I need to vent.....

[canadarocks]

I am officially stunned. After three different attempts over the last two weeks to contact someone through Princess's "Live Chat" (OMG what a total joke that is), I decided today to bite the bullet and call. I allotted myself quite a bit of time. A bit of backstory.... my husband and I had a little bit of OBC through a FCD that I promptly used to book two Princess shore excursions. Easy breezy. I then booked a few more excursions that I decided to cancel. And the fiasco begins.

 

Princess owes me $85, pure and simple. $64.95 on my account and $20.05 on my husband's. Every single "dummy" excursion booking shows the exact same thing. Credit is there, blatantly. 

 

And yet I spent 90 MINUTES online with a very well-spoken and "couldn't be nicer" Princess agent who put me on hold three different times to figure out my issue. After the 3RD time on hold, he returned .... to tell me that "his shore excursion team says we are not owed a refund". You all don't know me, but trust me, I am known for my patience. I worked in Customer Service my whole life as do my children now. I could not have been nicer to Andre (his name) throughout the multiple holds. At this 90 minute breaking point, I demanded to speak to a supervisor. In a huff he agreed. Andre had seen on his screen EXACTLY what I was seeing.

 

After another 10+ minutes, a "Guest Services Supervisor" greeted me. The most polished corporate voice I think I've ever heard. Proceeded to solve my issue in less than three minutes. Told me how complicated it was for "newbies" to understand what it takes years to figure out where "credits and shore excursion bookings are concerned" And yet what I had on my booking screen and what Andre had on his, totally showed my $64.95 and my husband's $20.05 credits. So so not complicated.

 

At that point the supervisor said "Is there anything else I can help you with?"..... my response.... Perhaps some compensation for the 4 separate holds and 90+ minutes that I have been on this phone call, that you just solved in less than three minutes!?!  

 

"Ah, I see here that you are Platinum with Princess. Good to know that you will continue to enjoy those benefits. There's nothing else I can do for you today. Please respond to the survey after this call". Dial Tone...... no  survey. 

 

My biggest regret... I did not get that "Supervisor's" name. It all happened so fast, and I was frankly so stunned that I didn't think to do it.

 

Supposedly the $85 that I was due from before I called is now going to being credited back to my credit card....... And that is supposed to be sufficient....

 

Edited January 12 by canadarocks

[AZjohn]

We all hit the breaking point and I think you lasted 85 more minutes than I could😊.

 

I hope you feel better after venting but, I mostly hope you see the credit on your cc.

 

Cheers

[canadarocks]

Trust me..... money owed to me makes me last a helluva lot longer. 

[ontheweb]

I hope your answers on the survey let them know how dissatisfied you are with the customer service.

[canadarocks]

2 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

I hope your answers on the survey let them know how dissatisfied you are with the customer service.

Ya, you would think so..... Except the phone call went straight to a dial tone. No Survey. 😠

[azbirdmom]

Getting money refunded on excursions seems to be hit or miss.  Sometimes I've gotten the excess paid over OBC refunded back to my credit card in a few days, other times I see it as refundable OBC when I check my folio after boarding.  Not sure why this happens but it's another "feature" of cruising with Princess.

[canadarocks]

Good to know moving forward. A "feature" of Princess that I wasn't aware of, and not a reputable one. 

[azbirdmom]

10 minutes ago, canadarocks said:

Good to know moving forward. A "feature" of Princess that I wasn't aware of, and not a reputable one. 

 

Many of the recent "features" aren't ones that I'm particularly fond of.

[Coral]

16 minutes ago, canadarocks said:

Good to know moving forward. A "feature" of Princess that I wasn't aware of, and not a reputable one. 

I have run into this multiple times. It has been so frustrating as the people on the phone do not understand.

 

I personally have never had it automatically refunded. I have had to call and beg.

 

I understand your frustration.

[canadarocks]

Thanks @Coral (for this and for a long ago gift you gave me 🤗).

 

The credit card refund BETTER be forthcoming! ...... hell hath no fury and all that..... 🙂

Edited January 12 by canadarocks

[trin880]

Oh boy...I just canceled one of our excursions maybe 4-5 days ago...It was paid by CC. Are you saying that I need to contact Princess to get my refund? Still nothing on my CC.

[canadarocks]

1 minute ago, trin880 said:

Oh boy...I just canceled one of our excursions maybe 4-5 days ago...It was paid by CC. Are you saying that I need to contact Princess to get my refund? Still nothing on my CC.

If you used OBC or FCC's to pay for any or part of any excursions....I would assume a phone call is needed. 

[trin880]

7 minutes ago, canadarocks said:

If you used OBC or FCC's to pay for any or part of any excursions....I would assume a phone call is needed. 

I paid for excursions in 2 sets. First one for 1 excursion paid with OBC and CC. Second one is with CC only and I have canceled one of the excursion from this second set. What do you think?

[dog]

I still can’t understand my refund:

 

2 charges on my Amex at $78 each on same day.

cancelled both .

1 refund to Amex for $86

&

1 refund to old Visa for $70.

 

I did not use the Visa for these Specialty dining purchases.

 

Princess called me and just could not admit they refunded to wrong credit card.

[canadarocks]

31 minutes ago, trin880 said:

I paid for excursions in 2 sets. First one for 1 excursion paid with OBC and CC. Second one is with CC only and I have canceled one of the excursion from this second set. What do you think?

I think, based on my experience, you will probably need to call. 

[canadarocks]

5 minutes ago, dog said:

I still can’t understand my refund:

 

2 charges on my Amex at $78 each on same day.

cancelled both .

1 refund to Amex for $86

&

1 refund to old Visa for $70.

 

I did not use the Visa for these Specialty dining purchases.

 

Princess called me and just could not admit they refunded to wrong credit card.

Wow. So the idiocy extends. ☹️

[Mud_Shark]

It does not matter if you used OBC to book a certain excursion and then CC to book a different one which you now wish to cancel.  Cancellations always (as of about a year ago) are returned as OBC first until the original amount of OBC has been returned to the account.  Only then will any further refunds be made to your CC.

 

So say you had $100 OBC each and booked 2 excursions each.  The first one was for $100 each and was paid for by your OBC.  The second one was for $50 each and was paid for by credit card.  If you cancel either, the refund will be made to your OBC account.  Only if you cancel both will you receive a credit on your card.

[MacMadame]

4 hours ago, canadarocks said:

Ya, you would think so..... Except the phone call went straight to a dial tone. No Survey. 😠

Same thing happened to me. But I called the CVP line as I've heard the horror stories about using chat or calling the general CS line.

[dog]

8 hours ago, canadarocks said:

Wow. So the idiocy extends. ☹️

And I’ll vent with you.

I booked - attempted to book on the Star Princess on the website. Got through to credit card- it took all my information and no reservation. At this point the cred card hasn’t been charged and the S9 suite is available on the website.

I’m done messing around

[Coral]

6 hours ago, Mud_Shark said:

It does not matter if you used OBC to book a certain excursion and then CC to book a different one which you now wish to cancel.  Cancellations always (as of about a year ago) are returned as OBC first until the original amount of OBC has been returned to the account.  Only then will any further refunds be made to your CC.

 

So say you had $100 OBC each and booked 2 excursions each.  The first one was for $100 each and was paid for by your OBC.  The second one was for $50 each and was paid for by credit card.  If you cancel either, the refund will be made to your OBC account.  Only if you cancel both will you receive a credit on your card.

This has not been my experience.

[Coral]

9 hours ago, dog said:

I still can’t understand my refund:

 

2 charges on my Amex at $78 each on same day.

cancelled both .

1 refund to Amex for $86

&

1 refund to old Visa for $70.

 

I did not use the Visa for these Specialty dining purchases.

 

Princess called me and just could not admit they refunded to wrong credit card.

Oh don't get me started!!! On my April 2020 COVID cruise refund (which was a nightmare and took forever). I paid air with one card and cruise with another. Princes refunded weird amounts to the credit card which I paid for air (higher than air). It made no sense and my refund was $1300 less than what I paid. It was literally a nightmare and I spent months speaking with Princess trying to get this figured out. In the end, I lost $1300. So yes - they will refund a different card.

[Al2863]

Same happened to me! I finally just called my credit card company to dispute charges🤯

[mnocket]

15 hours ago, canadarocks said:

Supposedly the $85 that I was due from before I called is now going to being credited back to my credit card....... And that is supposed to be sufficient....

Wouldn't it be wonderful if companies started giving compensation for poor customer service at their call centers? Yep, but does anyone actually believe this will ever happen?  

Edited January 12 by mnocket

[13cheermom]

Yes and hope you never use Princess gift cards to make any of these payments, because that is another nightmare to recover refunds on cancellations.  I finally just filed it away and went back about 4 months later to check the balances on the original gift cards.  It isn’t worth my sanity to get but so worked up about any situation, lol.  Good Luck to all!

[jwattle]

18 hours ago, 13cheermom said:

Yes and hope you never use Princess gift cards to make any of these payments, because that is another nightmare to recover refunds on cancellations.  I finally just filed it away and went back about 4 months later to check the balances on the original gift cards.  It isn’t worth my sanity to get but so worked up about any situation, lol.  Good Luck to all!

We had no issues with ours; just waited a month, then called in and asked for the last four numbers of the cards that they refunded to... 🙂