Celebrity charges your account twice?!!?!

[Baby Nicks]

Hello, we had the same happen to us when we came of the Equinox last year, we questioned it and was advised it was a security measure, we were not double charged, they had only added pending transactions, and true to their words, with in a few days the pending transactions dropped , off. :-)

[Sunny Visor Girl]

Just off the Equinox on Monday. Various odd charges are "pending," plus a duplicate $200 charge. I called Celebrity about the duplicate charge, and they can only find one charge. So I called Capital One, and they will dispute the charge. Kind of a pain but I remember the old days when you could not check your balances and transactions online and you would get a surprise when opening the monthly bill.

[tomvk]

I understand that pending charges are holds.But they did double charge everyone on the ship.This is could be a problem if someone misses it on their CC statement.I understand Celebrity is working to correct this but you have to make sure you get the proper refund.Also it would have been nicer to let people know about the problem.I always watch my OBA for issues and there have been some but I always felt I was safe once I got the final bill.

 

Tom

[patty1955]

We were double charged on our first cruise. It was a double charge not a hold. That's why we don't use our debit card anymore for onboard expenses

[Deamagoli]

I checked with my bank this morning and the double charges and authorizations are still on my account. I can't believe this still isn't fixed after 5 days. I want to be nice and understanding, but they have had a lot of time to fix this and haven't even bothered to send an update email. I did get a welcome home form letter email from them though.

[bowlinmoe]

I checked with my bank this morning and the double charges and authorizations are still on my account. I can't believe this still isn't fixed after 5 days. I want to be nice and understanding, but they have had a lot of time to fix this and haven't even bothered to send an update email. I did get a welcome home form letter email from them though.

 

Exactly.

 

My double charge and pending charges are still there as well.

 

What really bothers me is that they haven't come forward and said, "Yeah, we screwed up and double charged everyone." It was on me to contact them!

 

And you would think they they would at least offer some sort of credit for their mess up.

 

I don't think I'll ever cruise Celebrity again. And other people should really know about this issue before they think of doing business with Celebrity again or as a first timer.

[teajak]

Exactly.

 

My double charge and pending charges are still there as well.

 

What really bothers me is that they haven't come forward and said, "Yeah, we screwed up and double charged everyone." It was on me to contact them!

 

And you would think they they would at least offer some sort of credit for their mess up.

 

I don't think I'll ever cruise Celebrity again. And other people should really know about this issue before they think of doing business with Celebrity again or as a first timer.

I don't understand why you would leave a great cruise line because of a computer glitch.I happens a lot in the business world and certainly wouldn't make me forget all of the good things about Celebrity. Just what type of credit are you expecting?

[boogs]

Exactly.

 

My double charge and pending charges are still there as well.

 

What really bothers me is that they haven't come forward and said, "Yeah, we screwed up and double charged everyone." It was on me to contact them!

 

And you would think they they would at least offer some sort of credit for their mess up.

 

I don't think I'll ever cruise Celebrity again. And other people should really know about this issue before they think of doing business with Celebrity again or as a first timer.

 

Have you contacted your bank about this? As another poster has indicated, it can sometimes take a few days for the bank to make the correction after the error was corrected by the vendor. Sometimes I see charges I know are valid stay "pending" for several days before it is verified. Corrections or refunds can take even longer. The banks hate to give up money.

 

Instead of abandoning Celebrity for an error that they are trying to correct, you need to check that the fault isn't with your bank's procedures on processing refunds or corrections to accounts before giving up on a good cruise line.

[bowlinmoe]

I don't understand why you would leave a great cruise line because of a computer glitch.I happens a lot in the business world and certainly wouldn't make me forget all of the good things about Celebrity. Just what type of credit are you expecting?

 

I understand that glitches happen but as indicated by others, it was just me and it wasn't just this particular cruise. It sounds like it has happened before on other cruises. Should we still call it a glitch if it happens more than once?

 

Regarding the credit, I don't know what amount of money is fair. Like I said, I'd be happy if they had the....pardon my french..."balls" to contact me first thing on Monday and inform me on what exactly happened and how it is going to be corrected.

[bowlinmoe]

Have you contacted your bank about this? As another poster has indicated, it can sometimes take a few days for the bank to make the correction after the error was corrected by the vendor. Sometimes I see charges I know are valid stay "pending" for several days before it is verified. Corrections or refunds can take even longer. The banks hate to give up money.

 

Instead of abandoning Celebrity for an error that they are trying to correct, you need to check that the fault isn't with your bank's procedures on processing refunds or corrections to accounts before giving up on a good cruise line.

 

Yes, I contacted my bank. They assured me that I won't suffer any fees but can't really do anything on their end until Celebrity fixes it. It's on Celebrity...not my bank.

[Deamagoli]

Have you contacted your bank about this? As another poster has indicated, it can sometimes take a few days for the bank to make the correction after the error was corrected by the vendor. Sometimes I see charges I know are valid stay "pending" for several days before it is verified. Corrections or refunds can take even longer. The banks hate to give up money.

 

Instead of abandoning Celebrity for an error that they are trying to correct, you need to check that the fault isn't with your bank's procedures on processing refunds or corrections to accounts before giving up on a good cruise line.

 

I have also spoken to my bank about this. They told me to just wait it out and see what Celebrity does. In the meantime my card is thousands of dollars over it's limit with the second charge and double authorizations still pending on the account.

I don't think this will keep us from using Celebrity again, but it will make us think twice about everything we charge to the room. I'm mostly upset that they did not contact us to let us know about the problem. I would have been satisfied with a form letter letting me know about the problem, instead of finding out on my own.

[Deamagoli]

I just checked my credit card account and the refunds have come through.

[jcrandle]

There is a customer service lesson to be learned (or ignored) here. The true measure of a company's customer service is not when things go well, but how the company reacts when things go wrong. There are numerous examples well documented of Japanese companies who have gone to great lengths to recognize, contact and apologize after customer service failures.

 

I blame the upper level management of companies for not instilling the importance of escalation when issues happen like those described in this thread. Employees should be trained to recognize service failures like these, and make management aware of the problem. Similarly, management should have designated SWAT teams to begin notification of customers, offering apologies, and assuring customers that the problem was being corrected.

[dmwnc1959]

What a freakin mess this has been for those who have had to deal with it. I'm also glad that someone posted recognizing not everyone has a $25,000 credit card limit. Or for that matter a $5,000 limit. Or for that matter a $2,500 limit. Double charging and tying up normally available credit with pending charges for seven to ten days can be a real inconvenience especially if an emergency comes up. And it can be a real aggravation if you have to spend 20 minutes on the phone with the credit card company to get to speak with a 'customer service' rep explaining what is going on with your card. What a mess...:(

[brademaol]

There is a customer service lesson to be learned (or ignored) here. The true measure of a company's customer service is not when things go well, but how the company reacts when things go wrong. There are numerous examples well documented of Japanese companies who have gone to great lengths to recognize, contact and apologize after customer service failures.

 

I blame the upper level management of companies for not instilling the importance of escalation when issues happen like those described in this thread. Employees should be trained to recognize service failures like these, and make management aware of the problem. Similarly, management should have designated SWAT teams to begin notification of customers, offering apologies, and assuring customers that the problem was being corrected.

I couldn't have said it better myself. I position and "pre-sell" high end technical services. If we handled service delivery issues (and there are plenty of them) like this I would not have customers to talk to. Celebrity is in the business of showing people a good time while making money doing it. To sour that by not handling a customer satisfaction issue properly is not the way to retain customers.

We also did not provide a credit card that had a high enough limit to handle the duplicate charges. We are not strapped for cash, but there is an old saying in business. "Never mess with someone's money or spouse" Celebrity definitely broke one of those rules, and it doesn't really matter what the sum ended up being for each individual. I am also more bitter about about this now that I have an understanding of the relationship between the ship companies and the jewelry stores in port, but that is another topic entirely.

I don't think this experience will keep us from ever sailing Celebrity again, but I don't think they will be our first choice for our next cruise for this and other reasons. I am glad this has been resolved fairly quickly.:rolleyes:

[gentlemancruiser]

It's now been 10 days and still no credit to our Master Card, so I called MC and they don't have any information about a credit from Celebrity. It's month end and our bill is now due Normally I would be too upset, but this is THOUSANDS of dollar and it's my credit that is getting screwed up not celebrity's.

 

Has anyone else been able to get this resolved yet?

[Logger1]

So if I want to avoid this entirely from ever happening to me, can't I just prepay tipping and leave, (say $1000 cash) when boarding on ship account? My first cruise coming up, Please fill me in.:confused:

[cawags]

So if I want to avoid this entirely from ever happening to me, can't I just prepay tipping and leave, (say $1000 cash) when boarding on ship account? My first cruise coming up, Please fill me in.:confused:

 

My first cruise coming up also. I'm thinking of doing the same. I have already prepaid my tips and have paid for our beverage packages. I hate dealing with customer service incompetence and that is just what this is. They can double charge all in one day and it is taking days to correct. Excuse me. Just WRONG.

[Sherman78]

We were on the April 8th Solstice cruise and were double charged. Our Mastercard was credited on 4/19 so it has been resolved.

 

We had prepaid gratuities, drink package and an excursion so our only charge was $11 from one of the shops. I was a little unhappy at first about having to prepay but was so glad after this incident! It was nice to not have to worry about a large credit card bill after we got home too.

 

However, I personally would not prepay too much in advance (unless there is a sale of course). We didn't purchase the excursion until about a month before our cruise and waited until the week before to purchase the drink package. I guess there is a risk of excursions selling out or specialty restaurants filling up but I don't think they are going to run out of drink packages.

[tomvk]

It's now been 10 days and still no credit to our Master Card, so I called MC and they don't have any information about a credit from Celebrity. It's month end and our bill is now due Normally I would be too upset, but this is THOUSANDS of dollar and it's my credit that is getting screwed up not celebrity's.

 

Has anyone else been able to get this resolved yet?

 

Mine got cleared up on the 20th.If you still are having a problem call Celebrity or have your TA call for you.This was such a large screw up that I would think that some people could be missed.

 

Tom

[Logger1]

That makes up my mind. A bunch of $100 Travelers checks sounds like the way to go. I will have enough travellers cheques if we really enjoy ourselfs aboard. I do not care to deal with companies with credit cards who do not know how to deal with customer's accounts payments properly. Cash is KING!!

[Algebralovr]

That makes up my mind. A bunch of $100 Travelers checks sounds like the way to go. I will have enough travellers cheques if we really enjoy ourselfs aboard. I do not care to deal with companies with credit cards who do not know how to deal with customer's accounts payments properly. Cash is KING!!

 

 

Careful with the travelers checks. Apparently some of the lines aren't taking them any more.

[Algebralovr]

It's now been 10 days and still no credit to our Master Card, so I called MC and they don't have any information about a credit from Celebrity. It's month end and our bill is now due Normally I would be too upset, but this is THOUSANDS of dollar and it's my credit that is getting screwed up not celebrity's.

 

Has anyone else been able to get this resolved yet?

 

 

If it has not yet been resolved, you need to contact your MC company and dispute the charges that are duplicated or incorrect. Not the holds, just the actual charges that have appeared on your bill. You should find instructions on a statement.

[Logger1]

Careful with the travelers checks. Apparently some of the lines aren't taking them any more.

 

They will take them you can be sure. AMX Says "Just like cash" They do not want to lose that handle!!

[jaybird from SC]

We are recently back from a cruise and at the bottom of the bill there was an explaination about the "hold" regarding credit cards that it will take a certain time period for the hold to be released. No surprise