Paid in full for cruise, now received balance due

[Buddysmom10]

I booked a Celebrity cruise on 5/25 for August (less than 90 days out)  paid in full, received confirmation, zero balance, no problem with credit card etc.  But today I received a 2 am email stating a balance due of $420 or they will cancel my cruise "by the due date below" but there is no due date mentioned.

 

I tried calling them but they are closed!!  It says they are open from 9 am on weekends but not sure if they will be open because of the holiday...

 

I haven't traveled Celebrity in nine years and this is not a good start.  Anyone have this happen, was it a "glitch" or what??

 

Thanks!

[Georgia_Peaches]

I have read of similar situations here. People had to call to get it straightened out. Did you put something in your cart in your cruise planner that needs to be paid for?  Or perhaps there was a change in port fees?  Unfortunately, you’ll just have to call them. 

[mayleeman]

I thought you can get hold of Celebrity 24/7? What number are you trying?

[Buddysmom10]

It's the number in the email 888-751-7804. 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

 

Did you book with a travel agent or Celebrity directly? 

if you book with a travel agent , you have deal with them 

if with Celebrity call at 9am 

 The cruise in August , a lot of time to straight out any problem 

[Silkroad]

34 minutes ago, Buddysmom10 said:

I booked a Celebrity cruise on 5/25 for August (less than 90 days out)  paid in full, received confirmation, zero balance, no problem with credit card etc.  But today I received a 2 am email stating a balance due of $420 or they will cancel my cruise "by the due date below" but there is no due date mentioned.

 

I tried calling them but they are closed!!  It says they are open from 9 am on weekends but not sure if they will be open because of the holiday...

 

I haven't traveled Celebrity in nine years and this is not a good start.  Anyone have this happen, was it a "glitch" or what??

 

Thanks!

Ignore balance due alerts in this case. It takes up to 10 days for Celebrity accounting to finish posting credits and debits for discounts and AI perks. This is transparent to us unless we book after final payment. The same thing has happened with my bookings made after final payment (including my booking for a cruise last month). Don’t worry🙂

Edited May 27, 2023 by Silkroad

[ymncruise]

I’ve had this happen before. Somehow my offers dropped and it showed them as a balance due. They fixed it when I called. I save my invoices in a file so I can compare them if something goes wrong. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 hour ago, Silkroad said:

Ignore balance due alerts in this case. It takes up to 10 days for Celebrity accounting to finish posting credits and debits for discounts and AI perks. This is transparent to us unless we book after final payment. The same thing has happened with my bookings made after final payment (including my booking for a cruise last month). Don’t worry🙂

 

After reading @Jim_Iain thread where X was close to cancelling everything including all their reservations I would call just to be sure; I've also had a couple of issues with X before that could only be fixed by me calling in and bringing it to their attention

[marshacruises]

We had this happen to us twice on the same booking.  We booked a cruise online directly through Celebrity after the "balance due date" so we paid in full when we booked it.  I always keep a copy of the emails and online receipt for payment in my computer's travel file and am glad that I did.  After about a month, we got the first email saying that we owed over $6000US, so we called and the Celebrity representative apologized and got the balance due back to $0US.  Then we got another balance due email two weeks before the cruise.  The second Celebrity representative was snarky, saying that we must owe for something and kept leaving the line to check something else.  I got the feeling that he was not a Celebrity employee but a contractor who had no idea of what to do.  He also never apologized for our inconvenience.  When he finally got the balance back to $0US, I pointed out to him that he did not apologize or treat me with the same respect and curiosity that I usually get from the Celebrity representatives.  He still did not offer any apologies.  Oh well, at least we got the balance due taken off.  I did print the most recent statement showing that we had paid all and put it into the folder I take on trips just in case there was a problem.  I sure did not want to arrive at the terminal and find that we could not get on the ship since we had not paid some balance.  My advice, give Celebrity a call this coming week, be prepared to spend a lot of time on hold since they are closed an extra day for the holidays, and have had a number of specials offered this weekend.  

[Guest 4-2-N-8]

I just paid in full for an upcoming sailing.

 

I'd hate to think that some accounting error might completely cancel a valid (correctly and timely paid in full) reservation.

 

Of course, I do have in hand my up-to-date invoice from Celebrity via my TA.

 

Sounds like I'll need to have the invoice bronzed and on hand in case of any concern about payment while embarking.

 

Whew! Finally, something more to gripe about that isn't a cheeseburger. 🦖

Edited May 27, 2023 by 4-2-N-8

[Ex-Airbalancer]

I wondered did they call Celebrity? Will we ever know ? 

[Rina155]

I think they have to wait to call until next week. I hope they are able to get all straightened out. Has to be stressful for sure. 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

9 minutes ago, Rina155 said:

I think they have to wait to call until next week. I hope they are able to get all straightened out. Has to be stressful for sure. 

Why would they need to wait ? 

[Rina155]

1 minute ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Why would they need to wait ? 

I think they said they called and the line said they were only open M-F but I could be totally mistaken. 🤷

[Mark_K]

8 minutes ago, Rina155 said:

I think they said they called and the line said they were only open M-F but I could be totally mistaken. 🤷

The original post mentioned them being open from 9:00AM on weekends.

[Treasure Hunter]

This happened to me too! They have a terrible system. I booked thru casino and paid in full. A month later I saw that the. Ed configuration was wrong. That’s all it took to drop some of my perks( offers). I panicked. I called and was on hold a long time. They fixed it and said they never cancel your cruise but you have to call to get it fixed. Or pay additional unwarranted amounts! Crazy stuff. Never happens to me on Princess or NCL

[Bill Miller]

When the Celebrity IT department and the Accounting department work together.

[DD]

They're definitely open today - I just got off the phone with them.

[Rina155]

32 minutes ago, Mark_K said:

The original post mentioned them being open from 9:00AM on weekends.

Yep I was totally mistaken. Thanks!

[Buddysmom10]

OP here.  I did call them but my hold time was estimated to be 94 minutes.... I'll try tomorrow.  But I did go through it line by line to try to compare the original vs the "additional $420 owed."

 

When I booked there was the total cost including the drinks/wifi and tips package which I bought.  There was no choice to pay less than the total amount due and I was fine with that  (I think that was a requirement since it was less than 90 days out??) 

 

There's a bunch of extra plusses and minuses on $420 balance owed confirmation which is confusing.  There is one for tips for $420 so I think I am being charged twice for that since it was already included in the tips/wifi/drinks package. 

 

I'll update when I get an answer.   

[Treasure Hunter]

Call as soon as they open. Plug in your phone and just be prepared to wait. You’ll get it straightened out.

[mickeysgal]

We just talked to them today- we had a long wait time, but they are definitely answering the phones. Call and straighten this out.

 

[Buddysmom10]

OP update!   I called first thing this morning, no wait. The guy saw the problem right away; I had bought the tips/wifi/drinks package but they charged me for tips again. He fixed the problem right away and sent me a new zero-balance invoice.  I was on the phone a total of five minutes!  YAY! 

[KEN31VA]

I don't understand why anyone would book directly with Celebrity.  This is the kind of issue that a travel agent would resolve for you.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

29 minutes ago, Buddysmom10 said:

OP update!   I called first thing this morning, no wait. The guy saw the problem right away; I had bought the tips/wifi/drinks package but they charged me for tips again. He fixed the problem right away and sent me a new zero-balance invoice.  I was on the phone a total of five minutes!  YAY! 

Glad it was an easy fix 😁