Celebrity Fraud/Scam ???

[resortgirl]

Having booked a cruise on Celebrity and paying the deposit and later the balance, I recently received an email from Celebrity saying I had a balance owing which was happened to be the exact amount of the gratuities. The email threatened that if I don't pay by the due date then my cruise would be cancelled and I would only get a percentage of what I had already paid refunded. Not wanting to have our cruise cancelled and thinking perhaps I hadn't prepaid the gratuities I was about to pay what they said we owed. My husband then told me to check my account online and see what had been deducted from our credit card. Sure enough I had paid everything in full including the gratuities. How many people have been told they had a balance owing and more importantly paid it. Seems to me Celebrity are ripping off their customers. If I hadn't informed them I didn't owe anything and they then corrected my account then on the due date my booking would be cancelled. If I paid what they said was owing then they would have ripped me off. Quite a disgusting practice and despite numerous emails to Celebrity they choose to ignore my complaint.

[neverbeenhere]

Congratulations on your first post after so many years being a member. Not sure that what happened was a fraud or scam, it likely was one of the Internet Technology glitches for which Celebrity has become famous. Seems you handled the problem with a call or email and all is well. Enjoy your cruise and don't sweat the small stuff.

[Langley Cruisers]

Quite a disgusting practice...

 

Disgusting practice? Wow. That's pretty dramatic. What I want to know is why anyone would even think of paying without investigating first. Mistakes happen sometimes and the website glitches are infamous.

 

I hope you enjoy your cruise, though. Celebrity has a great product; I'm sure you'll have a great time.

[GUT2407]

Fraud is a pretty strong word.

[resortgirl]

Seems convenient to blame it on website glitches. Judging from the comments it sounds like Celebrity have a lot of glitches where they try to overcharge people. Not sure how this is acceptable practice. Obviously if they have a glitch in their system then everybody on our cruise must have been sent similar emails asking for more money or their cruise will be cancelled. I know there are a lot of elderly people who travel on Celebrity who just believe they must owe money when a company have said so. We have traveled on Celebrity before but most of our cruises have been on Carnival and while the cruises onboard have been great the experience when booking a cruise is very important too. Yes I do think it is disgusting that people are sent an email saying their cruise will be cancelled unless they pay what is asked.

[wwcruisers]

Well, we've never received an e-mail like that, in all the time we've cruised X -- but, that doesn't mean that it didn't happen to you. If, as you hypothesize, others on your cruise have received the same e-mail, there's one sure way to check: Join your roll-call, and ask if anyone else had something similar happen. :confused:

Edited July 3, 2015 by wwcruisers

[gek]

Do you seriously think a large company like Celebrity would risk their reputation to perpetrate a deliberate and totally unnecessary scam like this? Sloppy accounting on Celebrity's part but hardly "fraud".

 

It's a mistake, get over it and be proud of your husband for reminding you to do what every sensible person should do and to check that you are not being overcharged.

[yorkyred]

Having booked a cruise on Celebrity and paying the deposit and later the balance, I recently received an email from Celebrity saying I had a balance owing which was happened to be the exact amount of the gratuities. The email threatened that if I don't pay by the due date then my cruise would be cancelled and I would only get a percentage of what I had already paid refunded. Not wanting to have our cruise cancelled and thinking perhaps I hadn't prepaid the gratuities I was about to pay what they said we owed. My husband then told me to check my account online and see what had been deducted from our credit card. Sure enough I had paid everything in full including the gratuities. How many people have been told they had a balance owing and more importantly paid it. Seems to me Celebrity are ripping off their customers. If I hadn't informed them I didn't owe anything and they then corrected my account then on the due date my booking would be cancelled. If I paid what they said was owing then they would have ripped me off. Quite a disgusting practice and despite numerous emails to Celebrity they choose to ignore my complaint.

 

Sorry I think the title of the thread is out of order, it's been a mistake yes, but your reaction and wording is over the top for me.

[Beanb41]

Well perhaps someone can explain how this Celebrity deal works. A veranda room listed at $2099 with port taxes, fees etc of $197 which when added together equates to $2296 but when one goes to book it the charge is $4898 for 2 people or $153 per person extra. Go figure. Fraud or scam. You be the judge. That's using the Celebrity website and includes no perks.

[mcrcruiser]

We have done over 30 Celebrity cruises & 63 cruises in total to date & nothing even close to this has ever happened to us;) .

 

Perhaps the reason why we have no problems is because we do use very good & reliable Travel Agents .We know to the penny our cost commitments :D

 

Recommend that you search for a great Travel agent to take care of your cruise /travel costs ;). Additionally many TAs will give you on board credits ;which you will not get from Celebrity or any other direct cruise line booking ,unless a particular cruise carries that benefit;)

 

Don't get down on the cruise line .It apparently was a mistake & they would not cancel your cruise once they had the chance to reply to your inquiry showing that you paid in full ;).Enjoy your cruise .Celebrity has a awesome product that we have enjoyed many times:D

[WestLakeGirl]

Wow it's a good thing every time we make a mistake someone isn't accusing us of fraud or we would spend all our days in court!

[ghstudio]

Well perhaps someone can explain how this Celebrity deal works. A veranda room listed at $2099 with port taxes, fees etc of $197 which when added together equates to $2296 but when one goes to book it the charge is $4898 for 2 people or $153 per person extra. Go figure. Fraud or scam. You be the judge. That's using the Celebrity website and includes no perks.

 

If you booked in select dining, then the full gratuities must be paid with your final balance. so your total due would be $4592 PLUS gratuities. It's neither a fraud or a scam....it's just may not be clearly stated when you book your ticket.

[chemmo]

Only once have we had a similar email. We paid off our cruise to Celebrity and then got an email telling us that our cruise was at risk of being cancelled if we did not pay the outstanding balance.

 

We logged in and found 26pence was owing....as we had telephoned Celebrity to pay we knew it was not our error. We contacted them and they were very, very apologetic. Obviously they cancelled the 26pence. We were contacted back by Celebrity to again apologise.

 

We were obviously not happy with the email we had received but we do understand in this day and age that such mails are not personal they are simply churned out to everyone who has a balance showing as unpaid. Our worry was that if we had not noticed the email would our cruise really have been at risk of being cancelled? Although we were assured by Celebrity that our cruise would not have been cancelled we still tend to check our balance a few days after full payment to check a few pence have not reappeared.....

 

Mistakes do happen. You simply have to accept that with any large organisation. I am quite sure they would never deliberately overcharge. They want happy customers who keep returning.

[suec12]

We had the same issue on our last cruise - called X, they fixed it.

[RocketMan275]

Yes I do think it is disgusting that people are sent an email saying their cruise will be cancelled unless they pay what is asked.

 

Would you think it is "disgusting" if Celebrity were to cancel cruises without reminding people that additional money was due?

[I&J Cruisers]

I think this was an error. The op handled it well but X did not. There should have been a letter or an email apology. But X is not known for good customer service.

 

 

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[H2OH!]

All, there IS a weird glitch in the system. As a frequent Celebrity cruiser with over a dozen, I had never had this happen....until my cruise in september. Below is the email I received after final payment. The email stated I owed money yet the balance shown in the email showed a zero dollar balance.

 

So I decided to double check my celebrity account....thats is when I discovered a balance of $ 250.00. I called Celebrity, they reissued an invoice showing I was paid and now the odd $250.00 balance is gone.

 

for those of you doubting this happened....just know it did...

 

Since this has never happened to me, I have to admit I still feel worried something is off and check my reservation daily to be sure has not been cancelled. It was odd and unnerving.

 

OP...your anger and language is a little off putting. Take a deep breath...I feel unnerved as well and understand. Just call celebrity and they will confirm that you do not owe an additional balance and it will be fixed. No fraud, no scam...darn system glitch.

 

 

Here is the email sent to me as well:

 

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

 

Thank you for choosing Celebrity for your upcoming cruise vacation. This is a reminder that a balance due remains on your account. Your reservation will be cancelled in less than two days if payment in full is not made.

 

To make a payment, simply open your My Celebrity account at http://www.celebrity.com/mycelebrity. With your My Celebrity account, you may also create and store travel profile information, book onboard Xtras, such as AquaSpa® treatments and more.

 

If you prefer to speak to a Celebrity Cruise Vacation Planner to make a payment, call 1-800-647-2251.

 

For your convenience, we have provided the details of your reservation and payment below.

 

RESERVATION CONFIRMATION

10 Night Western Mediterranean Cruise Sailing On Celebrity Silhouette

Sail Date: 14-Sep-2015

Status: Confirmed

 

 

PAYMENT SUMMARY

(Prices shown in U. S. Dollars)

Total Cost: 5766.56

Total Payments Made: 5766.56

Balance Due: 0.00

Final Payment Due: 0.00

[Cindy]

I think your accusation is over the top. There was an error -- you detected it, contacted Celebrity, and it was corrected. I can understand being upset, but to call it a fraud and a scam is ridiculous. I'm quite sure that if Celebrity was deliberately scamming customers it would be major news.

[cruisestitch]

OP, how do you know that a Celebrity would have ripped you off? Are you quite certain that they would not have returned your overpayment? How can you possibly know this with certainty? And if you really believe that the line behaves fraudulently, why not cancel and go with some other vacation? How could you possibly trust them with your life and safety? My point is, not every error is a fraud. When the grocery store makes an error and charges you more than they should for a product, do you cry "fraud" ?

[Fogfog]

I read the OPs post differently--that the email threatened cancellation re gratuities (which do not have to be paid upfront.)

 

An email like that wouldn't make sense at all.

 

Glad it was worked out. Happy cruising

[true45]

Had a balance of $300 on last cruise after final payment

 

Called Celebrity

They said it was a mistake and disregard

 

Emailing Celebrity is not the best way to go

[dkjretired]

I read the OPs post differently--that the email threatened cancellation re gratuities (which do not have to be paid upfront.)

 

An email like that wouldn't make sense at all.

 

Glad it was worked out. Happy cruising

 

Some countries required the gratuities be pre paid. Might be part of the equation. Actually, I think this is much ado about nothing, mistakes are made. If this complaint was done all the time it would have been reported on these boards at some point and it has not.

[HelenREMfan]

This does seem to be rather more common as it happened to me July 1st. I accessed my online celebrity and decided that even tho I had a week's grace I would pay the balance. So I paid the outstanding balance in full. I was therefore quite worried to receive an email outlining an outstanding balance of £200+ with the reminder that if the balance were not paid in full then the cruise would be cancelled. This is what their email states quite clearly with no riders for any errors! I therefore phoned Celebrity and paid a 15 min phone call....do hope that isn't a premium rate.... And the customer services lady very nicely said she could see my payment and that the gratuities as part of my "123go" hadn't been removed which would be rectified. I have checked back a few times since and the site is now showing correct information re my booking.

I would certainly not go so far as saying this was a scam. It is however a glitch on their web site and one which worries customers who have done all the right things. We are dealing with quite large sums of money and holidays people spend months looking forward to and I agree re the fact that many older people book these holidays and generally older people do not like to think that they owe money!

[dkjretired]

This does seem to be rather more common as it happened to me July 1st. I accessed my online celebrity and decided that even tho I had a week's grace I would pay the balance. So I paid the outstanding balance in full. I was therefore quite worried to receive an email outlining an outstanding balance of £200+ with the reminder that if the balance were not paid in full then the cruise would be cancelled. This is what their email states quite clearly with no riders for any errors! I therefore phoned Celebrity and paid a 15 min phone call....do hope that isn't a premium rate.... And the customer services lady very nicely said she could see my payment and that the gratuities as part of my "123go" hadn't been removed which would be rectified. I have checked back a few times since and the site is now showing correct information re my booking.

I would certainly not go so far as saying this was a scam. It is however a glitch on their web site and one which worries customers who have done all the right things. We are dealing with quite large sums of money and holidays people spend months looking forward to and I agree re the fact that many older people book these holidays and generally older people do not like to think that they owe money!

 

I had the same thing happen last year before going to Alaska, I took it as a reminder and nothing else. In my case, it actually helped me because I thought since I booked on board they would automatically charge my credit card and that was not the case.

[dkjretired]

We have done over 45 x cruises.Why do people always side with the cruise companys? Can they do no wrong or are people just blind to the reality that they are big business?They don't care about the small guy just the bottom line.

 

Cruise company's can make mistakes, I mean just look at Celebrity's web site. I think the problem here is there was a mistake that was quickly corrected but the poster initiated a thread calling Celebrity's actions a fraud and a scam. Realistically, they wouldn't be in business long if that were the case. Big difference between a mistake and a fraud, the latter is punishable by laws.

 

I received the same notification last year, the OP should be happy they sent her a notification, if they had not her cruise might have been cancelled.

Edited July 3, 2015 by dkjretired