Help , Azamara overcharged on final account!

[rallydave]

1 minute ago, cheznick said:

please read my original stating we could not put it into dispute because a full refund was made to our on board account but then 2 mystery drinks charges were added therefore only approx half the amount was refunded to our card after the drinks were taken off      impossible to put into dispute as far as i can see 

 

Sorry for any confusion, probably should have responded to gymfreak.  Actually depending on your credit card, there is a way for you to dispute as I did it several years ago with success.  Assuming you charged your final payment to your credit card, you can dispute a portion of that charge equal to the erroneous amount with the reason your current issue.

 

This will force the cruise line to respond.  When the cruise line, not Azamara responded with a no and poor reasoning, I contacted the dispute department of my credit card to reinstate the dispute which they did giving the cruise line another 60 days I believe to respond.  Interestingly the cruise line failed to respond so the credit was made permanent.

 

 

No harm trying this to close the loop and force a response.

[gymfreak]

35 minutes ago, rallydave said:

 

Another great reason to put erroneous charges in disputes with your credit card company.  With credit card disputes, the merchant has a set amount of time to respond and without a response or a late response, the credit card company will credit your account in full with no recourse to the merchant.  

 

You don't have this same protection when you work directly with the merchant.  The merchant can take as long as they want to respond or not respond at all and you will be obligated to the credit card company to pay the erroneous charge(s).

 

Always best to work directly with the merchant and at the same time put the charge(s) in dispute with the credit card company.

Because we are experiencing extreme difficulty trying to get a response we have indeed put the charge in dispute with our credit card provider as well as sending emails to I think four different email addresses including Bonnie’s suggestion and speaking to Customer relations who promised faithfully to get back to me over a week ago.

They also promised an email copy of the account which again hasn’t materialised.

Its a real pain as we have had to document an extensive letter outlining the problem as well as completing paperwork from the bank, not to mention the hours on hold to these organisations .

What should be relatively simple appears insurmountable !

Vicki 

[cheznick]

yes vicki it is disgusting how they are treating loyal customers, going the right way about losing them too, like i said we are not holding our breath on our refund actually materialising...   if we see ours we shall let you know 

[diana11]

I never did receive a final statement by email despite me contacting head office last week requesting one. All I have is a charge on my credit card for an amount in sterling. My card statement should show an amount in $ and the currency conversion by my bank as I requested but it only shows the charge in sterling. 

[gymfreak]

1 hour ago, cheznick said:

yes vicki it is disgusting how they are treating loyal customers, going the right way about losing them too, like i said we are not holding our breath on our refund actually materialising...   if we see ours we shall let you know 

Hallelujah, just got a phone call from someone at LCV.

Although she couldn’t offer any explanation into the charges, and was in total agreement with our figures,  the main thing is that  we are to expect a refund on our card

Again I shall await with baited breath until I see it in black and white on the statement.

Now to get on with that Xmas shopping 🎅🏼
Thank you all for your input

 Vicki

[john1970]

5 hours ago, diana11 said:

I never did receive a final statement by email despite me contacting head office last week requesting one. All I have is a charge on my credit card for an amount in sterling. My card statement should show an amount in $ and the currency conversion by my bank as I requested but it only shows the charge in sterling. 

I was on pursuit in October and checked verbally that I would be charged in USD but still got charged in GBP using the Azamara 'special' conversion rate. I couldn't be bothered to complain but I would avoid Pursuit as without the interactive TV it's very hard to keep track of the account. I wonder how much mark up they make on the conversion.

[Grandma Cruising]

7 hours ago, john1970 said:

I was on pursuit in October and checked verbally that I would be charged in USD but still got charged in GBP using the Azamara 'special' conversion rate. I couldn't be bothered to complain but I would avoid Pursuit as without the interactive TV it's very hard to keep track of the account. I wonder how much mark up they make on the conversion.

I agree about Pursuit. Your account does show on the app, but I didn’t find it easy to understand.

[WhitlocksEnd]

Sadly the APP is even more dysfunctional if you access it on an iPad.  On our recent Pursuit cruise we were unable to see any account information or menus which currently are available on both Journey and Quest.

 

I spoke with the IT officer on board who was aware of the situation and had reported it to Miami, but his suggestion that upgrades were necessary appears to have fallen on deaf ears!

 

The best advice he could offer was to put my concerns in writing which I duly did. 

[uktog]

This credit card conundrum is the sort of issue I fear will be handled all wrong when we are dealing with USA based staff.  There is different  UK and EU legislation regarding card errors and disputes than in the USA.  Now whilst issues should not arise, if they do, I want someone who has been trained in UK rules and doesn't forget the USA is not the only rules to look after my issue.

[Grandma Cruising]

8 hours ago, WhitlocksEnd said:

Sadly the APP is even more dysfunctional if you access it on an iPad.  On our recent Pursuit cruise we were unable to see any account information or menus which currently are available on both Journey and Quest.

 

I spoke with the IT officer on board who was aware of the situation and had reported it to Miami, but his suggestion that upgrades were necessary appears to have fallen on deaf ears!

 

The best advice he could offer was to put my concerns in writing which I duly did. 

Yes, we tried using it on my IPad, but couldn’t see the account information at all, but it did show up on DH’s IPhone.

[cheznick]

our refund appeared back in our card account this morning , also got a cheque for £1024 from BA for the 18 hour delay in getting home,  so hope you get all yours soon vicki x

[gymfreak]

4 minutes ago, cheznick said:

our refund appeared back in our card account this morning , also got a cheque for £1024 from BA for the 18 hour delay in getting home,  so hope you get all yours soon vicki x

 

4 minutes ago, cheznick said:

our refund appeared back in our card account this morning , also got a cheque for £1024 from BA for the 18 hour delay in getting home,  so hope you get all yours soon vicki x

Good news, glad all is now in order.

We too have the cheque from BA, but still awaiting the promised refund from Azamara.

Its only 3 days now so will wait until next week until we panic again on that one. Thank you for your help and have a very merry Christmas 

Vicki

[cheznick]

Vicki pleasure to help, have a wonderful Christmas  x

[gymfreak]

I can now report finally we have had a refund processed and today it has appeared in our credit card statement online.

It certainly took some persistence and involved contacting multiple Azamara contacts by both email and telephone. , not always even receiving a response.

Thank you to all who offered advice and support

Festive greetings to all

Vicki

[excitedofharpenden]

Great!  At last!

 

Phil 

[Grandma Cruising]

Good to hear! Xmas greetings to you too.

[travelberlin]

8 hours ago, gymfreak said:

I can now report finally we have had a refund processed and today it has appeared in our credit card statement online.

It certainly took some persistence and involved contacting multiple Azamara contacts by both email and telephone. , not always even receiving a response.

Thank you to all who offered advice and support

Festive greetings to all

Vicki

Glad to hear that. Do you know how the mistake happened? Can we, as passengers do something to avoid this happening?

Edited December 16, 2019 by travelberlin

[cheznick]

glad you are now sorted as we are,  merry xmas x

[gymfreak]

43 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

Glad to hear that. Do you know how the mistake happened? Can we, as passengers do something to avoid this happening?

No adequate explanation was forthcoming. My advice is to obtain a copy of your final account from Guest Relations on the morning of debark if you are sailing on Pursuit because none are delivered to you and the promised email version did not arrive until we were charged and spent two weeks trying to sort it out

[jo-b]

At the other end of the cruising experience I would also suggest taking a screen shot of your account showing any OBC you have.  

 

We didn’t and yesterday whilst at the airport waiting for our plane to fly out to the cruise received an email Final Cruise Planner Summary showing OBC we had had, what we had used and what we still had to spend onboard. This is showing half of the amount we should have all of which has been OBC negotiated on  the phone between our TA and Miami  due to a change of airline necessitating a downgrade in cabin class so no invoice or email confirmations. I can see this being a fun start to the cruise trying to sort this out onboard. 

[rallydave]

6 hours ago, jo-b said:

At the other end of the cruising experience I would also suggest taking a screen shot of your account showing any OBC you have.  

 

We didn’t and yesterday whilst at the airport waiting for our plane to fly out to the cruise received an email Final Cruise Planner Summary showing OBC we had had, what we had used and what we still had to spend onboard. This is showing half of the amount we should have all of which has been OBC negotiated on  the phone between our TA and Miami  due to a change of airline necessitating a downgrade in cabin class so no invoice or email confirmations. I can see this being a fun start to the cruise trying to sort this out onboard. 

Can understand OBC being provided for price drops after final payment  but, difficult to understand OBC due to a flight change to a lower cabin class since airlines always refund the difference in cash when you are not accommodated in the booked and paid for class.  

 

You should have received a cash (check) for the difference and not the OBC you also didn't receive!!

[jo-b]

The change was to a different airline with dearer prices and less classes.  We agreed to the change and accepted a drink package which for whatever reason they couldn’t add so we were given OBC instead. 
 

it seems that what has happened is that they have now taken the OBC and given us the drink package which was on our card when we boarded. They just omitted to tell us that’s  what they were doing.  So right thing but poor communication from back office.