Princess Has The Worst Customer Service

[Aus Traveller]

1 minute ago, geocruiser said:

I see that you received an E-mail  asking for your bank account details for the money to be paid into. I did not read that is was paid into your bank account..

I only saw that post that you made.

I am puzzled by the comment "I only saw that post that you made". My post said "we received an email asking for our bank account details for the money to be paid into". This wording was there and I didn't alter it. 🙂

 

BTW, the email was from the bank that was going to be transferring the money to our bank. I felt quite comfortable in giving the requested information. 

[geocruiser]

15 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

I am puzzled by the comment "I only saw that post that you made". My post said "we received an email asking for our bank account details for the money to be paid into". This wording was there and I didn't alter it. 🙂

 

BTW, the email was from the bank that was going to be transferring the money to our bank. I felt quite comfortable in giving the requested information. 

I read your post #48.  Have a nice day.

Bye

[qoap24]

On 3/16/2023 at 6:34 PM, ldtr said:

Easiest way is to leave the reservation and charge  in place then get it resolved with customer service on board, Get the refund in the form of refundable OBC.

But why should I have to spend time on my vacation dealing with someone on board? And why should I let them keep MY MONEY until my cruise. They just need to get their S**T together!

Edited March 19, 2023 by qoap24
typo

[cr8tiv1]

Here's my take.  You can leave it if it doesn't suit you.

 

1.  Reserve a Specialty Dining time with the app and hope it works.

2.  Reserve a Specialty Dining time of your liking, be charged on CC, and ask for a refund months later.

3.  Keep you money and reserve a time when you get on board.  Like any last minute bookings on a ship/you take what's left.

 

The way I see it, money in the bank isn't earning a whole lot of interest at this point.  And I pay off my credit cards when due so don't accrue interest payments.

 

Simple solutions.

[Guest ldtr]

1 hour ago, geocruiser said:

Are you sure that this is the way that Princess is doing it now?  I don't think that I would give out my bank info.

I believe that they do it that way in Australia and New Zealand.  In the US they still send a check

 

In Australia the use of checks has dropped significantly.  In New Zealand  the Bank of New Zealand has phased out checks.

[Colorado Coasty]

1 hour ago, jwattle said:

It isn't that the system isn't programmed to comp the two specialty restaurant nights on Premier; it's just blotchy on when it does or doesn't apply them, because it let me book our two nights on each of two different bookings with no problems and didn't try to charge me for any of them...😏

Exactly. The app does what it is programmed to do, just not consistently.

[Guest ldtr]

54 minutes ago, qoap24 said:

But why should I have to spend time on my vacation dealing with someone on board? And why should I let them keep MY MONEY until my cruise. They just need to get their S**T together!

Simple answer is wait until you board ship to make your reservation.  Their system does not support making reservations the free slots in advance  without payment. Wait 3-4 months, when the system catches up to change in policy, and it probably will.  In the meantime.

[Guest ldtr]

1 hour ago, jwattle said:

It isn't that the system isn't programmed to comp the two specialty restaurant nights on Premier; it's just blotchy on when it does or doesn't apply them, because it let me book our two nights on each of two different bookings with no problems and didn't try to charge me for any of them...😏

Are you in a suite? 

 

Those seem to not being charged, likely because they made a change to keep those in suites from getting charged when they booked those and that also means that they are not charged for other specialty dining until on board ship.  As someone reported in this stream they are in a suite, used their 2 without charge, but the system still showed two credits available.

Edited March 19, 2023 by ldtr

[jwattle]

13 minutes ago, ldtr said:

Are you in a suite? 

 

Those seem to not being charged, likely because they made a change to keep those in suites from getting charged when they booked those and that also means that they are not charged for other specialty dining until on board ship.  As someone reported in this stream they are in a suite, used their 2 without charge, but the system still showed two credits available.

I am in a suite, but I reserved a total of six Specialty Dining nights over the course of two cruises, with the Premier Package. After that I tried to reserve another and it DID charge me.

[Guest ldtr]

11 minutes ago, jwattle said:

I am in a suite, but I reserved a total of six Specialty Dining nights over the course of two cruises, with the Premier Package. After that I tried to reserve another and it DID charge me.

Remember back when Princess  first started giving the suites the first night in Specialty dining.  At that time there was a number of complaints about the same issue.  The a couple of months later the problem went away.  Do not know exactly how they modified the system for suites at that time. Since your experience is different from the other person described cannot say exactly what they did,  But their is consistency that those in suites are not getting charged in advance. It is pretty clear that Suites are handled differently than non-suites  and the same fix is not available yet for other cabin classes.

[Steelers36]

On 3/17/2023 at 12:48 PM, cr8tiv1 said:

 

Thank you for the clarification.  Hopefully, you will see credit on your cc or the OBC will be in the form of "refundable" and you can ask Customer Service to hand over the money.  I understand they are holding your money hostage until you board.  That's not nice of Princess.  

Oh it has to be Refundable OBC, or guest is ripped off.

[Steelers36]

On 3/17/2023 at 4:18 PM, ldtr said:

That is what is happening here. Book in advance and your card gets charged.  Cancel and your card gets refunded.  Apply the free specialty included in the package when you board ship, and your payments gets refunded, as all other cancellations on board (excursions, spa reservations, etc) do  in the form of OBC. Or for that matter cancel within 5 days of the cruise departure, once the account has been transferred to ship board systems, the refund is handled as an on ship transaction, OBC.

 

If anything Princess is consistent.  Their major flaw is not making it clear how their systems work, and as a result trying to satisfy customers who want to apply the credit prior to boarding ship.  Because of that lack of communication they have dissatisfied customers and customer service reps trying to resolve issues that they do not have the tools to solve.

 

As a result they should include that language in the package description, until such a time where they actually get their land based systems changed to be able to automatically handle such purchases.

Princess does a terrible job of transparency and disclosure to guests. And they do a terrible job of keeping online documentation and FAQ's current and consistent in all locations for a topic.

 

On another post, someone (I forget who or would credit them) stated that Princess (appears to) expend most of their energy on selling cruises. Well, I suppose that is very important.  But making it an enjoyable and easy experience off the ship is important to keep guests interested in Princess and coming back.

 

[Steelers36]

3 hours ago, geocruiser said:

Are you sure that this is the way that Princess is doing it now?  I don't think that I would give out my bank info.

Do you mean in general (surely a lot of businesses have your banking for auto-debit of bill payments or credit card info for billing purposes)?  Or, do you mean you wouldn't trust Princess' amazing (cough, cough) IT team with your information?  They do have guest credit card info already with bookings and in CC Member profile data.

[Steelers36]

On 3/17/2023 at 5:33 PM, ldtr said:

Actually no.  Go back and read her original post.  They made the reservations in advance.  They did not cancel the reservations.   If they had they would have gotten it refunded.  They wanted a refund to their credit card while leaving the reservations in place.  That is exactly what I said that the system does not currently support.  If they cancel the reservations entirely, they would get a refund to their card.

 

My comment about charges was to show the complexities involved in making the appropriate logic modes to the system.  One can have the package included in their fare, they can upgrade to have it included, they can buy it separately, they can drop it from their reservation.  The modes to the system would have to be able to recognize all of the possible combinations, as well as changes made to the reservations.  Then you have the issues dealing with what if someone  takes advantage of a price drop and refares, will all of their dining reservations get cancelled.  All of the features of the packages deal with on board ship services.  AS such accounting for those services is handled by the on board ship system, not the shore side systems.

 

As Princess systems are set up.  They are not set up to apply package included specialty dining to advance purchases.  The system may ignore advance charges for those is suites, but not clear on that.  That is pretty clear, that is exactly why people are encountering what they are.  You can continue to pound the table and shout at the moon but that does not change how the systems are currently set up to operate.  One can either understand the current limitations of those systems and how they limit what customer service can do.  Or they can continue to spend hours on the phone, going through many layers of the customer service system, trying to get a work around that might work to give them a CC refund, but in many cases does not, or it ends up with a refund, but with their reservation canceled.

 

The system as currently setup is that reservations made in advance are charged to CC and then refunded on board ship, which means to OBC as all other ship board refunds are made.  The other option is to wait until being on board to book.  Then there is no charge and no refund issue.  There might be something different for suite customers which  I suspect might be based upon one person has commented on how their charges are handled due to the first night suite benefit, which was put into place quite a while ago and as such those bookings might be handled differently.. However, do not have sufficient examples to say if they is happening to all suite passengers or if someone did something unique to that persons booking.

 

The system is acting pretty much the same as it does for everything else.  Order in advance and CC is charged (same as for Spa, Excursion (note the system does allow OBC to be used in advance for excursions though it took several months before that got integrated into the system once they started charging in advance for excursions), etc).  Cancel in advance and amount is refunded to CC.

 

Otherwise on board ship or within 5 days of ship departure the ship board system takes over.  At that time any refunds (specialty dining , Excursions, SPA, etc) from advance purchases are processed as OBC.  That is consistent and has been for Princess for many years.

 

I expect as when they made the change to allow OBC to be used in advance for excursions, the systems will eventually catch up to the change in policy.  However, that may take, as it did then, several months.

 

Until that time the choice is book in advance , pay and refund by OBC,  or wait until being on ship and avoid it all but then might not get the exact to want.

My "Like" on your post is not because I like the situation - rather I like what you have postulated.  The situation can be much like the impossibility of DMW being able to book a "Sharing" table consisting of the same guests.  (That one would require recursive programming at the least to have even a chance of working).

 

The situation you outline is probably very close to a bullseye, it not right on.  I am not even sure if they could code their Princess App system to work as guests might need it to in the variety of situations involving all types of dining credits.  Certainly we can presume they didn't consider it.  Whether their IT is capable of doing it well or not is another question. I imagine if they attempted it, it would take a year to sort out the bugs and during that time, they would end up losing some of the fixes to-date while updating some other App features (this has happened more than once in the past 22 months).

[cr8tiv1]

But, but, but, Princess is shutting down for an update as I write!  Will everything be updated and in sync?  

[caribill]

5 hours ago, ldtr said:

.  As someone reported in this stream they are in a suite, used their 2 without charge, but the system still showed two credits available.

 

This is how booking shore excursions in advance with OBC works.

 

You can pay with OBC, but the display of the amount of OBC available stays the same.

 

However, the system knows (even if not displaying) how much is left and will not allow you to use more OBC than what is really available when booking shore excursions in advance.

[caribill]

On 3/17/2023 at 5:48 AM, JW22 said:

 I am going to book the second night onboard but I presume there will be little choice if any still left. This is on Caribbean princess.

 

The CV has a capacity of 3140 lower berths.

 

Princess expects 25% of passengers to book the premier package. This would be 785 passengers who would have in effect purchased two specialty dining meals or a total of 1570 meals in addition to the free specialty dining meal each full suite passenger gets for the first evening.

 

So for a typical 7 day cruise, that would average a need for 224 specialty dining meals an evening if the days booked were evenly distributed.

 

Of course pre-cruise reservations for specialty restaurants can also be made by people who do not have the Premier package leaving less spots available for those who have the Premier package.

 

In my opinion:

Princess is selling something they cannot deliver.

o It can be possible that there are not enough reservation spots available for those with the Premier package.

o Also likely is that Premier package people may not get their first or even second choice of which specialty restaurants to dine in.

o Likely is that the choice of which days to have the two dinners will be very limited.

o And on the days available, the desired time may not be available.

 

I anticipate Cruise Critic threads by disappointed Premier Package purchasers on this topic.

 

 

 

[PescadoAmarillo]

5 hours ago, caribill said:

In my opinion:

Princess is selling something they cannot deliver.

o It can be possible that there are not enough reservation spots available for those with the Premier package.

o Also likely is that Premier package people may not get their first or even second choice of which specialty restaurants to dine in.

o Likely is that the choice of which days to have the two dinners will be very limited.

o And on the days available, the desired time may not be available.

 

Assuming that premium package holders comprise about 50% (could well be less, since people who don’t drink might well enjoy extra cost dining) of specialty dining reservations, I completely agree. And I would offer a fifth consideration, except I’m not sure how you made that little circle bullet…

 

The quality of the specialty dining experience will decrease, and become less of a special occasion experience and more of a dining room annex. 
 

DH has had a complimentary special dining on all of his cruises this winter.  He dines the last night of the cruise at 5pm. It’s the only time he can get that’s earlier than his ‘last food of the day or he can’t sleep’ cutoff. It’s fine for him, but most people waiting until they are on the ship to make a reservation probably wouldn’t be too pleased. 
 

As for Princess selling something they cannot deliver, see also Princess Theater seating and MedallionNet Best internet at Sea. 

[cr8tiv1]

@caribill Thanks for crunching the numbers.  Will this fall into the same category as the ice cream desserts and gym classes?  
 

There has not been much chatter about “them” since February 20th when the new packages were initiated.  
 

Waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

[Coral]

6 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Princess expects 25% of passengers to book the premier package. This would be 785 passengers who would have in effect purchased two specialty dining meals or a total of 1570 meals in addition to the free specialty dining meal each full suite passenger gets for the first evening.

The other thing that is interesting. In December - they offered Educators and some Military Plus to Premier upgrades free. According to my TA - they recently offered some (not all) Elite passengers (maybe those who travel very frequently) Plus to Premier free upgrades also.

 

So I don't think Premier is selling well so they are offering it free.

[cr8tiv1]

20 minutes ago, Coral said:

The other thing that is interesting. In December - they offered Educators and some Military Plus to Premier upgrades free. According to my TA - they recently offered some (not all) Elite passengers (maybe those who travel very frequently) Plus to Premier free upgrades also.

 

So I don't think Premier is selling well so they are offering it free.

I wasn’t sent the offer.  I feel left out.  But I agree, $80 a day is sometimes more expensive than the cruise itself.  Did Princess hit a wall? Point of no return?

Edited March 19, 2023 by cr8tiv1

[Coral]

9 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

I wasn’t sent the offer.  I feel left out.  But I agree, $80 a day is sometimes more expensive than the cruise itself.  Did Princess hit a wall? Point of no return?

I did not get it either - though I am not that frequent of a cruiser (still working stiff and not near a port). I just happened to be speaking with my agent who said that a lot of her clients were sent this promo.

 

I don't know the future of Princess but what I see, I am not impressed. It seems like "throw anything at the wall and see what sticks method".

Edited March 19, 2023 by Coral

[PurpleTraveller]

20 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

2.  Reserve a Specialty Dining time of your liking, be charged on CC, and ask for a refund months later.

 

The issue with this option is for anyone who is not from the USA you get charged in USD and when you get a refund you almost always have a currency loss on the exchange rate. Just recently I cancelled two excursions (for two people) charged in USD and had a AUD125.00 or 11% loss on the exchange rate even though the exchange rate was only one cent different from when I booked the excursion. I will be waiting until I get on board to book my speciality dining and have to accept that I will get whatever is left. Losing money on a free or included speciality dining because the Princess system can not make a speciality dining reservation on the app without charging for it is not good.

 

Edited March 19, 2023 by PurpleTraveller

[Guest ldtr]

19 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Princess does a terrible job of transparency and disclosure to guests. And they do a terrible job of keeping online documentation and FAQ's current and consistent in all locations for a topic.

 

On another post, someone (I forget who or would credit them) stated that Princess (appears to) expend most of their energy on selling cruises. Well, I suppose that is very important.  But making it an enjoyable and easy experience off the ship is important to keep guests interested in Princess and coming back.

 

That is something I would certainly agree with.  But the job of doing that is not usually the responsibility of customer service, nor is it something that a customer service rep can influence, other than by logging that such a problem exists.

 

Unfortunately it is the customer service reps (that are limited in what they can do based upon the scripts, systems and other tools that they are given) that get the blame for things that are because other departments move forward with decisions, without having the documentation, web sites, training and marketing materials properly updated.  Many of the issues that come up here on cruse critic could be prevented with simply updating the customer facing materials in time with changes, instead of months after ward, as well as being sure to state what the process is. 

 

Post Covid they have been making many changes at a rapid past but not updating the  related materials.  

[jmpsportsmom]

On 3/17/2023 at 12:49 PM, fleeflicker said:

We are booked with EZ Air. Princess system kept deleting our flights even though American was still showing them. I had to call several days in a row to get the flights restored to my reservation. Each time I called it was a minimum wait time of 1 hour and 45 minutes   Communication between myself and the representative was very difficult. I got a whooping $25,00 obo. 

We booked EZ air flights and cancelled them well within the timeframe to get a full refund. The date of cancellation was 2/8/23. Today is 3/19, and I have yet to receive a refund. My credit card is accruing interest doe to this increase in my balance. I’ve tried to call, spoke to one person, they transferred me to another, and I waited on hold for 45 minutes but had to hang up. This is not right. It states in the policy of EZ air you will get a full refund. We are Ruby members but this is making it doubtful we will book again with them. Their ships are beautiful, but this is maddening.