I'm Really Trying to Be Patient But....

[tutumomickey]

Long time Disney/HAL cruiser but recently tried Princess due to superior pricing. We loved both our cruises. Ships were lovely and staff was wonderful but customer service is non- existent. Princess website encountered a 'fatal error' when our TA was attempting to apply a 500.00 gift card to our account. The card balance went to zero but, the funds were never applied to our account. She spent the next three days caught in an endless loop of transfers where the gift card providers say they can't do anything, call customer service and customer (no)service says the gift card people must handle it. They opened a 'ticket' and told her they would e-mail us directly. We got two emails. First one gave us the ticket number. Second one said, 'Sorry, nothing we can do.' I guess we will have to call customer service and spends hours on hold with multiple transfer and escalations to get our money back. Then there was a 600.00 price drop on our cruise. When our TA called for a price adjustment,she could only get it lowerd 400.00. She sent them screen shots of the new pricing on the website. They finally came up with we were pre-paying her commission! She said she has never heard of this and it doesn't happen on Disney, RCL or HAL. We are going to cancel and re book directly ourselves but the time wasted and frustration this has caused is making me wonder if Princess is worth dealing with. If anyone has a suggestion for getting the balance back on our gift card, please let me know.

[gottagocit]

We once had a $500 gift card that our travel agent found to be “invalid” or some such thing. Can’t recall the exact phrase used by Princess a first when she tried to use it but essentially when the PIN number was entered it appeared to be an invalid or nonactivated card. This was probably 4-5 years ago. 
 

We eventually persisted by talking with multiple Princess people until we finally were connected to customer service. They worked with someone in their payment processing group and determined the incorrect pin had been entered 3 times triggering an auto locking process that said the card could not be used. Eventually they were able to reset the card and we used it. It took several hours working with different reps but they did finally figure it out and gave us courtesy OBC for our trouble even though I’ll always believe our TA entered the wrong number initially but can’t say for certain. 
 

This may not be your problem but don’t give up on it and be polite and patient with the princes reps until you’re able to reach someone who can explore the history of the card to see it’s usage history. 
 

good luck

[JimmyVWine]

20 minutes ago, tutumomickey said:

Long time Disney/HAL cruiser but recently tried Princess due to superior pricing. We loved both our cruises. Ships were lovely and staff was wonderful but customer service is non- existent. Princess website encountered a 'fatal error' when our TA was attempting to apply a 500.00 gift card to our account. The card balance went to zero but, the funds were never applied to our account. She spent the next three days caught in an endless loop of transfers where the gift card providers say they can't do anything, call customer service and customer (no)service says the gift card people must handle it. They opened a 'ticket' and told her they would e-mail us directly. We got two emails. First one gave us the ticket number. Second one said, 'Sorry, nothing we can do.' I guess we will have to call customer service and spends hours on hold with multiple transfer and escalations to get our money back. Then there was a 600.00 price drop on our cruise. When our TA called for a price adjustment,she could only get it lowerd 400.00. She sent them screen shots of the new pricing on the website. They finally came up with we were pre-paying her commission! She said she has never heard of this and it doesn't happen on Disney, RCL or HAL. We are going to cancel and re book directly ourselves but the time wasted and frustration this has caused is making me wonder if Princess is worth dealing with. If anyone has a suggestion for getting the balance back on our gift card, please let me know.

Hmmm. I had the EXACT same issue with a $500 card that I purchased from AARP on Friday.  I bought 3. First two went through without a problem. Third one showed a zero balance on the card. I called AARP who told me I had to deal with Princess. I called Princess and they confirmed that the card had no balance and showed no history of being used, but said I had to deal with AARP. I called AARP back and they opened up an investigation. I hope to hear something tomorrow. If I don’t get a good answer I am going to call Princess first, and then after waiting for someone to answer the phone, I will conference in AARP for a three-way call so that AARP and Princess can talk to one another. 

[Cruise Raider]

23 minutes ago, tutumomickey said:

Long time Disney/HAL cruiser but recently tried Princess due to superior pricing. We loved both our cruises. Ships were lovely and staff was wonderful but customer service is non- existent. Princess website encountered a 'fatal error' when our TA was attempting to apply a 500.00 gift card to our account. The card balance went to zero but, the funds were never applied to our account. She spent the next three days caught in an endless loop of transfers where the gift card providers say they can't do anything, call customer service and customer (no)service says the gift card people must handle it. They opened a 'ticket' and told her they would e-mail us directly. We got two emails. First one gave us the ticket number. Second one said, 'Sorry, nothing we can do.' I guess we will have to call customer service and spends hours on hold with multiple transfer and escalations to get our money back. Then there was a 600.00 price drop on our cruise. When our TA called for a price adjustment,she could only get it lowerd 400.00. She sent them screen shots of the new pricing on the website. They finally came up with we were pre-paying her commission! She said she has never heard of this and it doesn't happen on Disney, RCL or HAL. We are going to cancel and re book directly ourselves but the time wasted and frustration this has caused is making me wonder if Princess is worth dealing with. If anyone has a suggestion for getting the balance back on our gift card, please let me know.

I would strongly suggest not canceling and booking on your own as it sounds as though your TA has put a lot of work into your reservation.  
As far as your gift card goes, I would try emailing:  giftcardsupport@princesscruises.com

If you purchased your gift cards directly through Princess.  They have been very responsive in the past.  
 

 

[Shelly97060]

@tutumomickeyIf you purchased the card with your credit card if all else fails open a credit card dispute for the $500 gift card you haven’t been able to get to work properly. 

Edited November 14, 2022 by Shelly97060

[windsor26]

I find phone calls not helpful and of course frustrating  I have found Life Chat to actually enable you to give all information and in both cases have sorted the problem for me  I wrote out the whole problem beforehand and cut and pasted it when they came on line for the live chat

[startedwithamouse]

1 hour ago, tutumomickey said:

Long time Disney/HAL cruiser but recently tried Princess due to superior pricing. We loved both our cruises. Ships were lovely and staff was wonderful but customer service is non- existent. Princess website encountered a 'fatal error' when our TA was attempting to apply a 500.00 gift card to our account. The card balance went to zero but, the funds were never applied to our account. She spent the next three days caught in an endless loop of transfers where the gift card providers say they can't do anything, call customer service and customer (no)service says the gift card people must handle it. They opened a 'ticket' and told her they would e-mail us directly. We got two emails. First one gave us the ticket number. Second one said, 'Sorry, nothing we can do.' I guess we will have to call customer service and spends hours on hold with multiple transfer and escalations to get our money back. Then there was a 600.00 price drop on our cruise. When our TA called for a price adjustment,she could only get it lowerd 400.00. She sent them screen shots of the new pricing on the website. They finally came up with we were pre-paying her commission! She said she has never heard of this and it doesn't happen on Disney, RCL or HAL. We are going to cancel and re book directly ourselves but the time wasted and frustration this has caused is making me wonder if Princess is worth dealing with. If anyone has a suggestion for getting the balance back on our gift card, please let me know.

Your TA has worked hard for you to try to resolve the issue. Please continue to support them and not book on your own.

[tutumomickey]

33 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

I would strongly suggest not canceling and booking on your own as it sounds as though your TA has put a lot of work into your reservation.  
As far as your gift card goes, I would try emailing:  giftcardsupport@princesscruises.com

If you purchased your gift cards directly through Princess.  They have been very responsive in the past.  
 

 

 giftcardsupport@princesscruises.com  is the department that said they could not help us. I intend to transfer the new booking back to my TA.

[tutumomickey]

41 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

 

 

 

Edited November 14, 2022 by tutumomickey
duplicate

[tutumomickey]

JimmyVWine it was an AARP gift card so I would be interested to hear your resolution.However, we had 9 other cards go through without incident then the website crashed. The gift card division says they show the gift card being redeemed at the time the TA was trying to apply it. The fact that it shows redeemed makes me not want to dispute the charge because AARP supplied a valid card. It is interesting that someone was able to see an attempt to redeem a card with invalid 

pin when both customer service are telling us they have no way of seeing where gift card funds were applied.

 

'

t

[JimmyVWine]

11 minutes ago, tutumomickey said:

JimmyVWine it was an AARP gift card so I would be interested to hear your resolution.However, we had 9 other cards go through without incident then the website crashed. The gift card division says they show the gift card being redeemed at the time the TA was trying to apply it. The fact that it shows redeemed makes me not want to dispute the charge because AARP supplied a valid card. It is interesting that someone was able to see an attempt to redeem a card with invalid 

pin when both customer service are telling us they have no way of seeing where gift card funds were applied.

 

'

t

I will definitely report back on what happens. 

[MattnTricia]

As an FYI we had this same issue with one of our 3 gift cards. Princess makes it really hard as they will not take visa gift cards and it has to be a princess gift card. We had 2 $500 GC go through with no issue and then a 3rd that both the cruise line and Princess said was invalid.    5-6 phone calls and much persistence later I finally got a supervisor at Princess who could contact the right person.    Very frustrating as Princess treats their own gift cardsl ike they are from a 3rd party. 

[Cruise Raider]

12 hours ago, tutumomickey said:

 giftcardsupport@princesscruises.com  is the department that said they could not help us. I intend to transfer the new booking back to my TA.

oh no .. sorry to hear that!  Hope you get a satisfactory resolution .. let us know!  
 

I bought some gift cards through a third party via Rakuten and one did not work when I went to apply it.  If it was $10, I would not have bothered, but $500?  I was very frustrated.  I was so surprised at the quick resolution by Rakuten.  

 

[Ombud]

12 hours ago, mattnday said:

 Very frustrating as Princess treats their own gift cardsl ike they are from a 3rd party. 

Wow that does sound frustrating except OP bought theirs from a 3rd party not Princess

13 hours ago, tutumomickey said:

 it was an AARP gift card

I'd do as suggested:

13 hours ago, Shelly97060 said:

@tutumomickeyIf you purchased the card with your credit card if all else fails open a credit card dispute for the $500 gift card you haven’t been able to get to work properly. 

As AARP hasn't been responsive on other issues in the past. They're the ones who have their $500

[PescadoAmarillo]

How are TA’s not working for a small percentage of minimum wage these days?  Their commissions don’t allow for hours to be spent on hold with cruise lines. This is really quite sad. 

[Cruise Raider]

12 minutes ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

How are TA’s not working for a small percentage of minimum wage these days?  Their commissions don’t allow for hours to be spent on hold with cruise lines. This is really quite sad. 

It really is sad!  To cancel after a TA has put in all those hours just takes all that commission away from them.  I would never rebook my cruise with someone else, unless the TA was totally incompetent.  I’ve only experienced that once in all my years of cruising.  

[bjkTX]

This thread just caused me to go check the balance on 12 AARP Princess gift cards I have for an upcoming cruise.  I have use their gift cards to pay for our last 2 cruises, plus some a few years ago before COVID, and haven't ever had an issue.  But I figured I better check and all came out with the balance they were supposed to have.  I have had issues over the years buying gift cards from a 3rd party, and even a few purchased at stores that had never been activated - not fun.  I hope the OP gets this resolved soon.

[Cruise Raider]

3 hours ago, bjkTX said:

This thread just caused me to go check the balance on 12 AARP Princess gift cards I have for an upcoming cruise.  I have use their gift cards to pay for our last 2 cruises, plus some a few years ago before COVID, and haven't ever had an issue.  But I figured I better check and all came out with the balance they were supposed to have.  I have had issues over the years buying gift cards from a 3rd party, and even a few purchased at stores that had never been activated - not fun.  I hope the OP gets this resolved soon.

 I just did the same with the AARP cards I purchased.  Paid off a cruise and had some leftover to apply to an April cruise!  Thank for for the reminder.  
It’s a new month so might but a few more.  

[Tiggerontheseas]

6 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

It really is sad!  To cancel after a TA has put in all those hours just takes all that commission away from them.  I would never rebook my cruise with someone else, unless the TA was totally incompetent.  I’ve only experienced that once in all my years of cruising.  

 

I may be wrong, but from what I understood from the OP was that they are going to cancel, book the cruise themselves through Princess at the lower price that Princess will not give the TA, and then transfer the booking back to the TA.   I don't think that they are intending to take the booking away from the TA.  

[Cruise Raider]

2 minutes ago, Tiggerontheseas said:

 

I may be wrong, but from what I understood from the OP was that they are going to cancel, book the cruise themselves through Princess at the lower price that Princess will not give the TA, and then transfer the booking back to the TA.   I don't think that they are intending to take the booking away from the TA.  

My bad!  I hope that is what happens.  

[tutumomickey]

If anyone is interested, here is a situation update. After 7 (yes seven) hours on hold, we were able to speak with a knowledgeable Princess rep. FYI, ALL Princess gift cards, whether purchased through Princess, AARP or anyone else are the product of a third party provider .Although Princess could not just remedy the problem, the rep was able to see something did not add up and she sent an inquiry to the gift card company. She said they had 48 hours to resolve the issue and in 48 hours the balance was back on the card. Yea! Success. She was also able to clarify the pricing issue for us. She said Princess NEVER charges the passengers for the TA commission. Two separate Princess reps had told our TA that was the issue with the pricing. Right away this rep recognized the lower price was on new bookings only. She told us how to have our TA do a new booking then transfer all payments and OBC to new booking then cancel original booking, then swap cabin back to original. She said she does it multiple times a day. Why the first several people our TA talked to were unaware is a mystery. Our TA was able to accomplish this .Final price $998.00 less. I realize this lowers our TA's commission so she will get a gift from us. Now of course our Ocean Ready will not work because it is stuck on the original booking number and can't recognize our new one. But, we have 3 months to straighten that out. Thank you everyone for your suggestions.(If you are still reading this novel)

[Shelly97060]

4 hours ago, tutumomickey said:

Now of course our Ocean Ready will not work because it is stuck on the original booking number and can't recognize our new one. But, we have 3 months to straighten that out. Thank you everyone for your suggestions.(If you are still reading this novel)

The Medallion database can take 24 hours for the old booking number to be removed and replaced by the new booking number. Once the system updates over night the new booking should be reflected in the app. 
 

thanks for letting us all know how things worked out with the gift cards.  Glad you got it sorted out! 

[JimmyVWine]

4 hours ago, tutumomickey said:

If anyone is interested, here is a situation update. After 7 (yes seven) hours on hold, we were able to speak with a knowledgeable Princess rep.

Is there any way that you can provide the name of the rep, or the specific department in which they work?

[donaldsc]

On 11/13/2022 at 5:09 PM, tutumomickey said:

Long time Disney/HAL cruiser but recently tried Princess due to superior pricing. We loved both our cruises. Ships were lovely and staff was wonderful but customer service is non- existent. Princess website encountered a 'fatal error' when our TA was attempting to apply a 500.00 gift card to our account. The card balance went to zero but, the funds were never applied to our account. She spent the next three days caught in an endless loop of transfers where the gift card providers say they can't do anything, call customer service and customer (no)service says the gift card people must handle it. They opened a 'ticket' and told her they would e-mail us directly. We got two emails. First one gave us the ticket number. Second one said, 'Sorry, nothing we can do.' I guess we will have to call customer service and spends hours on hold with multiple transfer and escalations to get our money back. Then there was a 600.00 price drop on our cruise. When our TA called for a price adjustment,she could only get it lowerd 400.00. She sent them screen shots of the new pricing on the website. They finally came up with we were pre-paying her commission! She said she has never heard of this and it doesn't happen on Disney, RCL or HAL. We are going to cancel and re book directly ourselves but the time wasted and frustration this has caused is making me wonder if Princess is worth dealing with. If anyone has a suggestion for getting the balance back on our gift card, please let me know.

 

It wasn't the fault of your TA that this problem is happening and it also seems that she is trying to fix it.  Why are you going to punish her on the rebooking.  Do you really think that you would be better off it you had booked directly on the Princess site?

 

DON 

[tutumomickey]

Sorry, I wish I could. After four hours on hold with customer service for booked guests the first rep said she would have to transfer us. She let us know she was putting us on hold while we were in the 'queue' for the next three hours but, she did check in every 20 to 30 minutes to let us know we were still in line. Unfortunately they never said which department we were waiting for. I really wanted to know if she had a direct extension we could access but, I guess that isn't possible.

6 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

Is there any way that you can provide the name of the rep, or the specific department in which they work?