Carnival Cruise Line Corporation Billion Dollar Cruise Company, cheap with customer refunds!!! Miami Florida
Both my husband and I where recently this year ripped off by Carnival Crusie Lines. We where also past Carnival cruisers, and they still managed to jip us out of refund. Back in April of this year, my husband and I bokked for the Carnival Destiny. We originally where scheduled for leavign on September 30th-October 7th. We had already given them our $500.00 deposit. However, my husband notified me about 3 weeks or so before leaving for the cruise that we needed to call and re-schedule for another date. This was because, my husband, who happens to have a Union job, previously requested on his work sign up sheet for our vacation on September 30th. However, during the process of all the other employees signing up for September vacations, the boss someway, somehow scerwed up and wrote my husband down for a completely different date in September. We had always, received excellent treatment from Carnival in the past 4 cruises, so we thought with us calling to request a re-schedule of a the same cruise but on a different date, we assumed tit wouldn't be a problem. Well, where we in for it! I called and explained the situation to our usual travel/booking agent. (We used the same person all the time.) I told her that underneath the circumstances, it wasn't our fault that we had to re-schedule. We orignally did have plans to go etc.,etc, etc. She told me first, that in order for us to still go on the different date, we needed to cancel the current cruise in their system and then re-book all over again. However, the catch was that, we where going to loose out on our $500.00 deposit, and we would then have to pay a more expensive price for the other cruise, due to it being so late in the game. She then explained to me, that if I simply wrote a letter to their Consumer Services Department, they would go ahead and automaticall take the $500.00 and put it towards a future cruise. This way our money would not go to waste. Well, a few weeks later, we got a letter back stating that they refused to do this!!!!!! They literally told us that "they gave our circumstance some consideration" and had to decide against it! Then they threw in the death blow when they said that we where welcome to a complimentary freee upgrade on the next cruise!!!!!! But we where already getting those anyway for being past cruise customers....... I tried e-mailing them on their web site and even calling their customer service and noone could or would help me.
The worse part of it all is that, they technically do owe us the $500.00 refund because we called to cancel within the 29-8 days time frame! Why make a rule and then go against it themselves? We suffered a pretyy awful and embarrassing set back because of this. We lost out on $500.00 and we could have used that towards groceries and bills. We had to scrape and scrimp just to get by for the next few months after this. In fact, we are still recuperating. Then other financial emergencies came up soon after this and we didn't have any money!!!!!! I'm still going to do whatever I can to get my money back because this is extremely inconsiderate, rude of them. This is how they treat their past cruisers!! Never again. I hope the owner, Micky Arison, goes bankrupt!
Vernee
Wilmington, Delaware
U.S.A.
4 Updates & Rebuttals
Dabee
Newark,Delaware,
U.S.A.
Your Complaint Does Not Make Sense
#5Consumer Comment
Wed, October 31, 2007
Here are the facts according to you:
(1) Your sail date was to be September 30, 2007;
(2) You reserved your cruise in April of 2007;
(3) You paid $500.00 deposit (I assume when you booked the cruise in April);
(4) Three weeks (that's 21 days) before the sail date of September 30th your husband found out he did not have his vacation time scheduled; by my calculation, that would be 09/09/07.
(5) You are upset because Carnival would not return your $500.00 deposit.
(6) You booked your cruise directly with the cruise line;
Here are the facts that make sense:
(1) Your sail date was to be September 30, 2007;
(2) Your reserved your cruise in April 2007;
(3) You paid a $500.00 deposit in April when you booked the cruise;
(4) Full payment would have been due to the cruise line no later than 07/17/2007 (75 days prior to sail date);
(5) By 09/09/2007 (within the 29 to 8 days prior to sail date) the cruise line penalty would be 50% of the total cruise cost (you lose the deposit when you cancel 75 to 30 days prior to sail date);
(6) Use a cruise specialist next time. A good one will send you a "Final Payment Due" invoice prior to the date that the cruise line requires full payment.
(7) If we are to believe your time lines, YOU owe Carnival money.
It sounds to me like you paid the deposit on this cruise and neglected to pay the final payment by the due date for whatever reason (when you book with the cruise line YOU have to remember when your payment is due). Take my advice and use a qualified cruise specialist...a good one will send you a reminder, not because they are required to do so, but as a courtesy and because they have the client's best interest at heart and want to retain the client.
There is something definitely wrong with a Carnival representative telling you that you may get a future cruise credit of $500.00 when you had not paid the balance on your cruise just 3 weeks prior to sailing....this just does not make any sense at all.
And yes, I agree that you would have suffered much more had you gone on this cruise since the cost would have been greater than $500.00. If you wanted to get your $500.00 back, you should have cancelled your cruise no later than 76 days prior to sail date or 07/16/2007.
One last fact: You owe Mr. Arison (Carnival's CEO) an apology for that evil comment.
Cory
San Antonio,Texas,
U.S.A.
Kind of Odd
#5Consumer Comment
Mon, October 22, 2007
I found that kind of odd about the scrape and scrimp too. You state the $500 was a deposit. What would have been the total cost of the cruise? Also how much more money would you have spent IF you HAD gone on the cruise, over and above the price of the cruise. We took one two months ago and out bill was only $340. I talked to a guy I know and he and his girl and another couple spent $1200 ON DRINKS alone. Hard to frickkin' believe. They sure make it easy.
Steven
Jacksonville,Florida,
U.S.A.
Good thing you didn't go
#5Consumer Suggestion
Sun, October 21, 2007
If you suffered that much of a loss from the 500.00 deposit you probably would have gone deeper paying for the rest of the cruise plus expenses on the cruise.
Did you take them up on their offer of applying the 500 towards another cruise and then cancel that to.
Tallulah-phoebe
Beverly Hills,California,
U.S.A.
Perhaps your husband ...
#5Consumer Comment
Sat, October 20, 2007
Perhaps your husband should have gotten approval for his vacation BEFORE booking the cruise. A "time off request" is just that ... a REQUEST. It doesn't mean you're actually going to get it. Common sense means booking the cruise after you know for sure what your vacation dates are going to be. Had you read any of the information provided to you at the time of booking, you would have known how difficult it would be to make changes to your itinerary (especially since I assume you did not bother to buy the optional travel insurance either). Poor planning and irresponsibility on your part does not constitute a rip off by Carnival.