Overcharged and no refund

[A9280]

We paid for our upcoming June cruise in full last December 2022. We asked for adjoining balcony rooms because we have minor children. We checked the booking this week and saw that the room was changed where we were separated from our minor children by one room. We contacted RC to inquire and advised that we wanted connecting rooms for the reason stated above.  RC called us back to say that they had an adjoining room and we needed to pay asap. They did not tell us what the room numbers were before we paid $372) for the additional fee to make the change (seems suspicious since we had already requested the connecting room when we initially selected them in September 2022).  We then received the room numbers only after we inquired and received the booking information. We immediately called back to inquire why we were moved from a balcony room to an interior connecting room.  They said it was all they had. We are furious because we were not afforded the courtesy by RC to verify that we would agree to give up our 2 balcony rooms for 2 lower quality interior rooms.  

 

We tried to get the original rooms back, but they were gone according to RC.  We looked at the price difference and saw the we had paid an additional $2600 for the 2 balcony rooms since we were being downgraded to the interior rooms.  We asked for a refund and was told the price increased since September.  We checked their website today and saw that the price was actually lower.  We took a screenshot of the pricing and asked for the recording from the RC rep who states that he had advised us that he was giving us the interior rooms.  He never said this.  

 

RC will not refund us the $2600 overpayment.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how we should proceed with getting our refund?  We are going to file a dispute with the Federal Maritime agency. 

 

Any other constructive feedback would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Thanks 

[firefly333]

I see this is your first post so welcome to cc. I'm having trouble imagining they moved you from balcony to interior cabins without telling you first. Thank goodness for my TA who could escalate this. You are after final payment and they dont give anyone the price difference if the price drops, so that is a dead argument. I'd ask for a supervisor and explain you were downgraded and not told the new cabins were interior. 

 

How long after they moved you did you call back and ask for the original cabins back? I'd be upset too. If you knew they were inside cabins you could have refused and not moved. 

[A9280]

We called within an hour of having received the email that contained the new booking information. 

 

We have called 3x and escalated it to a supervisor.  The last contact was that they are going to review the recorded conversation to verify what was said by their representative.  That was yesterday.  We are waiting on the results. We are going to have to take the interior rooms but we want the refund because we are overpaying and their website clearly shows the price difference between the rooms. 

[A9280]

This is our 1st time cruising with RC and the last.  For years we have cruised with carnival and have had no issues.  We're only going with RC because of a family reunion that is in Greece and Rome.  A sorrowful experience already and we have not left.  It's too late for us to cancel so we're stuck.  

[Biker19]

49 minutes ago, A9280 said:

Does anyone have any suggestions on how we should proceed with getting our refund?  We are going to file a dispute with the Federal Maritime agency. 

That dispute won't get you anywhere.

 

First, give them a chance to fix the issue. Then, if still not resolved, write a clear explanation of the situation to mbayley@rccl.com.

[firefly333]

34 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

That dispute won't get you anywhere.

 

First, give them a chance to fix the issue. Then, if still not resolved, write a clear explanation of the situation to mbayley@rccl.com.

I started to say this, but yes a condensed version. Adding this is my first and last time with rcl wouldnt help. If you say you are never cruising with them again, then they have nothing to gain. Not a good tactic. 

[A9280]

Thank you for the responses. I guess I should learn how to play chess.  

[GJustice]

Incidents Occur and I've found RCI to be very willing to resolve issues like this. A POLITE, concise email to mbayley will get attention. Don't gripe, threaten or demand. Just lay out your case and be clear what you EXPECT to happen (either get balconies OR a refund of the difference, NOT BOTH).

 

Let us know how it goes as it seems time is of the essence 🙂 

[A9280]

4 minutes ago, GJustice said:

Incidents Occur and I've found RCI to be very willing to resolve issues like this. A POLITE, concise email to mbayley will get attention. Don't gripe, threaten or demand. Just lay out your case and be clear what you EXPECT to happen (either get balconies OR a refund of the difference, NOT BOTH).

 

Let us know how it goes as it seems time is of the essence 🙂 

 

[A9280]

We are waiting on the results of their investigation.  Hopefully they will do the right thing. 

[GJustice]

I'd send the email anyway, there's a dedicated team that handles his email and DOES respond.

[A9280]

30 minutes ago, GJustice said:

I'd send the email anyway, there's a dedicated team that handles his email and DOES respond.

We did communicate with someone via pm and the conclusion was that they followed their procedures with the room change, but the rep did not or would not address the overcharge.  This is why I believe we should seek legal help. 

[BecciBoo]

6 hours ago, Biker19 said:

That dispute won't get you anywhere.

 

First, give them a chance to fix the issue. Then, if still not resolved, write a clear explanation of the situation to mbayley@rccl.com.

Send carbon copies to ayera-rodriguez@rccl.com;   cleyva@rccl.com; igari@rccl.com (guest Claims) But do it now, don't wait.

 

I have spoken with these folks on the phone, they called me!  They will work with you to resolve everything.  I have not been disappointed many times...and these were usually rules that cannot be broken.  Your dispute is not one.  I think you will get results.

Edited May 28, 2023 by BecciBoo

[A&L_Ont]

35 minutes ago, A9280 said:

We did communicate with someone via pm and the conclusion was that they followed their procedures with the room change, but the rep did not or would not address the overcharge.  This is why I believe we should seek legal help. 

If this was through Twitter it will not be the same as contacting RC HQ.

[A9280]

3 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

If this was through Twitter it will not be the same as contacting RC HQ.

No, it was through FB messenger 

[cruiseguy1016]

43 minutes ago, A9280 said:

We did communicate with someone via pm and the conclusion was that they followed their procedures with the room change, but the rep did not or would not address the overcharge.  This is why I believe we should seek legal help. 

 

Don't communicate with SOMEONE. Communicate with a person that can help you. You came here asking for advice yet you seem to want to handle it in your own way. GJustice has given you good advice. Take it.

[chfenton]

Just as a data point--I had a relatively simple request several years ago (to allow our 20 year old nanny to be assigned to her own room before arrival, as she was under 21 she technically could not travel in room alone.

 

A simple two or three sentence email to Mr. Bayley got a response within two hours late on a Wednesday night where he said something like "sure, send me the room numbers and details and someone  would reach out the next morning and resolve". Several RCCL people were copied on his response to me.  By Thursday at 10 am, the nanny was set in her own room.  So escalating can result in action easily if it's the right thing to do.

[Georgia_Peaches]

You’ve been given great info on who to contact. At this point you really have nothing to lose. I’d be sending an email to the folks mentioned above right away. Hoping this gets resolved but I’m curious about the outcome of the investigation, though. Did they speak to your claim that you weren’t told the cabins were inside?  From where I sit, if you weren’t told, then it’s a no brainer on what they should do. 

[A9280]

20 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

You’ve been given great info on who to contact. At this point you really have nothing to lose. I’d be sending an email to the folks mentioned above right away. Hoping this gets resolved but I’m curious about the outcome of the investigation, though. Did they speak to your claim that you weren’t told the cabins were inside?  From where I sit, if you weren’t told, then it’s a no brainer on what they should do. 

We don't know yet about the cabin issue. I just hate that this family reunion vacation/trip, has been tarnished.  We are really struggling on how to get past this when we had done things correctly in the beginning.  We will be the only family in an interior room.  Very disappointing and somewhat embarrassing. 

[cynt]

I'm just baffled at how people blindly call to reserve and pay for a cabin without a deck plan in front of them to see the cabins assigned. And they don't verify booking with the email confirmation Royal immediately sends while you're on the phone.

 

So you called in December 2022 and paid for your "adjoining" cabins and didn't look at the cabin assignment until May 2023? That's on you. If you called Royal to book they always make sure you receive the confirmation email and ask you to check everything and make sure it is correct. Did you not do this? 

[topnole]

8 hours ago, A9280 said:

We paid for our upcoming June cruise in full last December 2022. We asked for adjoining balcony rooms because we have minor children. We checked the booking this week and saw that the room was changed where we were separated from our minor children by one room. We contacted RC to inquire and advised that we wanted connecting rooms for the reason stated above.  RC called us back to say that they had an adjoining room and we needed to pay asap. They did not tell us what the room numbers were before we paid $372) for the additional fee to make the change (seems suspicious since we had already requested the connecting room when we initially selected them in September 2022).  We then received the room numbers only after we inquired and received the booking information. We immediately called back to inquire why we were moved from a balcony room to an interior connecting room.  They said it was all they had. We are furious because we were not afforded the courtesy by RC to verify that we would agree to give up our 2 balcony rooms for 2 lower quality interior rooms.  

 

We tried to get the original rooms back, but they were gone according to RC.  We looked at the price difference and saw the we had paid an additional $2600 for the 2 balcony rooms since we were being downgraded to the interior rooms.  We asked for a refund and was told the price increased since September.  We checked their website today and saw that the price was actually lower.  We took a screenshot of the pricing and asked for the recording from the RC rep who states that he had advised us that he was giving us the interior rooms.  He never said this.  

 

RC will not refund us the $2600 overpayment.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how we should proceed with getting our refund?  We are going to file a dispute with the Federal Maritime agency. 

 

Any other constructive feedback would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Thanks 

On the original booking which was paid in full in December, are you saying the cabins were side by side and then they got changed and you didn’t know it?   I’m having trouble understanding how this played out.  The term “requested” adjoining rooms is very different than a confirmed booking.  Do you have documentation of the cabin numbers assigned (adjoining) from when you paid in December?  If so, attach this to the email mentioned above and I’d expect you will get a satisfactory resolution.  If you didn’t, I’m not sure I understand the situation per your description.  
 

Also, I’m not sure I understand how you paid the extra $300ish and weren’t told the cabin numbers while on the phone.  They didn’t tell you or they changed them again after you got off the phone?  
 

Future advice.  Never pay for a booking without knowing and checking the cabin numbers specifically before processing payment (unless booking a guaranteed cabin).  I’ve never hung up with he never gone without double or triple checking they have the cabin number right.  Particularly when having friends or family side by side.  

[A9280]

1 minute ago, cynt said:

I'm just baffled at how people blindly call to reserve and pay for a cabin without a deck plan in front of them to see the cabins assigned. And they don't verify booking with the email confirmation Royal immediately sends while you're on the phone.

 

So you called in December 2022 and paid for your "adjoining" cabins and didn't look at the cabin assignment until May 2023? That's on you. If you called Royal to book they always make sure you receive the confirmation email and ask you to check everything and make sure it is correct. Did you not do this? 

No, and you should not assume that rooms were chosen without seeing their location when you refer to "people"!

 

Of course we looked at the room locations, and of course, we checked the appropriate boxes to indicate that we wanted adjoining rooms.  And, if you reread my initial post, we reserved this trip in September 2022.  It was paid in full December 2022.  Yes, we received the initial booking when we initially reserved the rooms and we filed it away. 

 

We recently received notification from RCI that we should print out the boarding and other docs since the cruise was a little more than a month away.  When we did this, that's when we noticed the room issue.

 

We asked if they could assign us with a connecting room. They found them, but upon calling us back, they did not reveal or verify that they were changing us from a balcony room to an interior room if we still wanted to.  Instead, the rep just asked for our cc to reserve the room before it was gone (pressure tactic).

 

Once we paid the change fees ($372.00) we received the new booking information via email.  My spouse reviewed it within the hour after meeting with a patient.  That's when the error was discovered. 

 

We tried to get it changed back immediately, to no avail.  They offered to give us 2 larger balconies at an additional $6600.

 

We decided not to pay the $6600.00 and to begrudgingly accept the 2 interior rooms. 

 

We then realized that we were overpaying for the interior rooms. The rep said prices had increased. We told them that no interior room is equal in cost to a balcony room. 

 

We went to the RCI website (took a screenshot) and found that the rates had not changed and that the interior rooms are indeed less than the balcony rooms.  As a result, we have overpayed approximately $2600.00.  This is our issue.

 

Hopefully this explanation is a bit clearer for you now.

 

Cheers. 

[jwlane]

5 minutes ago, A9280 said:

Yes, we received the initial booking when we initially reserved the rooms and we filed it away.

Absent the ability to actually see these documents, speculation is meaningless.

[A9280]

31 minutes ago, cynt said:

I'm just baffled at how people blindly call to reserve and pay for a cabin without a deck plan in front of them to see the cabins assigned. And they don't verify booking with the email confirmation Royal immediately sends while you're on the phone.

 

So you called in December 2022 and paid for your "adjoining" cabins and didn't look at the cabin assignment until May 2023? That's on you. If you called Royal to book they always make sure you receive the confirmation email and ask you to check everything and make sure it is correct. Did you not do this? 

We didn't have the room numbers initially because they we had chosen, it turns out, assign or connect because it was cheaper.

 

So, we didn't know until recently what the room numbers would be.  That's our mistake. 

 

The issue now is that they downgraded the rooms to an interior connected room.  They charged a change fee of $186/room ($372).

 

They refused to give us the difference of the room costs.  The balcony costs more than an interior room and they charged us the change fee.

 

So, we accept our mistake with the initial booking, but we should be refunded the difference between the room costs.

[A9280]

3 minutes ago, jwlane said:

Absent the ability to actually see these documents, speculation is meaningless.

Sharing our docs in this forum is risky as they contain personal information.