Ever been charged twice for drinks?

[halterk]

Has anyone else ever been double billed for drinks? You buy one, but the bar server charges you twice within minutes of each other?

 

On my last TWO cruises I have been charged twice for drinks, when I only ordered/received one.

And just so we are clear we are not drinkers. We purchased a total of 5 drinks (paid for 3, and used the 2 free coupons for being gold members).

 

On this cruise the erroneous charge was within 2 minutes of each other, the cruise before the two charges were within 1 minutes of each other.

 

Each time I have caught it and gone to guests services to have it removed. They always act like you are lying, and say they will investigate it, and if they find out we did get the drinks, we will have to pay, but if they find out we didn't get the drinks they would remove the charge.

 

For those of you who drink alot, and don't keep very good tabs of your S&S account, you could very well be overcharged ALOT of money on drinks you never received.

I'm averaging 1 out of every 5 drinks I am being billed twice for. :(

[coevan]

I totally disagree. It's of no advantage for the bartender to charge you twice, other then your tip. I doubt someone would sacrifice their job for $1.00. I also doubt anything nefarious was going on, just an error. There are so many legal ways CCL can charge you for things, stealing would not be one of them.

[cbCRR]

I always review our S&S accounts. I was charged for $200 of cigarettes on one cruise, went to guest services and had them research it. Turns out it was a purchase during a special event and the employee had written down the wrong folio number. They did remove the charge, but if I hadn't noticed it while onboard, I probably would have been SOL.

[halterk]

I totally disagree. It's of no advantage for the bartender to charge you twice, other then your tip. I doubt someone would sacrifice their job for $1.00. I also doubt anything nefarious was going on, just an error. There are so many legal ways CCL can charge you for things, stealing would not be one of them.

 

I somewhat agree. I do not think they are purposely doing it. I think they are probably over worked, and either forget they rang it up (say before they start making it, then again after they make it). Or they charge the next person drink on your Folio # on accident.

 

The first time it happened, I didn't think much of it, but when it happened on my 2nd cruise, and we don't order much, it just seems all to frequent.

[joeyancho]

I was charged for two bottles of champagne, when I only ordered one. Went to The pursers desk to get it fixed. They did practically accuse me of lying. They did investigate. Removed the second charge. It happens. Just an oversight, I'm sure.

[cruzelover55]

It really does happen, but I also do not think it is on purpose. I thought we had it licked when we just now buy Cheers, but there are other ways mistakes can happen and have happened to us. We always insist the mini bar stay locked in our room, but have been charged for drinks we did not and could not have gotten as it was locked. They do embarrass you by acting as you have lied, and no appoligy when it is proven I was correct. Hand written receipts, such as in shops, or "by the inch" tables, added up wrong. This why my husband gets a printout of daily charges from the service desk.

[loxley]

I don't buy drinks at all and have had charges for them in my account. They did not accuse me of lying. Probably because there were no other drinks on my account.

 

But I can certainly see some people trying to claim they did not buy drinks when they did.

 

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[ANONOMUS_1]

I've noticed charges for drinks that I didn't have but I give it a day or so and they disappear.

[cruizinisthebest]

You can be overcharged anywhere. I don't think this is some hidden way to generate extra revenue.

 

Check your receipt before you sign it and give it back. Problem solved.

[imluvncruzn]

This has happened to us a few times. Most recently on Victory in September. I think majority of people don't check. They make it even harder to keep track now too because unless you ask for the receipt you are not given a copy to keep. IMO, it happens more often than you think.

[Sweet Dutch Girl]

This has happened to us a few times. Most recently on Victory in September. I think majority of people don't check. They make it even harder to keep track now too because unless you ask for the receipt you are not given a copy to keep. IMO, it happens more often than you think.

 

Ahh, another grain of salt post. Like, really, a huge multi-billion dollar corporation would make it a policy to double charge passengers just for the sake of a bit more revenue, or staff would put their jobs in jeopardy for a bit more tip money. You don't think that when double billings happen they aren't researched by the company and if, by some chance, they were "blatant" that the individual charging passengers wouldn't be singled out?

 

A cruise line lives and breathes by their reputation.

[kerryincork]

It's not so much the double charging, as computer errors happen, it's making out you are lying and no apology when you are proved correct that anoyes me.

[ready2cruzagain]

It has happened to us on more than one occasion. Not just Carnival but other cruise lines as well. Carnival does not give out receipts anymore but I do ask for one to keep for a copy. I had one server that refused to give me receipts and had to ask for a supervisor to get one. Really annoyed me.

 

Whether a mistake or not, I couldn't tell you and I don't pretend to have the answer like some do. But I will say, it does happen and I would bet most people don't even know since they do not pay attention to their receipts.

[Purvis1231]

This has happened to me twice so if it is happening to so many people some of it might be intentional.

[10Jan54]

since we sign for all charges we keep all receipts and carnival can produce all the records also. Have never had issues because it was always resolved with all the back up proof.

[Lerin]

Over the past several decades I can think of this happening maybe 4 times, and never on a cruise ship.

OP, sorry this happened to you though it's a pure coincidence it was twice on a cruise. It can happen anywhere which is why it's important to check charges frequently.

[mzlinda]

Well if it's any conciliation, I've seen it happen the opposite way too. On a cruise last year, a friend went down to the front desk and insisted they remove an erroneous drink charge from her bill, which they did. When she told me about it the next day, I reminded her that I paid for some trinket for her when we were on an excursion because she didn't have cash. When we got back onboard, she bought me a drink as repayment. So the charge was valid but Carnival removed it from her bill when she complained.

 

I don't think there is a deliberate attempt to double charge us but most of the crew work 60 or 70 hours a week. Under those working conditions, I'm sure they make more mistakes than land based servers, including ringing things in twice.

[Sauer-kraut]

Sometimes what I think happens is that they swipe the card and it doesn't immediately process so they swipe again and the charge shows up on the monitor. When they see that they assume that the single charge went through rather than looking to see if the second swipe comes up too. This might be the cause of the double charging.

[cruisinsly]

We were charged for drinks that we never had! We were on our belated honeymoon (Carnival Miracle 2006) and it was the last night. We had checked our account from the tv in the room nightly. We checked it that night as well and noticed that a drink purchase from the casino came through about 20 minutes before we checked it on the tv. We immediately went down to the pursers desk to dispute it. They told my hubby and me that they would research it and come to a decision by morning. Ummmmm, NO! lol I told them I would sit down on the chairs across from them and wait while they researched it. It was a purchase for about $75. Being a one income family, I just did not want to have them come back and tell me there was nothing that could be done. So we waited. It took them about an hour to pull everything they needed to pull. They came back and told us that the waitress had transposed the numbers of the folio and it had been corrected. They gave me a print out and we were on our way. I feel like if I would have gone back to our room, it would have slipped the cracks and we would have been out $75. We only use cash to open our accounts, not credit cards.

[imluvncruzn]

Ahh, another grain of salt post. Like, really, a huge multi-billion dollar corporation would make it a policy to double charge passengers just for the sake of a bit more revenue, or staff would put their jobs in jeopardy for a bit more tip money. You don't think that when double billings happen they aren't researched by the company and if, by some chance, they were "blatant" that the individual charging passengers wouldn't be singled out?

 

A cruise line lives and breathes by their reputation.

 

Your explanation is pure speculation. If you read my post carefully, I explained what happened to us multiple times. It is my opinion that this happens more often than people think it does. I couldn't care less if you agree or not.

Edited November 29, 2015 by imluvncruzn

[Jana60]

Has anyone else ever been double billed for drinks? You buy one, but the bar server charges you twice within minutes of each other? :(

 

Well I guess I've been lucky cuz in 20 cruises with Carnival and nine with other cruise lines I have never been charged twice for the same drink however one time I was charged for a round of scotch and sodas for a group of 4 people that I never ordered and since I've never drank scotch in my entire lifetime I guarantee you I didn't drink those. They checked and found that they did not have my signature on the receipt and so they knew they were not mine. They did not give me any hassle about removing the charges but I always make sure I check my sail and sign Card since mistakes can happen.

[pjhootch]

It happened to us a couple of times. Well- maybe not being charged twice for the same drink, but being charged for a drink we didn't purchase at a bar we didn't visit. To be honest, the guest services desk told me there was nothing they could do and I let it go. When it happened again recently, I didn't both complaining because the lines were way too long for me to wait for them to say they couldn't do anything about it.

 

It makes perfect sense that they could research the signatures or receipts- but I didn't think of it at the time. It was a couple of drinks worth- maybe $15 or $20.

[MarcelLucSell]

There was only one time we had an issue. We had Cheers package at it was at the evening show bar and I went to bar and asked for the $9.xxx sparkling wines and I handed her our cards with Cheers stickers.

 

The bartender was mixing a few other drinks for others, and the show was going on, and she held up another bottle and said, we are out of $9.xxx, but is the YYYYY ok? Assuming they were both covered by Cheers, I said sure. We signed the slips, tipped a $1.00 each and on we went with both our glasses.

 

We found out during the last night of the cruise with the charge printouts that the substitutes were not Cheers covered beverages. It made us go Hmmmmm.....

[cruzelover55]

And on the other hand: I wonder how many people dispute charges for their own personal gain? As in buyers remorse. Or, even, as with my father's lovely bride of 37 years, complaining about charges on her S&S. I handle all his book work, taxes, insurance claims, disputes on credit card charges, etc.. So, she wanted me to clear this up for them. Now, heads up, she took this cruise with her daughter, and grandson that both have been known to stretch the truth, to be kind. The charges were from room service for drinks, and from the mini bar. I refused to get involved. Told her she should have addressed the issue while on board, with her cruise mates, before even thinking of blaming Carnival. She allowed them to charge against her account. I would have felt like a fool challenging this as I'll almost bet they did indeed make the charges.

 

As I posted earlier, I have personally had false charges. I don't feel it was anything more than a mistake. But, as one poster said, I didn't appreciate being made to feel I was trying to get one over on them. An apology would have been simple and nice.

[siestakeys04]

I went to Red frog and was charged twice. I had the receipt and took it to guest services the same day. She apologized and refunded the extra drink.