I think we were scammed by Princess

[Chefaleslie]

We have booked a 7 day RT out of Seattle on discovery at the End of August. We wanted to get my MIL booked so my wife called to see if we booked her own room, could we add someone else in her room later. The Princess Rep said yes, but we would need to book through him. So she got MIL booked, no problem, he said "hey your all platinum I've got this promotion if you pay a $1200 deposit now, I can get you a free hotel in Seattle, $100 OBC and $650 worth of premium hotel credits to use later. Sounded great, we did it for all of us because why not great deal. No the Princess Cruise planner has ghosted us. Not retuning email's not returning calls. It appears the $100 OBO is showing but shows as Future Cruise credit, and when we talked to someone else at princess, they said they don't see a promotion, or any notes about any of this in our reservation. We asked to get transferred to a manager or Lead and the person on the phone refused. Does Princess really have this bad of Customer service, we have switched to celebrity for the last 8 years and this is kind of shocking. I'm just looking for some advice from seasoned princess cruisers. 

[skynight]

Maybe not scammed in the actual sense, but very questionable marketing. It's not Princess, but a contractor they have working for them to sell. There are entire postings about just this. Lesson. Book through a reputable T.A. and avoid these people.

[doghog]

7 minutes ago, Chefaleslie said:

We have booked a 7 day RT out of Seattle on discovery at the End of August. We wanted to get my MIL booked so my wife called to see if we booked her own room, could we add someone else in her room later. The Princess Rep said yes, but we would need to book through him. So she got MIL booked, no problem, he said "hey your all platinum I've got this promotion if you pay a $1200 deposit now, I can get you a free hotel in Seattle, $100 OBC and $650 worth of premium hotel credits to use later. Sounded great, we did it for all of us because why not great deal. No the Princess Cruise planner has ghosted us. Not retuning email's not returning calls. It appears the $100 OBO is showing but shows as Future Cruise credit, and when we talked to someone else at princess, they said they don't see a promotion, or any notes about any of this in our reservation. We asked to get transferred to a manager or Lead and the person on the phone refused. Does Princess really have this bad of Customer service, we have switched to celebrity for the last 8 years and this is kind of shocking. I'm just looking for some advice from seasoned princess cruisers. 

Check out this thread.

 

 

[negn]

Can you cancel this?   Maybe dispute charge with credit card?  

[ldubs]

Just to understand, you paid a $1200 deposit towards your August cruise fare?  Was that per person?  I assume that is more than the minimum deposit required.   In return you received a $100 future cruise credit.  You didn't receive the promised hotel comps.  

 

The approach the rep used is shady.   That they would not transfer you to a supervisor to discuss the problem is even worse.   

 

I just hope you are not out of pocket, meaning the $1200 goes towards the fare.  

 

 

[ldubs]

10 minutes ago, skynight said:

Maybe not scammed in the actual sense, but very questionable marketing. It's not Princess, but a contractor they have working for them to sell. There are entire postings about just this. Lesson. Book through a reputable T.A. and avoid these people.

 

Maybe trickery is a better word.      

[JimmyVWine]

If the deposit money that you paid did in fact go toward the price of the cruise, then you weren't "scammed".  Misled perhaps, and treated very poorly.  Since you had to pay for the cruise in any event, whether you paid the $1,200 now, or $1,200 two months from now doesn't really matter (unless your investment return on $1,200 over the course of two months is way more than mine! 😎)  So if you did not bite on this offer, you would have paid $1,200 and received nothing in return (other than the cruise which you were getting anyway.)  By paying the $1,200 now, you might be getting a free hotel, OBC and some hotel vouchers to use in the future.  If you get none of these, you are no better or worse off then you were before.  You just paid the $1,200 toward your cruise sooner than perhaps you wanted to.  If you get the OBC, then you got a little something for nothing.  If the OBC turns out to be a FCC, then again, you got a little something for nothing.  I'd be upset at the way you were treated, but I wouldn't lose any sleep over the financial outcome of the transaction, again, if the money you paid actually went to offset the balance of what you owe for your cruise.  I trust that you checked your Personalizer to make sure that this has in fact happened.  Payments made show up in the Personalizer instantly.  

[Chefaleslie]

22 minutes ago, ldubs said:

Just to understand, you paid a $1200 deposit towards your August cruise fare?  Was that per person?  I assume that is more than the minimum deposit required.   In return you received a $100 future cruise credit.  You didn't receive the promised hotel comps.  

 

The approach the rep used is shady.   That they would not transfer you to a supervisor to discuss the problem is even worse.   

 

I just hope you are not out of pocket, meaning the $1200 goes towards the fare.  

 

 

Yes, this $1200 went to our cruise, so that is fine but i'm not comfortable with being bamboozled into a "promotion" without actually getting anything. I'm assuming it was so they could transfer our self booked cruise to themselves for profit.  

[Chefaleslie]

7 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

If the deposit money that you paid did in fact go toward the price of the cruise, then you weren't "scammed".  Misled perhaps, and treated very poorly.  Since you had to pay for the cruise in any event, whether you paid the $1,200 now, or $1,200 two months from now doesn't really matter (unless your investment return on $1,200 over the course of two months is way more than mine! 😎)  So if you did not bite on this offer, you would have paid $1,200 and received nothing in return (other than the cruise which you were getting anyway.)  By paying the $1,200 now, you might be getting a free hotel, OBC and some hotel vouchers to use in the future.  If you get none of these, you are no better or worse off then you were before.  You just paid the $1,200 toward your cruise sooner than perhaps you wanted to.  If you get the OBC, then you got a little something for nothing.  If the OBC turns out to be a FCC, then again, you got a little something for nothing.  I'd be upset at the way you were treated, but I wouldn't lose any sleep over the financial outcome of the transaction, again, if the money you paid actually went to offset the balance of what you owe for your cruise.  I trust that you checked your Personalizer to make sure that this has in fact happened.  Payments made show up in the Personalizer instantly.  

You are correct, I was going to pay the $1200 one way or another, because we are going on the cruise, so a $100 OBC is not a bad ROI for 30 days. it's that we were being sold something that does not exist. For any company to do this I would be up in arms, I guess I expect something better from such a large company, they need to have some systems and controls that don't appear to exist currently. We normally just book on the internets, and don't speak to anyone, lesson learned, I guess. I was just wondering if someone else had an experience like this and found a good resolution. The money we paid took 5 days to show up in our personalizer, it's just been a weird experience with shady characters, and unhelpful representatives. Mabey I should set my expectations lower.  

[Chefaleslie]

24 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

Maybe trickery is a better word.      

I still feel like I was scammed, I was sold something that does not exist. I would have chosen to not transfer my reservation to them if this wasn't presented as it was. If I was at a grocery store and a checker did this, I would call it a scam. It's all in how we look at it, just because I get a part of what was promised, and they didn't steal my money makes it no less of a scam. 

[dog]

Do you have a receipt? Paperwork with the promotion- hotel information.

 

i am sorry this happened. I had to contact Princess customer service to have a CVP and these promotions people blocked.  I no longer take calls from them nor answer their emails.

The Future cruise staff sept on the ships are also involved in this sort of thing.

 

[ldubs]

8 minutes ago, Chefaleslie said:

I still feel like I was scammed, I was sold something that does not exist. I would have chosen to not transfer my reservation to them if this wasn't presented as it was. If I was at a grocery store and a checker did this, I would call it a scam. It's all in how we look at it, just because I get a part of what was promised, and they didn't steal my money makes it no less of a scam. 

 

Well, I'm not really that hung up on which word, so yeah,  if they trick you into doing something it is a scam.  As irritating as it is, I'm just glad you didn't lose any money.  

 

[ldubs]

7 minutes ago, dog said:

Do you have a receipt? Paperwork with the promotion- hotel information.

 

i am sorry this happened. I had to contact Princess customer service to have a CVP and these promotions people blocked.  I no longer take calls from them nor answer their emails.

The Future cruise staff sept on the ships are also involved in this sort of thing.

 

 

Who are the promotion people and more important, how do I identify them?  Sounds like if offered an unsolicited "deal" we should put our hands on our wallets.  

[memoak]

That was not a CVP but the ONE marketers. I only go through my personal  CVP and stay away from these jokers who also run the future cruise department on board ships

[dog]

2 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

Who are the promotion people and more important, how do I identify them?  Sounds like if offered an unsolicited "deal" we should put our hands on our wallets.  

Future Cruise Dept staff are selling these promotions packages on the ships.  See thread with link above- ONE- is the company who now deal with our loyalty program.

 

[Chefaleslie]

3 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

Who are the promotion people and more important, how do I identify them?  Sounds like if offered an unsolicited "deal" we should put our hands on our wallets.  

I guess, we felt safe by calling the princess 1800# and talking to the cruise planner they assigned us, they even have @princesscruises.com  email address. How can we trust anyone in princess if it's their system that is set up like this. 

[ldubs]

3 minutes ago, Chefaleslie said:

I guess, we felt safe by calling the princess 1800# and talking to the cruise planner they assigned us, they even have @princesscruises.com  email address. How can we trust anyone in princess if it's their system that is set up like this. 

 

Yeah, it is a shame.  I cannot imagine Princess really wants this image.  Hopefully sharing these instances will result in some corrective actions.  

 

Not so long ago I had a guy offering these terrific travel perks (not a cruise).  I asked where I could review the details online.  He said they just do it all by phone. That is when I hung up.  I also raised heck with the business that gave my number to that guy.  

Edited May 24 by ldubs

[Sprocket]

Try sending Princess a message through Instagram requesting someone contact you ASAP.  Also calls to Princess  are recorded so depending on who you get they may listen to it to determine what happened.

 

I fought to have a booking corrected was told constantly my issue was escalated to a manager, one message through Instagram and it was fixed in a matter of days.  

[Chefaleslie]

44 minutes ago, Sprocket said:

Try sending Princess a message through Instagram requesting someone contact you ASAP.  Also calls to Princess  are recorded so depending on who you get they may listen to it to determine what happened.

 

I fought to have a booking corrected was told constantly my issue was escalated to a manager, one message through Instagram and it was fixed in a matter of days.  

Thank you, I will try this. 

[dog]

1 hour ago, Chefaleslie said:

I guess, we felt safe by calling the princess 1800# and talking to the cruise planner they assigned us, they even have @princesscruises.com  email address. How can we trust anyone in princess if it's their system that is set up like this. 

I actually had a CVP whom I never dealt with, try to transfer my online booking to her.

And she also put a cruise on hold that I did not want-I just noticed it in my Personalizer.

 

I know some have had wonderful experiences with CVP s but the 2 that were bothering me, were not.

[memoak]

1 minute ago, dog said:

I actually had a CVP whom I never dealt with, try to transfer my online booking to her.

And she also put a cruise on hold that I did not want-I just noticed it in my Personalizer.

 

I know some have had wonderful experiences with CVP s but the 2 that were bothering me, were not.

My current CVP was referred to me by my original one when they were promoted many years ago. Nothing but really good experiences 

[JordanF]

I am pretty sure that the Oregon Attorney General has a consumer protection unit where you can make a complaint (probably online) and say that you want your hotel credits as a remedy.  Most consumer protection laws (I don't know about Oregon) declare something a problem when a business uses "unfair and deceptive" practices.  It does not have to be outright stealing--so even though your money got put towards your cruise and you got the OBC, they still got you to pay this money by promising you something they did not deliver.  Don't worry about if you were talking to a contractor or Princess employee--that is their problem.  There is no guarantee this will work, but most business' like this one do not want to get sideways with an Attorney General. My own opinion is that cruise lines have such an wonderful product--it is a shame they sully it with these shifty practices.

Edited May 24 by JordanF
Correction

[that]

@dog

 

may I ask

 

these two CVPs…

did they work for Princess Promotions

or

were

they thru

Princess Vacation Planners 800-901-1172

with a five digit extension?

Edited May 24 by that

[Chefaleslie]

7 minutes ago, that said:

@dog

 

may I ask

 

these two CVPs…

did they work for Princess Promotions

or

were

they thru

Princess Vacation Planners 800-901-1172

with a five digit extension?

The one has an extension, the other we spoke with yesterday that would not transfer us to a manager was just from the princess phone #. 

[startedwithamouse]

2 hours ago, Chefaleslie said:

if we booked her own room, could we add someone else in her room later. The Princess Rep said yes, but we would need to book through him.

Did she pay a solo supplement for her room?  Did they put another name (placeholder) for the second guest in the cabin? If not, when you go to add another guest, there may not be room. This has nothing to do with berths in the cabin, but room available on the ship.