Overcharged - Celebrity charged wrong exchange

[ERIN123]

After reading the boards about the favorable exchange rate when buying OBC with Celebrity, I purchased $100 OBC for $122.40 Cdn. I made sure it shows I was from Canada, and that the rate they gave me was correct. I was happy to pay an exchange rate of $1.2240.

 

When I reviewed my Visa statement online today I see they charged me in US dollars not Cdn as I indicated when I purchased the OBC, which worked out to $135.24 after Visa charges their conversion fees. The only reason I purchased the OBC in advance was to save the exchange rate which I lost because they processed the transaction incorrecting in Cdn dollars, which has cost me $12.84.

 

I've sent an email to them asking them to credit me the difference, not sure what else I can do. This is very disappointing as I would not have paid early for OBC without a reason. :confused:

[rubiksgirl]

Is your booking in US or Canadian funds? I believe if your booking is in US you are not able to purchase OBC in Canadian.

[ERIN123]

Is your booking in US or Canadian funds? I believe if your booking is in US you are not able to purchase OBC in Canadian.

 

That may be the case but they should have warned me of that before I placed the order. The website was quite clear the currency they would charge:

 

$30.60 CAD* $122.40 CAD*

Subtotal $122.40 CAD*

[rubiksgirl]

That may be the case but they should have warned me of that before I placed the order. The website was quite clear the currency they would charge:

 

$30.60 CAD* $122.40 CAD*

Subtotal $122.40 CAD*

 

Agreed. The system sucks :(

 

Hopefully the adjust it, or maybe you can cancel it and get a refund?

Edited November 3, 2015 by rubiksgirl

[Celebrity Cruises]

After reading the boards about the favorable exchange rate when buying OBC with Celebrity, I purchased $100 OBC for $122.40 Cdn. I made sure it shows I was from Canada, and that the rate they gave me was correct. I was happy to pay an exchange rate of $1.2240.

 

When I reviewed my Visa statement online today I see they charged me in US dollars not Cdn as I indicated when I purchased the OBC, which worked out to $135.24 after Visa charges their conversion fees. The only reason I purchased the OBC in advance was to save the exchange rate which I lost because they processed the transaction incorrecting in Cdn dollars, which has cost me $12.84.

 

I've sent an email to them asking them to credit me the difference, not sure what else I can do. This is very disappointing as I would not have paid early for OBC without a reason. :confused:

 

Please contact our Gifts by Celebrity department at 1-800-242-6374 for further assistance

[sollan]

Please contact our Gifts by Celebrity department at 1-800-242-6374 for further assistance

 

Is there a chance that you can inform us what is happening with the ongoing web issues? There are several treads about this...

[drakes2]

I too booked my upcoming cruise in USD with a travel agent. When I called celebrity to inquire about purchasing OBC I was told the same thing, that if your booking is in US then it will be converted at the prevailing exchange rate so $100 would cost today $135.00. No other way around it. You can always open up a US bank account and transfer money at favourable rates, you get a slightly better exchange that way. For any onboard purchases I use cash, never ever a credit card or you get hit twice.

Is your booking in US or Canadian funds? I believe if your booking is in US you are not able to purchase OBC in Canadian.

[ERIN123]

I too booked my upcoming cruise in USD with a travel agent. When I called celebrity to inquire about purchasing OBC I was told the same thing, that if your booking is in US then it will be converted at the prevailing exchange rate so $100 would cost today $135.00. No other way around it. You can always open up a US bank account and transfer money at favourable rates, you get a slightly better exchange that way. For any onboard purchases I use cash, never ever a credit card or you get hit twice.

 

Why is there no warning of this on their website? They cannot offer you one price and change it later without some sort of disclaimer saying that if you booked in USD currency it will be charged in the currency you booked.

[Fouremco]

Why is there no warning of this on their website? They cannot offer you one price and change it later without some sort of disclaimer saying that if you booked in USD currency it will be charged in the currency you booked.

Just out of curiosity, were you logged in to your Celebrity account at the time of your OBC purchase? I'm wondering if that might have had an influence on how the transaction was (mis)handled.

[Big_G]

Why is there no warning of this on their website? They cannot offer you one price and change it later without some sort of disclaimer saying that if you booked in USD currency it will be charged in the currency you booked.

 

Just out of curiosity, did you call the number that Celebrity provided you at noon?

[ERIN123]

Just out of curiosity, did you call the number that Celebrity provided you at noon?

 

I was already in an email with them so didn't call right away, but did eventually when I didn't get any further responses.

 

They confirmed that because the booking was in USD any OBC purchased are in the same currency. They recognized that the website is not clear on this, as it clearly shows CAD and does not have a disclaimer or warning about the currency to be charged, and were nice enough to credit me for my loss. I hope they fix the website to show the currency they will charge. While it was a frustration and took a lot of time emailing and calling, they did resolve my issue.

[Big_G]

Thanks for the response.

 

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[A Sixth?]

Why is there no warning of this on their website? They cannot offer you one price and change it later without some sort of disclaimer saying that if you booked in USD currency it will be charged in the currency you booked.

 

I agree. I got stuck awhile back and was told too bad , so sad.

 

Web site should make it clear. I haven't been able to view any US prices for cruises on the Celebrity web pages from Canada. And they should know by my booking number that I booked in US $$, yet they welcomingly sold me credit in CAN$$ and then after the fact with ZERO notice, charged my Canadian credit card in US

 

Didn't ruin my Bermuda cruise this year, but it cost a bit more than it should have.

[2islandhoppers]

Thank you Erin for making our decision easier. We were debating purchasing OBC on our Cdn credit card, but our initial booking was in US$, then converted to Cdn by Mastercard. So there is obviously no exchange benefit to buying OBC on our Canadian credit card.

 

We do have the ability to charge OBC to a US$ card, so may stick with that option.

[UniPac]

I was already in an email with them so didn't call right away, but did eventually when I didn't get any further responses.

 

They confirmed that because the booking was in USD any OBC purchased are in the same currency. They recognized that the website is not clear on this, as it clearly shows CAD and does not have a disclaimer or warning about the currency to be charged, and were nice enough to credit me for my loss. I hope they fix the website to show the currency they will charge. While it was a frustration and took a lot of time emailing and calling, they did resolve my issue.

 

I had bought OBC while ago which was fine as the exchange rate was okay and I had used a credit card with no fees for the exchange.

 

Later on (almost one year) I bought some more (in EUR) for the same cruise - and had the same issues as you. Shown EUR, payed USD and conversion fees.

So I contacted them, without any luck.

Next step: Captain's Club. Explained the whole story by mail. After three weeks I got a reply: they will refund the first bought OBC, the others will stay untouched. WHAT? The first one at the decent exchange rate and different credit card should be cancelled? I had told them by mail that this is THE ONLY ONE that was correct and the others are wrong.

So after reading this mail I called Celebrity again and told them NOT to do it. However, I have been told it was too late already...

 

Indeed: on my cc statement I found that they refunded the old one from one credit card to ANOTHER credit card - therefor I had to pay conversion fees on that again! How does this work, cancelling something bought with one credit card and sending it back to a different? Doing exactly the opposite of what I wanted?

 

So I gave up and waited till I was onboard. Explained everything again, had printed all the screenshots from the shop plus my cc statements.

However, they were unable to solve it with Frankfurt RCL office (as I am from Germany) onboard (during the 18day repositioning!), but offered $100 OBC (which is about 1/3 of the amount I was fighting for as showed in the online shop). Told me it is all in my booking and I will be followed up once back home.

 

Guess what? Nothing happened. So I wrote a letter to the CEO of RCL/X here in Germany. And all I got was the reply that I had to contact Miami. Really??? This is where I started BEFORE the cruise. So I contacted them again and told them PLEASE it is one company, I already told the story Miami, Frankfurt and onboard, so it is up to them to discuss it.

 

This time I was told it had been sent to their colleagues in Miami.

 

Guess what? This was more than one month ago. Nothing happened since then.

[drakes2]

This makes sense to me logically but I could be wrong but here goes: Last night I went into my Celebrity account and entered my booking reference number, booking comes up, I go to the gifts by celebrity section to purchase four $25.00 credits to use onboard, the price shown is $122.40. Then when I go to the next page to enter my CC details, which is a Canadian credit card, I expect to pay the price on their site, but I booked through a US travel agent who charges in US currency, so my original booking is in USD. I don't think these charges go through automatically, someone has to manually charge the card and they see by the booking number all your details, so once the transaction comes through the banking system it will convert to Canadian $$ at whatever the exchange rate is at the time. This is the only logical explanation I can think of. FYI: I did not bother to purchase the OBC but now thinking I can get points for doing that rather than go to the bank and buy currency, I am almost at a free flight for my upcoming cruise anyway by using the points I get to my advantage.

Why is there no warning of this on their website? They cannot offer you one price and change it later without some sort of disclaimer saying that if you booked in USD currency it will be charged in the currency you booked.