Mini Bar Charges Post Cruise

[island lady]

This "after the cruise charge" happens a LOT!! Honest mistakes?

Happens too often to be just a miscount. Someone is either helping

themselves to your mini bar after you depart, or possibly they are

adjusting their inventory at your expense.

 

Have had that mysterious mini bar charge show up on my charge card

after several cruises on several different ships. Have called RCI customer

service on every one of them. Sure, they reverse it..but as others have

mentioned...what a PITA!! :mad:

 

Can you imagine the pax that either don't notice the amount being different

than your final sea pass bill, or don't want to bother with checking it out?

 

One thing I like, but not sure if it has been implemented ship wide, is

the mini bar and snacks are empty now (except for two large bottles

of water). We noticed that on Rhapsody last month. You have to ask to

have it stocked. We never use the mini bar and always found it a waste to

have them stocked.

[island lady]

Would I be able to go to the service desk on debarkation day to get a quick look at an "updated" bill? Or do you think they wait till you are off the boat before they add those items?

 

Most usually get their updated final bill on your door early in the

morning on disembarkation day.

 

Then I notice the charge on our card is different than that last bill by

a few bucks. So, yeah...they added it after we left the ship. :mad:

Edited January 1, 2017 by island lady

[ThirstyCruiser]

Perhaps instead of an ongoing thread "How many days till your next RCI cruise?" we should start a thread titled "Post here if you experienced fraudulent mini bar charges"

 

I wonder how long before the latter thread overtakes the former in post count.

 

In 8 cruises this has happened to me twice. Honest mistake? Yeah, right.

[Life is Good Cruising]

Happened to us 3X :eek: out of 4 sailings in the past few months on Anthem.

[teddybear231]

A similar thing happened on Carnival to us.

 

We had the drinking package, so the receipts would say 0 but we would leave $1 tip. Well I noticed when I checked my statement that I had been charged $11. I immediately called guest services and they removed it, I thought maybe it was a mistake. Well about 2 days later I noticed the same thing happen! So once again I called down and they removed it. Now I was suspicious. Everything looked good for the rest of the cruise. On the last day while driving home I decided to review my statement print out that they give you, and I noticed another $11 charge from the night before! Well I was furious. I had to place multiple calls to Carnival, and wait nearly 3 weeks until I was refunded. Although it wasn't a lot of money, its the principle of the idea and now I truly believe it wasn't a mistake, but something that they probably do on a regular basis. I would have never caught that last $11 charge if I didn't review my statement. The same thing happened to somebody else in our party, they were charged $11 on the last night when they only left $1.

 

So be careful. Its a shame that some bad apples have to ruin it for the servers that truly do work hard for their tips. Something I think the cruise line should look into.

[Guest maddycat]

It also happened to us on our last Anthem cruise in October. I called and had the amount removed. I also mentioned it on the post cruise survey.

 

I definitely think that it is a scam. The mini bar was empty for the entire cruise. If we wanted mini bar items we would have had to order them, which we didn't.

[Beachammo]

Has happenned to me two out of the last three cruises.

 

I didnt even check my first 10 cruises.

 

My "final" bill sits next to my computer until i see the statement. Since I only use that card for Royal charges it's easy to spot.

[njbrandon]

I called today for my refund. They said it was a computer glitch that happened on my cruise. I called BS because others are getting it too. Little things like this could make me look at other cruise lines next time.

[Aldeya]

Just came back from the Anthem.

 

Not the bar charge but on the last day I noticed the charge of $19.99 for Internet. We used a Diamond coupon for a free day so the charge shouldn't be there. Called Guest Services, the refund was issued in a few minutes.

 

So if you use any of Diamond perks check your accounts while on board.

[johnjen]

Yeah, the same happened to us last June on our Anthem cruise! We were looking at the checkout screen, it was for two large bottles of evian water where, not only did we ask the room attendant to remove everything from the fridge, we followed up at guest services to verbally tell them we hope we don't get charged. But sure enough, we had those items added even after we had the mini bar emptied. Soon as we went downstairs there was a HUGE line. Be careful and check your bill before disembarking.

[obnurse]

I hate to be a PITA, but I wish we could ask that none of that be in our cabin on arrival. We don't partake in any of it, and it can become a question as to whether we used it or not. We had scheduled maintenance on our balcony and apparently he/they helped themselves to the mini bar because we noticed the charge on our bill right away. Guest Services quickly removed the charge, but it becomes our responsibility to "catch it" or pay for it. JMHO

[island lady]

I hate to be a PITA, but I wish we could ask that none of that be in our cabin on arrival. We don't partake in any of it, and it can become a question as to whether we used it or not. We had scheduled maintenance on our balcony and apparently he/they helped themselves to the mini bar because we noticed the charge on our bill right away. Guest Services quickly removed the charge, but it becomes our responsibility to "catch it" or pay for it. JMHO

 

Some ships are l already going in that direction. On embarkation day on Rhapsody

last month, there were no stale snacks lined up on the counter, and nothing but two

large bottles of water in the little fridge. If you wanted anything, you had to ask for

it to be stocked. I love that plan!

 

We hung out in the cabin a bit before we left on final day, when the mini bar check

crew member knocked on the door. He seemed annoyed when I pointed out the

two bottles were still in there, and I did not expect to have any mysterious extra

charges on my account. ;)

[jerseyjjs]

Slimeball move on RCCL's part. My mother couldn't even open the door to her mini fridge because it was locked. I just called and made the representative aware that this is being discussed on Cruise Critic and her company shouldn't be so underhanded and dishonest.

[jamesboat]

If it happens on my cruise next week I will make sure Consumer Reports / the Consumerist is made aware.

[138east]

Some ships are l already going in that direction. On embarkation day on Rhapsody

last month, there were no stale snacks lined up on the counter, and nothing but two

large bottles of water in the little fridge. If you wanted anything, you had to ask for

it to be stocked. I love that plan!

 

We hung out in the cabin a bit before we left on final day, when the mini bar check

crew member knocked on the door. He seemed annoyed when I pointed out the

two bottles were still in there, and I did not expect to have any mysterious extra

charges on my account. ;)

 

I had a very similar experience on Harmony. I was in the cabin the last morning when the minibar guy came by and I also pointed out that the two large bottles of water were still there. I already had my final bill and had checked it. Two days later a $6.61 charge appears on my RCL credit card! This is at least the 3rd or 4th time this has happened to me on different ships. A call to C&A got it fixed, but it shouldn't have happened in the first place.

[TeeRick]

I had a bogus $12.57 mini-bar charge recently on Anthem - in the bill that was e-mailed to me. It was not on the final ship copy so I did not notice it until I got home and started reading posts here. Who do you call at RCL to get it reversed?

[njbrandon]

I called Royal Caribbeans main customer service number and had it refunded. I was told it was a computer glitch that occurred on my cruise, which is a lie seeing this has been going on for a year.

[island lady]

I had a very similar experience on Harmony. I was in the cabin the last morning when the minibar guy came by and I also pointed out that the two large bottles of water were still there. I already had my final bill and had checked it. Two days later a $6.61 charge appears on my RCL credit card! This is at least the 3rd or 4th time this has happened to me on different ships. A call to C&A got it fixed, but it shouldn't have happened in the first place.

 

Hi Carol! :)

 

Yeah, it indeed happens WAY too often to be just random honest mistakes. Been

going on for years like that. Not just one ship but just about all of them.

Happens to me at about one out of every three cruises on various ships and

all types of cabins. Shame on you RCI! :(

Edited January 4, 2017 by island lady

[Aldeya]

I had a bogus $12.57 mini-bar charge recently on Anthem - in the bill that was e-mailed to me. It was not on the final ship copy so I did not notice it until I got home and started reading posts here. Who do you call at RCL to get it reversed?

 

This was posted by someone on the boards:

 

RCL Post Cruise Customer Support takes care of this quickly: (800) 256-6649.

[ThirstyCruiser]

Wish we could get the title of this thread changed to better reflect this topic. I wonder how many additional people would post in this thread once they realized it wasn't just them. Or took a closer look at their last statement and realized "Holy mackerel, the skunks got me too!"

:mad:

[TeeRick]

This was posted by someone on the boards:

 

RCL Post Cruise Customer Support takes care of this quickly: (800) 256-6649.

 

Thanks so much for the number. I will call them today.

[Alan1956]

Sounds like it's high time for a class action lawsuite as this is just pure plain fraud.

Also maybe time to have a word with your local DA as this is also credit card fraud!!!

[CruisingChick]

Thanks everyone for the heads up. We are sailing Anthem in 3 weeks. We never use anything from the mini-bar. So I will make sure we do not get charged for it.

[parrotfeathers]

Happened to me on my first Holland America cruise. Has never happened on a RCL cruise including Anthem.

[TeeRick]

I called the post-cruise number yesterday and they reversed the charge immediately.