Help please! Now have a random ‘balance due’ on my account but I’ve already paid in full?

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

Hi,

 

anyone else had a similar thing happen?

 

I’m UK based. Sailing from Southampton to Norway 19th August 2023. while logged into my account & paying for an excursion I noticed a new booking balance to pay. This wasn’t there yesterday when I added the excursion to my cart

 

apparently I suddenly owe £617 and it’s due one week ago or they’ll cancel my booking. I’ve paid in full, in April this year, via my TA. ive paid for the Excursion ($399) so it’s not that. Nothing else in my cart & We only have the one excursion booked.

 

The booking hasn’t been cancelled but I’m panicking. Can’t get anyone on live chat today.

 

Am I right to panic? I’ve not sailed Princess before & not had anything happen like this with other cruise lines

TIA

 

[A Pisces]

You need to contact your TA  ASAP! Did you put anything in the cart, that you haven't purchased? If so, remove it. Also call Princess for an explination, if you can't reach your TA

[Sea Hag]

I haven't had this happen, but I think you're right to be very concerned. I'm sure you'll keep trying to get either chat or a live human on the phone to get them to explain this asap. Please come back and tell us what the upshot was. Wishing you the best.

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

Trust this to happen on a Sunday! UK contact number for Princess is only until 4pm.

same with my TA. It’s a bank holiday here tomorrow but lines are open 10 to 4 for both TA and Princess UK

I’ve just gone onto my ‘manage your booking’ page for my TA which clearly shows all the balance has been paid

 

Now I have paid for the one excursion we are on, no items are in my cart. I’ve not had any other items in the cart at all so I’m very confused

 

gahhhhh

 

[voljeep]

12 minutes ago, JG&Lcruisingnewbies said:

Trust this to happen on a Sunday! UK contact number for Princess is only until 4pm.

same with my TA. It’s a bank holiday here tomorrow but lines are open 10 to 4 for both TA and Princess UK

I’ve just gone onto my ‘manage your booking’ page for my TA which clearly shows all the balance has been paid

 

Now I have paid for the one excursion we are on, no items are in my cart. I’ve not had any other items in the cart at all so I’m very confused

 

gahhhhh

 

you paid your TA - but has your TA paid Princess?

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

14 minutes ago, voljeep said:

you paid your TA - but has your TA paid Princess?

I haven’t had a problem with this TA before over many years but that’s certainly a question I will put to them, thank you

 

The amount that Princess say is now due is only about 10% of the whole holiday cost for the 3 of us. Not a big percentage but it’s enough it has me very concerned

 

before this afternoon there wasn’t a booking balance showing and now the suddenly appearing balance was due one week ago so it’s really strange. Wouldn’t an unpaid amount have showed before now?

 

the excursion booking has been very clunky too

 

 

[PacnGoNow]

27 minutes ago, voljeep said:

you paid your TA - but has your TA paid Princess?

Exactly what I was thinking.  The TA may have missed the payment deadline?

 

@JG&Lcruisingnewbies I would call first thing in the morning when your TA opens.  They need to straighten this out for you.  Would that amount due be what your final payment due was?

 

 

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

1 minute ago, JG&Lcruisingnewbies said:

I haven’t had a problem with this TA before over many years but that’s certainly a question I will put to them, thank you

 

The amount that Princess say is now due is only about 10% of the whole holiday cost for the 3 of us. Not a big percentage but it’s enough it has me very concerned

 

before this afternoon there wasn’t a booking balance showing and now the suddenly appearing balance was due one week ago so it’s really strange. Wouldn’t an unpaid amount have showed before now?

 

the excursion booking has been very clunky too

 

 

Also, just to add, I have received no emails regarding this money owing 

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

1 minute ago, PacnGoNow said:

Exactly what I was thinking.  The TA may have missed the payment deadline?

 

@JG&Lcruisingnewbies I would call first thing in the morning when your TA opens.  They need to straighten this out for you.  Would that amount due be what your final payment due was?

 

 

No,

 

we paid a very small deposit (£150) in September last year

then paid the remaining large sum in April this year.

 

the amount they say is owing is around 10% of total amount paid & i can’t think of anything that amount would cover to be honest.

 

I will call my TA in the morning and update you all. I’m scared my booking will cancel overnight 😬 

husband is convinced that won’t happen but my anxiety is v high right now 😞

[PacnGoNow]

22 minutes ago, JG&Lcruisingnewbies said:

No,

 

we paid a very small deposit (£150) in September last year

then paid the remaining large sum in April this year.

 

the amount they say is owing is around 10% of total amount paid & i can’t think of anything that amount would cover to be honest.

 

I will call my TA in the morning and update you all. I’m scared my booking will cancel overnight 😬 

husband is convinced that won’t happen but my anxiety is v high right now 😞

Best of luck.  Let us know.

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

Thank you everyone. I’m going to call my TA and Princess tomorrow, in that order, & I’ll update you. Going to try and not worry tonight as I can do nothing until I have spoken to them. Easier said than done but I’m going to try chill out ready to sort it all tomorrow 🤞🤞🤞🤞

[Steelers36]

57 minutes ago, JG&Lcruisingnewbies said:

Thank you everyone. I’m going to call my TA and Princess tomorrow, in that order, & I’ll update you. Going to try and not worry tonight as I can do nothing until I have spoken to them. Easier said than done but I’m going to try chill out ready to sort it all tomorrow 🤞🤞🤞🤞

Your booking is not going to cancel over the weekend. 

 

Do you know if your TA gave you a discount off the Princess pricing?  (I am not sure if that is something that happens in UK). 

 

Let's say Princess cost for the cruise was £6000, but your TA sold it to you for £5400.  When you paid the final payment, in UK are you paying the agency or does your credit card indicate the charge went to Princess Cruises?  Anyway, the agency has to make up the difference between what you are actually paying and the Princess invoice pricing.  It could be there was an accounting gap in this and the difference is outstanding.  I have seen this happen to me once.  The TA needs to fix it.  Waste of time to call Princess (unless you lucky to get a person who might explain the amount) because they don't deal with guests for payment issues who have booked with a TA.  

 

Don't worry - it will get fixed.

Edited May 28, 2023 by Steelers36

[jonbrealey]

I'm having the same issue and am also in the UK which could be a factor here, I booked with a TA and along the line I upgraded from Plus to Premier. The amount outstanding for me is for Premier. The TA has paid it and I'm in week 6 of trying to get it resolved. Princess won't speak to me about it but have told my TA it's a system issue and I have paid and I have Premier so "don't worry about it"!!!. Despite this it says I owe the balance and the cruise us going to be cancelled like you are getting and my app says I have Plus.

 

It's a big TA and I'm dealing with one person in their customer service who also seems frustrated and annoyed with Princess as she is being given the run around. They keep saying it will be fixed and it never is.

 

We go in July for 2 weeks on Enchanted and have 2 Penthouse suites so it's not exactly a cheap booking not that it should matter!

 

Anyone have any ideas?

 

Jonathan

[sheriff's wife]

Hello everyone,

 

We had the same issue about balance owing and cancellation threat this week !

 

My agent phoned and it was sorted,

 

Very worrying though.

 

I think Princess  may have a system issue as when I logged onto the online Medallion App 

another passengers details including date of birth appeared. Complete data breach.

 

My account has also been frozen and so we are accessing our forthcoming booking on Sky

by using my husbands account. We have also had problems with OBC from Future Cruise Credit

being applied too. I am taking copies of my booking which shows the OBC which should be appearing on the account.

 

My agent and I have both contacted Princess but no reply as yet. 

 

I have also e mailed Jan Swartz ,as advised by others on Princess Forum re complaints ,to highlight the issue but also no reply.

 

Try not to panic I am sure it will get sorted you may just have to keep on phoning the Agent and Princess. 

 

In the meantime I hope that I  do not become a victim of identity theft if this other passenger

on the App has access to my details.......

 

 

[miagirl]

I too have a randomly appearing amount due in my personalizer for a cruise that's 26 days away and fully paid.  it showed up a couple of weeks ago.  I have purchase some shore excursions but my cart is completely empty.  I figure it's some sort of glitch.  If a random charge for $173.03 shows up on my on board account, I let the passenger services desk deal with it.  And yes a copy of my paperwork always travels with me.

 

 

[Vacrus]

Yes I’m having same issue. Got an email from princess Friday evening stating that I owe money on excursions, so they cancelled 😞. Not able to get a hold of anyone that can help me until Tuesday. So aggravated 

[BuzzBuzzen]

I had a balance owing issue too. I upgraded my old premier package to the new premier package on cruise personaliser. Noted my final payment amount had increased by the expected amount. 

Then I received a phone call from the local Princess office stating I owed  $164 as my deposit amount had increased. I was not sure if this was a genuine call or not. 

I then received an email stating my cruise would be cancelled if outstanding amount remained unpaid.

I made the payment on cruise personaliser and quickly received the email with updated deposit paid. 

I printed out the cruise summary, which showed all is correct !

Cheers, Buzz.

[PacnGoNow]

1 hour ago, Vacrus said:

Yes I’m having same issue. Got an email from princess Friday evening stating that I owe money on excursions, so they cancelled 😞. Not able to get a hold of anyone that can help me until Tuesday. So aggravated 

So, your excursion was canceled, not your cruise.  That’s not unusual for the excursion to cancel, if you’re just holding them. 
 

If that’s the case, just rebook the excursion you want and pay for them or hold it till Tuesday?
 

Edited May 28, 2023 by PacnGoNow

[Kay S]

Ah the new Princess 

[KyloRen]

I had this to! Turned out it was a unpaid excursion

[Vacrus]

No this excursion was payed for months ago. It’s sold out now 

[PacnGoNow]

Sounds like issues with the accounting dept.  

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

15 hours ago, sheriff's wife said:

I think Princess  may have a system issue as when I logged onto the online Medallion App 

another passengers details including date of birth appeared. Complete data breach.

 

 

In the meantime I hope that I  do not become a victim of identity theft if this other passenger

on the App has access to my details.......

 

 

Wow!

 

Husband works in Marketing. Data Specifically, trust me no one working in data wants to hear from the ICO!

 

UK ONLY. Threaten Princess with the information commissioner office (ICO).  They seriously need to get it sorted. that should get princess investigating
 

if anyone else has this happen, or you have it happen again, screen shot it & keep it to one side as proof. Tell Princess you have it. And you’ll go to the ICO with that and the complaint email & replies to complaint if you are not happy

 

while you need to give Princess a chance to respond to your complaint you can afterwards go to the ICO web page, click on ‘make a complaint’ & then ‘data protection complaints’

 

once a company discovers a breach they generally have to refer themselves to the ICO within 72hrs. It’ll be far worse if the ICO approach them

 

the ICO will recommend a course of action & ensure the breach is sorted. Not everything results in formal action but they will HAVE to fix the issue

 

hope that helps

 

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

UPDATE

 

Just spoken to my TA. Very helpful. Worked out immediately that the amount is exactly what Princess asks the TA to pay as a deposit. 10% roughly. so that’s where the figure comes from. But on the TA system and on Princesses own system which the TA has access to, both say it’s all paid in full.

 

to answer an earlier question, I pay the TA. The TA pays Princess. The TA offered a low deposit of £50 each to book the cruise. They offered a free upgrade to Princess Prem package, and I’m not sure if it was Princess or the TA but the other offer was an upgrade from Deluxe balcony to mini suite. Early booking perks. A FAB deal.

 

Incidentally On my booking summery, all the parts of the prem package, such as internet, prizes, beverages, photos etc, are labelled as ‘complimentary gift from (My TA)’

 

so the TA has confirmed everything Is paid. Her system and Princesses system confirm it. She has spoken to Princess, and was transferred to a manager, who confirm that this is a system issue they know of and don’t worry, I owe nothing. 
 

Judging by what my TA said, sounds like Princess are aware of cruise critic complaints too 🤔

 

I’ve asked for an email confirming but no joy. TA has said she has logged everything on the system. My call to them has been recorded and their call to Princess confirming that I’ve paid has also been recorded.

 

this is a huge relief

 

now, do I leave this here, or complain to Princess too. That’s my next thought…

 

[PacnGoNow]

37 minutes ago, JG&Lcruisingnewbies said:

UPDATE

 

Just spoken to my TA. Very helpful. Worked out immediately that the amount is exactly what Princess asks the TA to pay as a deposit. 10% roughly. so that’s where the figure comes from. But on the TA system and on Princesses own system which the TA has access to, both say it’s all paid in full.

 

to answer an earlier question, I pay the TA. The TA pays Princess. The TA offered a low deposit of £50 each to book the cruise. They offered a free upgrade to Princess Prem package, and I’m not sure if it was Princess or the TA but the other offer was an upgrade from Deluxe balcony to mini suite. Early booking perks. A FAB deal.

 

Incidentally On my booking summery, all the parts of the prem package, such as internet, prizes, beverages, photos etc, are labelled as ‘complimentary gift from (My TA)’

 

so the TA has confirmed everything Is paid. Her system and Princesses system confirm it. She has spoken to Princess, and was transferred to a manager, who confirm that this is a system issue they know of and don’t worry, I owe nothing. 
 

Judging by what my TA said, sounds like Princess are aware of cruise critic complaints too 🤔

 

I’ve asked for an email confirming but no joy. TA has said she has logged everything on the system. My call to them has been recorded and their call to Princess confirming that I’ve paid has also been recorded.

 

this is a huge relief

 

now, do I leave this here, or complain to Princess too. That’s my next thought…

 

Thanks for the update.  Should be good now.  You can always advise customer relations, by email, what has happened.  Up to you.