OBC and pre-booked excursion "refund"

[Nidwaldner]

I have spent over an hour going around in circles with a Princess chat agent.  I booked an excursion using up our OBC and a significant amount on my credit card. I canceled that excursion and booked a cheaper one.  It seems Princess used the credit card portion ($480 of what I should have been refunded) towards my new excursion booking instead of the OBC. The agent insists I have to go through my travel agent (Costco) to get this fixed.  This really does not make sense to me since I booked the excursion directly through Princess and was charged by Princess. Now I'm afraid, despite the agent's assurance, that my OBC won't be on my account either.  The inability to check charges and balances on your Princess account pre-cruise is maddening. And it seemed she couldn't see my excursion booking history either. Is what the agent telling me correct?

Edited August 16, 2023 by Nidwaldner

[NavyVeteran]

I have run into the same problem. When cancelling an excursion, they refund the OBC portion first.

 

Princess does not actually charge the OBC precruise. In the past (pre-pandemic), the prepaid excursions (whether paid by credit card or OBC) were all listed as charges on my onboard folio and the credit card excursion payments were all listed as refundable OBC on my folio. So I would get any refund due in the refundable OBC check after the cruise. I haven't cruised with Princess yet since the pandemic, so I don't have any recent knowledge if anything has changed.

[Ombud]

I'd cancel the excursion and put it on wait list. Then rebook in 2 days when the cc refund is 'in process' and they have to use OBC. Heck you might even have the cc refund by then!!

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, Nidwaldner said:

I have spent over an hour going around in circles with a Princess chat agent.  I booked an excursion using up our OBC and a significant amount on my credit card. I canceled that excursion and booked a cheaper one.  It seems Princess used the credit card portion ($480 of what I should have been refunded) towards my new excursion booking instead of the OBC. The agent insists I have to go through my travel agent (XXXXXXX) to get this fixed.  This really does not make sense to me since I booked the excursion directly through Princess and was charged by Princess. Now I'm afraid, despite the agent's assurance, that my OBC won't be on my account either.  The inability to check charges and balances on your Princess account pre-cruise is maddening. And it seemed she couldn't see my excursion booking history either. Is what the agent telling me correct?

I agree with @Ombud, so this is good advice for future.  Let the refund process and then begin separately when you see your OBC restored. 

 

I agree that your agent (notice I blacked out the name as you are not supposed to name TA's on here) has nothing to do with this since excursions are self-booked and self-paid.  That said, this issue is now mixed up with dollars and TA's need to be involved because you can only review or "see" dollars on your cruise bill via the TA.  That said, you can see Onboard Services and Onboard Credits (look in the Payment section of Cruise Personalizer).  You should see the correct amount of OBC there. 

 

You could cancel the new excursion (generates a CC refund), and then re-book it which will allow you to select using any OBC you have (which should be restored to your profile by now).

 

[roxstarcruiser]

On 8/16/2023 at 3:18 PM, Ombud said:

I'd cancel the excursion and put it on wait list. Then rebook in 2 days when the cc refund is 'in process' and they have to use OBC. Heck you might even have the cc refund by then!!

This whole situation is part of why I'm hesitant to book any excursions pre-boarding. The other reason is that I fear locking myself into something that my body might decide I'm not up for. I have no plans to do anything major. I'd like to spend a little time on a beach in one port and maybe wander around aimlessly in another, so I figure booking onboard is my best bet. It's just a Caribbean itinerary - if I were doing Europe or something, it'd be a very different story.

[no1racefan1]

I was really hoping I wouldn't have any issues with my excursions but it appears that is not the case. I cancelled three excursions on 9/5 and have yet to see any type of refund. Is this what other people are experiencing as well?

Juneau excursion for DH for $49.95, paid with credit card

Juneau excursion for myself for $49.95, paid with shareholder OBC

Excursion for myself for $39.95, paid with shareholder OBC

 

I actually cancelled the $39.95 by accident, so immediately rebooked it, for which it charged my credit card. I also immediately booked a different excursion for Juneau, at a higher cost, that was charged to my credit card. So no potential refunds were applied anywhere else.

 

By my calculations I am due $49.95 on my credit card and $89.90 OBC. Am I missing something?

 

Does anybody else hate that Princess doesn't send any kind of cancellation notice for excursions? And why, when chatting with the Princess agents (two different times now) do I have to tell them the amount of the excursions, the dates they were booked, etc.? Do they really not have that history? 

 

[Steelers36]

57 minutes ago, no1racefan1 said:

I was really hoping I wouldn't have any issues with my excursions but it appears that is not the case. I cancelled three excursions on 9/5 and have yet to see any type of refund. Is this what other people are experiencing as well?

Juneau excursion for DH for $49.95, paid with credit card

Juneau excursion for myself for $49.95, paid with shareholder OBC

Excursion for myself for $39.95, paid with shareholder OBC

 

I actually cancelled the $39.95 by accident, so immediately rebooked it, for which it charged my credit card. I also immediately booked a different excursion for Juneau, at a higher cost, that was charged to my credit card. So no potential refunds were applied anywhere else.

 

By my calculations I am due $49.95 on my credit card and $89.90 OBC. Am I missing something?

 

Does anybody else hate that Princess doesn't send any kind of cancellation notice for excursions? And why, when chatting with the Princess agents (two different times now) do I have to tell them the amount of the excursions, the dates they were booked, etc.? Do they really not have that history? 

 

You did not explain how much OBC you had to begin with and had before making changes. 

 

As you may have read from other posts, PCL does restore original OBC balance if possible before refunding a credit card.  Also, when you cancelled the $40 excursion, it looks like you did not wait a beat for the OBC balance to be restored, so you were charged. 

 

You explained that you booked a higher cost excursion in Juneau - presumably to replace your original.  You didn't say if you canceled the original first.  If so, did you wait for the OBC to be restored?  If not, you are going to be charged again, but the cancel of the original should restore as OBC since the system will look to restore your original OBC balance before using credit card.

 

[no1racefan1]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

You did not explain how much OBC you had to begin with and had before making changes. 

 

As you may have read from other posts, PCL does restore original OBC balance if possible before refunding a credit card.  Also, when you cancelled the $40 excursion, it looks like you did not wait a beat for the OBC balance to be restored, so you were charged. 

 

You explained that you booked a higher cost excursion in Juneau - presumably to replace your original.  You didn't say if you canceled the original first.  If so, did you wait for the OBC to be restored?  If not, you are going to be charged again, but the cancel of the original should restore as OBC since the system will look to restore your original OBC balance before using credit card.

 

Thank you. I started with $100 OBC. Yes, I did cancel the original Juneau excursion before booking the new one. No, I did not wait for OBC to be restored before rebooking. Maybe this is the hangup--the system can't figure out that it needs to restore my OBC since I paid with my credit card. 

 

The second Princess rep says a refund request has been submitted and I should receive an email confirmation when the refund processes within 3-5 business days. She couldn't tell me what that would actually consist of, so we shall see! 

[no1racefan1]

It's now been 6 business days since I contacted Princess and 17 days since I cancelled excursions, and still no word and no refund of any kind. I don't really care if they refund my credit card or OBC..... but I am due a refund. The amount of work people have to go through to not be ripped off by Princess is maddening.

[NavyVeteran]

14 minutes ago, no1racefan1 said:

It's now been 6 business days since I contacted Princess and 17 days since I cancelled excursions, and still no word and no refund of any kind. I don't really care if they refund my credit card or OBC..... but I am due a refund. The amount of work people have to go through to not be ripped off by Princess is maddening.

First go into Cruise Personalizer and verify that the excursions are cancelled.

 

They do not send any notification of the refund. If they refund to your credit card, you will see it by logging into your credit card.

 

They don't actually refund the OBC, since they don't actually charge the OBC until you're onboard. They just reserve that OBC to avoid charging a credit card. You can check on the Cruise Personalizer to see if the OBC is still reserved. "MANAGE THIS BOOKING" for any current cruise booking. Start a test booking of a new excursion. Select one or more excursions for all occupants of your cabin (select enough excursions to more than use all of your OBC), and click on "ADD TO CART". Click on "PAY NOW". Below the list of excursions in your cart, click on "PAY NOW". Look at EXCURSION RESERVATIONS SUMMARY. It will show Previously Made Reservations and Previous Payments Received. You can compare the Previous Payments Received with your credit card charges to see if there are any pending credit card refunds. It will also show Onboard credits applied. This will be your current remaining balance of OBC, so you can see if all of your remaining OBC is now available.

 

Do not "Make a Payment". When you are finished reviewing the information, click "Remove" next to every one of your test excursions. SInce you did not "Make a Payment", nothing new has been charged.

[no1racefan1]

1 minute ago, NavyVeteran said:

First go into Cruise Personalizer and verify that the excursions are cancelled.

 

They do not send any notification of the refund. If they refund to your credit card, you will see it by logging into your credit card.

 

They don't actually refund the OBC, since they don't actually charge the OBC until you're onboard. They just reserve that OBC to avoid charging a credit card. You can check on the Cruise Personalizer to see if the OBC is still reserved. "MANAGE THIS BOOKING" for any current cruise booking. Start a test booking of a new excursion. Select one or more excursions for all occupants of your cabin (select enough excursions to more than use all of your OBC), and click on "ADD TO CART". Click on "PAY NOW". Below the list of excursions in your cart, click on "PAY NOW". Look at EXCURSION RESERVATIONS SUMMARY. It will show Previously Made Reservations and Previous Payments Received. You can compare the Previous Payments Received with your credit card charges to see if there are any pending credit card refunds. It will also show Onboard credits applied. This will be your current remaining balance of OBC, so you can see if all of your remaining OBC is now available.

 

Do not "Make a Payment". When you are finished reviewing the information, click "Remove" next to every one of your test excursions. SInce you did not "Make a Payment", nothing new has been charged.

Thank you, I understand all of this. I have checked my credit card statement and the current remaining balance of OBC daily. I definitely have not been refunded what I am owed.

 

The Princess agent I spoke to today told me to wait another week and I should receive an email stating that the refund has been processed (which is what the previous agent told me about this week). And then she tried to sell me an upgrade to Princess Plus! I actually put LOL in the chat. Like I'm seriously going to allow you to charge me more money when you currently OWE me money??

[no1racefan1]

On 8/16/2023 at 1:19 PM, Nidwaldner said:

I have spent over an hour going around in circles with a Princess chat agent.  I booked an excursion using up our OBC and a significant amount on my credit card. I canceled that excursion and booked a cheaper one.  It seems Princess used the credit card portion ($480 of what I should have been refunded) towards my new excursion booking instead of the OBC. The agent insists I have to go through my travel agent (Costco) to get this fixed.  This really does not make sense to me since I booked the excursion directly through Princess and was charged by Princess. Now I'm afraid, despite the agent's assurance, that my OBC won't be on my account either.  The inability to check charges and balances on your Princess account pre-cruise is maddening. And it seemed she couldn't see my excursion booking history either. Is what the agent telling me correct?

@Nidwaldner any update on whether you got your OBC back? I agree, it's maddening.

 

Update on my situation--I have received the $49.95 refund to my credit card I was owed. However, I still have not got the $89.90 back in OBC. I have spoken to four Princess agents. Some of the questions and conversations are seriously laughable because of how nonsensical they are. Like you, it seemed they can't see any kind of excursion booking history. I've had to tell them what dates I booked, what excursions I booked, what forms of payment I used, when they were cancelled... and then they say they show no history of any of it. 

 

My advice for future cruisers:

 

If you apply for shareholder OBC, take a screenshot as soon as you see it applied to your account summary. You will probably NOT receive an email stating you have it. Actually, do this for any type of OBC. The agents I've spoken to say there is no history that I ever had OBC. Unfortunately for me, I didn't screenshot it when it was there and I've since sold my CCL shares, so I can't re-request it.

 

Take a screenshot of anything, especially excursions, that you book using OBC. You will NOT get email confirmation of these excursions. I only received email confirmation for excursions I paid for with my credit card.

 

Take screenshots if you have to cancel excursions. You will NOT get emails confirming that you cancelled excursions.

 

At this point I'm pretty sure I'm not getting my shareholder OBC back, but maybe this will help other people in the future. I can't even express how ridiculous I think it is that we have to keep such detailed accounting of all of our actions because Princess doesn't seem to be able to do so. I don't think I've ever done business with such a big company that can't seem to look at any kind of account or payment history.