Travel Agent did not invoice correct amount, Reservation canceled by NCL multiple times

[m4ha7m4]

Hello all,

On 1/26/23 I booked a last minute reservation for the 2/5/23 sailing of Norwegian Joy though a travel agent to join family that had already booked this cruise.  This reservation has been auto-cancelled TWICE by NCL for insufficient payment.  My agent's invoice and thus may payment was about $93 short of the balance due on NCL's booking confirmation document.  Now it looks like there are no staterooms left for a party of 3 and I may not be able to get another room. 

 

Does anyone know if a full refund is possible in this situation (payment processed but reservation cancelled by NCL)?  Is there anyone at NCL I can contact since my agent is not responding (closed today)?

 

I don't trust the agent (same mistake twice respite reassuring me and declining my offer to pay the remaining balance) and I can't risk another cancellation (IF they can even get me another room) and would need to cancel flights soon.   Of course, the agent is out of office until Monday, and NCL says cannot provide any information or assistance as I booked through an agent.

 

Full story:

 

On 1/26/23 My travel agent sent me an invoice  and charged my credit card for an amount about $93 less than the rate expected by Norwegian (I only learned this after receiving my NCL booking confirmation late 1/28/23).  On 1/28/23 I could not find my reservation on my NCL account to check in and my agent looked up my reservation then told me my account was attached to the reservation and I should contact NCL support (he did not mention the cancellation).   NCL support informed me my reservation was cancelled on the night of 1/26/23 for insufficient payment, my stateroom was released and I should contact my agent immediately.

 

My agent was able to get the reservation reinstated for another room (original room was released and already booked by someone else).    I was able to view the reservation on my NCL account but it had an "On Hold, please complete payment" status and I could not check-in.  NCL support again stated my account was at risk for auto-cancellation that evening due to insufficient payment and to talk to my agent. 

 

I told my agent I would like to pay any balance due to avoid any risk of cancellation, but he insisted it was not needed, this booking would not be cancelled again, that NCL support did not understand their discounts, to stop contacting NCL support  and that my stateroom is confirmed.

 

Well later that night my reservation disappeared from my NCL account again,  NCL support confirmed my reservation was auto-cancelled for insufficient funds, my stateroom was released and unavailable, there are no available staterooms for a party of 3 (at that moment at least) and to contact my agent again.

 

Of course, it is Sunday and my agent will not be available until tomorrow.  

 

 

[slickpat]

There are a handful of Inside cabins that accommodate 3 still available for that sailing.

[kitkat343]

So sorry.  I don't think this will be resolved before Monday at least, but best of luck to you.

 

[SimplyAlbert]

At this point I think I'd skip the travel agent and book directly with NCL if there's a cabin for three available.

[PistolPete13]

That's terrible, what a mess.

During the week of 1/26 and the week before, the NCL.com website was having terrible issues showing balance due or credit for trips that were already full paid for.  My fully paid for cruise showed random payment totals for close to two weeks.

I wonder if your booking got caught up in this mess...

Best of luck resolving this tomorrow!

[European_CruiseGirl]

36 minutes ago, PistolPete13 said:

That's terrible, what a mess.

During the week of 1/26 and the week before, the NCL.com website was having terrible issues showing balance due or credit for trips that were already full paid for.  My fully paid for cruise showed random payment totals for close to two weeks.

I wonder if your booking got caught up in this mess...

Best of luck resolving this tomorrow!

What a horrible situation. I started to also immediately think that there was in the beginning of this week and last weekend on NCL a big pricing problem with their reservation system. People were seeing completely random balances due or then credits they did not have. My April cruise showed first a balance due of around $800 although I was fully paid, then it went to being fully paid, then it was suddenly a credit of $70 on my account. And this went on and on for 5-6 days 🙄 Almost every time I went to MyNCL it showed a different status on my payments 🤦🏼‍♀️ It may be that your travel agent was confused by NCL’s constantly changing prices and he/she honestly thought s/he had charged the right sum from you but it was just the NCL reservation system playing games. 
 

Edited January 29, 2023 by European_CruiseGirl

[dbrown84]

to answer the first question, I doubt NCL will issue any refunds since this is within final payment.  But your beef would be with the TA and they better issue an refund.  If you can afford to pay again without that refund, I'd call NCL if you haven't already.  The website is acting weird right now.  It's showing insides as being bookable, but won't let you actually go past picking a cabin type.  So calling them to see for sure if any cabins are available may be best.

[julig22]

55 minutes ago, SimplyAlbert said:

At this point I think I'd skip the travel agent and book directly with NCL if there's a cabin for three available.

Exactly what I would do, deal with the TA later for your refund.

[GeezerCouple]

1 hour ago, SimplyAlbert said:

At this point I think I'd skip the travel agent and book directly with NCL if there's a cabin for three available.

 

9 minutes ago, julig22 said:

Exactly what I would do, deal with the TA later for your refund.

 

Indeed!

I hope that you paid with a good credit card (preferably Amex, as they usually - not always - have really good protections for problem charges, and this sure seems like one!), so you can dispute the incorrect charge if NCL can't/won't fix the financial aspect of this.

But yes, IF there is suitable cabin, grab it and pay - and DIRECTLY WITH NCL!

 

Gotta love this part, especially:

2 hours ago, m4ha7m4 said:

<snip>

I told my agent I would like to pay any balance due to avoid any risk of cancellation, but he insisted it was not needed, this booking would not be cancelled again, that NCL support did not understand their discounts, to stop contacting NCL support  and that my stateroom is confirmed.

<snip>

 

And no matter what the eventual end to this situation, I would certainly *NEVER* use this TA again.  And perhaps post an appropriately negative review on their website or wherever appropriate.  (Naming a TA is not allowed here on CC, unfortunately!)

 

Good luck!

 

GC

[gunner22a]

First and foremost get a new TA!.  That kind of mistake is a rookie error

 

[EllieinNJ]

You should always do a mock booking with the cruise line and that price should match what your TA charges your credit card.  Unfortunately maybe the price increased by the time your TA sent them your payment.  

[laudergayle]

3 hours ago, PistolPete13 said:

That's terrible, what a mess.

During the week of 1/26 and the week before, the NCL.com website was having terrible issues showing balance due or credit for trips that were already full paid for.  My fully paid for cruise showed random payment totals for close to two weeks.

I wonder if your booking got caught up in this mess...

Best of luck resolving this tomorrow!

Yes, this very much could have been your issue.  Our fully paid cruises showed varying amounts due and credited for our two fully paid cruises.  And it would change every time I would log in and out.  Here is the link to an earlier post when the problem started happening.  

Hope everything works out for you.

[BirdTravels]

2 hours ago, GeezerCouple said:

I hope that you paid with a good credit card (preferably Amex, as they usually - not always - have really good protections for problem charges, and this sure seems like one!), so you can dispute the incorrect charge if NCL can't/won't fix the financial aspect of this.

Not really. There is no basis for dispute. The OP failed to pay during a 100% penalty period. 

 

On the other hand, if the reservation was "cancelled" by NCL, then NCL may have sent money back to the TA. 

Edited January 29, 2023 by BirdTravels

[ShadowRegent]

1 hour ago, EllieinNJ said:

You should always do a mock booking with the cruise line and that price should match what your TA charges your credit card.  Unfortunately maybe the price increased by the time your TA sent them your payment.  

How does this work with a TA that offers a discount (I assume from their commission)??  Is there a way to know that the discount was processed on NCL's side and make sure you don't run into a situation similar to OP where NCL cancels your cruise due to a remaining balance?  

Edited January 29, 2023 by ShadowRegent

[julig22]

Just now, BirdTravels said:

Not really. There is no basis for dispute. The OP failed to pay during a 100% penalty period. 

That could depend on who the OP actually paid. Most TA's do a pass thru payment to NCL but if the payment shows the TA, then the TA could be held responsible since they didn't deliver. The statement about NCL not knowing how to do discounts is a huge red flag...

[BirdTravels]

7 minutes ago, julig22 said:

That could depend on who the OP actually paid. Most TA's do a pass thru payment to NCL but if the payment shows the TA, then the TA could be held responsible since they didn't deliver. The statement about NCL not knowing how to do discounts is a huge red flag...

The big red flag was when the TA under-charged the second time (gosh... if the amount was wrong the first time,,, it must be right the second time... not)

 

And OP was told directly by NCL that the TA had not paid for the cruise in full. 

 

That's when you say "cancel all, I will do it myself"

Edited January 29, 2023 by BirdTravels

[GeezerCouple]

27 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Not really. There is no basis for dispute. The OP failed to pay during a 100% penalty period. 

 

On the other hand, if the reservation was "cancelled" by NCL, then NCL may have sent money back to the TA. 

 

The dispute would not be with NCL, obviously.

It's with the travel agent.

 

It would also depend upon how much of the "exchange" is documented, such as in emails.

That's why in ANY potentially, uh, "difficult" exchange, I try to keep it in email/writing.  And if it's by phone or even in person, I'll follow up with some attempt to memorialize the discussion, comtemporaneously.  For example, "I want to reconfirm our phone conversation <date/approx time> that the total price will be $X, and it will include A, B, and C.  Could you please confirm that for us?"

Or some variation of that.  Then one has it in writing *or* may know very promptly that the may be a problem.

 

How to handle it also depends upon precisely how it was paid... did the charge go directly to NCL or to the TA who then paid NCL.  Potentially lots of moving parts.
Depending upon the amount plus what ends up happening in terms of cruise or not, plus what cabin type/etc., there are also other resources to use.  In some cases, it's not worth the effort or aggravation, unless it becomes a serious matter of principle (which in some cases can be very important).  But it other cases, it's either more money (refund or such) or to get some official attention to some incompetent agent/agency (and I certainly don't restrict this to the travel or hospitality industry).

 

And yes, OP could have avoided much of this by pulling the reservation from that TA sooner.  But not everyone understands what might be happening, until there's more experience.  That's why places like CruiseCritic can be SO helpful... in terms of advice about a "situation" and also from browsing and learning over time how things do/should work, or even the idea that one might be careful about "trusting" an agent to get it right, if something seems "off" - and what to do.

It's hard to figure the "travel experience" of OP.  They've been on CC for 10 years, but only posted 3 times.

 

Let's hope that OP does end up with a nice cruise!

 

GC

[julig22]

48 minutes ago, ShadowRegent said:

How does this work with a TA that offers a discount (I assume from their commission)??  Is there a way to know that the discount was processed on NCL's side and make sure you don't run into a situation similar to OP where NCL cancels your cruise due to a remaining balance?  

When I used a TA, they sent me a check after the cruise.  My payments were always to NCL for the amount on the invoice, but made by the TA on my behalf. So CC statement listed NCL as the recipient.

[zzdoug]

My travel agency has a customer service department that can resolve problems and I have found them to be very helpful. If yours does, it may be worth calling customer service to see if they can help resolve this. It will require more explaining on your part, but I suggest that as a first attempt at resolution. The travel agency presumably wants a shot at keeping your business and also wants to know if one of its agents is not quoting prices correctly. 

Edited January 30, 2023 by zzdoug

[bonvoyagie]

My TA sends me a copy of the invoice NCL sends him. Also my CC statement shows NCL as the charging entity, I just give my CC info to my TA a couple of days prior to final payment and he passes it on to NCL. BTW I have had the same TA for the last 20 yrs.

[m4ha7m4]

What I am trying to ask is what is the chance NCL will refund my money if my TA screwed up? NCL won't even talk to me because I used a TA. 

 

The charge on my Amex is from NCL, my TA did a "passthrough" payment I assume.  This is going to make disputing the charge very difficult since we are in the 100% penalty phase. 

 

It is too risky to buy a new room myself at this point, even though a few similar rooms have popped up at a similar cost (just have to unselect the drink package from Free-At-Sea)

 

I don't trust my TA at this point, either they made a rookie mistake (and could make another one) or they were willing to gamble my confirmed stateroom and find another today to honor the original invoice (seems insane for $90).

 

I'm never dealing with a TA again for cruises.  I thought a TA could save me some time and hassle of booking myself, and the lower cost was a bonus... none of that was true.

 

[ontheweb]

Is your TA accredited? If I am not mistaken, that would mean he or she has to pay into an insurance plan that covers for mistakes by a TA.

[m4ha7m4]

2 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

Is your TA accredited? If I am not mistaken, that would mean he or she has to pay into an insurance plan that covers for mistakes by a TA.

 

They are part of a large online group, so I am assuming they are and will look into it, thank you! 

 

 

[lfdemt]

It seems to me that your booking was never confirmed. Which to me would indicate that you should receive the “deposit” amount back in full. Yes I know it’s not a deposit but it sounds like they are using the same ish rules as a deposit or maybe courtesy hold is the better term. Your reservation was on hold until payment was completed. Or 24 hours (whatever the timeline was). Since payment wasn’t completed in that timeline the reservation was cancelled and all money should go back to the original form of payment. But I don’t know that for sure just what I suspect. 

[zzdoug]

1 hour ago, m4ha7m4 said:

What I am trying to ask is what is the chance NCL will refund my money if my TA screwed up? NCL won't even talk to me because I used a TA. 

 

The charge on my Amex is from NCL, my TA did a "passthrough" payment I assume.  This is going to make disputing the charge very difficult since we are in the 100% penalty phase. 

 

It is too risky to buy a new room myself at this point, even though a few similar rooms have popped up at a similar cost (just have to unselect the drink package from Free-At-Sea)

 

I don't trust my TA at this point, either they made a rookie mistake (and could make another one) or they were willing to gamble my confirmed stateroom and find another today to honor the original invoice (seems insane for $90).

 

I'm never dealing with a TA again for cruises.  I thought a TA could save me some time and hassle of booking myself, and the lower cost was a bonus... none of that was true.

 

If I  understand  correctly  what  you  are  trying to do, I think you run a big risk booking a duplicate reservation and hoping you can get a refund on one of them later. I doubt this approach is offered in any of the contracts you implicitly entered into when booking.