Post-disembarkation stateroom account charges

[WineCountryCruiser]

Having cruised with Princess for almost 20 years, I have learned that errors in our stateroom account, though uncommon, do occur.  As a result, I check my stateroom account balance on the MedallionClass app each day to ensure that the day’s charges are correct, and that the refundable and non-refundable onboard credit balances are also correct.

 

On a recent cruise, I had onboard credits classified by Princess as non-refundable and others classified by Princess as refundable.  While sitting in the disembarkation lounge waiting to leave the ship at the conclusion of the cruise, I did a final check of my stateroom account using the MedallionClass app to verify that everything was what I expected.  As expected, the information in the app showed that I had a substantial credit balance – of which the vast majority was refundable.  After arriving home that day, I received the final statement of our stateroom account via email from Princess.  To my surprise, the amount to be refunded to me was well under half of the refundable credit balance shown on the app.  This was caused by the application of a series of unknown charges identified as having been applied on disembarkation day.

 

I emailed Princess Customer Relations the following day requesting resolution of the matter.  Two weeks later, having received no acknowledgment of receipt or response to my email, I re-sent the original email after updating it to include my detailed analysis showing what I believed was the correct amount to be refunded to me.  I did get an acknowledgement that the re-sent message had been received but there was still no reply.  The updated message was then re-sent two additional times, but Princess did not provide a response until almost seven weeks after we disembarked the ship.  Their response included an attachment containing a detailed list of all charges and credits to my stateroom account that I was asked to review.

 

My review of the details provided by Princess showed that every charge and credit was as expected up to the time that we disembarked the ship.  At the end of the list of charges and credits was a series of charges labeled as “$$COMPUTER” that were applied over two hours after we disembarked.

 

An exchange of emails resulted in Princess stating that all charges in the final statement of our stateroom account that I received on disembarkation day were correct – though no explanation was provided regarding the charges identified as “$$COMPUTER”.  I then emailed Princess Customer Relations requesting an explanation of those charges.  To date, I have yet to receive a response to that request.  I have another Princess cruise scheduled that includes a similar set of non-refundable and refundable credits.  Without an explanation of the post-disembarkation “$$COMPUTER” charges, I am concerned that I will be unable to avoid a recurrence of what happened on my recent cruise.

 

Has anyone else had a similar experience or is this unique to me?

[PacnGoNow]

13 minutes ago, WineCountryCruiser said:

Having cruised with Princess for almost 20 years, I have learned that errors in our stateroom account, though uncommon, do occur.  As a result, I check my stateroom account balance on the MedallionClass app each day to ensure that the day’s charges are correct, and that the refundable and non-refundable onboard credit balances are also correct.

 

On a recent cruise, I had onboard credits classified by Princess as non-refundable and others classified by Princess as refundable.  While sitting in the disembarkation lounge waiting to leave the ship at the conclusion of the cruise, I did a final check of my stateroom account using the MedallionClass app to verify that everything was what I expected.  As expected, the information in the app showed that I had a substantial credit balance – of which the vast majority was refundable.  After arriving home that day, I received the final statement of our stateroom account via email from Princess.  To my surprise, the amount to be refunded to me was well under half of the refundable credit balance shown on the app.  This was caused by the application of a series of unknown charges identified as having been applied on disembarkation day.

 

I emailed Princess Customer Relations the following day requesting resolution of the matter.  Two weeks later, having received no acknowledgment of receipt or response to my email, I re-sent the original email after updating it to include my detailed analysis showing what I believed was the correct amount to be refunded to me.  I did get an acknowledgement that the re-sent message had been received but there was still no reply.  The updated message was then re-sent two additional times, but Princess did not provide a response until almost seven weeks after we disembarked the ship.  Their response included an attachment containing a detailed list of all charges and credits to my stateroom account that I was asked to review.

 

My review of the details provided by Princess showed that every charge and credit was as expected up to the time that we disembarked the ship.  At the end of the list of charges and credits was a series of charges labeled as “$$COMPUTER” that were applied over two hours after we disembarked.

 

An exchange of emails resulted in Princess stating that all charges in the final statement of our stateroom account that I received on disembarkation day were correct – though no explanation was provided regarding the charges identified as “$$COMPUTER”.  I then emailed Princess Customer Relations requesting an explanation of those charges.  To date, I have yet to receive a response to that request.  I have another Princess cruise scheduled that includes a similar set of non-refundable and refundable credits.  Without an explanation of the post-disembarkation “$$COMPUTER” charges, I am concerned that I will be unable to avoid a recurrence of what happened on my recent cruise.

 

Has anyone else had a similar experience or is this unique to me?

I have never seen that.  If you’re going on another cruise, I would go to GS and ask them what that would mean on a folio?  Maybe that would help to understand.

 

Did you have medallionNet?  Did you use the computers in the Internet Cafe?  

[GJCruiser]

I would never leave a ship with credits held by the cruise line. Go to the casino that last day and be sure you sufficiently charge off the credits left and get the cash.

[WineCountryCruiser]

13 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

I have never seen that.  If you’re going on another cruise, I would go to GS and ask them what that would mean on a folio?  Maybe that would help to understand.

 

Did you have medallionNet?  Did you use the computers in the Internet Cafe?  

I had previously spoken with Guest Services to confirm the distribution of my OBCs between refundable and non-refundable and they did.  I did have, and use, MedallionNet on my own laptop.  The issue did not appear until after we left the ship.

 

[WineCountryCruiser]

2 minutes ago, GJCruiser said:

I would never leave a ship with credits held by the cruise line. Go to the casino that last day and be sure you sufficiently charge off the credits left and get the cash.

Given what happened, that's what we're likely to do.  After so many years of cruising with Princess without this sort of post-disembarkation alteration to our account, we were just blind-sided.  Now we know,.

 

[Steelers36]

7 minutes ago, WineCountryCruiser said:

Given what happened, that's what we're likely to do.  After so many years of cruising with Princess without this sort of post-disembarkation alteration to our account, we were just blind-sided.  Now we know,.

 

I have read one or two stories the align with yours.  The person (sorry, don't ask me who now) had a major loss of Ref OBC due to PCL re-allocating monies in some strange way.  I cannot recall the specifics, but sounds like what happened to you.  

 

I have never walked off a ship with a credit balance.  And I have no plans to do so in the future.

 

I do think you are owed an explanation for their calculations.  Have you tried calling in and asking to speak with Customer Relations?  And I'd ask for a senior person there due to your lengthy wait for answers.  "$$COMPUTER" may equal PCL Creative Accounting.

[WineCountryCruiser]

1 minute ago, Steelers36 said:

I have read one or two stories the align with yours.  The person (sorry, don't ask me who now) had a major loss of Ref OBC due to PCL re-allocating monies in some strange way.  I cannot recall the specifics, but sounds like what happened to you.  

 

I have never walked off a ship with a credit balance.  And I have no plans to do so in the future.

 

I do think you are owed an explanation for their calculations.  Have you tried calling in and asking to speak with Customer Relations?  And I'd ask for a senior person there due to your lengthy wait for answers.  "$$COMPUTER" may equal PCL Creative Accounting.

Sadly, there is no way to reach Customer Relations by phone and I've tried, without success, to reach them through the standard Princess telephone tree.  It's actually quite difficult, if not impossible, to even have a Princess agent let you speak with a supervisor.

 

One big goal of my post is to remind people that it is essential to get a printout of your statement just prior to disembarking and compare it to the final statement that you receive from Princess via email after disembarking.  I suspect that this may not be common practice.

[cr8tiv1]

Are you working with a TA?  Sometimes they are able to reach someone in Accounts/Revenue.  

 

Left the ship on Friday. Today is Wednesday.  I received my survey, but not an "updated" folio.  I do have printed copies and a screen shot.

[theloo]

I have a similar problem.  I had refundable and non -refundable OBC.  They debited the non-RF first.  When I asked them to correct it on board, they told me it would be fixed.  It was not.  My post cruise folio, which had a refund due, was zeroed out.  I called and sent a message through princess.com, but have heard nothing in nearly 3 weeks.

[WineCountryCruiser]

11 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

Are you working with a TA?  Sometimes they are able to reach someone in Accounts/Revenue.  

 

Left the ship on Friday. Today is Wednesday.  I received my survey, but not an "updated" folio.  I do have printed copies and a screen shot.

I do work with a TA but she was unable to do any better than I did.  Given Princess' ability to make changes to your account without your knowledge after you've left the ship, the extremely difficult path to contacting someone in Customer Relations who might be able to help is especially troubling.  I wonder how many other cruisers have had this happen to them and just didn't know it.

[Steelers36]

17 minutes ago, WineCountryCruiser said:

Sadly, there is no way to reach Customer Relations by phone and I've tried, without success, to reach them through the standard Princess telephone tree.  It's actually quite difficult, if not impossible, to even have a Princess agent let you speak with a supervisor.

 

One big goal of my post is to remind people that it is essential to get a printout of your statement just prior to disembarking and compare it to the final statement that you receive from Princess via email after disembarking.  I suspect that this may not be common practice.

I used to have success with asking (firmly if needed) to be transferred to Guest Relations or Solutions.  It depended on who I got.  But I confess have not needed to do this since the Philippine call center became big player.  

 

I do agree that best to have that final statement in hand to verify against the email.  I do think part of the delay in any dispute is they have to go back to the ship's purser's office and make inquiries, etc.  But anyone in PCL accounting at HQ ought to know what the "$$COMPUTER" means.

 

[WineCountryCruiser]

1 minute ago, theloo said:

I have a similar problem.  I had refundable and non -refundable OBC.  They debited the non-RF first.  When I asked them to correct it on board, they told me it would be fixed.  It was not.  My post cruise folio, which had a refund due, was zeroed out.  I called and sent a message through princess.com, but have heard nothing in nearly 3 weeks.

Unfortunately, the connection between onboard and Headquarters staff doesn't seem very solid when it comes to the accounting side of things.  About the only way to reach Customer Relations is through email.  From my experience, other paths to reach them don't seem to work.

[leck57]

There was someone on FB very recently that posted exactly this problem and about the "Computer " charges. It might be worth checking it as I think it is also ongoing.

[WineCountryCruiser]

3 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

I used to have success with asking (firmly if needed) to be transferred to Guest Relations or Solutions.  It depended on who I got.  But I confess have not needed to do this since the Philippine call center became big player.  

 

I do agree that best to have that final statement in hand to verify against the email.  I do think part of the delay in any dispute is they have to go back to the ship's purser's office and make inquiries, etc.  But anyone in PCL accounting at HQ ought to know what the "$$COMPUTER" means.

 

Yes they should know.  Based on post-cruise conversations with someone in the onboard financial department of the cruise in question (we became friends while onboard), the onboard purser's office is effectively out of the loop once the accounting data for the cruise is transferred to Princess HQ.  They can be very helpful while you're onboard but there's little they can do once you've disembarked.

[WineCountryCruiser]

2 minutes ago, leck57 said:

There was someone on FB very recently that posted exactly this problem and about the "Computer " charges. It might be worth checking it as I think it is also ongoing.

Will look into that.

[Ombud]

Something strange happened to me too. Disembarked last September with 35+ refundable OBC. Emailed customer service when I didn't get a check w/I a month. Didn't get it before December cruise. 2 more emails. Frustrated call to my CVP who contacted Customer Relations. There wasn't a way to get a check (🤯) but they agreed to comp me 100 obc. Came thru as non-refundable so disembarked April cruise owing. Now I make sure I always owe something. 

[RLK33853]

We had a similar issue in February.  We were on B2B cruises and had refundable $100 on each leg.  I checked with the front desk after the 1st leg, plus prior to leaving the ship on the second leg, and was assured that each $100 would be paid out = $200.

 

Fast forward 6 weeks and we received a cheque for $116???   Not sure how $200 ended up being $116 - I could see $100, but not a random number like $116.

 

Our travel agent has escalated this issue on 3 different occasions without any kind of reasonable explanation.  We are on our fourth back and forth with them at present.  This was our 46 Princess cruise and we have never experienced anything like this.

[WineCountryCruiser]

5 minutes ago, Ombud said:

Something strange happened to me too. Disembarked last September with 35+ refundable OBC. Emailed customer service when I didn't get a check w/I a month. Didn't get it before December cruise. 2 more emails. Frustrated call to my CVP who contacted Customer Relations. There wasn't a way to get a check (🤯) but they agreed to comp me 100 obc. Came thru as non-refundable so disembarked April cruise owing. Now I make sure I always owe something. 

Glad that you got some something back.  I agree - make sure that you always owe something.  That way if "$$COMPUTER" charges are applied post-disembarkation, you can dispute those charges via your credit card issuer.

[WineCountryCruiser]

5 minutes ago, RLK33853 said:

We had a similar issue in February.  We were on B2B cruises and had refundable $100 on each leg.  I checked with the front desk after the 1st leg, plus prior to leaving the ship on the second leg, and was assured that each $100 would be paid out = $200.

 

Fast forward 6 weeks and we received a cheque for $116???   Not sure how $200 ended up being $116 - I could see $100, but not a random number like $116.

 

Our travel agent has escalated this issue on 3 different occasions without any kind of reasonable explanation.  We are on our fourth back and forth with them at present.  This was our 46 Princess cruise and we have never experienced anything like this.

Ours was also a B2B and we did almost exactly what you did.  All seemed OK until it wasn't.  We've done 64 Princess cruises and also never experienced anything like this.  As a retired software engineer, it makes me wonder if there is a glitch in the software being used at Princess HQ for post-disembarkation processing. That's one of the reasons that decided to start this topic - to see who else might have had the same thing happen to them.

[nasa1974]

I know this has nothing to do with OBC but I have a 3 day booked out of Vancouver in October. Before final payment (due 7/26) the price dropped $180.76 in early June. My TA took care of it, but I have yet to see the refund.

[Steelers36]

2 minutes ago, WineCountryCruiser said:

Ours was also a B2B and we did almost exactly what you did.  All seemed OK until it wasn't.  We've done 64 Princess cruises and also never experienced anything like this.  As a retired software engineer, it makes me wonder if there is a glitch in the software being used at Princess HQ for post-disembarkation processing. That's one of the reasons that decided to start this topic - to see who else might have had the same thing happen to them.

Hi again.  I am willing to bet that @RLK33853's story is the one I was thinking of as similar to yours.

[WineCountryCruiser]

Just now, Steelers36 said:

Hi again.  I am willing to bet that @RLK33853's story is the one I was thinking of as similar to yours.

Yep.  It sounds very similar.  Really makes me wonder.

[leck57]

1 hour ago, nasa1974 said:

I know this has nothing to do with OBC but I have a 3 day booked out of Vancouver in October. Before final payment (due 7/26) the price dropped $180.76 in early June. My TA took care of it, but I have yet to see the refund.

 

Why would you get a refund. Didn't you just pay the lower amount at final payment?

Edited August 10, 2023 by leck57

[gah_cruise]

post 14  has a possible  explanation

[Ready2go11]

I was the OP for the reference in #24 above. I continued to email Princess’s customer service and the only reply was we have reviewed your account and you are not owed anything. My refundable balance was over $200 and the same for my sister in a different cabin. 
 

i kept asking them to explain how they reached the conclusion I was owed nothing and now they have not responded to any emails in over 3 months. I gave up. 
 

This was my first Princess cruise, and my last. I am 4* on HAL and have sailed Celebrity and Cunard as well. Not only are Princess’s accounting systems suspect, but the customer service and lack of accountability will prohibit me spending $1 more