Email this morning

[mlainfl]

We received an email this morning threatening to cancel our Dec 19 cruise unless we paid more money.  We have a paid in full invoice an.d have completed online check inI was on hold for 25 minutes trying to speak to a rep before the call dropped or was dropped.  

I think it may be a scam, but cant ignore it.

Question....anybody else get the same threat?

[micruiser2002]

1 minute ago, mlainfl said:

We received an email this morning threatening to cancel our Dec 19 cruise unless we paid more money.  We have a paid in full invoice an.d have completed online check inI was on hold for 25 minutes trying to speak to a rep before the call dropped or was dropped.  

I think it may be a scam, but cant ignore it.

Question....anybody else get the same threat?

Have you gone online and look at your booking?  I have heard of people sometimes having issues with their paid in full bookings suddenly showing a balance.  I would call back.

[Lena11033]

I would call back and get it checked because others have reported glitches that said they owed money.

 

If it was a scam 1 don't click on anything from the email but 2 the phone call directly to Celebrity would sort everything out.

[mlainfl]

1 minute ago, micruiser2002 said:

Have you gone online and look at your booking?  I have heard of people sometimes having issues with their paid in full bookings suddenly showing a balance.  I would call back.

On hold AGAIN.   🙂

[mlainfl]

2 minutes ago, Lena11033 said:

I would call back and get it checked because others have reported glitches that said they owed money.

 

If it was a scam 1 don't click on anything from the email but 2 the phone call directly to Celebrity would sort everything out.

 

On hold AGAIN.

[mayleeman]

3 hours ago, mlainfl said:

We received an email this morning threatening to cancel our Dec 19 cruise unless we paid more money.  We have a paid in full invoice an.d have completed online check inI was on hold for 25 minutes trying to speak to a rep before the call dropped or was dropped.  

I think it may be a scam, but cant ignore it.

Question....anybody else get the same threat?

 

Others have had this problem:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2971444-we-paid-in-full-and-i-logged-into-my-account-and-it-says-we-owe-6000-ceo-email-plz/

 

[mrgabriel]

7 hours ago, mlainfl said:

 

On hold AGAIN.

 

Did you check your booking online? When we had the same problem I could see the amount owing in our account. It was cleared up with a phone call. And for some reason, I was able to enter our phone number and get a phone call back. Weird that they don't seem to be offering that right now. 

[LB_NJ]

8 hours ago, micruiser2002 said:

Have you gone online and look at your booking?  I have heard of people sometimes having issues with their paid in full bookings suddenly showing a balance.  I would call back.

I had this problem and had to call.

 

In my case I had cancelled an excursion and finally some months later they actually refunded the money however for some reason only known to their IT department they deducted it from my cruise payments and showed a balance due.

 

It took about 45 minutes after I got through for them to fix it.

[Cruise till you drop]

10 hours ago, mlainfl said:

We received an email this morning threatening to cancel our Dec 19 cruise unless we paid more money.  We have a paid in full invoice an.d have completed online check inI was on hold for 25 minutes trying to speak to a rep before the call dropped or was dropped.  

I think it may be a scam, but cant ignore it.

Question....anybody else get the same threat?

Sounds like a scam but better to check it out.  Did they provide a number to call or did you call a more official and reliable number ?

[micruiser2002]

3 hours ago, Cruise till you drop said:

Sounds like a scam but better to check it out.  Did they provide a number to call or did you call a more official and reliable number ?

It is not a scam it is typical CCL IT at work again.  A lot of people have reported the same issue before.  It can be due to a cruise planner purchase or just a mess up.

[MandL]

13 minutes ago, micruiser2002 said:

It is not a scam it is typical CCL IT at work again.  A lot of people have reported the same issue before.  It can be due to a cruise planner purchase or just a mess up.

So, what happened?  Did Celebrity fix it?  Did I miss the answer?

[LandLockedInAZ2]

So, something similar seems to have happened to me. I just booked about 12 hours ago, received the email with attachment showing my invoice and proper amount that I agreed to, but as I've been poking around trying to sort out details, it is now showing online that I owe about 2.5X what the emailed invoice says. 
I tried calling at 9:50 MST and went through some prompts only to be told they were closed and that the hours are open until 2 am (in what time zone? Because if it's ET, it was only approaching midnight at that point). 
I'm not terribly anxious about it since I have the email invoice, but I'd like to not spend more time on the phone trying to sort out the issues than actually being on this cruise. 
I hope they get their problems fixed soon! For this first-time Celebrity cruiser, this has not been an impressive start. 

[Arizona Wildcat]

15 hours ago, mlainfl said:

 

On hold AGAIN.

The reason I use a TA or transfer my booking to her.

[zgscl]

59 minutes ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

The reason I use a TA or transfer my booking to her.

I was just going to say this is a fabulous reason to use a TA (at least a good TA). You never have to wait on hold. A quick call or email will solve it 

[mlainfl]

For all of you waiting to hear what happened...it's fixed and it was a Celebrity IT issue.

deep background:   After 43 cruises I decided to book this one myself online.  What could go wrong?????

It was also the first time I've used  insurance.  We generally have annual insurance, but due to upcoming surgery that will ground me for about three months, use the Celebrity insurance, it's easy, right?

The cancellation threat came from their computer deciding I couldn't buy insurance after they had already charged me for it in the original paid in full invoice.  Why cancel it?  "We can't sell travel insurance to people who live in New York."  I don't live in New York!  So after they canceled the insurance and sent a refund to my credit card, they decided to notice in live in Florida, then they decided to reinstate the insurance then they decided to threaten cancellation for non payment.  This was done completely on their own.  No one checked with me.  It took me 2.5 hours on hold  and then calling on another phone and using the phone option to buy an excursion to get to someone in resolutions to figure it out and finally get an apology for the screw up.

Lesson learned.  No more DIY! 

And if you have a problem, act like you're going to buy something else to avoid hours on hold!

[mayleeman]

2 hours ago, mlainfl said:

And if you have a problem, act like you're going to buy something else to avoid hours on hold!

 

Ah, reminders of dealing with the cable company. Always choose "New service" menu option, not the "Cancel service" one.

[HUNKY]

Had the same problem.  Booked and paid in full.  Received email showing a zero balance.  A day later an email stating I owed $1,950.  Quick call on the following Monday, some time on hold as the Celebrity CSR took care of the glitch, and a second email showing a zero balance.  I just put my phone on speaker and do some chores while I wait. 

[Denny01]

I just wait for my TA to tell me how they fixed it.

 

 

Den

[wineoclock]

We had this on our cruise in June. I find it really frustrating as it’s clearly an IT issue. 

[SusieAV8R]

13 hours ago, mlainfl said:

For all of you waiting to hear what happened...it's fixed and it was a Celebrity IT issue.

deep background:   After 43 cruises I decided to book this one myself online.  What could go wrong?????

It was also the first time I've used  insurance.  We generally have annual insurance, but due to upcoming surgery that will ground me for about three months, use the Celebrity insurance, it's easy, right?

The cancellation threat came from their computer deciding I couldn't buy insurance after they had already charged me for it in the original paid in full invoice.  Why cancel it?  "We can't sell travel insurance to people who live in New York."  I don't live in New York!  So after they canceled the insurance and sent a refund to my credit card, they decided to notice in live in Florida, then they decided to reinstate the insurance then they decided to threaten cancellation for non payment.  This was done completely on their own.  No one checked with me.  It took me 2.5 hours on hold  and then calling on another phone and using the phone option to buy an excursion to get to someone in resolutions to figure it out and finally get an apology for the screw up.

Lesson learned.  No more DIY! 

And if you have a problem, act like you're going to buy something else to avoid hours on hold!

to avoid common complaints about X and their offerings, I book our air travel, insurance and excursions with independent companies.  Never had a problem!!😃

[jelayne]

20 hours ago, zgscl said:

I was just going to say this is a fabulous reason to use a TA (at least a good TA). You never have to wait on hold. A quick call or email will solve it 

But then they would lose control of their reservation and be deprived of the joy of sitting pm hold to get a problem corrected.😂

[zgscl]

34 minutes ago, jelayne said:

But then they would lose control of their reservation and be deprived of the joy of sitting pm hold to get a problem corrected.😂

I am available for $50 an hour if anyone wants to call and then I’ll place them on hold with obnoxious music 😂. 
 

I will say I usually do my own air

[Cruise till you drop]

We have found that most cruise companies systems are terrible.  In our experience, have had nightmares with Princess and Carnival but never Celebrity as yet.

[mayleeman]

Again with the comments denigrating DIYers. Yes, we know you like TAs, but there have been many posts about TAs who are unavailable in urgent situations, and others who have royally screwed up bookings. The response is always, "Well, you have to find a GOOD TA!" but that's not so easy if you only cruise a couple times. Recommendations aren't allowed here, and one person's great experiences do not mean mine will match it.

 

I'd rather take responsibility for my own, and be able to resolve problems. As a retired lawyer, maybe that is less stressful for me to tackle than for some, and I certainly have the time.

 

I just wish the snide comments would stop every time someone talks about any issues in solving things.

 

Edited November 19, 2023 by mayleeman

[Boston lab girl]

We had this same thing. We were in the apex ta and got and email saying we owed money on our upcoming Jan cruise. We knew the final payment was due while on the TA so we paid the balance before we left. Got an invoice from our travel agent all paid. Since we couldn’t call our travel agent decided to pay it and worry about when we got home. Tried clicking a link and said we couldn’t pay. Texted our son and told him he would have to call our travel agent and pay it. Tried emailing our travel agent but she usually doesn’t work on Sunday. Got and email right back saying our travel agency had a glitch and not to pay it. Judging by the amount they wanted I think instead of paying our travel agent her commission they sent out a bill to the client. So celebrity isn’t the only one who can mess up. Just think when AI takes over and we only deal with computer what it’s going to be like.