Payment conversion policy

[ehogan]

Just a final update on my adventure with Princess' payment conversion policy: I received a credit to my U.S. Visa for the amount that I requested (all the conversion fees associated with their converting my bill into CDN $ and then the bank re converting to USD) So, thank you to Princess for their positive response. At no time did they admit any error on their part nor was their any indication that there would be a change in their procedure, so I will be on watch on our next cruise with them to ensure this doesn't happen again.

 

If it does, I plan to let my credit card company deal with Princess directly.

[jajohnson]

If Princess really do think it's only about nickel & diming then why don't we hit them where it hurts and reduce the onboard tipping to zero. I was advised by a waiter that Princess pay them the full tip value anyway regardless of what passengers do to the tip, in this way it should hurt Princess far more. So I suggest that all non US passengers eliminate the total tip, just in case Princess decide not to honour our request for US dollar billing. :D :D :D

 

 

While I applaud the effort to change Princess's currency conversion process, I question why anyone would want to involve (read potentially hurt) innocent parties such as thew waitstaff. In my opinion, the squeeky wheel will get the grease, meaning that non-US cruisers need to put immediate pressure on Princess management to change their policy. It is hard to change corporate policy, however, especially when the percentage of cruisers here on CruiseCritic is small in comparison to the total.

[pmcrusta]

Only a suggestion. But the cooperate offices or a CEO should be written about this. None of you said you were stock holders but, maybe going the route might stop this practice or at least bring it to the attention of the individuals that have the "power" to effect change.

I do not agree with not giving tips to the crew this won't solve this problem, in my humble opinion.

[MV21]

If you settle your account in cash or you get them to manually swipe your credit card the evening before disembarkation you will only be charged US dollars

 

If you leave it till disembarkation morning they will have automatically converted it to CDN or UK or Australian etc as per your passport

 

Phil,

Are you saying that if one settles the account manually on the day before disembarkation and pays the balance up to that point by actaully signing the CC slip, then the payment will go through in US $ guaranteed?

 

If this is the case perhaps we should all adopt a dual strategy:

 

1. Attend the pursar's desk the day before disembarkation or even the day before that and settle the bill as Phil... suggests.

 

2. Allow the remainder of the account (last 2 days) to go through using the automatic system THEN if Princess does the conversion we dispute the charge with our CC company. The amount will be minimal but it will still require the same amount of time for Princess to deal with the mischarging of a few dollars!!!

 

Perhaps then they will start to take notice.

 

I have named this strategy the DOUBLE WHAMMY (perhaps we need a 'Sticky' so that when someone uses it they can add their name to the list).

 

If I am inconvenienced by having to queue up to pay my bill I will also inconvenience Princess by having to deal with a few dollars mischarged on my CC card because they are unable to follow my instructions.

 

Until this practice becomes uneconomical for them they will continue to use it.

[canadiansnowbird]

I suggest going to the pursers desk even earlier; two days into the cruise to make sure your request is honoured. I was alerted to this practice by a previous thread "Confused Canadian" last week. I also have applied for a U.S. credit card to help with this situation. :mad:

 

We cruised in Europe with RCI this last September and never had this problem; maybe they have fixed their accounting. I looked at both our ship expenses and the charges on our Canadian CC. It was only converted once by the CC.

 

Snowbird

[TCF]

There are two points to made here.

First, while it is only $20 or $40 or some other small amount, Princess is collecting that from the thousands of Canadians that purchase the Princess product each year. Add to that the conversions they do to other foreign nationals as well. Now it is not just tens of dollars...but tens of thousands of dollars...perhaps more...and it goes straight to the bottom line. Princess does not provide a service to earn that money, nor do they sell us a product for that money....for Princess it is free money. It's just wrong!

Second, two can play this game! While I oppose messing with the crew's tips....I like the idea of paying down the bill to a couple of hundred dollars on the credit card...letting Princess convert it then challenging the bill with my CC company. Someone already pointed out that it will cost Princess the same in labour to process the challenge whether it is over $200 or $2000. That is what we will do when we next sail with Princess!:D

Out of this I also have two questions.:confused:

I wonder whether Princess pays port fees, food costs, fuel costs, etc in USD or CDND when its ships are in Canadian ports like Vancouver?

I wonder what our American friends who visit Canada would be saying if companies here decided that even though the current exchange rate is at 11%<> but we decides that we would only give them say 3% <> on their money?:eek:

Tom:)