Was Noordam Pricing Error Now Rotterdam Pricing Error!

[kryos]

HAL has a software problem and/or a problem with data input. Either way, they need to get this situation straightened out. Internally, you would think there should be some accountability. First, with the vendor who developed and installed the software, and second, with the employees or vendor putting in the data.

Sounds to me, though, that this isn't a case of the software not acting properly. It's a case of an employee who put the discount amount in twice. Garbage in, garbage out. The software worked fine.

 

In this case, though, it would seem that there should be a set of checks and balances ... someone checking an employee's input to ensure it is correct. That didn't happen in this case and hence the problem. I still say HAL should eat it, though.

 

People ask when is a price too good to be true. I say that is when it is ridiculously low ... for example, say a seven-day cruise on a HAL ship for $199 pp. That would obviously be too low and one should realize it is an error before they even book it. In a case like that I say that of course the cruise line could not be bashed for correcting it and requiring people who booked at that rate to either pay the difference or receive a full refund. Sure, it would be better if they ate it ... as a matter of public relations ... but one could still not blame the cruise line for refusing to.

 

But when a cruise is just steeply discounted, but still within ballpark range of other similar cruises ... how on earth can one definitely say it is an error? I say that if someone books it at those reasonably discounted rates, then the cruise line has an obligation to honor them and then fix whatever internal problem caused those erroneous rates to be offered in the first place.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

 

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[amusea]

I booked my 64 day cruise departing Sept. 2007 about six months ago. At that time I had to purchase insurance so that pre-existing would be waived. The cost was over $1000. per person. If there was a substantial price increase and I wanted to cancel I would be out the cost of the insurance so that is another factor to consider.

[mechcc]

Love HAL, but thought the Noordam fiasco was handled badly by HAL and now another pricing problem? Something needs to get fixed and fixed soon. To many other options in cruising to put up with a company whose pricing can't be depended on.

[hammybee]

I am not doubting the OP but thus far this seems to be an isolated instance. If others were impacted, we will soon hear from them.

[Cloud9 Bob]

I may be old school, but I feel that if a huge company faxes a confirmed quote to a TA, then they ought to honor it and eat the difference. The negative word of mouth spread by such actions IMHO far outweighs the small monetary benefit.

[Karen112999]

I want to first clarify that we really don't know what happened here by the TA or HAL. Only one person posting a problem at this point so I feel for this one person, but we don't know the details.

 

I was quite dissappointed in HAL's response to the Noordam incident, and quite happy to see that it did receive nationwide coverage. I love HAL, its crew and ships and has NO reflection on them. However, HAL is a company and all parts of the company must meet expectations. And if this incident does turn out to the the same type of mistake - there is absolutely no excuse for it. In fact, I will go far enough to say that it should be investigated by higher authorities.

 

And per HAL, the Noordam incident was picked up 3 days after it happened and faxes were sent to all TA's the afternoon of the 3rd day. I have no idea what took six weeks for the notification to start. That has never been explained.

 

The Noordam was not a 1 person data entry mistake. It was a software error - whether written by HAL employees or a third party vendor was never released.

 

Sorry OP that you have to go through this. But I do hope that this is just an isolated mistake and HAL makes good by it.

 

Karen

 

Karen

[bdcbbq]

 

The Noordam was not a 1 person data entry mistake. It was a software error - whether written by HAL employees or a third party vendor was never released.

 

 

Bad situation, but blame it completely on human error. Computers don't make errors, they do exactly what they are told. If it accepted a reservation, it's because someone told it that it was OK to take a reservation at that time. Now, the identity of that "someone" is a mystery.

[jtl513]

Computers don't make errors, they do exactly what they are told.

 

Properly maintained computers with properly debugged software don't make errors, but in 40 years "in the business" I've seen plenty of errors that were not of the "garbage in" type. Of course, failure to maintain hardware or debug software are "human errors" too! :D

[Scrumpy]

I went though a major installation with financial software for a major firm and can say without question that even the most widely used and respected software (SAP) can have glitches and do weird things, especially when those responsible are not on the ball. Our upgrade took over 18 months and they were still correcting issues for nearly another year afterwards; this was after the test system was supposedly onling and fully operational. DH is a financial software consultant (Oracle) and it only takes ONE person making ONE error to cause headaches. He recently spent nearly two days here at home correcting one SMALL error that ended up affecting several hundred files and processes. It may be human error in that any installation, upgrade or customization was done improperly OR it may be a plain old data input error - or a combination of both caused by someone who didn't properly train personnel on the new system. Major installations and upgrades for large companies often take at least a year in our experience, sometimes 2 years, and there always seem to be one or two people on a project who are not 100% competent - or so incompetent that others are left wondering how on earth they got hired in the first place.

 

It is nearly always some kind of human error, but at this point, it isn't really relevant. What is relevant is that cruisers are impacted and a major corporation with resources has not stepped up to take care of their customers.

[james j feller]

JEMIMA and DAKREWSER and others,

 

Sorry it took so long to get back to you as i was on the phone THURSDAY talking to my TA and HAL.

 

First HAL sent a flyer advertising a 43 day cruise from CHILE to GREECE $4399 - outside cat.

 

My TA said they had a group going on this cruise from other agencies (all these agencies belong to a large main travel agency) and that i would save even more. We are not personally sailing with this group.

 

My TA got a fax with the price on the cruise etc., he thought it seem low, so called HAL and they told him that that is the correct price and they would send him another fax confirming that price, he got the 2nd fax and of course it was the same price so he called me and i booked it.

 

The fax was broke down into two legs so to speak, 1st leg from CHILE to RIO and the 2nd from RIO to ATHENS. Two different prices on the fax one for each leg and we added hotel and air on that.

 

First leg was 16 days and the second was 27 days.

 

When i called HAL and talked to a supervisor they said they double discounted it and that's the way it goes, computer error, i said somebody put the info in so it's human error.

 

My TA got a hold of the HAL rep. and he was shocked about this. he said that they thought they had this behind them with the NOORDAM incident but apparently not, so he is getting a hold of SEATTLE to find out what is going on.

 

My TA is also contacting the other agencies involved and see if any body else has had any problems.

 

 

JIM

[Fatfish]

Jim...Just to make sure that I understand this is that the price offered was $4199 pp for outside and then HAL raised to price to what?.... I just did some checking online and an outside can be had for a few $$ less than $4199 ( inc all taxes) + $100 cabin credit and dinner at Pinnacle 1 time.......Jeff

[james j feller]

JEFF,

 

Where did you see that offer?

 

We got a lower price than that for a D cat. cabin and that is what this is about, HAL won't honor the lower price even after sending my TA with 2 faxs stating the same price they want more money.

 

JIM

[Fatfish]

Jim..this was a cat hh for 2nd leg and cat f for 1st leg..but wasn't much more for other cat's... you can email me if you want the name of agency..it's big one.

 

fatfishjeff @ gmail dot com

[james j feller]

JEFF,

 

Thanks anyway but i have to stick with my TA.

 

JIM

[clm101798]

Jim, If Jeff's TA is offering the same thing at basically the same price as your TA, maybe your TA can use that as leverage to get HAL to honor the price quoted to you?

[ekerr19]

I guess I am not following this... cabins can still be had at the discounted price of $4199, yet HAL won't honor a quote for that price? :confused:

I don't think this sounds like the software problem that occured with the Noordam either. It sounds to me like someone added the discount to both legs of the cruise when it was only eligible for one discount on the combined sailing.

If the OP's TA has a specific HAL rep they work with (mine does) the issue should be easily resolved. My TA would simply tell her HAL counterpart, (I think they are in the inventory department, or something like that) that the price quoted must be honored. I can't see where they could even justify changing it after it was quoted and deposited. :(

I still feel like we are missing part of the information here.

Jim, Are you sure your TA didn't tell you the wrong price or misunderstand the fax from HAL? If it's truly HAL's error, your TA should go to bat for the quoted price.

[4748]

We are just home from a 15 day on the Rotterdam which we bought from HAL directly. The HAL email ad quoted the price incorrectly. It was low by several thousand dollars which is a big error. I expected them to weasel out but they did not.They sent out a corrected email ad in a hurry tho.

[happy cruzer]

I just noticed the following guarantee on on the website of one of the online TA's that advertise on CC

xxxxxx.com guarantees the price you pay for your cruise will not increase after your booking has been confirmed.

If I had a booking with an agent that posts that guarantee, I think I would make them work this issue out.

[parrothead0918]

Dw and I have been looking to branch out and try different lines. Checked off Carnival. We were looking to book HAL at end of next year. Not now. I do not need this headache. In my business we consider a one time problem a blip...but it happening again is called a trend. It is too bad because our friends speak highly of HAL, and I am sure the cruise experience is excellent, but the pre-cruise experience discussed here does not.

I wonder what each of your state's Deparftment of Consumer Affairs would say about this failure to honor advertised, accepted and confirmed prices/reservations. Even though passage is a license granted by the company, there seems to be a pattern here that consumers should be protected from.

[jvermonttravel]

I don't know what the other 49 states' Attorney General's Offices - Department of Consumer Affairs would do about this, but I can assure you the Washington State Attorney General's Office has no issue with HAL doing this. Don't waste any time or effort with them.

In my case, in the September Noordam pricing error, they refused to honor my paid and confirmed booking; then after talking with HAL about this one of their supervisors did agree to honor the booking and rate and sent a confirmation (saying they were dealing with these on a case by case basis). Then HAL later canceled that booking number, assigned me a new booking number and attached a payment due - no longer honoring what their own supervisor had guaranteed. So, they applied their "we have the right to refuse to accept any booking....." twice on what was really the same booking, by flim flamming with the booking number in order to justify the increased charge. The Attorney General's Office saw no problem with that either!

[iamtrustworthy]

[quote name='amusea'][FONT=Comic Sans MS]I booked my 64 day cruise departing Sept. 2007 about six months ago. At that time I had to purchase insurance so that pre-existing would be waived. The cost was over $1000. per person. If there was a substantial price increase and I wanted to cancel I would be out the cost of the insurance so that is another factor to consider.[/FONT][/quote]

I don't know what travel insurance plan you have, but all the companies we work with will let you change the dates of coverage on your travel insurance to apply to a different trip.

That way you don't forfeit the money you paid should you change your travel plans. In addition, if your trip costs are lower, you can also decrease your covered amount. Either shortening your trip's length and / or lowering your trip costs will cause you to get a refund from the travel insurance company.

If you tell me which plan you have, I can tell you if you can change it & how you'd go about making the change.

[james j feller]

STEVE,

If you have insurance through the cruise lines you are out of luck at least with HAL.

JIM

[jhannah]

Too bad. Just one more reason to not take insurance through the cruise line, IMO.

[Randyk47]

I only once got insurance through HAL. It wasn't a problem as we went on the cruise and didn't use the insurance but later on I got to thinking that this was a bit like the "fox guarding the henhouse". Not saying that HAL is or would have been difficult about a claim but I get our insurance from an independent provider now.

[xpcdoojk]

[quote name='james j feller']STEVE,

If you have insurance through the cruise lines you are out of luck at least with HAL.

JIM[/quote]

So, if you buy car insurance and crash your car, they give you the money for your premium back. :confused:

This just keeps getting further away from reality everytime I take a moment to read this thread.

jc