Keep watch of your daily bill

[bedfordmom]

Recently on the Dawn 4/20 and I caught an unauthorized drink charge on my bill as I would check my account every other day. At first the pursuer argued with me that they never make mistakes. When I pointed out that we were not even on the ship at the time of the charge (we were off in Bermuda); he angrily pulled the original slip and said isn't this your husband Michelle xxxxx, (it had my room number on it). I said that my husband's name is Michael xxxx and not Michele and the last name wasn't even close and that his servers needed to verify room number with last name; only then did he take it off. So buyer (or NCL passenger) beware; don't be afraid to question those charges.

[Gram Cape Cod]

Recently on the Dawn 4/20 and I caught an unauthorized drink charge on my bill as I would check my account every other day. At first the pursuer argued with me that they never make mistakes. When I pointed out that we were not even on the ship at the time of the charge (we were off in Bermuda); he angrily pulled the original slip and said isn't this your husband Michelle xxxxx, (it had my room number on it). I said that my husband's name is Michael xxxx and not Michele and the last name wasn't even close and that his servers needed to verify room number with last name; only then did he take it off. So buyer (or NCL passenger) beware; don't be afraid to question those charges.

I always check my account every couple of days. On one cruise I had several charges that ended up being charged by an employee!:eek:

[retiredonthesea]

We always check our charges every couple of days as it's alot easier to deal with it at the time then the last day when everyone else is trying to take care of their misfortunes. It always amazes me that people will wait tell the end of the cruise to sort things out. The customer service reps are more relaxed during the week than at the end!;)

 

Retiredonthesea

[Sparkylok6]

How does something like this happen? I thought that they swiped our cards when we made purchases for beverages. Not good if this is a regular occurance....and something tells me it is :( . My goodness they could be doing some serious damage and unknowing passengers are taking the brunt of it.

 

Glad you got your straightened out.

[suometar]

Also be sure to check your credit card bill. We were on the March 23-29 Gem cruise. In addition to our on board charges (which were correct), there was a charge that was made in April, when we were not even on the ship.

[A.S.]

The same thing happened to us on the 4/18 Dawn Cruise to Nowhere.

 

There was an extra charge of $52.04. We were able to spot it because we are not big drinkers.

 

We went to the desk and the fellow disappeared for a long time and came back and told us it was cleared up, even producing a new sheet with the charge gone. He told us someone on the ship had the same name as us.

 

Well, upon checking our credit card account at home we noticed that we were charged it anyway. So just because they tell you they have adjusted it, does not mean they have.

 

We haved called NCL and they are in the process of investigating it. What the heck is going on? How can anyone charge without your card????

[Philly Steve]

So buyer (or NCL passenger) beware; don't be afraid to question those charges.

 

Thank you for the heads up! Frequent inspection of charges is a very good idea.

[pixiedustdawn]

That is why I wish (and put in my comments to NCL) they should have easy access to accounts from the television. Just like some hotels have it. That way when in your room, you could always turn on the t.v. and check daily expenses. (It would be better then watching the same shows over and over again. lol)

Dawn

[DeltaOne]

Recently on the Dawn 4/20 and I caught an unauthorized drink charge on my bill as I would check my account every other day.

We keep each receipt and ask for a print-out of our bill every other day. Easier to check as you go along than waiting until the last day. We've been lucky, haven't yet found an unauthorized charge on our bill.

[TonyFred]

Just off the Star a couple of weeks ago...I travel with my best friend. He likes to order a bottle of wine each day to drink in the room and on the balcony. I dont even drink wine. On 4 different occassions, the wine he ordered was put on my shipboard account. He was very clear when he ordered the wine as to which account it should be charged to. But luckily I check my account daily and each time we had to fill out a form to get the charges moved from my account to his. We did this at the reception desk. So YES, check your account frequently and closely.

[packercruising]

We have had that same experience. Mistakes happen but they fix them.

[leela14]

My only two previous cruises were on RCCL and we checked our charges on the TV every day, I just assumed all cruise lines have this, but it sounds like NCL doesn't - which is kinda sad.

 

Anyway - how do you check then??

 

As well, RCCL had a channel that showed where the ship was with different views and the weather for the upcoming ports and stuff (GPS) that was really cool - does NCL have anything like that?

[Toyz711]

yes, NCL has a GPS channel...

you can go to the customer service desk and ask for a print-out of your charges. if your family has separate accounts, check each one.

[Tobintemp]

Just off of the Star and we had some duplicate charges that reception was able to check on and fix.

 

We ended up with a slight credit after everything was fixed up and our sea bucks were applied. They advised the crditd would be refunded to our credit card.

 

Well we have not checked our credit card statement and the supposed credit has gone through as a charge! It was for under $10 so not a huge deal, but how does their accounting department ever reconcile!

[terrymtex01]

I don't understand how that is possible? Not saying I doubt for one minute what you guys have posted here.. but how are people charging drinks to your stateroom without your key card? Are bartenders allowed to just ask for a stateroom number?

[Tobintemp]

I don't understand how that is possible? Not saying I doubt for one minute what you guys have posted here.. but how are people charging drinks to your stateroom without your key card? Are bartenders allowed to just ask for a stateroom number?

 

In our case we added an additional tip (which I have learned to only do by cash in the future). Our original charge was on there, then a second charge for the same drink plus the additional tip we added.

[packercruising]

DW does the accounting and this is what she said. The one charge we did have that we disputed they were having computer problems. It did turn out to be a correct charge.

[cruise4kicks]

I don't understand how that is possible? Not saying I doubt for one minute what you guys have posted here.. but how are people charging drinks to your stateroom without your key card? Are bartenders allowed to just ask for a stateroom number?

The electronic system is not always "up" or available (e.g., they have to hand-write tickets on GSC) -- key punch errors happen. That was the explanation both times I had phantom charges on our account, on two different NCL cruises. The charges should actually have gone to someone with a very similar cabin number, but whoever punched in the charges transposed numbers.

 

Yes, do make sure to check your charges. ;)

[ZoneHPH]

there are times when you use the hand written bills when ordering drinks. you can see lots of this during the sail away party. they have the written pads...and those would be the ones (if i had to guess) where it could be suspicious of poor accounting.

 

everything must be written LEGIBLY. you'll see these again when they do the table sales by the pool...or out in the main lobby...with goods from the various shops. they don't always have the register to swipe your card.

 

well that's my theory anyway.

[TonyFred]

In my case, the wine was called into room service and delievered to our room. There were two different accounts assigned to our room and they put it on the wrong one four different times.

[davejohn]

The electronic system is not always "up" or available (e.g., they have to hand-write tickets on GSC) -- key punch errors happen. That was the explanation both times I had phantom charges on our account, on two different NCL cruises. The charges should actually have gone to someone with a very similar cabin number, but whoever punched in the charges transposed numbers.

 

Yes, do make sure to check your charges. ;)

 

It has to be more than that. In our case we had 2 beers charged to our account last week. Neither I nor my wife drink beer. They showed us the charge slip which had our cabin number, my wifes name, and her signature. It was obviously not her signature, not even close. After comparing the signature to other slips she signed they agreed and reversed the charge.

 

I suspect someone just verbally gave a room number, saw the printed name on the slip, and just signed it to match. I bet if you ordered drinks and said you forgot your card they will take your cabin number verbally.

[cruise4kicks]

:eek: Scary! :eek: And this is why a wise person once advised me to never give anyone my cabin number and not post it online.

[insidecabin]

All ships are vunerable.

 

Most common for us has been the multiple order waiters, dinner, shows, bars where they round up a few orders then process them, some times you have 2 drinks slips on your bill when you only had one that night, they scan you card for someone elses drinks as well as yours and some times the other way you get a slip done with someone elses card so not on your bill,

 

How often do you check when signing that your drinks match up, I do it probably 30% of the time where I have not seen them print them.

[insidecabin]

:eek: Scary! :eek: And this is why a wise person once advised me to never give anyone my cabin number and not post it online.

 

Hi Becky of cabin 9xxx

 

If they want they can find out who ordered anything it will be on camera.

 

Another reason to report early gives the ship a better chance to put out the warning to the staff to look out for those that try to cheat.

 

Now where did I put that smuggled wine.

[bedfordmom]

Hi, you even have to watch your bill after you leave the ship. Yesterday I checked my mastercard account for another reason and found that the correct NCL charge of xxxx$ was applied and then there was an additional charge for $1.37. The credit card company said that identify fraud among cruise ships is one of their biggest complaints.

 

Now do I dispute the 1.37$ charge which will cost as much in postage, time or long distance calls or let it drop. Part of me says to forget it but another part says that is not right and question what is that for? How long are we susceptible for charges from them? If they charge every passenger additional dollar or two they could make a couple of thousand.

 

So not only check your bill on ship every couple of days but compare your credit card statement against your final bill.