Done with Princess

[BBurnsG550]

19 minutes ago, billco said:

I suspect you were as rude to CS as they were to you. Doesn’t matter whether you were notified or not. The FCCs expired on a certain date and nothing was going to reinstate them. If it had been me, I would have said my bad,Didn’t know that. I’ll pay more attention next time.

Given that my wife made the call and I was only listening on speakerphone, you would be DEAD WRONG.  Had it been me, I would have ripped "Steven" top to bottom before hanging up on him.  

[LibertyBella]

Well, I am the first to say that those who wish to act as their own "travel agents" need to seriously and regularly monitor all of their travel arrangements, credits, accounts, flights, seats, OBC, shore excursions, etc., etc.  

 

However, I do understand that the pandemic made most peoples' travel arrangements go upside down, and the industry is still in a bit of recovery mode.

 

Yes, you are upset with the person you spoke with, but please understand many representatives are just part-time people working from home, and may not possess the depth of experience or the social skills that professionally trained travel agents have (or used to have!)

 

Don't give up on your future cruise credit! The cruise lines want to fill their ships, and have passengers spend lots of money on board.

 

If you lack the energy to persevere, perhaps you should get a travel agent and let them do all the advocacy, so then they can get the commission for booking a nice Princess cruise for you.

 

Best wishes!

[jeromep]

@BBurnsG550 I don't intend on flaming you, but the expiration date of the goodwill credit was clearly indicated in my Captain's Circle account, and was indicated there right from the beginning.

 

I also lost my goodwill credit due to the same expiration dates.  I did consult with my CVP about seeking an extension.  I did this back in October, and I'm convinced they did go back to their management and see if they could get it extended, especially considering that I had a booked cruise in place for 2023 last fall, but the answer was a firm no.  No extensions to the goodwill credits.

 

Why am I not upset about it?  Because it wasn't my money to begin with.  What really annoyed me was that Princess didn't follow my instructions with regard to refund options on booked cruises that they canceled due to the disease that shall not be mentioned.  I opted to get my funds back.  I filled out the web form like they asked, selected option 2.  I even have a copy of their emailed confirmation to me of my selection of the refund of my funds and reduced goodwill credit.  Instead they gave me option 1, kept my funds and gave me the higher goodwill credit.  That was annoying to me.  When I finally figured out what had occurred I got ahold of Princess and provided them my documentation and their only answer was, you'll get your funds back at the end of 2022 in the form of a check.  That sure looked like the case as my funds were also in my Circle account indicating that they would be returned after 12/31/22.  But come September of this year the "expiration" date of my funds had mysteriously changed to 12/31/24, a whole two more years that they were going to keep my funds.  Now that was unannounced an felt very sketchy.

 

Once Princess announced that there would be no more testing or any of the "disease that shall not be mentioned" garbage, I decided that it was time to use that trapped money and booked a cruise.  At this point I didn't care about the goodwill credit.  Neither my wife or I had enough vacation time left in our employment anniversary years to take a cruise before the end of December to use the goodwill credit and none of the cruises that might have worked with our remaining vacation time worked with my daughter's school schedule.  So our only option was to book for 2023 so that we could get something out our money that was trapped with Princess.  Consider that I could have my money in my pocket earning 4% someplace, or it could sit with Princess and continue to loose value for 2 years.  I'd rather get it used up and have a good time.

 

Am I annoyed at Princess for these unannounced and undocumented changes, and frankly the initial flub with the cruise refund offering?  Sure.  Am I going to be angry about it, stomp around, try to convince others to be angry with me.  No.  It isn't good for anyone's mental health, and it sure isn't good for your body or heart health.

 

Ok, maybe I will flame you a little.

 

5 hours ago, BBurnsG550 said:

Imagine our surprise when we talked to our Princess cruise coordinator and discussed applying our cruise credit to this itinerary.  "That cruise had to be booked AND sailed by the end of 2022 to get that credit." We NEVER received ANY notice that was the case.  We never received any reminder emails saying "hey, don't forget your cruise credit and you have to use it by the end of 2022."  Zip. Zero. Nada.  And according to the federal government, the pandemic still wasn't OVER by the end of 2022.

Hmm.  I received many emails from Princess as they were restarting things, and at least a couple of them mentioned using the credits in my Circle account.  I would get a screen shot and post what I got, however my gmail is configured to delete my trash on a rolling 30 day basis, and those promotional emails are long gone.  I'm not smart, and I'm not as sharp as I used to be, but I do recall those emails.  As for listening to the government about the "disease that shall not be mentioned", hahahaha 😂.

 

5 hours ago, BBurnsG550 said:

We were referred to a "Customer Care" rep earlier today to discuss the matter.  It was quite possibly the rudest "customer service" phone call I'd ever experienced in my life.  It was five minutes of snark, condescension, and disdain with no acceptable resolution to our issue and the agent refused to give us his last name or to route our call to a supervisor by claiming he WAS the supervisor.

I suspect that the only answer you would have accepted was that you would receive your goodwill credit along with a blubbering mea culpa from whomever was on the other end of the phone.  You would have been lucky to have gotten a couple hundred dollars of OBC.  Apparently that didn't occur, either.

 

I work in a highly contractual and policy driven industry and manage people that provide customer support.  We live and die by dates, policies, and contract terms.  Lots and lots of customer requests effectively break their contractual obligations to the company or make it impossible for the company to fulfill ours, so the only answer is "no".  We encounter on a daily basis customers who's standard of satisfaction is getting their way and only their way; and that just isn't realistic.  If what a customer wants is not in violation of policy or contract we will move mountains to get it done, but if it violates policy or contract, it is a non-starter.  Princess decided that they would not honor the goodwill credit past 12/31/22.  I get it, they created a policy, they need to get revenue going in a positive direction, they have to stop the expense hemorrhaging, they couldn't keep giving away cabins for nothing, so they needed to have a drop dead date on those goodwill funds.

 

One more thing.  While Cruise Critic is generally a nice place to post and converse, it helps if you've been here a while, asked some questions, posted a bit, shared a bit, maybe built up a bit of cred.  Showing up, complaining, and then leaving doesn't give you a lot of credibility.  Not a lot of minds are going to be changed by your posting.  In fact, some of us have experienced nearly what you have and came away with different take-aways and a different acceptance of certain realities.  If you wanted to ask us how those of us approached this issue, or what we tried to do to retain the goodwill credit, I'm sure that responses here would have been more moderate.  Sure, we all like to sit in our bubble and find reassurance of our firmly held beliefs, but sometimes that isn't going to happen.  I have no problem with anyone sitting in the bubble of their own reality, but remember, it is your bubble, not the real world.  Nobody owes you agreement or acceptance.

 

I do wish you happy sailing, wherever you land.  I hope you have positive experiences in all of your travels.  Time heals all wounds and I suspect you'll return, someday.

[Ombud]

Actually I do understand the frustration of finding out that something someone thought they had (goodwill FCC) they don't have anymore (expired 12/31/22). Happened to me (loyalty obc, free wifi, trading minibar for coffee card). Life changes. At least we got back our initial 'investment' 

[Steelers36]

I have read a lot of excellent posts here by many members I "know" from their participation in countless Princess thread topics.  I have to agree with the general sentiment that the OP is largely - if not fully - to blame for the circumstances found himself in.  We should all be keeping a periodic eye on our Princess account (I recall some posts - don't ask me the date - in the past year or two where posters had FCC issues or missing FCD's .. not sure exactly).  I agree that Princess made it quite clear at the time of the pauses what guests would get.  It was also documented in our Captain's Circle profile so to go all Rip Van Winkle on Princess for two years or so and then resurface complaining about lost funds doesn't cut it with me and I am a pretty fierce critic of PCL when they deserve it.

 

[wowzz]

Anyone else get the impression that the OP was expecting a somewhat more supportive response than has been the case ?

[Guest ldtr]

16 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Anyone else get the impression that the OP was expecting a somewhat more supportive response than has been the case ?

Problem is that we all went through the canceled cruised with the refund and fcc options and know what was involved. As a result the never told about never being told that there was an expiration date runs counter to our own experiences.

[gkbiiii]

8 hours ago, memoak said:

 

Yes I have a 21 day trans Atlantic booked for next year for 2 people bingo a full suite with Princess Plus for under $20,000.  I can’t imagine what would cost $30,000 unless it was a sky suite

Sky Suite Premier Plus?

[billco]

8 hours ago, BBurnsG550 said:

Given that my wife made the call and I was only listening on speakerphone, you would be DEAD WRONG.  Had it been me, I would have ripped "Steven" top to bottom before hanging up on him. 

Why didn't you takeover the call? Since you say you found a better option with another cruise line why do you keep posting about it. IMO, people who say they will never sail with Princess again, because of a phone call experience are only shooting themselves in the foot.

[tonit964]

10 hours ago, BBurnsG550 said:

As I pointed out earlier, we never received a clear indication on the original offer that there was an expiration date, we had no reason to go on Princess.com during the pandemic, and we never received a single communication from Princess about their policy, an impending expiration of a substantial credit, or even a "hey, how are you, when would you like to cruise again" marketing email.  Epic fail.  The attitude of the "customer service" rep today was EPIC fail.  
 

But it's all good.  We just booked a larger cabin on a longer cruise on roughly the same itinerary with a comparable cruise line at about the same time frame for 2/3rds the price.  
 

I'll miss the fettuccine alfredo though....

 

Happy cruising. Out.

Hoping you have an awesome cruise. I would never be loyal to just one cruise line. 

Oh, and the fettuccine alfredo is gone from the menu.

[mtnesterz]

7 hours ago, wowzz said:

Anyone else get the impression that the OP was expecting a somewhat more supportive response than has been the case ?

The OP wants a reaction, and is getting it.

It started about the money, now it's about the customer service. There is nothing any of us can actually do to help.

Edited March 29, 2023 by mtnesterz

[Lady Arwen]

@BBurnsG550I will assume that you now understand that the incident of the expired FCC is totally on you and not Princess.  Disappointing but not the end of the world.  You live and learn.  As to the negative conversation with the Princess rep, I don’t understand why you would judge the entire cruiseline on one call with one person.  To be clear, I’m not condoning their bad behaviour, it was clearly unacceptable.  You stated that you would not be returning to Princess, which is your choice, but to base that on one negative encounter with one Princess employee is rather harsh.  Perhaps if you had called back and spoken to someone else, your experience may have had a better outcome.  I hope you have learned something from all of this and I wish you safe travels in the future.

[tonit964]

10 hours ago, BBurnsG550 said:

As I pointed out earlier, we never received a clear indication on the original offer that there was an expiration date, we had no reason to go on Princess.com during the pandemic, and we never received a single communication from Princess about their policy, an impending expiration of a substantial credit, or even a "hey, how are you, when would you like to cruise again" marketing email.  Epic fail.  The attitude of the "customer service" rep today was EPIC fail.  
 

But it's all good.  We just booked a larger cabin on a longer cruise on roughly the same itinerary with a comparable cruise line at about the same time frame for 2/3rds the price.  
 

I'll miss the fettuccine alfredo though....

 

Happy cruising. Out.

Hoping you have an awesome cruise. I would never be loyal to just one cruise line. 

Oh, and the fettuccine alfredo is gone from the menu.

[disneyochem]

4 minutes ago, tonit964 said:

Hoping you have an awesome cruise. I would never be loyal to just one cruise line. 

Oh, and the fettuccine alfredo is gone from the menu.

The fettuccine alfredo is gone from the Princess favorites on the menu, but one can always ask for it!  I've been able to get it on my last four cruises with Princess.

[Daisyloo]

16 hours ago, BBurnsG550 said:

After 17 cruises with Princess, we're done with this cruise line.

 

Let me explain.  We were scheduled for a 15 day Hawai'i cruise in April of 2020 when the pandemic forced Princess to cancel the trip.  We chose the refund option and Princess offered us a 25% future cruise credit to use WHEN THE PANDEMIC WAS OVER as an incentive to sail again.  Now that the silliness truly has passed, we started looking at cruises for later this year and settled on an Atlantic crossing this fall.

 

Imagine our surprise when we talked to our Princess cruise coordinator and discussed applying our cruise credit to this itinerary.  "That cruise had to be booked AND sailed by the end of 2022 to get that credit." We NEVER received ANY notice that was the case.  We never received any reminder emails saying "hey, don't forget your cruise credit and you have to use it by the end of 2022."  Zip. Zero. Nada.  And according to the federal government, the pandemic still wasn't OVER by the end of 2022.

 

We were referred to a "Customer Care" rep earlier today to discuss the matter.  It was quite possibly the rudest "customer service" phone call I'd ever experienced in my life.  It was five minutes of snark, condescension, and disdain with no acceptable resolution to our issue and the agent refused to give us his last name or to route our call to a supervisor by claiming he WAS the supervisor.

 

Needless to say, we called our rep back immediately and cancelled the $30,000 cruise we were planning and assured her we wouldn't be sailing with Princess again.  
 

We had been kicking around the idea of trying some other lines.  This was a sign from the universe to go ahead and do that.

 

Flame away.

 

 

We had a cruise to Hawaii booked with Princess for March 2020.  We took the option of 225% of our fare in the form of a FCC.  Princess was very clear that we had to book and sail by the end of 2022.  Very clear.   We did not get a reminder to use the credits.  But we didn't need one as we knew we had to use them by the cut off date. 

[startedwithamouse]

16 hours ago, BBurnsG550 said:

After 17 cruises with Princess, we're done with this cruise line.

 

Let me explain.  We were scheduled for a 15 day Hawai'i cruise in April of 2020 when the pandemic forced Princess to cancel the trip.  We chose the refund option and Princess offered us a 25% future cruise credit to use WHEN THE PANDEMIC WAS OVER as an incentive to sail again.  Now that the silliness truly has passed, we started looking at cruises for later this year and settled on an Atlantic crossing this fall.

 

Imagine our surprise when we talked to our Princess cruise coordinator and discussed applying our cruise credit to this itinerary.  "That cruise had to be booked AND sailed by the end of 2022 to get that credit." We NEVER received ANY notice that was the case.  We never received any reminder emails saying "hey, don't forget your cruise credit and you have to use it by the end of 2022."  Zip. Zero. Nada.  And according to the federal government, the pandemic still wasn't OVER by the end of 2022.

 

We were referred to a "Customer Care" rep earlier today to discuss the matter.  It was quite possibly the rudest "customer service" phone call I'd ever experienced in my life.  It was five minutes of snark, condescension, and disdain with no acceptable resolution to our issue and the agent refused to give us his last name or to route our call to a supervisor by claiming he WAS the supervisor.

 

Needless to say, we called our rep back immediately and cancelled the $30,000 cruise we were planning and assured her we wouldn't be sailing with Princess again.  
 

We had been kicking around the idea of trying some other lines.  This was a sign from the universe to go ahead and do that.

 

Flame away.

 

 

You clearly didn't read when you took the cruise credit as you received well more than 25% in FCC for April 2020. This isn't the fault of Princess you also didn't read the expiration dates extending the Goodwill money. 

Edited March 29, 2023 by startedwithamouse

[NebrFarmer]

After reading all these comments I feel I should share my experience with Princess.  I took a very bad fall on the Crown in December.  We were on the way back to California and still had four days at sea.  I fractured my back and ankle.  It was a horrible experience but Princess did provide me with appropriate care.  I hope no one else ever have to experience this.  I received a $750 credit per person for a future cruise because of my response to customer service.  They appreciated the courtesy I showed them.  I'm still flabbergasted and have applied it to our August cruise

[Ombud]

@NebrFarmer OMG!! Hope you're healing!

 

Princess never sent my unused refundable $34 OBC for missing 2 ports due to weather. It was stuck so customer service (via CVP) just gave me 100 refundable OBC on my cruise in 18 days instead. Oddly that cruise also has all remaining goodwill FCC (redated when booked before restart)

 

I guess it's all about tone & timing?

[Paula_MacFan]

13 hours ago, BBurnsG550 said:

As I pointed out earlier, we never received a clear indication on the original offer that there was an expiration date....

 

How was this 'original offer' conveyed to you? In writing? 

[JimmyVWine]

13 hours ago, BBurnsG550 said:

• As I pointed out earlier, we never received a clear indication on the original offer that there was an expiration date,
• we had no reason to go on Princess.com during the pandemic,

As to the first statement, I doubt that you are the only human on the planet that was kept in the dark.  So, so, so many people were aware of the deadlines and they were discussed here at some length.  And you cannot pretend that you did not know about CC as a source of information and a place to ask questions, because you certainly found the site easily enough to let us all know that you are leaving, (with the giant assumption that anyone here cares.)

 

As to the second statement, I'd say that if a company is holding your money, that is reason enough to stay on top of the press releases and statements that it is making regarding the restart and rebookings, and the easiest place to find that information is on the website.  "I had no reason to find out what the company was doing in terms of refunds and extensions while they were holding my money" is simply not credible.  

[DHP1]

On 3/17/2023 at 9:03 PM,  PurpleTraveller said: 

Just recently I cancelled and rebooked a cruise to get a lower price. Before cancelling my planner told me that the two FCD's I had used to make the refundable deposit had expired and that I would forfeit them. I asked if the expiry date could be extended but was told no because I had already used them. I asked if they would be refunded but was told no because I had already used them and they had expired. I have spoken to numerous people at Princess and nothing I have said will change their mind that I have lost my money that I had given Princess in good faith. I have also sent emails and not had any response.

Expand  

 

Just wanted to give an update that I received a reply to one of my emails nine weeks after sending it. As well as an apology for the delay in replying to me, as a gesture of goodwill because I was given incorrect and unclear information when booking my original cruise, Princess is refunding my two FCD's. This is an unexpected but very good resolution for me and very much appreciated. I am very impressed with Princess' customer service in relation to this issue and happy to report so.

[CeCe_]

@BBurnsG550   We had expired FCC in the past and GS was happy to bring it back.  Though the amount was small even if we lost it; we won't be too upset about it.  If you can call GS again, you may get luck with a different agent.  Be admissible an oversight and see what they can help you.

Edited March 31, 2023 by CeCe_

[CeCe_]

On 3/28/2023 at 8:11 PM, BBurnsG550 said:

I'll miss the fettuccine alfredo though....

 

Honestly, I don't think it is the best on Princess.  We love Olive Garden better if we want to eat Fettuccine Alfredo.

[GonzoWCS]

On 3/29/2023 at 9:17 AM, disneyochem said:

The fettuccine alfredo is gone from the Princess favorites on the menu, but one can always ask for it!  I've been able to get it on my last four cruises with Princess.

This!

 

Cheers

[cr8tiv1]

I’ve never had trouble ordering Fettuccine Alfredo since the restart…on or off the menu.  Even got the cheese basket once.

 

It’s the Caesar salad with Kale….yuck.  Just ordered it without kale, but the croutons are substituted with chick peas.

 

On 3/29/2023 at 10:49 PM, tonit964 said:

Hoping you have an awesome cruise. I would never be loyal to just one cruise line. 

Oh, and the fettuccine alfredo is gone from the menu.

 

Edited March 31, 2023 by cr8tiv1