Carnival says that I am a fraudster, and refuses to let me pay for my cruise????

[DebJ14]

If this is anything on my record with Carnival, after this cruise, this will certainly be my last cruise with them as well.

 

But the question is will they also extend this to Princess, HAL and the other cruise lines under the Carnival Corp umbrella?

[Cuizer2]

So annoyed, never had anything like this happen. I booked a cruise back in July (12/10) on the Dream, paid my deposit for a spa balcony room, and went on my way. I decided to shop around online for carnival gift cards, as I know sometimes you can get them at a discounted rate, I found a website (reputable it seemed called card cash) where you could purchase gift cards at 10% off face value. I purchased enough to cover the entire balance of the cruise, added them to my account, cruise was paid for, before the end of July.

 

Just so happens, I checked online to see how many days until the cruise, and my cruise manager stated i owe over $1500, WHAT!? of course I call Carnival, in a panic to find out what happened (it was late night) the nice lady said I will need to call back during the day and speak to accounting to find out what happened, because all she can see is that the cards were "reversed". I call accounting the next morning, and speak to them, they state there is a scam going where basically someone uses compromised credit card information to buy gift cards, sells them to gift card brokers, the card holder sees charges, disputes charges, then the company removes the funds from the gift card, leaving the person who purchased the gift card out of luck.

 

Ok, fine, dandy, the website I purchased the cards from acknowledged the issue, promptly refunded me to my credit card I used to purchase the cards, all was fine and well, and I started making payments directly with my AMEX to Carnival (was making payments every few days as final payment is due on 9/26). Well, today I login to make a payment and I get an error stating that the company refuses my payment, so I called into Carnival, speak to a lady who states, no problem, she can take my payment, however she gets the same error. I was placed on hold for over 20 minutes as she called someone else, who advised that I am a fraudulent customer, because I used fraudulent gift cards, and the only way I can now make payments is if I send a "credit authorization form" via email EVERY time I make any type of payment.

 

I do not feel comfortable sending my credit card info via email, especially when I am splitting up payments, I had made a few payments after the gift card fiasco was resolved, has this ever happened to anyone else?? Customer service states there is nothing they can do, I am honestly tempted to request to have the booking cancelled due to Carnival refusing to let me pay for it (dare they say I will be penalized) and rebooking it (as the lady said this freeze was tied to my booking number) I asked if I could get a new booking number, I was advised no.

 

Any suggestions on where to go from here? As stated I do not feel like having my credit card number going over email multiple times.

Oops, misread the original post.

[M4Travels]

......

Edited October 20, 2017 by M4Travels
Quoted posted corrected their post.

[Cuizer2]

His post says "10% off face value" which equals 90 percent of face value.

 

Yes, I miss read it and removed my post.

[efleiss]

So annoyed, never had anything like this happen. I booked a cruise back in July (12/10) on the Dream, paid my deposit for a spa balcony room, and went on my way. I decided to shop around online for carnival gift cards, as I know sometimes you can get them at a discounted rate, I found a website (reputable it seemed called card cash) where you could purchase gift cards at 10% off face value. I purchased enough to cover the entire balance of the cruise, added them to my account, cruise was paid for, before the end of July.

 

 

 

Just so happens, I checked online to see how many days until the cruise, and my cruise manager stated i owe over $1500, WHAT!? of course I call Carnival, in a panic to find out what happened (it was late night) the nice lady said I will need to call back during the day and speak to accounting to find out what happened, because all she can see is that the cards were "reversed". I call accounting the next morning, and speak to them, they state there is a scam going where basically someone uses compromised credit card information to buy gift cards, sells them to gift card brokers, the card holder sees charges, disputes charges, then the company removes the funds from the gift card, leaving the person who purchased the gift card out of luck.

 

 

 

Ok, fine, dandy, the website I purchased the cards from acknowledged the issue, promptly refunded me to my credit card I used to purchase the cards, all was fine and well, and I started making payments directly with my AMEX to Carnival (was making payments every few days as final payment is due on 9/26). Well, today I login to make a payment and I get an error stating that the company refuses my payment, so I called into Carnival, speak to a lady who states, no problem, she can take my payment, however she gets the same error. I was placed on hold for over 20 minutes as she called someone else, who advised that I am a fraudulent customer, because I used fraudulent gift cards, and the only way I can now make payments is if I send a "credit authorization form" via email EVERY time I make any type of payment.

 

 

 

I do not feel comfortable sending my credit card info via email, especially when I am splitting up payments, I had made a few payments after the gift card fiasco was resolved, has this ever happened to anyone else?? Customer service states there is nothing they can do, I am honestly tempted to request to have the booking cancelled due to Carnival refusing to let me pay for it (dare they say I will be penalized) and rebooking it (as the lady said this freeze was tied to my booking number) I asked if I could get a new booking number, I was advised no.

 

 

 

Any suggestions on where to go from here? As stated I do not feel like having my credit card number going over email multiple times.

 

 

 

Here your problem. Processing cc for travel(cruises and airfare) is consideeed high risk by all of the card brands (v/mc/Amex/disc, etc) and mist processors. Odds are the policy decision is not from carnival , but the card processor, because your cc file is now associated with fraudulent card activity )even though not your fault and is telling carnival that telephone authorization is now blocked and requiring card not present with (physical signature)

 

Don’t blame cruise line - they get thier risk guideline from credit card processor.

 

 

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