Princess just sent me an invoice!

[LDVinNC]

I just received an invoice in the mail from Princess.  It is for $10,000 and the invoice number is the booking number for a 28 day Hawaii and South Pacific cruise that was scheduled for April 11 2020 and was obviously cancelled.  I have sent an email and am trying to reach the person in accounts receivable by phone. So far have had no luck.

 

How can this possibly be?  Has anyone else received such a thing?  It took months to get our money back and now they are trying to bill us for a non-existent cruise.  I am fuming.

[JF - retired RRT]

Slow down. Take some deep breaths. You know it's an error.

Once you talk to someone at Princess (just start with the first person who answers the phone) and explain, it will likely go away.

If that doesn't work, send a NICE email asking the question...how can this be?, to Jan Swarz's office.

[skynight]

Are you sure it came directly from Princess, not a T.A. and not a collection agency? It's an error for sure. Just contact Princess and they should take care of it.

[dog]

More information please. Does it ask for payment? Due date?  Did you receive money refund or FCC or both?  What is in your personalizer?

 

same advice as RF. It is an error. Princess cancelled your cruise. 

[LDVinNC]

Yes, the letter does ask for payment upon receipt.

 

Just got an email.  They mention duplicate credits.

 

We had done a chargeback; the CC credited us that amount, then Princess also posted a credit.  So at that point we did have a duplicate credit.  However shortly thereafter we got a "Transaction Rebill" for the same amount.  They seem to have forgotten about that rebill!

[INeedAMaiTai]

Princess' left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.  It'll all get cleared up in the end.  No pun intended, but these are uncharted waters for all of us with the pandemic.  Just be sure if you call, please be nice.  These people deal with so much negativity, a little kindness goes a long way.

[pms4104]

28 minutes ago, LDVinNC said:

Yes, the letter does ask for payment upon receipt.

 

Just got an email.  They mention duplicate credits.

 

We had done a chargeback; the CC credited us that amount, then Princess also posted a credit.  So at that point we did have a duplicate credit.  However shortly thereafter we got a "Transaction Rebill" for the same amount.  They seem to have forgotten about that rebill!

Is it possible that the issue lies with the credit card company rather than with Princess?  Have you called them?

[CineGraphic]

Odds are that this will happen to many more of those who opted to do a charge-back instead of waiting for the FCCs or refunds to be issued.

[LDVinNC]

33 minutes ago, pms4104 said:

Is it possible that the issue lies with the credit card company rather than with Princess?  Have you called them?

No need to call the CC people.  My statements clearly show the 2 credits and the rebill for one of them.

 

Thanks to all for your replies.

[dog]

27 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

Odds are that this will happen to many more of those who opted to do a charge-back instead of waiting for the FCCs or refunds to be issued.

My thoughts exactly

[BettyCruiser]

I got one too for my March cruise that was canceled. I assume it's a weird billing thing. And a huge waste of money that Princess paid postage on what was essentially a waste of paper and ink. I had paid for the cruise, Princess canceled and issued me an FCC and a full refund. I emailed my TA and she said she has gotten all kinds of weird billing notices from various cruise lines. 

[Roberto256]

16 hours ago, LDVinNC said:

I just received an invoice in the mail from Princess.  It is for $10,000 and the invoice number is the booking number for a 28 day Hawaii and South Pacific cruise that was scheduled for April 11 2020 and was obviously cancelled.  I have sent an email and am trying to reach the person in accounts receivable by phone. So far have had no luck.

 

How can this possibly be?  Has anyone else received such a thing?  It took months to get our money back and now they are trying to bill us for a non-existent cruise.  I am fuming.

 

But wait ... how did you enjoy the cruise?   🙂

 

I think cruises now need to be like 'Total Recall' ... you have cruise memories implanted in your brain.

Memories without any coronavirus risk!

 

Just don't go to Mars!!!

[LDVinNC]

13 hours ago, BettyCruiser said:

I got one too for my March cruise that was canceled. I assume it's a weird billing thing. And a huge waste of money that Princess paid postage on what was essentially a waste of paper and ink. I had paid for the cruise, Princess canceled and issued me an FCC and a full refund. I emailed my TA and she said she has gotten all kinds of weird billing notices from various cruise lines. 

It is somewhat comforting to know I am not the only one.  The email I got from their accounts receivable audit said I owed the money.  Well, due to a double credit, I did owe them money until they rebilled it, which took about 2 months.  Conveniently their "audit" did not uncover this.  I think they need some new auditors.

 

They asked for, and I sent, a copy of my CC statement which showed the rebill.  I hope this will be the end of it.

[pms4104]

1 hour ago, LDVinNC said:

It is somewhat comforting to know I am not the only one.  The email I got from their accounts receivable audit said I owed the money.  Well, due to a double credit, I did owe them money until they rebilled it, which took about 2 months.  Conveniently their "audit" did not uncover this.  I think they need some new auditors.

 

They asked for, and I sent, a copy of my CC statement which showed the rebill.  I hope this will be the end of it.

Maybe they just need more money to stay afloat

[pcur]

After reading this thread, I'm glad I paid my now cancelled cruise in full, so all they might invoice me for is the port taxes.  I'm waiting for the FCC, but since our cruises to use the FCC on isn't until 2022, I'm being patient.  Maybe they will automatically apply the FCC for me, as I've read does happen, and save me the trouble.

[LDVinNC]

Because ours was a long and pricey cruise, I used 3 credit cards to pay.  Also, two of them had special deals - extra cash back for purchases of a certain size.  I will never use multiple cards again, as getting all our money back (which we did not - somehow we got shorted a couple of hundred dollars, but after all we and everyone else went through, I gave up on pursuing that) was complicated.  Then with this invoice thing, it took a while to figure out which card they were talking about.  I hope we will not get any more invoices for the other cards!

[Coral]

11 minutes ago, LDVinNC said:

Because ours was a long and pricey cruise, I used 3 credit cards to pay.  Also, two of them had special deals - extra cash back for purchases of a certain size.  I will never use multiple cards again, as getting all our money back (which we did not - somehow we got shorted a couple of hundred dollars, but after all we and everyone else went through, I gave up on pursuing that) was complicated.  Then with this invoice thing, it took a while to figure out which card they were talking about.  I hope we will not get any more invoices for the other cards!

I used 2 cards - one for air and one for cruise (it was a 26 day cruise with 4 nights hotel). Seemed logical at the time. I had no idea what a big issue this would be. I had Princess refund the wrong card for an air reduction (before 45 days) before any chaos happened and then with the cancellation - they refunded the wrong cards, wrong amounts. I also was shorted and after Princess acknowledged it - it took forever to even get that refund. It was truly a nightmare. I literally spent months on the phone with Princess trying to get this resolved. I feel for you. 

 

This department was so screwed up. I have never encountered a more inept company in reference to handling these refunds. So much for doing this by hand to make sure they get this correct.

 

 

Edited December 6, 2020 by Coral

[caribill]

18 hours ago, LDVinNC said:

Because ours was a long and pricey cruise, I used 3 credit cards to pay.  Also, two of them had special deals - extra cash back for purchases of a certain size.  I will never use multiple cards again, as getting all our money back (which we did not - somehow we got shorted a couple of hundred dollars, but after all we and everyone else went through, I gave up on pursuing that) was complicated.  Then with this invoice thing, it took a while to figure out which card they were talking about.  I hope we will not get any more invoices for the other cards!

 

Could the shortage be due to not refunding the amount of the cash back you had received?

[dog]

19 hours ago, Coral said:

I used 2 cards - one for air and one for cruise (it was a 26 day cruise with 4 nights hotel). Seemed logical at the time. I had no idea what a big issue this would be. I had Princess refund the wrong card for an air reduction (before 45 days) before any chaos happened and then with the cancellation - they refunded the wrong cards, wrong amounts. I also was shorted and after Princess acknowledged it - it took forever to even get that refund. It was truly a nightmare. I literally spent months on the phone with Princess trying to get this resolved. I feel for you. 

 

This department was so screwed up. I have never encountered a more inept company in reference to handling these refunds. So much for doing this by hand to make sure they get this correct.

 

 

I am so glad you finally got things settled. 
my 5 refunds with 3 cruise lines went fairly smoothly. My TA handled most of it, but I think her agency will not survive this year. 

[LDVinNC]

7 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Could the shortage be due to not refunding the amount of the cash back you had received?

No, because the cash back came from the CC, not Princess.  In fact one of the cards shows a negative cash back amount.  Maybe some day the CC company will bill me for it.  In the meantime, it gets reduced when I charge things.

 

I think the couple of hundred they did not refund is due to EZAir changes - we booked, then changed it when the price went down, then decided to upgrade to first class.  I really do not care much about that.

 

I am waiting for the all-clear from Princess about the $10k bill.  Who knows how long it will take.  I think they are truly messed up.

[pms4104]

1 hour ago, LDVinNC said:

No, because the cash back came from the CC, not Princess.  In fact one of the cards shows a negative cash back amount.  Maybe some day the CC company will bill me for it.  In the meantime, it gets reduced when I charge things.

 

I think the couple of hundred they did not refund is due to EZAir changes - we booked, then changed it when the price went down, then decided to upgrade to first class.  I really do not care much about that.

 

I am waiting for the all-clear from Princess about the $10k bill.  Who knows how long it will take.  I think they are truly messed up.

Don't be surprised if your credit card company finds a way to take back the bonus bucks as well as the normal rewards for yo7r reversed purchase.  

 

They might even turn your acct over to their fraud dept ... these spending incentivrd can add up.

[LDVinNC]

21 hours ago, pms4104 said:

Don't be surprised if your credit card company finds a way to take back the bonus bucks as well as the normal rewards for yo7r reversed purchase.  

 

They might even turn your acct over to their fraud dept ... these spending incentivrd can add up.

As I said, the negative reward balance is being reduced as I use the card, so eventually I will "owe" them nothing.

 

Fraud?  I think considering the circumstances, it is unlikely they would view it as such.  I charge virtually everything on my cards, so they probably would not want to lose me as a customer.  They certainly would if they say I committed fraud!

[californiagirl]

We received an email notice that final payment was due just prior to the email informing us that the cruise was cancelled.  I agree with the poster who said one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing.

[LDVinNC]

They have now gone silent for over a week.  I sent an email asking for status and received no reply.  I am going to ignore the whole thing now, saving proof of my email correspondence with them  including sending the statement that shows the transaction rebill.  What a pain in the neck.

[LDVinNC]

I am happy to report that I got an email advising that "the matter has been closed".  One less thing to worry about in these difficult days.