Is celebrity trying to trap you into paying for Gratuities even w/ 123go??

[mickeysgal]

I just logged into my account. Like you, I got two of the promos - beverage package and gratuities. On the online account it looks like I was charged gratuities and it looks like I was given just a credit for the beverage package. I called Celebrity and asked - was given sort of a rude brush off - but the rep did assure me that I had the credits on the account. I asked where they were. She then forwarded me a PDF copy of my statement to my email address. It does show us being charged for gratuities and the bev package, but also there is a credit for gratuities and the bev package. The bottom line still due on the account is correct. Looks like what you may see online isn't fully representative of all the charges and credits to your account. Why is it like this? I don't know. All it does is cause confusion.

 

Edited: And I too have the code AI CEL CLAL on my online account and when I asked, the rep would not tell me what it stood for. She told me it is something that Celebrity uses to know certain things about my reservation but she was sort of rude and wouldn't clarify.

Edited May 19, 2014 by mickeysgal

[richsea]

I guess I'm confused as to why you think it is so important to post it here, yet you don't want to spend the time on the phone to try to correct it.

[JezzaC]

I booked Aqua Class - which, granted, I'm confused if it works the same way as select dinning. However, I was given the option to "opt out" of pre paid gratuities which I just did today to make the 300 disappear, then briefly had a balance of 0, then the mystery balance of 48.

 

And re: their computer system - it's kind of laughable that it wouldn't be built into their code. It's a simple if/then statement to make them not charge additional gratuities when there are gratuities already present on the billing statement. I guess I'm just surprised at how ridiculously horrible their system is? (but who on these boards isn't? :rolleyes::D)

 

We booked Aqua Glass and selected Early dinner seating (even though it is any time dining). That way we could avoid the gratuities being added to the price to be paid before the cruise.

[CathyCruises]

Since I'm pretty new to Celebrity, I've been wondering why gratuities need to be paid upfront for Select Dining. Most of my experience has been on Princess and they don't require tips to be paid ahead if you have Anytime Dining. Why does Celebrity do this?? :confused:

 

 

Because when people have a different serving team every night, they often 'forget' to tip at the end of the cruise. This method insures that that Select Dining waiters do not get shortchanged. I think it's very fair.

[Celebrity Cruises]

This is more of a warning for other passengers as I have just figured out the solution to the problem (Ha! JK about that one! - see edits) I was originally going to post about:

 

Original Problem:

 

"I booked my August cruise while the 123go promotion was going on and I chose the beverage package and gratuities option (BEVCLINGRAT). When I went to do my final payment a few months ago I noticed that in addition to the BEVCLINGRAT credit that appeared on the breakdown of charges was also 300 dollars for gratuities! I paid the full remained of my balance minus the 300 dollars listed for "gratuities" since I should not be paying for gratuities when they were included in the 123go package. I just went to look at my account on celebrity today and it says that my balance due is 300!!"

 

 

Solution:

 

I would have sworn that when making my final payment I unchecked the box to pre pay gratuities but it seems to have gotten rechecked by itself somehow. To solve the problem of getting charged for gratuities when they are included in your packaged uncheck the gratuity box under total balance due:

 

Total Balance Due $ xxx.xx USD

[ ] Gratuity $300.00 USD [ ] CruiseCare Protection $518.00 USD

 

This still just seems super shady to me and I wonder how much money Celebrity has managed to get out of people accidentally double paying for gratuities.

 

***EDIT: when I originally unchecked the gratuity box my "balance due" immediately went down to "Total Balance Due $ 0.00 USD". I just went back to the manage reservation page and it now says that my balance due is $48.00 USD. Is this just a celebrity website glitch or is something suspicious going on here?!?!

 

*** ONE MORE EDIT: I just remembered that I had taken a screenshot when I originally made my final payment on Mar 30 of "My Vacation Payment Summary" (in case something like this were to happen) and sure enough right there it has Balance Due as $0.00 USD! So sometime between then and now they decided to try to sneak the $300 dollars for gratuities back in. Even after I fixed it AGAIN to go back to balance due of $0 it now says I have a mysterious balance due of $48. WATCH OUT EVERYONE!!!

 

Hello there,

 

Can you please send us an email at concerns@celebrity.com with your reservation number and a phone number that you can be reached at? Thanks!

[bigbenboys]

For our June 2015 Med cruise booked on board we had the choice of a bev package , an upgrade from aqua 2 to aqua 1, $300 OBC and paid gratuities. I guess the upgrade was an automatic thing and we chose the bev package and the OBC. We paid the gratuities.

 

If your booking Aqua you dont have to prepay gratuities. You just have to select early or late dining. As you know Blu is anytime dining so what you pick has no bearing. We even had it changed after final payment and had it credited back to our credit card. It is one of the many website problems. Richard

[Christine Frances]

I just logged into my account. Like you, I got two of the promos - beverage package and gratuities. On the online account it looks like I was charged gratuities and it looks like I was given just a credit for the beverage package. I called Celebrity and asked - was given sort of a rude brush off - but the rep did assure me that I had the credits on the account. I asked where they were. She then forwarded me a PDF copy of my statement to my email address. It does show us being charged for gratuities and the bev package, but also there is a credit for gratuities and the bev package. The bottom line still due on the account is correct. Looks like what you may see online isn't fully representative of all the charges and credits to your account. Why is it like this? I don't know. All it does is cause confusion.

 

Edited: And I too have the code AI CEL CLAL on my online account and when I asked, the rep would not tell me what it stood for. She told me it is something that Celebrity uses to know certain things about my reservation but she was sort of rude and wouldn't clarify.

 

Did you book through a TA? If so, Celebrity cannot discuss anything financial regarding your booking as it now belongs to the TA. X will answer general questions re the sailing etc but anything else they refer me to my TA. Your TA should have sent you that "Guest Copy" invoice when you made your booking. I also have both codes (only have the Bev Pkg - I think lol) and my TA said he thinks they both apply to the bev pkg but he is going to phone X to clarify.

[LarissaRose]

Great news everyone! The mystery $48 has disappeared! So that part was probably just a random glitch.

 

***I would still advise anyone who chose the free gratuities for their 123go perk to just double check that they're not also being charged for gratuities, or trying to be charged now for gratuities. This can still be an issue as it appears they try to tack on the gratuities (even if you are getting them for free) if you are not conscious about unchecking the prepay gratuities box.***

 

I guess I'm confused as to why you think it is so important to post it here, yet you don't want to spend the time on the phone to try to correct it.

 

I was trying to give others a heads up about a possible issue, calling for myself would mean no one else would ever know this is a potential issue. Also I can not actually make a phone call currently as I am out of my country of residence and my Skype seems to be broken. And yet, I should not have to explain myself to you.

 

I guess I'm confused as to why you think it was so important to post a rude comment in here instead of just keeping it to yourself. ;)

[LarissaRose]

We booked Aqua Glass and selected Early dinner seating (even though it is any time dining). That way we could avoid the gratuities being added to the price to be paid before the cruise.

 

Yes I did the same thing, or rather was assigned the early seating. However those gratuities still tried to sneak themselves in there!

[NLH Arizona]

Glad it all worked out well for you.

[LarissaRose]

Are you on a 12 night cruise? If you are Aqua, the $300 is your prepaid gratuities for dining. You obviously chose the Beverage Package as a perk (which includes the gratuities for said package), and did you also choose the free gratuities or OBC? If you chose the free gratuities as your 2nd perk, then yes, there is an error on the part of Celebrity.

 

Forget about the "codes". The AI CEL CLAL is still refering to the alcohol package. It has nothing to do with gratuities for dining.

 

Hopefully everything is all straightened out now, but last night it was just getting late and I was in the middle of doing a ton of stuff so managed to get myself super confused about everything! Haha.

 

The 2 packages I chose were the beverages and free gratuities

[sn2792]

Great news everyone! The mystery $48 has disappeared! So that part was probably just a random glitch.

 

***I would still advise anyone who chose the free gratuities for their 123go perk to just double check that they're not also being charged for gratuities, or trying to be charged now for gratuities. This can still be an issue as it appears they try to tack on the gratuities (even if you are getting them for free) if you are not conscious about unchecking the prepay gratuities box.***

 

 

 

I was trying to give others a heads up about a possible issue, calling for myself would mean no one else would ever know this is a potential issue. Also I can not actually make a phone call currently as I am out of my country of residence and my Skype seems to be broken. And yet, I should not have to explain myself to you.

 

I guess I'm confused as to why you think it was so important to post a rude comment in here instead of just keeping it to yourself. ;)

 

 

I appreciate your post. I just checked my reservation which was booked under 123 Go while onboard and we picked gratuities for our item. We are in AQ and I also found the prepaid gratuities block checked. There doesn't seem to be any way to tell online that I picked free gratuities. I am going to make sure I take my invoice with me, so I don't get charged onboard for the gratuities.

[srpilo]

I guess I'm confused as to why you think it is so important to post it here, yet you don't want to spend the time on the phone to try to correct it.

 

 

That interesting..

 

I'm not confused at all, isn't the whole point of CC to discuss and report cruise and cruiseline pro's, con's and related issue's ??

 

 

OP .. I think it a perfectly appropriate Celebrity CC thread

Srpilo

[MisterBill99]

Because when people have a different serving team every night, they often 'forget' to tip at the end of the cruise. This method insures that that Select Dining waiters do not get shortchanged. I think it's very fair.

They could just as easily automatically add it your bill every day like they do with everyone else and just refuse to let you remove it if you're in Select. If you switch to Select while on board that's what they do. It's a real pain for people who get sizable OBC and for one reason or another end up in Select dining.

[MisterBill99]

I'm not confused at all, isn't the whole point of CC to discuss and report cruise and cruiseline pro's, con's and related issue's ??

 

OP .. I think it a perfectly appropriate Celebrity CC thread

Srpilo

Not when you have a problem on your account that is showing your cruise not to be paid in full. It would have been fine to post here after they resolved in with Celebrity.

 

If they'd used a travel agent, then THEY could have figured it out with Celebrity and not had to waste all of this time on it.

[LarissaRose]

Not when you have a problem on your account that is showing your cruise not to be paid in full. It would have been fine to post here after they resolved in with Celebrity.

 

If they'd used a travel agent, then THEY could have figured it out with Celebrity and not had to waste all of this time on it.

 

The main issue was not "a problem on your account that is showing your cruise not to be paid in full" the issue was I was trying to inform others to be on the look out for gratuities sneaking their way in.

 

Sorry if you think time has been wasted on this when the main issue I was trying to bring to people's attention is still an issue. Just trying to be good samaritan and help out others who may not notice this, sorry if that offends you for some reason.... Jeeze..

Edited May 20, 2014 by LarissaRose

[srpilo]

Not when you have a problem on your account that is showing your cruise not to be paid in full. It would have been fine to post here after they resolved in with Celebrity.

 

If they'd used a travel agent, then THEY could have figured it out with Celebrity and not had to waste all of this time on it.

 

Waste of time ??

Simple solution, as always here is: If you feel it's not of interest or a waste of time... Don't read it

Just as the OP's post was of interest to many, it could just as easily not be of interst to some... Personal choice is what make Cruise Critic such a great success.

 

 

Problems arise when a few try and silence the many simply because they don't like or agree with the message

Srpilo

[MisterBill99]

Waste of time ??

Simple solution, as always here is: If you feel it's not of interest or a waste of time... Don't read it

Just as the OP's post was of interest to many, it could just as easily not be of interst to some... Personal choice is what make Cruise Critic such a great success.

 

Problems arise when a few try and silence the many simply because they don't like or agree with the message

Srpilo

The waste of time I was referring to was on the OP's part, since the amount of time they've spent trying to figure this out online and here could have been dramatically reduced (and better spent) if they'd just called Celebrity to begin with to figure out what was up and get it resolved. Note I said "If they'd used a travel agent, then THEY could have figured it out with Celebrity and not had to waste all of this time on it." Perhaps my use of "they" was unclear but there was no way it could have been interpreted to mean my time or any reader here.

 

Now, if you want we can also talk about the time wasted by people who tried to figure out the problem or offer their advice when the real answer was that the OP needed to contact Celebrity.

 

I agree this is an interesting thread, although much less so if it turned out to be due to weekend maintenance on the website which made things flaky. If OP had gotten this information from Celebrity before posting here, it would have been educational. Instead you had everyone guessing what the problem might be.

 

And once again, using a TA would have eliminated all of this wasted time since they would have taken care of it for the OP, or maybe it wouldn't have been an issue at all because they would have known what to do or it would not have shown up at all.

[MisterBill99]

The main issue was not "a problem on your account that is showing your cruise not to be paid in full" the issue was I was trying to inform others to be on the look out for gratuities sneaking their way in.

 

Sorry if you think time has been wasted on this when the main issue I was trying to bring to people's attention is still an issue. Just trying to be good samaritan and help out others who may not notice this, sorry if that offends you for some reason.... Jeeze..

So did you call Celebrity and get this resolved? Or did it just go back to $0 on its own and you're not pursuing it?

[LarissaRose]

So did you call Celebrity and get this resolved? Or did it just go back to $0 on its own and you're not pursuing it?

 

The waste of time I was referring to was on the OP's part, since the amount of time they've spent trying to figure this out online and here could have been dramatically reduced (and better spent) if they'd just called Celebrity to begin with to figure out what was up and get it resolved. Note I said "If they'd used a travel agent, then THEY could have figured it out with Celebrity and not had to waste all of this time on it." Perhaps my use of "they" was unclear but there was no way it could have been interpreted to mean my time or any reader here.

 

Now, if you want we can also talk about the time wasted by people who tried to figure out the problem or offer their advice when the real answer was that the OP needed to contact Celebrity.

 

I agree this is an interesting thread, although much less so if it turned out to be due to weekend maintenance on the website which made things flaky. If OP had gotten this information from Celebrity before posting here, it would have been educational. Instead you had everyone guessing what the problem might be.

 

And once again, using a TA would have eliminated all of this wasted time since they would have taken care of it for the OP, or maybe it wouldn't have been an issue at all because they would have known what to do or it would not have shown up at all.

 

Ok seriously dude. check the attitude.

 

If you had read my other posts I CAN NOT CURRENTLY CALL CELEBRITY.

 

I'm not whining about a problem here. I'm trying to point out to others something to potentially watch out for (to make sure that they uncheck the box regarding pre paying gratuities when gratuities should be covered due to 123go).

 

My problems did not have to a do with a weekend glitch (minus the mysterious $48 dollars). The problem I would like everyone to be aware of is that if you chose the free gratuities as part of the 123go promo to make sure that you are not accidentally still paying for gratuities on top of that. You may think that you have opted out of paying these gratuities, but you may want to check your accounts again to verify that they have not snuck their way back onto your billing statement. Simple as that. I'm really just trying to point out a flaw on Celebrity's website so people can be aware and avoid accidentally paying for something they shouldn't be paying for.

 

I really don't see why you have the need to derail this thread by attacking me / others :confused:

Edited May 20, 2014 by LarissaRose

[MisterBill99]

I really don't see why you have the need to derail this thread by attacking me / others :confused:

And I don't see why you're responding to my reply to the other person as if I was attacking you. I was replying to the person who misinterpreted my "waste of time" comment by not reading my post correctly.

[mickeysgal]

The lesson I learned here is that when you log in and check your account, it doesn't necessarily show all the charges and credits applied to the account. Only the booking statement shows the charges and the credits comprehensively. At least in my case this was true.

[sunshine nana]

Our upcoming cruise will be only our second with Celebrity. This time we have traditional dining. The gratuities do not have to be prepaid. Does that mean they will not be deducted each day from our OBC? We have cruised Princess and NCl and have had gratuities put on our account each day, not prepaid. I assumed Celebrity would do the same as we booked traditional dining.

[ghstudio]

Our upcoming cruise will be only our second with Celebrity. This time we have traditional dining. The gratuities do not have to be prepaid. Does that mean they will not be deducted each day from our OBC? We have cruised Princess and NCl and have had gratuities put on our account each day, not prepaid. I assumed Celebrity would do the same as we booked traditional dining.

 

Yes, the gratuities will be added to your on board account each day.