Drink package disaster

[mrsz]

We were recently on the Silhouette and had the Premium a Beverage a Package. The first day we went to The a Porch for lunch and when I checked my bill we were charged for our wine. I went to the guest relations desk and a very arrogant woman named Vera said we ordered water and wine too close together that is why we were charged. We were at the Porch for 2 hours for lunch.and they took our cards at the end. How was it charged too close.

 

At the end of our cruise we were charged $32 for wine which was all charged at the same time. We only ordered 2 glasses of wine. We had to go again to guest relations 3 times to get this resolved. This is not the way we planned on spending our cruise disputing charges that should have never been.

 

This is just a word of advice to check your bill everyday. I don't understand how they can charge for drinks when it clearly states on our cards that we have the drink package.

[dgparent]

We were recently on the Silhouette and had the Premium a Beverage a Package. The first day we went to The a Porch for lunch and when I checked my bill we were charged for our wine. I went to the guest relations desk and a very arrogant woman named Vera said we ordered water and wine too close together that is why we were charged. We were at the Porch for 2 hours for lunch.and they took our cards at the end. How was it charged too close.

 

At the end of our cruise we were charged $32 for wine which was all charged at the same time. We only ordered 2 glasses of wine. We had to go again to guest relations 3 times to get this resolved. This is not the way we planned on spending our cruise disputing charges that should have never been.

 

This is just a word of advice to check your bill everyday. I don't understand how they can charge for drinks when it clearly states on our cards that we have the drink package.

 

I think it is a trigger, which should not happen in a pay restaurant, basically you and your hubby or whoever order 2 wines, give your cards to another couple without the drink package and they get 2 wines, so the trigger kicks in because you ordered 4 wines in less than 2 mins.

 

In the restaurants they should be inputting the drinks as they are ordered not all at the end.

[mrsz]

I think it is a trigger, which should not happen in a pay restaurant, basically you and your hubby or whoever order 2 wines, give your cards to another couple without the drink package and they get 2 wines, so the trigger kicks in because you ordered 4 wines in less than 2 mins.

 

In the restaurants they should be inputting the drinks as they are ordered not all at the end.

 

I agree. I wonder if the bartenders give drinks to people not on the drink package and charge it to our cards .. Nice way to make a few bucks. Just a thought. Should not happen at all. Very frustrating.

[vulcan1971]

I agree that it must be frustrating and inconvenient, but probably not the disaster I was expecting to hear about. Glad to hear that it was resolved without a lot of back and forth. Hopefully the rest of your cruise experience was wonderful.

 

 

Thanks for the warning to check your bill.

 

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[hulamoon]

We had an odd charge like this last week in the Equinox. We handled it quickly over the phone.

[HappyTvlr]

This is so sad. I have been getting the package for the last couple of years and never run into this, and attribute the problem to the staff at the time which is a real shame. I have always gotten a drink and bottle of water both at restaurants and bars around the ship at the same time with no issues so there is no logic to this. I also check my bill daily because charges do show up from time to time, and it is a pain to go to guest relations.

[mrsz]

I agree that it must be frustrating and inconvenient, but probably not the disaster I was expecting to hear about. Glad to hear that it was resolved without a lot of back and forth. Hopefully the rest of your cruise experience was wonderful.

 

 

Thanks for the warning to check your bill.

 

Sent from my Samsung Note 2 on the T-Mobile 4G LTE Network

 

It was resolved. Unfortunately it took us a long time to get the charges taken off the bill, but it is funny how they showed up immediately. We had drink package on the Summit last year and never had a problem. We were very unhappy with the reaction from Vera at guest relations. She was extremely rude. We love Celebrity and are Elite members. We have always had great customer service but it was lacking on this trip.

[vulcan1971]

It was resolved. Unfortunately it took us a long time to get the charges taken off the bill, but it is funny how they showed up immediately. We had drink package on the Summit last year and never had a problem. We were very unhappy with the reaction from Vera at guest relations. She was extremely rude. We love Celebrity and are Elite members. We have always had great customer service but it was lacking on this trip.

 

I hope you shared this feedback with the appropriate management/officer while still on the ship.

 

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[Happy2cruise]

It was resolved. Unfortunately it took us a long time to get the charges taken off the bill, but it is funny how they showed up immediately. We had drink package on the Summit last year and never had a problem. We were very unhappy with the reaction from Vera at guest relations. She was extremely rude. We love Celebrity and are Elite members. We have always had great customer service but it was lacking on this trip.

Too bad you did not get Claire at Passenger Relations.....great customer service and great personality. She helped us with a problem when we were on the Silhouette in March. It took a while for it to be resolved but she was on top of it and kept us updated with the progress:)

[mrsz]

I hope you shared this feedback with the appropriate management/officer while still on the ship.

 

Sent from my Samsung Note 2 on the T-Mobile 4G LTE Network

 

I did speak to her Supervisor. It took them until 11.30 the night before disembarkation to get resolved. They kept telling me they would credit us the 32 dollars and when we got our final bill it was still on there.

[scdreamer]

Just curious - if you have more than one glass of wine over the course of dinner, is that a trigger for charging you? Sometimes a dinner in the MDR can last a couple hours, and I can easily have two glasses of wine over that period of time.

Edited April 16, 2014 by scdreamer

[BettyCruiser]

We had a similar issue on the Century in February. Both of us had the Premium

Drink Package, during the cruise several bar charges landed on our account. After several trips to 'guest services' and no resolution a bartender took our info directly to the bar manager and it was resolved immediately. Any bar charge under $13 should be easily resolved, instead of making us waste time making multiple visits to 'guest services' Very frustrating.

[Mark_K]

Is that really a drink package 'disaster'? It sounds to me like a drink package issue with a restaurant.

 

 

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[Lsimon]

Just curious - if you have more than one glass of wine over the course of dinner, is that a trigger for charging you? Sometimes a dinner in the MDR can last a couple hours, and I can easily have two glasses of wine over that period of time.

 

No. You should be able to have as much wine as you can drink over dinner as long as you order them a glass at a time.

[dgparent]

Just curious - if you have more than one glass of wine over the course of dinner, is that a trigger for charging you? Sometimes a dinner in the MDR can last a couple hours, and I can easily have two glasses of wine over that period of time.

 

 

I don't have any personal knowledge so take it for what it is worth.

 

By trigger, I mean a database trigger, the programmer has said "if 2 drinks are ordered on the same card within x amount of time, charge for 1 because they are sharing cards" obviously it is more complicated than this, but the idea is to stop people from sharing cards, one with the package and one without. I suspect something went wrong here and they were inadvertently charged probably because the staff messed up. A warning or message probably came up on the screen and the staff said to charge them by mistake.

[OkanaganRon]

Just curious - if you have more than one glass of wine over the course of dinner, is that a trigger for charging you? Sometimes a dinner in the MDR can last a couple hours, and I can easily have two glasses of wine over that period of time.

 

This was never a trigger for us in February on Eclipse...We had several glasses of wine with dinner on multiple occasions, and experienced absolutely no problems. We did have to reverse 2 or 3 incorrect charges at other bars by contacting guest relations, with no problems:)...immediate resolution in a very customer friendly manner..

[mrsz]

Is that really a drink package 'disaster'? It sounds to me like a drink package issue with a restaurant.

 

 

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It was not an issue with one restaurant. It also happened at a bar my husband and I both had the drink package and was very frustrating to spend my time fighting charges that never should have been charged to us. You can call it what you want!

 

They should get a better system!

[Bailey & Sophie]

We've had the Premium package several times. Have never been charged for a drink. We've had several glasses of wine during dinner and it has never been a problem.

But thanks for the heads up. Just because it hasn't happened to us, doesn't mean it never will!

[dgparent]

It was not an issue with one restaurant. It also happened at a bar my husband and I both had the drink package and was very frustrating to spend my time fighting charges that never should have been charged to us. You can call it what you want!

 

They should get a better system!

 

Next time just dispute the charges with your CC later, X has to respond to denied charges or just take the loss. Either way it would save you time and a headache.

[TommyD3]

My daughter was charged for wine in the MDR a few weeks ago. We all had the Premium package. She was the only one charged. Took numerous visits to guest relations to remove. Each time they were like "this should not have happened". All we could figure is it was $9.50 per glass (above the classic package) and somehow the computer thought she had the classic package (Seapass card said PALL). Strange since there was no problem with Evian (also not included with Classic). Bottom line is you have to check your account EVERY day.

 

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[Redtravel]

I have had mistakes on my bill too. It happens way too often. I especially resent the inconvenience of taking time to correct billing errors. The worst is after the cruise. Always check your final statement against your credit card bill. I have had extra charges on my statement too many times. Then you have to phone Celebrity, wait on hold forever, and then swear that you did not make the charges. Celebrity needs a better accounting system. With a drink package, ypu should be able to drink as much as you want. If not, buying an "unlimited" beverage package is a joke.

[Payd]

Is that really a drink package 'disaster'? It sounds to me like a drink package issue with a restaurant.

 

 

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At about $75 per day to purchase the premium package (including grat.), perhaps to the OP it was a disaster.

 

Purchasing the program should mean that these issues are dealt with quickly and with a friendly apology for the error.

[mrsz]

I have had mistakes on my bill too. It happens way too often. I especially resent the inconvenience of taking time to correct billing errors. The worst is after the cruise. Always check your final statement against your credit card bill. I have had extra charges on my statement too many times. Then you have to phone Celebrity, wait on hold forever, and then swear that you did not make the charges. Celebrity needs a better accounting system. With a drink package, ypu should be able to drink as much as you want. If not, buying an "unlimited" beverage package is a joke.

 

That is my point exactly. I wouldn't mind if they were nice about it but they were extremely rude. What happened to the great customer service Celebrity is known for. They acted like it was our fault and told us we couldn't order Evian water and wine together. As I said we had this over the course of 2 hours. Celebrity told me they got new computer system. Why fix what wasn't broken! Never had an issue on the Summit.

[ghstudio]

Is the 10 minutes must pass between ordering drinks documented anywhere?

[Iamcruzin]

Here is my frustration with your situation and realize I have never had the the same issue. Time and time again I read here on CC that people upgrade to the premium package just so they can order what they want and not have to worry about being charged. I would probably guess that 90% of what they order would be covered under the classic package. For convince alone they pay the up charge and now it seems that they still have to be inconvenienced with a helping of poor attitude from a person who should be bending over backwards to help. Op sorry this has happened to you but thanks for reporting it.

 

 

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Edited April 17, 2014 by Iamcruzin