Final price increased by over $3,000 celebrity refuses to honor it.

[sanger727]

On 3/29/2023 at 10:52 AM, PH2 said:

Meant to post this here, not the other thread...

 

As someone who works in an industry that deals with consumer complaints quite often, it can certainly help to make a call to a state regulatory agency or the BBB as a means of putting pressure on a company to relent. It may not work every time, but bad PR is a thing. If it's egregious enough (and I don't know that this one is), a call to the local news "On Your Side" reporter who regularly does features about helping people seemingly shafted by a business can also help move a solution along. It may be worth the company swallowing an incorrect fare to avoid a bad PR hit and to make the most of turning bad PR into an opportunity to turn it into good (or at least less bad) PR.

 

I've had really good luck with BBB complaints on bad business practices.

 

Once Hertz sold us an upgrade on a vehicle rental. When I went to return it they wanted to charge more than the agreed upon price. I had the receipt with the price quote on it with me, but there was no supervisor around to fix it before we got on our flight. Contact hertz direclty got me nothing. But after the BBB complaint they credited my CC back the difference.

 

I also had a completely non-responsive TA. I called him and e-mailed him several times and never received a call back. I call the main number to ask if someone else could help me and she did briefly, but realized he booked us in the incorrect room category and send us back to him to fix it. Again, never received a call back or got him to pick up the phone. Finally a BBB complaint got the lady from the main phone number to assist us in fixing our booking and finalizing our payment. 

Edited March 30, 2023 by sanger727

[mayleeman]

@sanger727 But reading all those posts on the previous page makes it sound like TAs never make mistakes!

Edited March 30, 2023 by mayleeman

[Bo1953]

11 hours ago, ChucktownSteve said:

 

Bo, Thank you for your response.  However I suspect your post may all speculation.  Are you familiar with how all the different state's Consumer Protection departments operate?  Even if the end result is no difference in fare, they may be making the cruise line jump through hoops responding to the complaint.   However depending upon state law where the OP is located, it may have a positive affect. 

 

One thing is sure. If you don't ask or try, you're guaranteed nothing will happen.

I do not disagree with you cs 'in total', yet I do believe that depending on how many similar complaints any AG gets, will determine how or if they will investigate further than sending X a letter and they respond accordingly.

 

Yes, I Am speculating that most AG's will do a pro-forma investigation as X did advise the passenger that the fare was dis-allowed due to not living in the state for the special fare.

 

This is not to say that X's IT system went crazy as the OP was making the reservation and gave the fare regardless. But it is to say that someone at X caught it and offered the OP options.

 

Before the pandemic airlines were often caught off guard with mistake fares, now they offer the flyer an option, either cancel and re-book at the the rate they should have been offered at booking or canceling altogether.

 

Just thinking about it, the OP can go on a Social Media Campaign against X over this and possibly get the originally booked fare... at what future consideration to sail X again, even if they wanted to???

 

Again, my similar situation with a TA who quoted an incorrect price and accepted my full payment immediately was in a corner... I was able to keep the fare, but I willingly gave up the OBC from both which was far less than the difference in fare.

 

I never thought about going to our AG over this as I understood it was a mistake fare and was given a few options, none of which I was thrilled about but we came to an amicable agreement in the end... and I sailed and continue to with X.

 

I think the OP needs to do what they want to do in this situation... and/or reject the options provided or come up with an option that they can sail with and present to X.

 

I wish them luck in whatever the end result is, hopefully to their satisfaction...

 

bon voyage

[kidz_rn]

Perseverance pays off. Yay!

[Cwspy]

Andydunn,

 

Great to hear everything worked out in the end. Enjoy Bermuda and thanks for keeping us updated!

 

 

andydunn

Posted 18 hours ago

#49  

Cruise has been reestablished at the original price thanks to the email to the 'office of the president'. The person I spoke to said the CS reps should have escalated until they solved the problem and apologized. 'something' was changed by 'someone' that caused all the discounts to drop off but they were able to fix that. I have no better details that that 😀

 

 

 

All is good in the world.. off to Bermuds