is required. I have heard others on here say that if you do the cabin hold it is not a price hold, and the next day the price can be different. Maybe that is why they needed to pay in full, so the price could be locked in. The offer must have included a no penalty for cancelling and full refund offer. I also see that some of the suites can't be booked online, so maybe you have to pay up in full for them?

 

I wouldn't blame RCI, they had already processed the payment. They could only do a refund. I blame the credit card/bank for the strange fee. I would have thought that once the refund was processed the bank should reverse the fee, but maybe not.

[workingonlytocruise]

I doubt the OP will return with all the nasties on here and I don't blame her at all.

 

Some of you need to try reading once in awhile. She wanted a courtesy hold on 2 cabins - obviously they were within final payment. The rep at RCL CONNED her into payment when she was entitled to put a 24 hour non-binding hold on the rooms.

 

I am Canadian. She should dispute the cost against RCL for the foreign charges - I know I would, but then I also wouldn't be CONNED by an RCL sales person who is just trying to make a sale and just wasn't honest with the OP.

[workingonlytocruise]

If it is past final payment, you can still do a courtesy hold online without putting down a credit card, BUT, you cannot put a courtesy hold on a cabin if you are talking to Royal Caribban directly.

 

It sounds as if they OP called Royal directly because they were looking for specific attached cabins. I'm sure the person they spoke to put pressure on them to make a payment to hold the cabins as they wouldn't last forever.

 

I'm not sure it they should have made the OP pay the whole thing, but they definately will make you pay the deposit with 24 hours to pay the rest.

 

Been there, done that.:rolleyes:

 

Actually you can put an non-binding courtesy hold on - they just aren't honest about it cause they are trying to force a sale.

[woehwdy]

The 24 hour hold applies to reservations made on RCCL.com, not with a cruise representive.

[Host Jacquelyn]

I

 

And if pickering was trying to book within 75 days of the sailing date, then she WOULD be asked for the whole payment, not just a deposit.

 

 

Correct me if I am wrong, but if she paid and was within 75 days of sailing, she would lose her deposit if she cancelled.

 

Personally, I have NEVER been able to use the 24 hour hold with a CVP over the phone. If I wanted to hold, they told me they could not do it, and that I can only do it over the website. If others were able to do a 24 hour hold over the phone with a CVP, please do tell.

 

To the OP: I am Canadian too, and have paid in US$ only to cancel after. Call your credit card company and explain, escalate to a supervisor if necessary. In MOST cases, they should be able to refund you the original charge, especially since this was only 24 hours from the original transaction. That sai, I too am confused over 2 things (1) Why did they charge you in US$? RCCL has always charged me CDN$ as soon as they see I am Canadian. They will allow us to pay in US$ upon request, but the default has always been CDN$. (2) Why did they charge you the full amount and not a deposit? Also, can you please confirm you booked with Royal Caribbean direct, and not a travel agent (who possibly has different policies)?

[setsail]

Why would the op come back. They said

 

"I will never book with Royal Caribbean, this is just poor customer service. "

 

And, I would be willing to bet the conversion fee has by now fallen off the card/been taken off since the charge was cancelled within 8hrs.

[meatloafsfan]

Many Canadians have USD credit cards so that they're not hit by fees to do the conversion. Also, they way the Canadian dollar has been going the past couple of weeks, the OP is likely to come out ahead on the currency exchange, even with the fees.

 

You can also look at various Canadian cards - I have one that doesn't have a fee conversion so I use it for booking vacations (it's my Sears Mastercard issued by Chase - although Chase is American, it is a Canadian credit card).

[pickering4]

I am the OP (i guess)....the person with the response below wins the prize for diciphering the situation correctly. I called Royal directly because I could not find 2 cabins side by side. They found them and I asked if I could put it on a 24hour hold as I had seen on their website. I was told I could and I would have to give them my credit card to put through the booking but I had 24hrs to cancel it. Which I did within 8hrs. I have been back and forth with RCCL and my bank 5-6 times and am now disputing the charge. The total service charges were $472 (not just $200)....$472 for NOTHING!!!

 

"It sounds as if they OP called Royal directly because they were looking for specific attached cabins. I'm sure the person they spoke to put pressure on them to make a payment to hold the cabins as they wouldn't last forever.

 

I'm not sure it they should have made the OP pay the whole thing, but they definately will make you pay the deposit with 24 hours to pay the rest.

 

Been there, done that.:rolleyes:"

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

That's what I was wondering too. Unless you are under the PIF time, you can put holds on a reservation on other cruise lines for a specific amount of time (sometimes 24 hrs, sometimes 3 days in our case and they offered to extend it while we got everything together.) So... something doesn't seem right...

[pickering4]

Correct me if I am wrong, but if she paid and was within 75 days of sailing, she would lose her deposit if she cancelled.

 

Personally, I have NEVER been able to use the 24 hour hold with a CVP over the phone. If I wanted to hold, they told me they could not do it, and that I can only do it over the website. If others were able to do a 24 hour hold over the phone with a CVP, please do tell.

 

To the OP: I am Canadian too, and have paid in US$ only to cancel after. Call your credit card company and explain, escalate to a supervisor if necessary. In MOST cases, they should be able to refund you the original charge, especially since this was only 24 hours from the original transaction. That sai, I too am confused over 2 things (1) Why did they charge you in US$? RCCL has always charged me CDN$ as soon as they see I am Canadian. They will allow us to pay in US$ upon request, but the default has always been CDN$. (2) Why did they charge you the full amount and not a deposit? Also, can you please confirm you booked with Royal Caribbean direct, and not a travel agent (who possibly has different policies)?

 

Hello Jacquelyn

Can I ask you.....

Was it a booking directly through RCCL that you were charged in Cdn funds for? If I had been charged and refunded in Cdn funds, none of this would have happened. Is that what is supposed to happen? They did not even ask me what currency I wanted. thanks

[emerald444]

I'm Canadian. When we were deciding on our first RCI cruise we made about 5 courtesy holds (which expired) before booking. Was never charged a cent.

 

I agree have done it many times it just expires and disappears

[setsail]

RCI does not set international currency conversion rates

 

The rates are set by Bloomberg and the fee is set by B/A

Edited January 16, 2014 by setsail

[D&V]

When I booked the cruise that we are taking next week royal accidentally billed us in US dollars. I called back the next day and they changed it to canadian dollars and gave us $50 obc to cover any fees we might get charged for

[pickering4]

I doubt the OP will return with all the nasties on here and I don't blame her at all.

 

Some of you need to try reading once in awhile. She wanted a courtesy hold on 2 cabins - obviously they were within final payment. The rep at RCL CONNED her into payment when she was entitled to put a 24 hour non-binding hold on the rooms.

 

I am Canadian. She should dispute the cost against RCL for the foreign charges - I know I would, but then I also wouldn't be CONNED by an RCL sales person who is just trying to make a sale and just wasn't honest with the OP.

 

THANK-YOU...I am already so upset at having this happen. It has been really difficult to read all the nasty comments. You are a kind, observant and helpful person.

 

I have placed many reservations on my Visa and had the option to cancel them within a certain time period. I have never had it refunded instead of just "not posted" to my Visa. My understanding was the the booking was supposed to "held" and if I did not cancel, the payment would go through in 24hrs.

[mr walker]

The rep at RCL CONNED her into payment when she was entitled to put a 24 hour non-binding hold on the rooms.

 

As you were obviously a party to the phone call between the OP and the RC rep - that's the only way you could KNOW what happened - why didn't you step and and prevent this from happening at the time??

 

Using emotive terms like CONNED (your shouting, not mine) & then to also post that the CS reps "aren't honest about it cause they are trying to force a sale" is ridiculous supposition on your behalf, unless you were actually listening in.

 

OP, trust you can get it resolved. Whether you feel you were misled or it was just a misunderstanding about how the transaction would be reversed in the event you didn't wish to proceed with your booking, no-one likes to be out $'s

[trev71]

Contact your credit card company and dispute your charges. But Royal really shouldn't have put the payment threw. I appreciate the heads up, I wont be using that feature anytime soon

 

 

For people who don't know, I don't know about other countrys, I am From Canada and when I use my credit card I get charged 2.5% on all my purchases, Its just a fee credit card companies charge for using your card in other countries.. Ive only ever used my car in USA and Mexico.

Edited January 16, 2014 by trev71

[goodycruising]

Contact your credit card company and dispute your charges. But Royal really shouldn't have put the payment threw. I appreciate the heads up, I wont be using that feature anytime soon

 

 

For people who don't know, I don't know about other countrys, I am From Canada and when I use my credit card I get charged 2.5% on all my purchases, Its just a fee credit card companies charge for using your card in other countries.. Ive only ever used my car in USA and Mexico.

 

Yes, in Australia some banks have this same strange fee. My bank has a 2.3% charge as I said earlier, and I still have no comprehension of what reason they have for charging it. It relates to paying overseas companies for an Aussie dollar transaction. If I pay them in say $US, then I get hit with the currency conversion loading on the payment, I don't mind that, but I still get the 2.3% charge as well. I just don't understand it, but it is clearly a fee they have in their terms and conditions and the only way to get around it is to use another bank/financial institution card. That is what we now do, we use the Australia Post prepaid multicurrency Visa credit card.

 

I would say also to the OP that I have posted my experiences about this sort of issue on CC several times, and it gets very little interest, but I hope some people may see it and be forewarned. We were lucky, we had a $70 shock the first time, so to get a $472 hit, and I totally agree, for nothing! That is nasty!

 

Just ignore the negative people. They aren't worth your time.

Edited January 16, 2014 by kjsmith63

[pickering4]

Thank-you KJ Smith, I do hope it resolves itself.

I will not come back on this Forum until I know what the final verdict is, but I will let you know what happens in the end (if these Forums stay open??).

This is a month's worth of rent for my son at University, all because I was just trying to give him a break from all of his hard work during his reading week...not good. I have learned a very hard lesson.

I really hope it stops it from happening to someone else.

[Host Jacquelyn]

Hello Jacquelyn

Can I ask you.....

Was it a booking directly through RCCL that you were charged in Cdn funds for? If I had been charged and refunded in Cdn funds, none of this would have happened. Is that what is supposed to happen? They did not even ask me what currency I wanted. thanks

 

Yes, direct with rccl. You have a valid point that you were never even given the option of paying in Canadian dollars. You can raise it with a supervisor, but I am not sure what that will accomplish at this point. Unfortunately, I think you need to take this up with your credit card company. However, I don't understand how the difference in exchange-rate can result in 400 and something dollars. The credit card company generally charges at most about 2.5% conversion fee. You would have to have charged just under $20,000 in order to be slapped with such a high conversion fee. In any case, your credit card company should be understanding and if not, escalate with them. Unfortunately, they don't owe you anything, but really, as a gesture of customer service they should be refunding you what you paid.

Edited January 17, 2014 by Host Jacquelyn

[CruiserTB]

Hey pickering,

I just wanted to chime in and say I'm sorry this happened to you and hope it gets resolved to your satisfaction quickly.

 

I disagree with others here that say the credit card company is to blame, they are not. Their policy regarding the fee they charge is clear. Royal is to blame for this mistake. If as you stated you call up and say I would like to put the reservation on 24 hold like the website says and the rep doesn't say "we can't do the hold but we can do a charge that we have to process but you can cancel with a refund" then that rep was wrong. Since the rep represents the company, Royal was wrong, period.

 

I swear it feels like some people love their cruise lines so much that anytime an issue occurs it has to be the person's fault because the cruise line can do no wrong. This is far from the truth, especially when you're dealing with a multi-billion dollar company with thousands of employees. Mistakes happen and they should and need to be addressed.

 

Pickering please follow-up and know that what happened to you is not your fault.

[nosmothj]

We have booked numerous cruise with RCCL direct or travel agent. Have booked in Cdn dollars on our Visa always. We have also cancelled and transfered with out a problem

 

I have generally/mostly found RCCL customer service very helpful and accommodating.

 

So all you Canuks I would very much recommend givning them a try.

 

On a side note one of the reasons we cruise more than retoret is because of the refund policiy which is excellent!!!