Cancelled Cruise Planner item on a paid up cruise? Better double-check your cruise invoice

[kands6191]

When the Black Friday sales hit, I cancelled the drink package and Deal cards that I had for my Summit 12/2/23 cruise.  Then I repurchased at the sale price. I did the same for two other future cruises I have. I checked my credit card the next day and saw that they had refunded the drink package per person for the April 2024 cruise so two refunds that equaled the original charge.  For the 12/2/23 cruise, I only saw one refund for half the amount as well as the Deal refund.  So I waited a couple of days and there was the other half of the refund.

 

Yesterday I put in a MoveUp bid.  Today I went into Manage My Reservation to see if my room number had changed and I saw a warning that I needed to pay my balance of 389.90 so my cruise isn't cancelled!  At first I wasn't too concerned because I had a zero balance email from Celebrity and I had read on CC that this has happened to other people.  But then I decided I had better call since my cruise is sailing in a week.  Don't need any issues.  I called the Blue Chip Club since this was a free casino cruise that I upgraded.  At first he said, we show a zero balance and where are you seeing this.  Well then he put me on hold and said he saw the problem but didn't know why.  He emailed me a new booking confirmation showing the amount paid was reduced to reflect a balance owing of 389.90.  While I was holding again, it came to me that the 389.90 amount was the same as the one person drink package price that took longer to be refunded.  I told him of my suspicion that Celebrity applied the drink package refund amount to my actual cruise balance.  After about 45 minutes of holding, he told me that he had contacted the Resolution department and that is exactly what happened.  Their solution was to refund the 389.90 to my credit card and then he would call me back in 1-2 hours to charge me the 389.90 again. He said that first I would get an email that showed an invoice for 389.90 and then he would call me. I made him promise that he would call and he confirmed my cell phone number.  I was at an outdoor holiday event by this time and I carried that phone in my hand the whole time so I wouldn't miss the call. 

 

After 2 1/2 hours and no call, plus it was 5:45 PM Central Time, I decided to call back.  I got a new man who read all of the notes.  He said that the Resolution team put notes that they had emailed the Accounting department to expedite the refund and that they can't take any payment until the refund is processed.  He said that the notes said if the customer calls and wants to make payment, do not take it until the refund has been processed.  He said they are monitoring my reservation since my sail date is 12/2 - a week away!  He said he understood how unsure I was about all of this but he assured me that I would be OK to sail.  He said he was putting me on his call list just in case the first guy never called me to resolve this.  I told him that I was already untrusting since the first guy promised that he would call in 1-2 hours and he didn't.  He should have at least to explain that it would take longer than originally promised.  This agent agreed and said it was a promised callback and he said he would let their supervisors know for coaching.   He said the Resolution department set my final payment date out so that the cruise wouldn't be cancelled.  I did notice that when I logged in to check it, the warning wasn't there anymore although it did show a balance due.  

 

So now I am stressed, and there's nothing I can do is wait and have faith in Celebrity.  I can hear you all laughing at that right now!  I did check my other cruises and they were OK. 

[lv2cruisgrl]

No surprise strange things have been happening to many.  I pre purchased spa appointments for my husband and I.  When we went to the spa we had our appointments and after realized they charged us a additional $100. We went to the service desk and they called the spa and got it removed.  So glad I had my emails proving what I paid. So watch your spa charges!

[mahasamatman]

Doing anything at all to a paid cruise can apparently drop your discounts.

[LB_NJ]

This exact same thing happened to me about a month ago.

 

Got a refund for a cancelled excursion and they said I owed more money for the cruise.

 

Took about an hour on the phone to clear it up.

[Lastdance]

I use OBC for my spa treatments etc, but book any excursions independently. That really helps with keeping track of things; however, OBC will not be that plentiful with Celebrity’s new plan, so I will definitely change my spa habits, as their prices are extremely high.  

 

Yes, Celebrity has caused me grief over OBC, so I always have my hard copies.  One time, my TA’s OBC was not credited until five days into my cruise...not fun spending time checking on everything.  Of course, it has always been taken care of sufficiently, but not without a hassle.  

 

I am sure things will work out for the OP, but it is still frustration and worry.

[kands6191]

52 minutes ago, LB_NJ said:

This exact same thing happened to me about a month ago.

 

Got a refund for a cancelled excursion and they said I owed more money for the cruise.

 

Took about an hour on the phone to clear it up.

I have read other similar posts. I think a problem for me is that it was a holiday weekend.  The Accounting Department is probably closed and the other staff may not be the most experienced.  It seems like they want to issue a refund against the drink package, then have me pay the same amount against the cruise. This seems goofy but maybe when the Accounting team opens tomorrow they can just debit one and credit the other without going through all the actual charging and refunding. Sounds like that's what they've done for others.

[LB_NJ]

3 hours ago, kands6191 said:

I have read other similar posts. I think a problem for me is that it was a holiday weekend.  The Accounting Department is probably closed and the other staff may not be the most experienced.  It seems like they want to issue a refund against the drink package, then have me pay the same amount against the cruise. This seems goofy but maybe when the Accounting team opens tomorrow they can just debit one and credit the other without going through all the actual charging and refunding. Sounds like that's what they've done for others.

It is the famous Celebrity IT department at work AGAIN!

 

Once you get through to the right department they seem to know what to do.  Make sure that AFTER they say they  have fixed it you have them email you a copy of the invoice and check it BEFORE you get off the phone.

[kands6191]

Follow up:  After receiving no call back on Monday, I called the Blue Chip Club on Tuesday. I spent over 3 hours on the phone between holding for them to answer and them working on the issue.  I did get a call back a little later from a rep from the BCC Resolutions dept.  He said he had actually called the Accounting department even though their usual method was email which they had supposedly done on Saturday.  They still said they needed to do the same thing - issue a refund and take a new payment for the same amount.  He asked me to be patient as the refund process had to be done first and takes 24-48 hours to go through the "workflow" and it has to be done before they can take payment.  He also offered us $50 OBC for all of my troubles.  Well, it didn't take 24 hours because he called me back this morning to say the refund was processed and he took payment.  Then I held until I saw my zero balance booking confirmation.  I don't actually see the refund yet on my end but he assured me I would see it within 7 days.  

So I learned that any time I do anything in the Cruise Planner I need to go into Manage Booking to make sure nothing on that end was affected.  And always go with the "Trust but Verify" attitude and be sure to keep calling back.  Now off to finish packing.