Scam or just illegal?

[pzsdd6]

2 minutes ago, Outerdog said:

 

Where did they say that?

Lol….touche’

pretty much every commercial

[dog]

10 minutes ago, pzsdd6 said:

I appreciate your viewpoint, however after being in engineering and IT for my entire career, a problem as obvious as this one and the fact that it’s as well know and for quite some time, should have been resolved, and if it hasn’t, then it’s done on purpose.

Stick around awhile. This is minor!

oh,

I just had to pay for my specialty dining which is included in my Premier Package, generously gifted to me this week.  Another glitch, I believe.

[sandancer]

I used the website rather than the app and was able to book both of our Premium dinners without charge. I read that some time ago here on CC and decided to give it a go and it worked. 

Edited May 25 by sandancer

[TRLD]

51 minutes ago, pzsdd6 said:

I appreciate your viewpoint, however after being in engineering and IT for my entire career, a problem as obvious as this one and the fact that it’s as well know and for quite some time, should have been resolved, and if it hasn’t, then it’s done on purpose.

Except  they certainly went the fix route several months ago, only to have the "fix" cause more problems due to erratic behavior. Some of which was due to issues in how the app accounts were initially set up.

 

To consistently fix the issue they will have to do a major redesign of their entire system of what is managed by the app, how it integrates with the corporate system and the shipboard system  For example when you are between cruises the app deals with a land based system, when on board ship it deals with the ship board system and which deals with all of the ship board functions.

 

To get this to work they would have to build the functionality of a portion of ship board system into both the app system and the HQ system, then change the data transfer mechanism to to include those system loading additional data into the ship board system. 

 

Last time they tried it operated erratically. Probably because of the way some accounts were set up in the app system (same problem that results in the app not correctly recognizing ones status correctly when not on ship)

 

I would rather have the current problem where I know if I book in advance I have to pay and get refunded on board or choose to not book until on board, than a fix that sometimes works, sometimes still requires payment, sometime loses the entire reservation.

[Host CJSKIDS]

1 hour ago, pzsdd6 said:

And there you have it folks!

Thank you for your comments. 
I was told by several people that know, Princess does this on purpose. They want to give it back to you as OBC so that you will spend it on the ship, that way they make money 2 ways. They go out of their way to make it difficult. Not that this is anything new but it’s all about the money, they get it up front as much as possible and then make it a pure nightmare to get your money back. Some things never change.

 

Cancel your dinners and you will get a refund to your credit card fairly quickly. 

 

It take a day or so for the package to load into your account. Then you can rebook your dinners either on the website or on the phone if the app doesn't work.

 

I just did this recently and it was very easy.

[pzsdd6]

5 minutes ago, TRLD said:

Except  they certainly went the fix route several months ago, only to have the "fix" cause more problems due to erratic behavior. Some of which was due to issues in how the app accounts were initially set up.

 

To consistently fix the issue they will have to do a major redesign of their entire system of what is managed by the app, how it integrates with the corporate system and the shipboard system  For example when you are between cruises the app deals with a land based system, when on board ship it deals with the ship board system and which deals with all of the ship board functions.

 

To get this to work they would have to build the functionality of a portion of ship board system into both the app system and the HQ system, then change the data transfer mechanism to to include those system loading additional data into the ship board system. 

 

Last time they tried it operated erratically. Probably because of the way some accounts were set up in the app system (same problem that results in the app not correctly recognizing ones status correctly when not on ship)

 

I would rather have the current problem where I know if I book in advance I have to pay and get refunded on board or choose to not book until on board, than a fix that sometimes works, sometimes still requires payment, sometime loses the entire reservation.

As a retired global director, I’ll tell you what I told all of my managers…

”If you can describe a problem in detail, then you can solve it!”

[pzsdd6]

5 minutes ago, Host CJSKIDS said:

 

Cancel your dinners and you will get a refund to your credit card fairly quickly. 

 

It take a day or so for the package to load into your account. Then you can rebook your dinners either on the website or on the phone if the app doesn't work.

 

I just did this recently and it was very easy.

Thanks for that suggestion. I just may have to do that, especially in light of all the help Princess is giving me…..lol

[Ombud]

If wanting Sabatinis,  I've never seen it fully booked. And Crown does not book out all their tables ahead of time. So if you're flexible on which night you want @pzsdd6 I'd do it onboard with the maitre'd. Got exactly what I wanted that way -- appetizer, 1st course, dessert = Sabatinis; Alfredos pizza main course. 3 vegetables & avocado with pesto sauce instead of marinara 

[TRLD]

2 minutes ago, pzsdd6 said:

As a retired global director, I’ll tell you what I told all of my managers…

”If you can describe a problem in detail, then you can solve it!”

As a former CIO  one also recognizes that there are priorities, budgets and other issues. A work around exists.

 

As they found a few months ago an attempt to create a fix without proper consideration of the entire system can create more issues then it fixes 

 

Especially when they are having to deal with major changes in operations, package design, dining design, new ship board benefit classifications. I expect this fix is well down their priority list compared to other things we have seen.

 

I am not even sure how well they even understand all of their integration issues since those three system were designed at different time and the app was a contracted  development. 

 

One problem for example is that when one sets up an App account for the first time, if the data entered did not exactly match the data in the Corp system, a new Captain  Circle Number was assigned by the App. This number is only used by the App system and does not transfer to onboard. But as a result the app would not pick up proper CC status off ship (would always show blue in app status), but proper status on board ship. Not major because the only real impact was in getting discount on internet purchases made in advance. One could pay full price and get refund on board or just wait to buy until onboard.

 

If one has the problem they can call in and get it fixed. This was a fairly widespread problem due to some early connection hiccups. Possible to do universal fix by comparing Corp and app db but no sign that they have ever taken the effort to fix it.

 

As one version of an old saying goes Never assume malice (intent) when it can be explained by stupidity (incompetence)

[pzsdd6]

2 minutes ago, TRLD said:

As one version of an old saying goes Never assume malice (intent) when it can be explained by stupidity (incompetence)

Well said. I tend to believe incompetence, never really thought it was malice, just that this problem only benefits Princess that’s why it is still here.

[JamieLogical]

You can book for free through the app, but you have to wait about 48 hours after booking Premier. If you are unwilling to wait, you can book and pay the fee and have it credited to your account as REFUNDABLE OBC. In my case, for my Enchanted Princess sailing in May, we booked in late March, so most of the specialty dining times were already booked up. We went ahead and booked Crown Grill for a fee and then waited for the Princess Premier to "process" on our account to book Catch By Rudi because that one had more availability. We received the OBC once onboard and after not spending it, received and cashed a check for the refunded amount about one week after returning from the cruise.

[ecs66]

A general comment from a Luddite.  I miss the days when you called Princess, talked to a competent non-ESL person focused on customer service, completed the Personalizer online, got your documents in the mail, and cruised.  Oh,yeah ... and a cruise card.

 

I'm sick of the nonsense of off-shore customer "service", specialty dining, Medallions, biometrics, and apps.

 

But that's just me.

[dog]

1 hour ago, dog said:

Stick around awhile. This is minor!

oh,

I just had to pay for my specialty dining which is included in my Premier Package, generously gifted to me this week.  Another glitch, I believe.

Update:

 

checked my AMEX--

$90 charge

$90 credit

 

must be this specialty dining I booked under premier package.

 

glitch?

 

[HotRoot]

2 hours ago, pzsdd6 said:

Stick to your guns, they are still stink!
Try Celebrity, that’s where we have been for the past 4 years, not a single problem or regret.

Maybe you should go back to Celebrity.  We tried them years ago.  Nothing but problems during the entire cruise.  It was very easy for us to decide to never try Celebrity again.  There are lots of cruise lines out there.  

[TRLD]

21 minutes ago, ecs66 said:

A general comment from a Luddite.  I miss the days when you called Princess, talked to a competent non-ESL person focused on customer service, completed the Personalizer online, got your documents in the mail, and cruised.  Oh,yeah ... and a cruise card.

 

I'm sick of the nonsense of off-shore customer "service", specialty dining, Medallions, biometrics, and apps.

 

But that's just me.

We have run into very few issues recently. Most of the teething problems that were present right after the restart seem to be gone  The biggest issues recently seem to be more related to recent changes in package design, and the very recent decision to change dining structure fleet wide.

 

We very much like features in the medallion app and miss it functionality when on other cruise lines.

 

We pretty much always book online and have not had any reason to actually talk with anyone in customer service.

[pzsdd6]

1 hour ago, ecs66 said:

I'm sick of the nonsense of off-shore customer "service"

This one aspect alone shows how much the cruise line values its customers. It’s not just the cruise companies, they all outsource call centers to places like India and the Philippines to cut costs, unfortunately, they never learn that moves like that do nothing but aggravate and insult customers.

[pzsdd6]

55 minutes ago, HotRoot said:

Maybe you should go back to Celebrity.  We tried them years ago.  Nothing but problems during the entire cruise.  It was very easy for us to decide to never try Celebrity again.  There are lots of cruise lines out there.  

I have not left Celebrity, in fact I have several booked with them later this year, I only came on this one because our friends invited us and got us their discount, but trust me, I won’t book another with Princess. Until such time that Carnival and Princess pull their head out and make the changes necessary to stay relevant, I’ll stick with Celebrity.

[memoak]

1 hour ago, ecs66 said:

A general comment from a Luddite.  I miss the days when you called Princess, talked to a competent non-ESL person focused on customer service, completed the Personalizer online, got your documents in the mail, and cruised.  Oh,yeah ... and a cruise card.

 

I'm sick of the nonsense of off-shore customer "service", specialty dining, Medallions, biometrics, and apps.

 

But that's just me.

That is why I work through a CVP not a call center

[MacMadame]

9 hours ago, pzsdd6 said:

I was told by several people that know, Princess does this on purpose.

If they did it on purpose, then *everyone* would get charged but most people aren't charged. And sometimes it tries to charge people but if they come back and try again a week later, they aren't charged.

 

It's clearly a glitch which given that Princess outsources the development of their app and that data is coming from multiple systems, doesn't surprise me at all.

 

I've been in IT since before it was even called that (45+ years) and I've seen this happen with many companies. (Don't get me started on IT at PG&E.)

[dog]

8 hours ago, pzsdd6 said:

I have not left Celebrity, in fact I have several booked with them later this year, I only came on this one because our friends invited us and got us their discount, but trust me, I won’t book another with Princess. Until such time that Carnival and Princess pull their head out and make the changes necessary to stay relevant, I’ll stick with Celebrity.

I like Celebrity too, but will ONLY  book with them last minute.

 

I don't want my money tied up for months at a time---$500 extra for a refundable deposit making me pay $960 deposit per cabin, months in advance.

 

My Princess bookings have a $99 US pp deposit and it is refundable.

 

Also, adding the Plus/Premier Package before the cruise increases your Travel Insurance---all because you want to snag Specialty dining times?

 

Like Host advised in her post above--cancel the Specialty dining and call to book your included ones. easy to cancel these pre paid items online.

 

I for one, agree that Princess is failing greatly in customer service, glitches (believe me, I'm in on most of them!), but life on a Princess ship has mostly been flawless for us.

 

Tying up $90 for 5 months is "peanuts" to many on here.

 

[Mark_K]

12 hours ago, pzsdd6 said:

As a retired global director, I’ll tell you what I told all of my managers…

”If you can describe a problem in detail, then you can solve it!”

And then there’s the 3 body problem.

[Crown Cruiser]

I have cruises booked as far out as November of 2025.  Besides looking to make sure that the booking is still there, I won't attempt to book a dinner reservation or excursion until closer to the embarkation date.  So many things could change: excursions, excursion times, restaurants could change too. I know a lot of people want to plan early, but if you do, you need to accept that changes could happen.

[Cruise Raider]

17 hours ago, Host CJSKIDS said:

 

Cancel your dinners and you will get a refund to your credit card fairly quickly. 

 

It take a day or so for the package to load into your account. Then you can rebook your dinners either on the website or on the phone if the app doesn't work.

 

I just did this recently and it was very easy.

I did that same thing and it was no problem at all.  
On a different cruise, I just let one of them slide and they had no problem giving me refundable OBC once onboard.  
The key for the OP is to wait until the charge shows as zero for your credit card before you reserve it.  It sometimes get stuck in a glitch so try it out the next day and bingo!  All turns out well.  
 

[CalLuvsCrusingToo]

20 hours ago, dog said:

That’s the way it works.  You can take your chance and wait until you board to book the Specialty dining.

 

Did you get a fantastic friend’s discount?

I was wondering the same thing.

PS-we Always wait to book specialty dining onboard. Never had a prob.

and if the Dining line is too busy? We walk up to the desired restaurant around

5pm and host at podium can make your Dining reservation for you.

 

[dog]

7 minutes ago, CalLuvsCrusingToo said:

I was wondering the same thing.

PS-we Always wait to book specialty dining onboard. Never had a prob.

and if the Dining line is too busy? We walk up to the desired restaurant around

5pm and host at podium can make your Dining reservation for you.

 

Only time I had issue was on the old Star- South America. Walked up to Crown Grill - told nothing was available for early dining any of the days.

Went up to cabin, phoned dining and made reservations. 
When we were sitting at our table, only 1/2 dozen other tables occupied the staff who refused us stopped and said, “ oh someone must have cancelled.”

Don’t know why we were snubbed.

Edited May 26 by dog