Statement of Charges after cruise

[Esprit]

We received the email the day after we disembarked. It just confirmed what I already knew when I printed off the statement the night before disembarkation.

[jebbs]

Perhaps it is a Royal Princess problem, but 4 couples traveling together in Alaska cruising June 18-25 of this year.  We each received $700 on board credit from our travel agent.  Additionally, due to landtour itinerary change, Princess gave $200 per cabin non refundable credit.  As we had a beverage package, Internet, tips and a specialty dining night, and had of course pre booked our excursions in Alaska to guarantee we got what we wanted, each couple had in excess of $600 credit remaining. While we did take screen shots, we have been unable to get statements or credit card reimbursement, a check, or any kind of refundable credit.  Since we individually were unsuccessful in making any headway with Princess, at Customer Service’s recommendation, we have contacted our travel agent.

I'm beginning to think Small Claims Court may be in my future.  Honestly, this isn’t hard……the bookkeeping must be a mess if they did this to everyone on the ship, It’s hard to believe that 4 cabins traveling together is an isolated incident.

[Bwana Tom]

42 minutes ago, jebbs said:

Perhaps it is a Royal Princess problem, but 4 couples traveling together in Alaska cruising June 18-25 of this year.  We each received $700 on board credit from our travel agent.  Additionally, due to landtour itinerary change, Princess gave $200 per cabin non refundable credit.  As we had a beverage package, Internet, tips and a specialty dining night, and had of course pre booked our excursions in Alaska to guarantee we got what we wanted, each couple had in excess of $600 credit remaining. While we did take screen shots, we have been unable to get statements or credit card reimbursement, a check, or any kind of refundable credit.  Since we individually were unsuccessful in making any headway with Princess, at Customer Service’s recommendation, we have contacted our travel agent.

I'm beginning to think Small Claims Court may be in my future.  Honestly, this isn’t hard……the bookkeeping must be a mess if they did this to everyone on the ship, It’s hard to believe that 4 cabins traveling together is an isolated incident.

I believe Princess will be facing a class action suit in the future. Far too many cruisers are experiencing the same problem from them, including me with no answer from letters or emails.

[SiliconCruiser]

33 minutes ago, Bwana Tom said:

I believe Princess will be facing a class action suit in the future. Far too many cruisers are experiencing the same problem from them, including me with no answer from letters or emails.

Princess' web site seems to be down for log-ins right now, but I seem to recall one of the items being that you relinquish your right to class action lawsuits.  But of course, you do have the right to pursue small claims action.   The limits for small claims varies depending upon location, but if you file the action in California where Princess is based, the limit is $10K.

[travellingnana]

8 hours ago, jwattle said:

Was your refund greater than $25? if not, it won't be refunded.

 

Yes. It was $100.32. Two emails now. Still waiting for an answer

[jebbs]

Wanted to update regarding my Princess OBC refund.  I received it earlier this week by check for the amount I calculated, which is great.

Today by email, I also received my folio printout as requested. It looks totally different from the medallion app recording, but it all added up.

Hope everyone is as fortunate as I was ….

[Eaglecw]

On 7/28/2022 at 4:35 PM, Eaglecw said:

I e-mailed all the executives and I'm still waiting for reply, it's only been 32 days. I think it's BS the way Princess treats there customers.

I'm still waiting. No reply from anyone. Princess has gotten to be a total joke.

[Mark_OH]

I just got my check today.  Still haven't received the final folio statement despite multiple requests over the last 6 weeks via chat, phone and the online contact form.

 

The check amount looks correct, so I'm going to go ahead and deposit it.

[Mark_OH]

6 hours ago, Mark_OH said:

I just got my check today.  Still haven't received the final folio statement despite multiple requests over the last 6 weeks via chat, phone and the online contact form.

 

The check amount looks correct, so I'm going to go ahead and deposit it.

Additional information: another couple who took the same cruise with us - they also received a refund check from Princess today.  But here's the important piece of information:  they never requested a refund; in fact, they haven't contacted Princess at all since the cruise ended on July 8th.

 

Clearly, all my requests for a folio statement and refund check made NO DIFFERENCE.  Princess is just processing the refunds on their own schedule, customer requests be damned. And then sending it out via snail mail (vs a credit to the customer's credit card) is just an additional insult to customers.

 

My wife and I have decided we will be looking at other cruise lines if/when we decide to go on another cruise.  This experience is just too bad to ignore and we don't really see any value in being Platinum-level members.

[Bwana Tom]

On 7/29/2022 at 7:17 PM, Bwana Tom said:

My wife and I were on a 3-way back to back in March 2022 with all of our charges and credit rolling over from one cruise to another, as they always have been in the past. On the last day of the last cruise segment we printed out our account statement. It clearly showed the amount of the refundable credit owed us was $222.71. By mid June we had not received our refund check so I first went to Live-Chat to see if I could resolve the issue. That was absolutely a worthless exercise so I called Princess and after the usual long wait to get connected and the lengthy conversation explaining the situation I had invested an hour of time. Finally they recommended I be transferred to the Account Dept. to get it resolved. That was worthy of another 2 hours waiting and explaining once again. I was told a check in the amount $163.93 would be mailed in the next few days. I questioned that amount and was told that not all of the $222.71 was refundable, yet my vet OBC was $300 and in the past any charges have always been first taken out of the non-refundable funds first. So, clearly the entire $222.71 should have been refunded. Follow my logic? About a week later, sure enough we received the check for $163.93. Ironically like so many others have been reporting my check was about 25% less than what was owed to me. Wondering if this is some sort of a scam I wrote a very detailed and pleasant letter to John Padgett, including all the appropriate attachments and sent it by snail mail. Now, one month later with absolutely no response I decided to try another tactic and email Jan Swartz and also attached all the documentation. I know Jan may not have responsibility for such things, but I am now desperate and Jan seems to come with very high recommendations. I find it hard to believe that this might be a case of some sort of embezzlement, but I do find it puzzling why so many people are being subjected to this 25% reduction in payment. If I ever get this resolve I will update you folks at CC.

Thanks for listening.  

I am happy to inform that I finally got resolution to my problem of Princess holding back some of OBC. It took me nearly 5 months to resolve the issue, but finally I was successful. I was asked by PacnGoNow to keep everyone updated so here goes. After about 2 months from when I mailed my letter to John Padgett (with all documentation enclosed) and a month after sending an email (including all documentation) to Jan Swartz I finally received a telephone call from a person by the name of Peggy at (877) 888-1869 Ext. 44670. I was away from my phone and missed her calls, but I called her back a little while later. She immediately picked up (none of the usual one hour plus waiting to be connected). She apparently had all my documentation which I had included with both of my earlier letters) including copies of: particle payment check for $163.93, Princess vendor sheet, my account statement obtained on the last day of my cruise and a copy of my 6-28-2022 letter to Padgett. I started to go over the situation anyway and she cut in and said it looks like they still owed us $52.78 and she would have them cut us a check in that amount. While this was a few dollars less than what I thought was owed I wanted to see the end to this situation and kept quiet at that point. I did expressed my concerns that many people seem to be experiencing a similar situation and always the difference seems to be a payment of 75% of the owed amount. She didn’t seem to go along with that assumption. Maybe she didn’t think my own 74+% situation fit that criterion precisely. She only said that in the future I should just spend all my OBC on board to eliminate a future problem with reimbursement. That being the case I wonder why they even make a distinction between refundable and non-refundable OBC. 

The bottom line: My 5 month journey finally ended on August 24, 2022 and I received my check for the remaining funds. It does seem strange to me that apparently so many people have had a similar experience and it always seems their refund is only for about 75% of the owed amount. And possibly worst of all no one seems to want to get the bottom of the problem in order to prevent it from occurring again. My best advice to everyone that have refundable OBC exceeding $25 and not being able to get it refunded on board is to make sure you have all the documentation to prove what is owed to you. We always get a print out of our account on the last day before debarking. While my own situation wasn’t a great deal of money I still wanted to carry it to the ultimate end. I’m not sure whether Padgett or Swartz forwarded my documentation to “Peggy”, but I am going to personally keep her telephone number handy in the event this happens to us again in the future. She was actually pretty pleasant to deal with and actually came through for us in the end.   

Good luck to you folks. 

[Loveh2ofl]

2 minutes ago, Bwana Tom said:

I am happy to inform that I finally got resolution to my problem of Princess holding back some of OBC. It took me nearly 5 months to resolve the issue, but finally I was successful. I was asked by PacnGoNow to keep everyone updated so here goes. After about 2 months from when I mailed my letter to John Padgett (with all documentation enclosed) and a month after sending an email (including all documentation) to Jan Swartz I finally received a telephone call from a person by the name of Peggy at (877) 888-1869 Ext. 44670. I was away from my phone and missed her calls, but I called her back a little while later. She immediately picked up (none of the usual one hour plus waiting to be connected). She apparently had all my documentation which I had included with both of my earlier letters) including copies of: particle payment check for $163.93, Princess vendor sheet, my account statement obtained on the last day of my cruise and a copy of my 6-28-2022 letter to Padgett. I started to go over the situation anyway and she cut in and said it looks like they still owed us $52.78 and she would have them cut us a check in that amount. While this was a few dollars less than what I thought was owed I wanted to see the end to this situation and kept quiet at that point. I did expressed my concerns that many people seem to be experiencing a similar situation and always the difference seems to be a payment of 75% of the owed amount. She didn’t seem to go along with that assumption. Maybe she didn’t think my own 74+% situation fit that criterion precisely. She only said that in the future I should just spend all my OBC on board to eliminate a future problem with reimbursement. That being the case I wonder why they even make a distinction between refundable and non-refundable OBC. 

The bottom line: My 5 month journey finally ended on August 24, 2022 and I received my check for the remaining funds. It does seem strange to me that apparently so many people have had a similar experience and it always seems their refund is only for about 75% of the owed amount. And possibly worst of all no one seems to want to get the bottom of the problem in order to prevent it from occurring again. My best advice to everyone that have refundable OBC exceeding $25 and not being able to get it refunded on board is to make sure you have all the documentation to prove what is owed to you. We always get a print out of our account on the last day before debarking. While my own situation wasn’t a great deal of money I still wanted to carry it to the ultimate end. I’m not sure whether Padgett or Swartz forwarded my documentation to “Peggy”, but I am going to personally keep her telephone number handy in the event this happens to us again in the future. She was actually pretty pleasant to deal with and actually came through for us in the end.   

Good luck to you folks. 

Peggy is the same person who resolved my issue with taking two months to get a copy of my shipboard account.  Fixed it in minutes.

 

[railman]

We received a check for the correct amount on August 31st for a cruise that ended on June 9th.  We finished another cruise on August 31st with yet another refund expected.  I guess we should see it sometime in early November.

[Bwana Tom]

10 minutes ago, railman said:

We received a check for the correct amount on August 31st for a cruise that ended on June 9th.  We finished another cruise on August 31st with yet another refund expected.  I guess we should see it sometime in early November.

Good luck to you. I hope everything goes well for you.

[geoherb]

I received my statement the day after my cruise last week. It looks like they're planning to short me $23.21. I've already written a complaint on the webform. In my case, the ship refunded port fees and 10 days worth of internet that added up to more than my refund. I asked onboard the ship if these amounts were refundable and was told that they were. I don't see how Princess decided that they were only partially refundable.

[Bwana Tom]

18 minutes ago, geoherb said:

I received my statement the day after my cruise last week. It looks like they're planning to short me $23.21. I've already written a complaint on the webform. In my case, the ship refunded port fees and 10 days worth of internet that added up to more than my refund. I asked onboard the ship if these amounts were refundable and was told that they were. I don't see how Princess decided that they were only partially refundable.

I’m curious, what is the percentage of the amount they are shortening you. I wonder if it is in the neighborhood of the usual 25 percent less than is owed you.

I wish you all the luck. If all else fails you might want to call my contact noted earlier.

[geoherb]

3 hours ago, Bwana Tom said:

I’m curious, what is the percentage of the amount they are shortening you. I wonder if it is in the neighborhood of the usual 25 percent less than is owed you.

I wish you all the luck. If all else fails you might want to call my contact noted earlier.

 

It's about 20 percent. I'm owed $103.21, and the statement makes it look like I'll be receiving $80. 

[Guest ldtr]

On 8/23/2022 at 6:11 PM, Mark_OH said:

Additional information: another couple who took the same cruise with us - they also received a refund check from Princess today.  But here's the important piece of information:  they never requested a refund; in fact, they haven't contacted Princess at all since the cruise ended on July 8th.

 

Clearly, all my requests for a folio statement and refund check made NO DIFFERENCE.  Princess is just processing the refunds on their own schedule, customer requests be damned. And then sending it out via snail mail (vs a credit to the customer's credit card) is just an additional insult to customers.

 

My wife and I have decided we will be looking at other cruise lines if/when we decide to go on another cruise.  This experience is just too bad to ignore and we don't really see any value in being Platinum-level members.

So your view is that those that complain should be moved to the head of the line before the systems gets to them?  The fact thst both of you from the same cruise received their payme ts at the same time says that their system is working.

[Mark_OH]

21 hours ago, ldtr said:

So your view is that those that complain should be moved to the head of the line before the systems gets to them?  The fact thst both of you from the same cruise received their payme ts at the same time says that their system is working.

Not exactly.  What I'm pointing out is that Princess told me MULTIPLE TIMES that I had to REQUEST a refund and I had to give them a dollar amount* BEFORE a refund would be sent.  The fact that we both received our payments at the same time implies that I was lied to (or more likely, one part of Princess doesn't know what the other part is doing).  So they're either deceitful or incompetent - neither is a good look.

 

*The amount I received was different than the amount I guessed when I made the refund request. To me this implies that the refund request was superfluous.

 

And for the record, I still have not received the final folio statement.  Looks like incompetence is the trend.

[Guest ldtr]

3 hours ago, Mark_OH said:

Not exactly.  What I'm pointing out is that Princess told me MULTIPLE TIMES that I had to REQUEST a refund and I had to give them a dollar amount* BEFORE a refund would be sent.  The fact that we both received our payments at the same time implies that I was lied to (or more likely, one part of Princess doesn't know what the other part is doing).  So they're either deceitful or incompetent - neither is a good look.

 

*The amount I received was different than the amount I guessed when I made the refund request. To me this implies that the refund request was superfluous.

 

And for the record, I still have not received the final folio statement.  Looks like incompetence is the trend.

I have never had to requeat a refund of refundable obc. Always came between 6 and 24 weeks.  So yes I do not believe that a refund request is needed. Though if it went longer than 5 months I would probably send a reminder.

[Mark_OH]

16 hours ago, ldtr said:

I have never had to requeat a refund of refundable obc. Always came between 6 and 24 weeks.  So yes I do not believe that a refund request is needed. Though if it went longer than 5 months I would probably send a reminder.

Between 6 and 24 weeks?  And it's only an issue if it's longer than 5 months?  Consider me a new monkey (https://www.proserveit.com/blog/five-monkeys-experiment-lessons) - I expect better customer service.

[Guest ldtr]

2 minutes ago, Mark_OH said:

Between 6 and 24 weeks?  And it's only an issue if it's longer than 5 months?  Consider me a new monkey (https://www.proserveit.com/blog/five-monkeys-experiment-lessons) - I expect better customer service.

just saying what it has taken in the past.  Pre-Covid most was around 6 weeks the short end, though I did have a couple around 3 months even then.  Post shutdown it has varied much more as they have been trying to staff up positions.  The refunds are sent out by a contractor so it is unclear exactly where the delays are.

[Digisailor]

Another twist on the "Final Statement" 

We were on the Regal June 4- June 25.   Our charges got a little complicated because the cruise was 3 weeks, with lots of shore excursions, my wife had to cancel one Shorex because she got sick... they cancelled one and we had to rebook a different one... and the one in Istanbul - shall we say - didn't go well... we never got to the "grand Bazaar" - and they refunded about $21 to everyone on it.  I didn't know that refund was coming.   So figuring out the amounts without a statement of some sort was not going to happen. 

But given all that... I got my "Stateroom Account" emailed to me on July 10... and it shows both my wife's and my charges (with one "spousal" account zeroed out to the other like others have reported)... and all the items seemed to make sense... *but* it only showed charges through June 18.  So even though we received it two weeks after the end of the cruise, it appears that all the charges after June 18 got left off somehow.  I was suspicious that it might be "incomplete". 

Following this, I got a substantially higher charge from the ship on my credit card than was indicated in the statement in the email I received.  So I asked the credit card company to adjust the charge to the billed amount (which they did)... and at the same time, I requested Princess through their "contact us" page submission form... to send me an updated bill.  If Princess had sent me a complete statement in the first place it would have avoided any problem... but I figured another one would be forthcoming when they figured it out, and I would pay it then. 

So about a month later, after hearing *nothing* from Princess, I got a rebill on my credit card for the disputed amount.  I sent Princess another request that day through the "contact us" page asking for a more complete bill.   I got another automated acknowledgement of my email... but never anything else. 
The credit card company (Chase) said I needed to fax them a letter and associated supporting documents, and show my concerns.  So I sent them copies of the bill I received, and copies of the emails I had sent to Princess through their "contact us" page - and their acknowledgements (automatic email I assume) letter that they had received them.  The automatic acknowledgement emails they send show what I sent them... (So they can't come back later and say they weren't informed... they "got the letter", but maybe "never opened and read" it).

After I had taken all this stuff to a local Chase branch to fax it to their disputes center, I got another email from Chase with additional information... and this was the interesting part.

They sent *the bank* copies of a much more complicated (and complete) folio all around than I had ever gotten or seen before.  It included everything up through the end of the cruise, 25 June,  but it was in 3 pieces... one for each week... and also it showed (this part was cool!) which shore excursions went with which charges    (like BCN200A for Barcelona 200A).  The emailed version I got from Princess only showed "Shore Excursion" and an amount... like from previous cruises.  Oddly, there were also a lot of what I can only call "goofy" charges that seemed to have had reversals made on them.  (Some of these were quite large - like $1400 or so for beverages... which got reversed - I don't remember ever seeing these).  This report they sent to the bank was clearly a series of screen shots.  These reports had a heading "Pax Charges of Past Sailings ('98-present)". 

Bottom line after spending quite a bit of time analyzing it... is that I believe that everything added up correctly and was accounted for as far as I could tell... so I think I'm actually square with them for now... *but*  nobody from Princess ever contacted me... this went through the bank.  

So I'm curious if anyone else has received emailed statements that were missing entire weeks of a voyage...  Or has had the "bank" get into the mix and send you a statement when the cruise line didn't. 

I suspect nobody is monitoring those form submissions through the "contact us" page.  FOr the record, I used "Support Request"... did a pulldown under "What can we help you with?" of "Post Cruise Questions/Comments", and the "Topic" of "Onboard Folio Statement".  The acknowledgement emails included the text:

"We have received your inquiry and sincerely appreciate another opportunity to deliver the highest quality service to you. Below is a copy of the information you have sent to us.

Due to the large volume of messages we are receiving, it may take us longer than usual to respond. We are working hard to make sure every request is handled accurately and efficiently."

I'm passing this along in case this sort of thing happens to anyone else, they might have a clue how to handle it. 

 

 

[Bwana Tom]

6 hours ago, Digisailor said:

Another twist on the "Final Statement" 

We were on the Regal June 4- June 25.   Our charges got a little complicated because the cruise was 3 weeks, with lots of shore excursions, my wife had to cancel one Shorex because she got sick... they cancelled one and we had to rebook a different one... and the one in Istanbul - shall we say - didn't go well... we never got to the "grand Bazaar" - and they refunded about $21 to everyone on it.  I didn't know that refund was coming.   So figuring out the amounts without a statement of some sort was not going to happen. 

But given all that... I got my "Stateroom Account" emailed to me on July 10... and it shows both my wife's and my charges (with one "spousal" account zeroed out to the other like others have reported)... and all the items seemed to make sense... *but* it only showed charges through June 18.  So even though we received it two weeks after the end of the cruise, it appears that all the charges after June 18 got left off somehow.  I was suspicious that it might be "incomplete". 

Following this, I got a substantially higher charge from the ship on my credit card than was indicated in the statement in the email I received.  So I asked the credit card company to adjust the charge to the billed amount (which they did)... and at the same time, I requested Princess through their "contact us" page submission form... to send me an updated bill.  If Princess had sent me a complete statement in the first place it would have avoided any problem... but I figured another one would be forthcoming when they figured it out, and I would pay it then. 

So about a month later, after hearing *nothing* from Princess, I got a rebill on my credit card for the disputed amount.  I sent Princess another request that day through the "contact us" page asking for a more complete bill.   I got another automated acknowledgement of my email... but never anything else. 
The credit card company (Chase) said I needed to fax them a letter and associated supporting documents, and show my concerns.  So I sent them copies of the bill I received, and copies of the emails I had sent to Princess through their "contact us" page - and their acknowledgements (automatic email I assume) letter that they had received them.  The automatic acknowledgement emails they send show what I sent them... (So they can't come back later and say they weren't informed... they "got the letter", but maybe "never opened and read" it).

After I had taken all this stuff to a local Chase branch to fax it to their disputes center, I got another email from Chase with additional information... and this was the interesting part.

They sent *the bank* copies of a much more complicated (and complete) folio all around than I had ever gotten or seen before.  It included everything up through the end of the cruise, 25 June,  but it was in 3 pieces... one for each week... and also it showed (this part was cool!) which shore excursions went with which charges    (like BCN200A for Barcelona 200A).  The emailed version I got from Princess only showed "Shore Excursion" and an amount... like from previous cruises.  Oddly, there were also a lot of what I can only call "goofy" charges that seemed to have had reversals made on them.  (Some of these were quite large - like $1400 or so for beverages... which got reversed - I don't remember ever seeing these).  This report they sent to the bank was clearly a series of screen shots.  These reports had a heading "Pax Charges of Past Sailings ('98-present)". 

Bottom line after spending quite a bit of time analyzing it... is that I believe that everything added up correctly and was accounted for as far as I could tell... so I think I'm actually square with them for now... *but*  nobody from Princess ever contacted me... this went through the bank.  

So I'm curious if anyone else has received emailed statements that were missing entire weeks of a voyage...  Or has had the "bank" get into the mix and send you a statement when the cruise line didn't. 

I suspect nobody is monitoring those form submissions through the "contact us" page.  FOr the record, I used "Support Request"... did a pulldown under "What can we help you with?" of "Post Cruise Questions/Comments", and the "Topic" of "Onboard Folio Statement".  The acknowledgement emails included the text:

"We have received your inquiry and sincerely appreciate another opportunity to deliver the highest quality service to you. Below is a copy of the information you have sent to us.

Due to the large volume of messages we are receiving, it may take us longer than usual to respond. We are working hard to make sure every request is handled accurately and efficiently."

I'm passing this along in case this sort of thing happens to anyone else, they might have a clue how to handle it. 

 

 

Thanks for the detailed account of your problem. Knowing what happened to you and the way you handled it might be helpful for everyone in the future if they should have similar problems. I also have had problems with their accounting process. In my case it was getting my refundable OBC refunded. I went through a similar procedure with making contact through the "Support Request" function and only got the form email back. Eventually I had to send 2 letters to the officials with all my documentation and after about 5 months finally got it resolved "somewhat". I'm not sure what is happening with their customer service, but it certainly needs to be fixed.