Arcadia cancellations!

[Megabear2]

8 hours ago, molecrochip said:

Right, R201N was a very unusual case. Lots of learnings there for the company.

 

They are not ignoring the problems but its important to sift out the general complaints from real issues. For most who had a bad cruise, the acknowledgement that they weren't happy together with the 25% back will be sufficient. 

 

If you have a specific issue then please go back to them by email.

If I recall correctly Mollag was actually one of the passengers who was quarantined and isolated on this cruise which turned into a personal disaster for her and her husband.

 

If I understand it correctly the FCC credit she refers to and has been chasing is her "compensation" for being confined and is covered under the Cruise with confidence clause and is therefore on top of the 25% refund referred to in P&O's letter.  If this is correct my view would be that this should have been dealt with and she surely shouldn't still be waiting for P&O to sort it.  It is quite understandable that there are pressures on the administration staff, what is not acceptable is passengers being confronted by a brick wall when attempting to make contact and get what they are owed.

 

Incidentally on a general note on communication back at the end of March I received an email from Paul Ludlow's office in response to questions asked in January regarding the insurance position.  It stated they were sorry for the delay and P&O's lawyers would be in touch to discuss the issue with me and clarify the situation.  Here we are in May not one more word from any source! Ironically the cruises I wanted the information for were both cancelled one by me because I caught covid and the other by P&O for operational reasons.  That aside I do feel like a lot of passengers that there is a lot of fobbing off going on here and staff shortages aside the company are using them as an excuse rather than them being the reason.  

 

P&O are not alone in this but they are on occasion being difficult and obstructive at a higher level than the administration staff and it is those poor individuals who have to face the wrath and ire of the frustrated passengers.

 

On my own FCC situation I would add that P&Os refusal to allow my t/a to allocate the funds that they admitted were due led to me having to pay a new deposit of £372 on top when booking my Christmas Caribbean cruise.  Whilst I was put back into funds by my agent I am aware that she still cannot get the physical funds transferred from P&O to her administration office despite it showing on the computer and repeat requests for someone in P&O to push the relevant button.

 

Follow the recent price drops I also spoke to P&O  (this is a direct booking for my aunt) about cancelling a booking and rebooking on the substantially better terms, loss of deposit etc being accepted. Not only did the telephone agent want my aunt and I to forfeit my separate £173 deposit but he also wanted to use the entire £999 of FCC from a cancellation my aunt has used as her deposit.  I've no idea if that was correct but after nearly one and a half hours to get through I couldn’t be bothered to argue.

 

I am therefore beginning to believe whichever route you choose to book will make little difference because the quality of the person handling the problems at P&O's end is totally luck of the draw.

Edited May 8, 2022 by Megabear2

[Mollag]

10 hours ago, molecrochip said:

Right, R201N was a very unusual case. Lots of learnings there for the company.

 

They are not ignoring the problems but its important to sift out the general complaints from real issues. For most who had a bad cruise, the acknowledgement that they weren't happy together with the 25% back will be sufficient. 

 

If you have a specific issue then please go back to them by email.

How many times have I got to do this before I get a reply though 23 March was the first one followed by several more since with lots of specific issues apart from a couple of automated answers nothing!! Like I say not fit for purpose just hoping we’ll all forget about it and go away

[yorkshirephil]

2 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

 

 

I am therefore beginning to believe whichever route you choose to book will make little difference because the quality of the person handling the problems at P&O's end is totally luck of the draw.

I think you have hit the nail on the head there, this is also my experience with P&O. I cancelled a cruise in Jan this year after twice trying to get information from P&O. As an experienced cruiser I know when I am talking to someone who doesn't have much idea as most of us do. I accepted being fobbed off once and called back the next day hoping to get a more experienced person to help, no such luck. I asked to speak to a team leader/manager, told there was no one available and to ring back another time. After spending over an hour on the phone that was enough, cruise cancelled. 

[Mollag]

2 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

If I recall correctly Mollag was actually one of the passengers who was quarantined and isolated on this cruise which turned into a personal disaster for her and her husband.

 

If I understand it correctly the FCC credit she refers to and has been chasing is her "compensation" for being confined and is covered under the Cruise with confidence clause and is therefore on top of the 25% refund referred to in P&O's letter.  If this is correct my view would be that this should have been dealt with and she surely shouldn't still be waiting for P&O to sort it.  It is quite understandable that there are pressures on the administration staff, what is not acceptable is passengers being confronted by a brick wall when attempting to make contact and get what they are owed.

 

Incidentally on a general note on communication back at the end of March I received an email from Paul Ludlow's office in response to questions asked in January regarding the insurance position.  It stated they were sorry for the delay and P&O's lawyers would be in touch to discuss the issue with me and clarify the situation.  Here we are in May not one more word from any source! Ironically the cruises I wanted the information for were both cancelled one by me because I caught covid and the other by P&O for operational reasons.  That aside I do feel like a lot of passengers that there is a lot of fobbing off going on here and staff shortages aside the company are using them as an excuse rather than them being the reason.  

 

P&O are not alone in this but they are on occasion being difficult and obstructive at a higher level than the administration staff and it is those poor individuals who have to face the wrath and ire of the frustrated passengers.

 

On my own FCC situation I would add that P&Os refusal to allow my t/a to allocate the funds that they admitted were due led to me having to pay a new deposit of £372 on top when booking my Christmas Caribbean cruise.  Whilst I was put back into funds by my agent I am aware that she still cannot get the physical funds transferred from P&O to her administration office despite it showing on the computer and repeat requests for someone in P&O to push the relevant button.

 

Follow the recent price drops I also spoke to P&O  (this is a direct booking for my aunt) about cancelling a booking and rebooking on the substantially better terms, loss of deposit etc being accepted. Not only did the telephone agent want my aunt and I to forfeit my separate £173 deposit but he also wanted to use the entire £999 of FCC from a cancellation my aunt has used as her deposit.  I've no idea if that was correct but after nearly one and a half hours to get through I couldn’t be bothered to argue.

 

I am therefore beginning to believe whichever route you choose to book will make little difference because the quality of the person handling the problems at P&O's end is totally luck of the draw.

Correct had an amount added to my account on Friday which we have no idea what it’s for no explanatory email accompanying it several hundred pounds less than the letter we got on board from the Customer Service Manager who wouldn’t face his customers. So emailed loyalty guess what waiting for a reply. So many specific issues from everyone in our group yet no one has had a reply after several weeks now. Spoke with our TA on Friday who lays the blame 100% with P&O as they haven’t a clue what they’re doing

[davecttr]

I suppose this is a related issue. Back in January after paying the final balance I managed to cancel that Iona Canaries cruise or rather get it moved to next January which is fully paid for. Unfortunately there was no availabiltiy for the Canaries and I ended up with  a Med one instead. The decision had to be made THEN on the phone. The 'new' cruise is £365 cheaper and a refund was promised. With these shenanigans I will leave it for now. 

 

The interesting bit is I do have a Iona Canaries cruise booked for next January, the one before the Med one!. I will attempt to cancel the med one and have the balance transferred to the Canaries one. Wish me luck!

 

edit - it might be easier just to cancel the med cruise and use the money to pay for the Canaries cruise. I hope you can get the balance refunded minus the deposit as long as you cancel before final payment date.

Edited May 8, 2022 by davecttr

[zap99]

20 hours ago, amajaa said:

Sorry excuse my spelling or shall I say stupid spellcheck thing that was supposed to say “Guess what”

Perhaps spellcheck go it right on this occasion. A quest indeed.🤣

[zap99]

5 hours ago, Mollag said:

How many times have I got to do this before I get a reply though 23 March was the first one followed by several more since with lots of specific issues apart from a couple of automated answers nothing!! Like I say not fit for purpose just hoping we’ll all forget about it and go away

Perhaps they are happy to say ' bye bye' to customers who aren't happy to accept poor customer service.

[Britboys]

Sadly, communication by P&O seems to go awry in many different ways. Be interesting to see if there is any improvement with a relatively new Carnival UK 'President' at the helm. I wonder if P&O Australia are better at communication...

[Mollag]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

Perhaps they are happy to say ' bye bye' to customers who aren't happy to accept poor customer service.

Plenty of other companies will be happy to have our money and maybe appreciate the people that give it to them. We certainly won’t be sorry to say bye bye to P&O 

[Astrajet]

17 hours ago, Britboys said:

I wonder if P&O Australia are better at communication.

They are indeed! We have sailed with them a couple of times & absolutely no complaints regarding communication or anything else for that matter. 

Edited May 9, 2022 by Astrajet

[Needlework Nana]

Refund for cancelled cruise received by cheque directly from Carnival House.  Don’t understand why P&O directed customers to TA.

[Shipsareus]

2 hours ago, Needlework Nana said:

Refund for cancelled cruise received by cheque directly from Carnival House.  Don’t understand why P&O directed customers to TA.

How interesting - travel company ( nationwide one beginning with H) and P & O customer service are not answering emails. Think we are finished with both of these companies!

will advise the forum if we have any further information.

 

[paulatsea]

8 minutes ago, Shipsareus said:

How interesting - travel company ( nationwide one beginning with H) and P & O customer service are not answering emails. Think we are finished with both of these companies!

will advise the forum if we have any further information.

 

No reply from p&o to my emails either. Not even an acknowledgment. 

[Needlework Nana]

3 hours ago, Needlework Nana said:

Refund for cancelled cruise received by cheque directly from Carnival House.  Don’t understand why P&O directed customers to TA.

Update my TA starts with a B. They had advised refund would come from P & O.

[Jazzytelly]

On 5/7/2022 at 11:46 AM, amajaa said:

Quests what, good news 👏👏

 

We just got a cheque from Carnival UK posted through our door for the full amount.

 

Goodness knows why we have a cheque as we paid our well known TA by credit card and it came off the card saying P & O Cruises. Perhaps it’s because a small part of the deposit was a FCD for a cancelled cruise, although that was originally paid by the same credit card. Who knows , at least we have it now even though can’t put in bank in until Monday now and it won’t clear before the payment comes off for the substitute Princess cruise we booked. 

We got ours back on Saturday even though well known TA beginning with a B said it would go back on credit card.  You got yours on Thursday I notice hope it goes through bank in time.

Edited May 9, 2022 by Jazzytelly

[Gettingwarmer]

This B travel agent may be the one that sends the money immediately to P&O. 

[amajaa]

6 minutes ago, Gettingwarmer said:

This B travel agent may be the one that sends the money immediately to P&O. 

Yes it is , the one we use, even so as I posted on 5th we received a cheque, looks like above 2 posters above also got cheque when using them

 

Just editing we paid TA by Credit card but as I said in my post on previous page it still came back by cheque but TA and P & O both sent emails saying it would be returned to credit card. I’m not complaining as it means we don’t lose our CC cash back with a large negative amount going back on. 

Edited May 9, 2022 by amajaa

[mrsgoggins]

TA been in contact over last few days checking bank details etc, and refund to bank now in, but refund to cc not showing yet.  I expect it to appear in the next day or two 🎉

[Mollag]

They’ve finally admitted there was legionnaires on board but it had nothing to do with the cancellations 😂😂😂

[wowzz]

26 minutes ago, Mollag said:

They’ve finally admitted there was legionnaires on board but it had nothing to do with the cancellations 😂😂😂

I'm not sure they have admitted anything like that, only that a contractor working on Arcadia developed the disease.

[Dermotsgirl]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

I'm not sure they have admitted anything like that, only that a contractor working on Arcadia developed the disease.

http://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tourism/po-cruises-addresses-legionnaires-speculation

 

Yes, they’ve said that a contractor who worked in Arcadia later was diagnosed with Legionnaires……. But squashed speculation that it was anything to do with cancelling Arcadia’s cruises.

 

They haven’t said one way or the other whether there was Legionnaires on board.

 

I’m not really enjoying P&O’s  current cloak of secrecy around health matters. They were always up front about Norovirus on board, but nowadays anything about health is kept as a mystery 

Edited May 14, 2022 by Dermotsgirl

[Mollag]

37 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

http://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tourism/po-cruises-addresses-legionnaires-speculation

 

Yes, they’ve said that a contractor who worked in Arcadia later was diagnosed with Legionnaires……. But squashed speculation that it was anything to do with cancelling Arcadia’s cruises.

 

They haven’t said one way or the other whether there was Legionnaires on board.

 

I’m not really enjoying P&O’s  current cloak of secrecy around health matters. They were always up front about Norovirus on board, but nowadays anything about health is kept as a mystery 

I’m sure if the tests on Arcadia were negative  they’d be telling everyone 

[Dermotsgirl]

12 minutes ago, Mollag said:

I’m sure if the tests on Arcadia were negative  they’d be telling everyone 

True !

[wowzz]

3 hours ago, Dermotsgirl said:

True !

 

4 hours ago, Mollag said:

I’m sure if the tests on Arcadia were negative  they’d be telling everyone 

I am on a number of Arcadia social media sites, including one specific to the cruise in question.

Whilst there have been a number of reports of Covid contracted during, or at the end of the cruise (including ourselves) there has been no mention of any one contracting Legionnaires disease.

Obviously that is by no means not to say that a case might have been contracted, but I think it unlikely that it woukd have gone unreported. 

I see no reason why P&O should need to tell anyone that there is no Legionnaires disease on board - what good would it do? It is like asking a nan if he has stopped beating his wife  !

Before you know it, the paranoid would  be wanting P&O to state that Britannia, Azura etc  are free of Legionnaires disease.  Where do you stop in the incessant need for positive reinforcement to allay ireational fears ?

 

 

Edited May 14, 2022 by wowzz

[Dermotsgirl]

47 minutes ago, wowzz said:

 

I am on a number of Arcadia social media sites, including one specific to the cruise in question.

Whilst there have been a number of reports of Covid contracted during, or at the end of the cruise (including ourselves) there has been no mention of any one contracting Legionnaires disease.

Obviously that is by no means not to say that a case might have been contracted, but I think it unlikely that it woukd have gone unreported. 

I see no reason why P&O should need to tell anyone that there is no Legionnaires disease on board - what good would it do? It is like asking a nan if he has stopped beating his wife  !

Before you know it, the paranoid would  be wanting P&O to state that Britannia, Azura etc  are free of Legionnaires disease.  Where do you stop in the incessant need for positive reinforcement to allay ireational fears ?

 

 

As a person who worked on Arcadia later went on to develop Legionnaires and P&O cancelled a number of cruises on Arcadia, it's not irrational to wonder if there was Legionnaires on the ship, what with Arcadia being out of service for so long.

 

But Britannia and Azura etc have been in service for several months now, with no Legionnaires outbreak associated with the ships, so no one has been given any reason to wonder.