Uupdate on fuel supplement refunds: a ruling from the RCI legal department

[megr1125]

We had booked a future cruise on our Thanksgiving cruise last Nov. but it was I believe the 22nd. We had a $5.00 per person a day rate.

 

About 3 months ago, we used that booking # to book a Thanksgiving cruse for this year.

 

Well, two weeks ago, we decided to change date and ship for April 2009 and even though we kept the same booking number they are now charging us $10. per person per day.

 

I questioned the fuel charge rate change and they said that even though we have the same booking # because we changed ships we lose the $5 original fuel rate.

 

Is this wrong info. that we received??

 

honesly i don;t think they know...when i sat with my TA to switch date/ship but KEEPING the same # the agent she spoke with told her the OLD fuel charge applied as my TAs figure was 54 bucks higher...AND the LA who booked it on the ship told me the same thing...now they want another 54 bucks???

 

i don't mind the surcharge, but you invoiced me an amount, that's what you should get...my TA is attempting to fix it, but i may just send a letter AGAIN.....arrrrrrrrrgh

[Darkwolfe]

:D :D it is not about money:D :D :D

 

Temporary thread hijack....

 

JLC@SD- I saw your signature. Thank you for your service.

 

 

We now return you to the regular thread content.

[micruiser2002]

I'm having the same problem. I changed ships in June and they are now trying to charge the higher rate. The best part of this is last week I changed the booking from 2 people to just myself, they sent me an updated detailed invoice which showed the old fuel surcharge. I then transfer to a TA and he gets the higher rate, when he calls and asks they said oh yes that was a mistake and was changed after the booking was changed. Hello, then why did I just a week ago get a new invoice with the lower rate. I am getting so disgusted with them, the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.

 

This is about as bad as the new 3% charge in the casino. Just last week RCL customer service sent me an email and said they do not charge any fee in the casino on the seapass. I then replied that that is not what recent passengers have been reporting and maybe they should be talking to the company that runs the casinos.

[maggiecharlie]

We were booked on the VOS for March 08 and had to change ships and sail dates my booking number stayed the same and my account shows my original date of purchase (which was in May 2007) but I was told it was considered a new booking and I would not receive my fuel credit. And I was paid in full when we had to change ships. I might just have to call them and try again.

[megr1125]

Thanks for the info. They continue to also deny me the same. They insist that even though I have the same booking number that the date I changed the booking is the date they go off of for the fuel supplement.

 

 

i just got back from the TA paying it off.....AND i jsut spent 20 minutes on the phone..they are refusing to honor what my TA was told...and what I was told...and they were pretty rude......not empathetic in the least....it's not the money....it's the principle....AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGHHHH

[dforeigner]

:D :D it is not about money:D :D :D

 

It is always about money.:rolleyes:

[Fran Harp]

When my TA was unable to get the fuel supplement dropped for final payment earlier this month for a cruise originally booked June 3, 2007, I had asked on this board for others' experiences. The responses were varied to say the least. It appears that RCI's excuse for charging the supplement on cruises booked before Nov. 16, 2007 is that if you change to another cruise, then that is the new "booking" date, regardless of the fact that the booking number has not changed. However, someone was thoughtful enough to post the actual legal agreement of RCI's with the Florida Attorney General's office. With that document in front of me, I called RCI's resolutions dept. and quoted some of the wording. The rep had no idea what document I was talking about. She asked if I could fax the document to her. As I couldn't, I advised her the case file numbers and asked her to take this up with the legal department, as I was confident the wording of the legal agreement would indicate that I was owed the supplement refund. This was late on a Wed. afternoon. On Friday morning, a $70 credit was posted back to my Visa. As I have said before, it is not about money. It is about RCI upholding its original agreement for ALL who booked prior to Nov. 16, 2007.

 

I am really glad to hear you got your money back, but am a little baffled...our May cruise was booked well before November 16, and when final payment was due, the fuel supplement charge had been deducted by RCI.

 

The agent who booked the cruise told me RCI was refunding where final payment had already been made, and taking off the fuel supplement for those like us who had made the booking only.

 

Fran in Toronto

[grayesun]

The good news is it seems the FL AG must haved leaned on RCI; they called us the other day to explain what happened regarding fuel surcharge snafu.

The embarassing news for both sides is that it seems after all the problems RCI created for us at check in (at the pier) as documented in an earlier post; RCI discovered that we really hadn't owed the fuel surcharge after all and never applied the charge to our credit card.

Thanks RCI, you just made us unecessarily jump through hoop after hoop for no reason whatsoever & never apologized for not believing your own statements you e-mailed to us showing no balance due at check-in. What an aggravating total waste of time; probably about 8 hours...like I said before it wasn't ever about the money, it was about the RCI imcompetence.

[enyliram]

Thanks for the info. They continue to also deny me the same. They insist that even though I have the same booking number that the date I changed the booking is the date they go off of for the fuel supplement.

 

yes .thats what they told me from customer service to resolutions to supervisor. it was $5pp when i bought a next cruise in april 2008, and i kept the same booking number when i booked last week for a cruise on sept 20,2008. they charged me $10.instead of the $5pp which was in effect in april. i gave them all the info and they are firm about the $10 fuel surcharge.i feel like a wimp arguing about such a small amount and the principle is important to me but so is going on the cruise without anymore hassle. guess royal caribbean won this time from me.

[Blizzard54]

For those that could not find the information from the FL AG

Here are the links to the PDF files

 

http://myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/MRAY-7CMGGE/$file/RoyalCaribbeanAVC.pdf

 

www.myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/MRAY-7CMGGE/$file/RoyalCaribbeanAVC.pdf

[firefly333]

yes .thats what they told me from customer service to resolutions to supervisor. it was $5pp when i bought a next cruise in april 2008, and i kept the same booking number when i booked last week for a cruise on sept 20,2008. they charged me $10.instead of the $5pp which was in effect in april. i gave them all the info and they are firm about the $10 fuel surcharge.i feel like a wimp arguing about such a small amount and the principle is important to me but so is going on the cruise without anymore hassle. guess royal caribbean won this time from me.

 

Ah ha, I thought I had read a thread saying this. I bought a nextcruise when fuel was $5 as well, in March 2008, but it was $10 when I booked the actual date, so thats what Im being charged. Seems like I remembered a few folks who got it rolled back to what it was when the Next Cruise was purchased. Im like you, whatever it is, is what it is, as long as they are consistent.

 

Be interesting to see if RCL follows suit with something regarding fuel now that Carnival has.