Have my parents been scammed by Princess Promotions?

[lahlah57]

2 hours ago, kywildcatfanone said:

If they are onboard a ship, tbey are representing Princess. I never said they were employees.

Many TA's will package pricing so packages are included, but the cost is built in.  Buyers need to beware of "free" items.

Perfect example of "if it sounds too good to be true.....it probably is".

[lahlah57]

2 hours ago, kywildcatfanone said:

If they are onboard a ship, tbey are representing Princess. I never said they were employees.

Many TA's will package pricing so packages are included, but the cost is built in.  Buyers need to beware of "free" items.

Perfect example of "if it sounds too good to be true.....it probably is".

[lahlah57]

My father always said.....any and all salesmen are not your friend and this includes all cruiselines!

They are not out to do you any favors or look out for your best interest!

They are only out for their bottom line $$$. It doesn't matter what level you are at......you are not besties! 👍

[PastryPal]

Thanks everyone for your responses!

 

They went to the FCD to book a particular cruise that they were interested in. They didn't go there to buy FCC. It was only after the cruise was booked that the guy started talking to them about hotels. As I already mentioned, my dad initially said they had it covered, they had been to London before and were going to stay at the same hotel. The guy started scrolling through hotels on a computer screen and told them that, through this program, there were hotels available in London for $59/night, white glove concierge service, blah, blah, blah. Upselling hard. Yes, @lahlah57!My dad remembers saying to the guy at one point that it sounded too good to be true. 

 

As several people said, yes, it should have been a red flag when they were asked for their credit card. But they were on a Princess ship and they thought that they were talking to a Princess employee. Thanks to @memoak  and others who have posted to this forum previously on this topic, they now know that the future cruise desk is staffed by O.N.E. employees. My dad also specifically asked the guy why he needed their credit card as Princess already had it. The guy did not say that it was because they were about to charge them a few thousand dollars. He said that it was to register them so everything would be in place, Princess Promotions would have their info and they could book a hotel once they got home. @skynight They didn't sign anything. 

 

Last night, I sent my parents a link to a video about this on Youtube by that Don guy and, when I spoke to my dad this morning, he said that he was calling his credit card company today. (They've watched his videos before, but, sadly, not that one.) There is actually $6000 of FCC in their Princess account - not $3000. It appears that they were actually signed up for the $7499 package, not the $3499 package as I suspected yesterday. The amount already charged must have been a deposit/first payment and they need to make sure that O.N.E. isn't able to charge their card for the rest!

 

I know social media often gets a bad rap, but if it wasn't for forums like this, we wouldn't have been able to figure out what had happened. 

[PastryPal]

I should have mentioned. . . They were on a 16 day cruise and they visited the FCD in the first week. By the time they returned home and saw the charge on their card, they were already outside Princess Promotions' 7 day cancellation period. 

[cr8tiv1]

29 minutes ago, PastryPal said:

I should have mentioned. . . They were on a 16 day cruise and they visited the FCD in the first week. By the time they returned home and saw the charge on their card, they were already outside Princess Promotions' 7 day cancellation period. 

 

I am sorry to hear of this development.  I hope that Canada will have an additional fail safe for your parents.  This will be an expensive lesson if they are unable to dispute this charge on their credit card.  

 

I do visit O.N.E. on a cruise to see what "cruise specials" they have or to purchase an FCD (future cruise deposit).  I want a hard copy of that transaction.  Anything else is a no go for me.  I have learned my best advocate is my TA and will not book anything while on the ship.  

 

I hope your parents can prove that they did not sign any agreements.  Princess would have to "prove" a contract was signed by them to process the payment.  Otherwise, I see it as an unauthorized charge to the card.

[keldaria]

5 hours ago, PastryPal said:

I should have mentioned. . . They were on a 16 day cruise and they visited the FCD in the first week. By the time they returned home and saw the charge on their card, they were already outside Princess Promotions' 7 day cancellation period. 

Yep, then it’s best to straight up dispute it with your credit card being outside the refund window.

 

i am thankful I did some basic level of research when I bought in. I knew I had a 7 day window to cancel/refund and I made sure I took the time review it before I was outside that window. It just sucks that this happened to your parents as I assume these sales reps know people won’t look at them until they get back home. I really wonder why Princess lets this happen and doesn’t force a 30 day refund window since even if it’s a separate company the choices princess promotions are making is directly impacting princess and its reputation with their highest value customers. Don’t tell me someone would buy a 7k or 15k package if they didn’t like the cruise line.

 

I myself opted for the 15k package (ouch). I had figured between the FCC/Onboard which I knew I’d need, and the hotel certificates I’d also likely use, that I should be fairly close to break even making the hotel credits a bonus. I had assumed they spent like FCC and that you just applied them to whatever booking on their portal that you wanted until they were all used up. Nope, the portal applies them as it sees fit which typically meant that it would apply enough credits to lower the cost of the hotel by about 10%. Meaning to burn up my 3,000 credits I’d need months of hotels stays. Conveniently the portal also seemed to be about 10% more expensive than direct booking with hotels so you do the math. 
 

I don’t mind that the certificates were capped at so much value per day, I expected that, nobody is going to give you a blank check to go hit a suite at the royalton. I don’t even really mind that their portal was more expensive than booking direct in most cases, that makes some sense because they need to make their money somehow. The reason it crossed into scam territory for me was purely the hotel credits and how they got applied. You can’t make me spend almost 30k to use the 3k hotel credits you sold me under the pretense they worked just like cruise credits in your portal.

 

i asked to cancel on day 6 and had my refund about 3 days later. Huge load off my mind.

[SCX22]

If you ever go to Future Cruise, you should always preface you conversation with "I'm not interested in the Princess Promotions Packages."  These packages are now a hard sell by the ONE staff because if they don't make their quotas, they don't get paid.  The old blood didn't realize this when they accepted this position and many are trying to leave.  The newbies are ruthless. 

 

Wish the US's consumer laws were as strong as Australia's and New Zealand's because Princess Promotions are banned from selling these packages to residents of these countries and these packages aren't even offered on cruises in these regions.

 

O.N.E. staff are looking for their next victim.  Future Cruise still has a short list of some pretty good deals if you can make them work into you schedule.  Other than that, the only thing worth your time is purchasing FCDs and even that can be done through the App, bypassing Future Cruise all together.

[ontheweb]

6 hours ago, PastryPal said:

Thanks everyone for your responses!

 

They went to the FCD to book a particular cruise that they were interested in. They didn't go there to buy FCC. It was only after the cruise was booked that the guy started talking to them about hotels. As I already mentioned, my dad initially said they had it covered, they had been to London before and were going to stay at the same hotel. The guy started scrolling through hotels on a computer screen and told them that, through this program, there were hotels available in London for $59/night, white glove concierge service, blah, blah, blah. Upselling hard. Yes, @lahlah57!My dad remembers saying to the guy at one point that it sounded too good to be true. 

 

As several people said, yes, it should have been a red flag when they were asked for their credit card. But they were on a Princess ship and they thought that they were talking to a Princess employee. Thanks to @memoak  and others who have posted to this forum previously on this topic, they now know that the future cruise desk is staffed by O.N.E. employees. My dad also specifically asked the guy why he needed their credit card as Princess already had it. The guy did not say that it was because they were about to charge them a few thousand dollars. He said that it was to register them so everything would be in place, Princess Promotions would have their info and they could book a hotel once they got home. @skynight They didn't sign anything. 

 

Last night, I sent my parents a link to a video about this on Youtube by that Don guy and, when I spoke to my dad this morning, he said that he was calling his credit card company today. (They've watched his videos before, but, sadly, not that one.) There is actually $6000 of FCC in their Princess account - not $3000. It appears that they were actually signed up for the $7499 package, not the $3499 package as I suspected yesterday. The amount already charged must have been a deposit/first payment and they need to make sure that O.N.E. isn't able to charge their card for the rest!

 

I know social media often gets a bad rap, but if it wasn't for forums like this, we wouldn't have been able to figure out what had happened. 

Again wishing the best of luck to your parents dealing with this. Generally credit card companies are quite willing to go to bat for their customers.

 

And referring to your original post---I don't think any of us hold any grudge with you for not having been on a cruise. (Though why not try one, other than the fear of being hooked. 🤣) And I think it is safe to say we all respect what you are doing trying to help out your parents.

[dreams_of_travel]

I was cold called last week by these sharks.  The call number showed up as Princess from Santa Clarita.  I thought it was legit Princess calling me about something, and then the spiel started.  I said, hold on, I know who you are and what you are selling, I am not interested.  The caller tried to 'splain it to me, and I finally had to say, I am hanging up now, I am not interested.   FWIW whenever I get a "sales" call I am very careful to NEVER say yes, or I agree in case they are recording the call, and will later try to say I agreed to whatever they are selling.

 

OP, I hope your parents are able to get this resolved, and get their money back.  These promotions people are clearly preying on people they are counting on to not read the fine print, or research the plan.  It is so shady, and we as consumers need to make sure Princess knows we don't like their tactics or the terrible plan they are promoting.

[cr8tiv1]

@keldaria Your detailed description is something that I know many have been waiting to read about. Thank you for sharing your carefully crafted first hand experience.

 

I welcome anyone who had a positive experience cashing in on Princess Promotions.  There seems to be very few examples of how this works in real life. 

 

Maybe the word is finally getting out (after a year?).  With all of the PR problems Princess has created for themselves, maybe they should reconsider farming out their Future Cruise Department to O.N.E.  Look at what happened to SHARE.  But then again, the SPA is still around.

 

I just found an old but current for 2024 (lol) daily calendar for "Who Moved My Cheese".  Yup, I am in that age/personality group that finds change really hard on one's psychic.  

[cr8tiv1]

*psyche" replaces psychic (although I am sometimes that too).

 

[burnabyjean]

50 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

I welcome anyone who had a positive experience cashing in on Princess Promotions.  There seems to be very few examples of how this works in real life.

I'm not sure how "positive" my experience has been. I was "sucked in" by the sales pitch just over a year ago. The package at that time was $7199 and I paid a $1440 deposit and have been paying monthly since. It came with $6000 future cruise credit, $300 in on board credit and the hotel vouchers that have been mentioned before. The problems started after I booked a cruise for this fall. As it had been almost a year at the time I booked the cruise, I forgot it had to be booked in US funds (I live in Canada), so I booked on the Canadian site in Canadian funds. When I called to get the credit applied, I was told they weren't able to do it. The only solution was to cancel our booking and start over, which would have been fine except that we're travelling with friends and had booked shore excursions, flights, etc. etc. After several phone calls, we did manage to get everything reconstructed, so we're good to go. I've used one of the hotel vouchers for the night before our cruise. We will likely use another hotel voucher next winter, so we won't lose anything for the experience, but I certainly won't do it again!!

[DallasGuy75219]

Last time I bought FCC was January 2023. I was able to leave a form in a drop box and the $100 was automatically charged to the credit card I had on file for my onboard changes.

 

Has the process changed and I now have to give a credit card directly to O.N.E.?

[SCX22]

Just now, DallasGuy75219 said:

Last time I bought FCC was January 2023. I was able to leave a form in a drop box and the $100 was automatically charged to the credit card I had on file for my onboard changes.

 

Has the process changed and I now have to give a credit card directly to O.N.E.?

 

Same process, but low morale and unhappiness of workers makes the outcome a toss up.  You need to check for the confirmation e-mail before you disembark.  If purchased through the App, confirmation e-mail usually comes within minutes.

[ebeluga]

Wow, thank you for this thread - education. I had thought it was odd that there are 2 additional people outside of the future cruise consultant's office working as consultants on my current cruise - Royal Princess. If they intend to charge people their credit cards without full disclosures of terms and conditions as well as written confirmation - it is a scam. And Princess let these people on the ship, sooner or later, there might be a class-action law suit or very bad publicity at the least.

[cr8tiv1]

Thanks @burnabyjean.  I would not consider your experience as a "positive" one.  I would love to see a glowing report on how great this promotion is...better than sliced bread.  

 

1 hour ago, burnabyjean said:

I'm not sure how "positive" my experience has been. I was "sucked in" by the sales pitch just over a year ago.

 

 so we won't lose anything for the experience, but I certainly won't do it again!!

 

I am old school.  I don't trust digital "stuff".  I've had digital and paper orders for FCDs non-appear. 

 

It is best to place your order at the beginning of the cruise with a representative...rather than deal with the crowds to chase down your order.  I will fill out the paper, but hand it to the person, wait for them to process it (not stick it on a pile and get to it later), and walk off with a hard copy confirmation.  

 

AND you do not have to hand over a credit card since it is charge to the credit card on file (not to your folio).  They have that information.  That is why it is so unnerving to think they will ask you for your credit card for a Princess Promotion deal.

 

1 hour ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

Last time I bought FCC was January 2023. I was able to leave a form in a drop box and the $100 was automatically charged to the credit card I had on file for my onboard changes.

 

Has the process changed and I now have to give a credit card directly to O.N.E.?

 

[ontheweb]

6 hours ago, ebeluga said:

Wow, thank you for this thread - education. I had thought it was odd that there are 2 additional people outside of the future cruise consultant's office working as consultants on my current cruise - Royal Princess. If they intend to charge people their credit cards without full disclosures of terms and conditions as well as written confirmation - it is a scam. And Princess let these people on the ship, sooner or later, there might be a class-action law suit or very bad publicity at the least.

Some thoughts that I had overnight. One, if as the OP has said his parents were told they only needed the credit card information to have it on file as opposed to what they were going to charge on the card, this truly sounds like credit card fraud. I wonder if Canada or maybe their province has the equivalent of an Attorney General's office that would look into this. Second, I find Princess very much at fault. They have not only allowed these predatory salespeople to operate onboard, but have also let themselves call themselves Princess Promotions, letting them use their trademarked brand name to let passengers think that they are really part of Princess.

[kamelia]

On 5/5/2024 at 12:55 AM, PastryPal said:

While they were onboard, they booked a European cruise.

It's not a scam per se, but definitely very shady and questionable business practices, for sure!  Based on our experience, I would suggest that your dad look at the cruise reservation they made to see if the Future Cruise Credit that would have part of the Princess Promotions package has been applied to the cruise they booked (substantially more than the $100 per person Future Cruise Deposit).  If so, it will likely have to be removed before the credit card company can process the cancellation.  If push comes to shove with Princess, your dad has every right to stand firm on having purchased Future Cruise Deposits to be used for the cruise, and NOT Future Cruise Credits from the Princess Promotions package.  ONE employees are very savvy about playing loosey-goosey with those two terms, so I hope this clarity will help your dad in making his case that he did NOT authorize the Princess Promotions transaction!  Best of luck!

[sandancer]

I’ll be very interested to see if this is operating on our Regal Princess British Isles cruise this summer. We have very different consumer laws here in the UK but I have to admit that we would probably have done the same as the OPs parents. We would have 100% assumed that a company called Princess Promotions was in fact part of the cruise line. 

[DCThunder]

11 hours ago, SCX22 said:

If you ever go to Future Cruise, you should always preface you conversation with "I'm not interested in the Princess Promotions Packages."  These packages are now a hard sell by the ONE staff because if they don't make their quotas, they don't get paid.  The old blood didn't realize this when they accepted this position and many are trying to leave.  The newbies are ruthless. 

 

Wish the US's consumer laws were as strong as Australia's and New Zealand's because Princess Promotions are banned from selling these packages to residents of these countries and these packages aren't even offered on cruises in these regions.

 

O.N.E. staff are looking for their next victim.  Future Cruise still has a short list of some pretty good deals if you can make them work into you schedule.  Other than that, the only thing worth your time is purchasing FCDs and even that can be done through the App, bypassing Future Cruise all together.

Maybe they need a young Alec Baldwin to invigorate them:  Bing Videos (Very NSFW)

 

 

[Ellipooh]

1 hour ago, DCThunder said:

Maybe they need a young Alec Baldwin to invigorate them:  Bing Videos (Very NSFW)

 

 

Fantastic clip, god those guys were marvelous - every one of them

[Arizona Wildcat]

21 hours ago, walkingsoon said:

It meets my definition of a scam, though I imagine they've kept it on the legal side of the line.

 

Certainly it's exploitative and it presents a bad look for Princess.

 

I try to be polite in dealing with strangers, but salesmen pushing a bad product that they know are rarely in the best interests of the customer deserve harsh feedback. Didn't strangle them. That's pretty polite, right?

 

 

Does this meet the legal definition of a scam?  Not likely (sadly).  Is what happened unethical?  Absolutely.

Upsells happen hundreds of times a day in every state.  The salespeople are "slick" and gloss over the required explanation.  The target or mark almost always doesn't gully understand what is being offered.  "Older" people are often targeted - I am 75+ so easy on age criticisms  - as they tend to have money and are more easily confused.

As said, notify Princess in writing to cancell.  Email the Executive offices to confirm the cancelation .  Notify their credit card company and visit the bank (if possible). Do not wait.

 

 

[TRLD]

10 hours ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

Last time I bought FCC was January 2023. I was able to leave a form in a drop box and the $100 was automatically charged to the credit card I had on file for my onboard changes.

 

Has the process changed and I now have to give a credit card directly to O.N.E.?

You can buy them directly using the App. No need to fill out paper form.

[DCThunder]

40 minutes ago, Ellipooh said:

 

Fantastic clip, god those guys were marvelous - every one of them

David Mamet is a genius playwright and almost every heavyweight actor of the early 1980s was in the movie.

 

BTW, you should read Mamet's recent Hollywood memoir:  "Everywhere an Oink Oink".