Charged Twice

I have just recently returned from a 17 night cruise on Queen Victoria and today received a call from my bank quering my spend on board, they did ask me to contact Cunard as it looked like they had withdrawn funds from my account twice. On 2 different dates. I also checked my account online and indeed they had taken the funds twice. Customer services has contacted their finance dept now to release them back to my account.

I may not have realised this without the call from my bank and just wondered if this has ever happened to anyone else and would Cunard have ever notified me.

I have just recently returned from a 17 night cruise on Queen Victoria and today received a call from my bank quering my spend on board, they did ask me to contact Cunard as it looked like they had withdrawn funds from my account twice. On 2 different dates. I also checked my account online and indeed they had taken the funds twice. Customer services has contacted their finance dept now to release them back to my account.

 

I may not have realised this without the call from my bank and just wondered if this has ever happened to anyone else and would Cunard have ever notified me.

I have not been charged twice, but I have been charged for a dressing gown which it was claimed I had taken from the cabin. Needless to say I had not taken the dressing gown and was refunded. As an apology I did get some OBC on my next cruise.

Please let us know what happened. Please post again when the money reaches your account.

All praise to your bank.

As for Cunard, mistakes happen. It is the way a company deals with the mistakes that shows its quality (or lack thereof).

I am one of those people who checks each item on my credit card statements, and checks it against the slips. I would have noticed if it happened to me. I doubt, however, if Cunard would have picked it up if your bank had not. It was probably done by two different people who did not talk to each other about their actions.

One question: credit card or debit card?

I have not been charged twice, but I have been charged for a dressing gown which it was claimed I had taken from the cabin. Needless to say I had not taken the dressing gown and was refunded. As an apology I did get some OBC on my next cruise.

The same happened to us but with pool towels. It didn't appear on the ship's statement, but there was a late charge to our Amex card a month later. I took it up with both Amex and Cunard and they both reimbursed us. I mentioned this to Cunard and they said keep the additional payment for the trouble we had been caused.

What was annoying about this was it happened on a QM-2 transatlantic in December (don't even use pool towels in the summer!) and the cabin stewardess had reported them missing two days before we got off, but it hadn't been mentioned to us when on-board. We now always check to see if they are in the cupboards under the bathroom washbasin.

Please let us know what happened. Please post again when the money reaches your account.

 

All praise to your bank.

 

As for Cunard, mistakes happen. It is the way a company deals with the mistakes that shows its quality (or lack thereof).

 

I am one of those people who checks each item on my credit card statements, and checks it against the slips. I would have noticed if it happened to me. I doubt, however, if Cunard would have picked it up if your bank had not. It was probably done by two different people who did not talk to each other about their actions.

Money rightfully returned to my account today. Glitches do happen, no idea how though. A very helpful lady at Cunard's customer service sorted the problem out for me.

One question: credit card or debit card?

I registered my debit card as always, never had a problem before.

Money rightfully returned to my account today. Glitches do happen, no idea how though. A very helpful lady at Cunard's customer service sorted the problem out for me.

That's good to hear, thank you for letting us know. So often we never find out how things turn out.

Thank you so much for the good news report.

We always check the mini bar and on several occasions found items missing including the small bottles of spirits that had been emptied and put back in as if they hadn't been touched!!!

we do this on arrival in our stateroom so when we get to meet our cabin steward we can make him/her aware. Never thought to check towels, bathrobes etc. Thanks for the reminder.

First time on Cunard for us coming up in March.

Sometimes the robes aren't available until evening turndown, but you might want to verify with the steward if they're missing upon your arrival.

We had a similar problem with bank , everyday Cunard run an authorisation for the days spend and this put funds into cyber bank , not taken , but not availible on your bank balance. On departure day they then actually take the full amount.depending on your bank the funds in cyber space will not be availible in your account for up to 28 days , so each amount will drop back in at different times.This caused us a bit of a problem as in effect our account was down by twice as much. luckily the bank understood and put the cyber amount back in , phew

hope that made sense, something to be aware of and next time we will use a credit card not a debit card

I registered my debit card as always, never had a problem before.

And there lies the problem.

Cunard, like any other cruise line will place a guarantee on that debit card when your on board spend reaches a higher level they will increase their cover - quite rightly in my opinion - by taking a second guarantee.

I have discussed this on other forums. It really hits those who don't have enough funds to cover the guarantee and their Direct debits are then declined incurring bank charges.

Quite frankly I'd never use anything but a credit card and on Dollar denominated ships it has to be a halifax Clarity credit card.

We had a similar problem with bank , everyday Cunard run an authorisation for the days spend and this put funds into cyber bank , not taken , but not availible on your bank balance. On departure day they then actually take the full amount.depending on your bank the funds in cyber space will not be availible in your account for up to 28 days , so each amount will drop back in at different times.This caused us a bit of a problem as in effect our account was down by twice as much. luckily the bank understood and put the cyber amount back in , phew

hope that made sense, something to be aware of and next time we will use a credit card not a debit card

In my haste to answer comments in chronological order I hadn't seen your comment which is basically repeated in mine above.

It isn't actually daily, it is auto triggered by the level of spend and what the ship (not just Cunard) treats as a safety margin.

I registered my debit card as always, never had a problem before.

This is exactly why you should NOT use a debit card. Because the money is taken out of your account and it can take a while to get it back. With a credit card not only is the money not taken from your checking account, you can dispute the charge.

That's good to hear, thank you for letting us know. So often we never find out how things turn out.

I received a luxury hamper today by way of apology from Cunard. Full of scrummy treats.

So pleased with their customer service. Three cheers for Cunard.

Excellent, mistakes happen but it seems as if Cunard have dealt with this one well

Thanks again for the update and I hope your next trip is problem free.