Cyber Monday Deal Balcony Guarantee Issue (Resolved)

[disappointed]

I'm very disappointed at RoyalCaribbean! 

On Cyber Monday sale, I thought I snatched a good deal in a 3 day cruise from LA for 2 adult and 1 child with a Balcony guarantee. While happily put in passenger information for all three person, first thing I thought was weird was I never got a invoice email, but an email with link to set up the cruise account

When I click in the link yesterday. Suddenly, the number of passengers for the booking became two. When I called the customer service, they deny everything and says I must made a mistake and only put two person in. It's not I put in a number 2 instead of 3, it's a cruise I have to put in every single passengers' name!  In this day and age, I don't believe RC will not have a record on the passengers PII data I put in. 

When I asked for a refund, the rep is blaming me for not click the link within 24 hours, so it can't be refunded. The only option is to pay more to get a different room. 

1. Why there's no invoice email so I can have the proof of this booking? Is this intentional bait & switch? 

2. Why the refund can only be done within 24 hours? I'm not seeing I have to click the link within 24 hours any where in the email.

3. The Rep even told me there's no balcony room available. I just check and added it to the cart. The only thing I'm not seeing available is the Balcony Guarantee Option (which is the CyberMonday deal I thought I got!)

I talked to an agent first (which I didn't get the name) Then it got escalated to supervisor Alexia Campbell email alexiacampbell@rccl.com. @RoyalCarribean, as a customer still willing to cruise now, is that how you treat them?

 

Attached are the email of book confirmation from Monday (has my booking number) and the current available balcony unit from RC website now for that exact cruise. 

 

[XtremeGK]

Not to be the bearer of bad news...but if you paid a $200 deposit and not $300 (your credit card transactions can answer that), then you only booked for 2 people. As your screenshot shows, 3 people is a $300 deposit.

[Pooch]

So is that a screen shot of your original booking with price you were expecting?  If do, reach out thru Twitter or FB and post it. Someone will get back to you

[Baked Alaska]

Transfer your booking to a travel agent who specializes in Royal Caribbean Cruises. They will navigate this and correct any errors! ASAP! Suggestion here is MEI Travel. @Sharla

 

[disappointed]

unfortunately that is not a screenshot of the booking time. This screenshot is to dispute the claim that the customer rep said there's not balcony for three people available for that cruise. And that's another thing make me feel odd is that they never emailed me a booking confirmation/invoice showing all the passengers and the price, like  airline, vacation booking or even online shopping site would do (My last cruise is seven years ago, that's with Norwegian.  So I don't know if this is the norm for cruise now), but an obscure email with links to set up accounts, leaving room for this kind of dispute later. Seems almost intentionally. 

[MrMarc]

I'm not sure how this happened, but I seriously it was an intentional thing.  I think it is possible you made a mistake, we all do things sometimes that we are sure we did or did not do and it turns out we are wrong.  But I also think it could be an issue with RCCLs computer system, something that is far to common.  If you look through these posts, you will find that RCCLs IT department has earned a reputation that it would rather not have.

[disappointed]

I also suspected it's a computer system thing. The balcony guarantee sale might be meant for  two person, but the computer system didn't check a third person and let my purchase go through. (Nowhere it said is for two person, my purchase goes through and it asked me to put in all three passengers) What I have most issue with RC is instead of admitting mistake and making reasonable arrangement, RC denied everything, lied and put all blames on me. I offered to pay the additional person for the same per person price I got for the Cyber Monday sale, but the rep told me there's no 3 person balcony left, I can pay today's price for the third person to downgrade an ocean view. That is a complete lie. I was able to book a balcony for three for the very cruise, which is showing the second screenshot. I then asked for a refund, which is then got told it can't be refunded.  Only RC credit can be issued because I didn't click the link in 24 hours (again blame on me, but no where in email says I need to click the url in 24 hours) That's where I feel like got baited.

[bigmoose7563]

Unfortunately many of their reps do not seem to know all the correct rules. Call back again and speak to another rep & you might get a better result. Also as one posted already, transfer this booking to a travel agent and have them work it out

[disappointed]

How does "transfer to an agent" work? Is that a RC agent or it's a third party agent? Do I pay an agent to take over my booking ? How much do they charge usually for this kind of "take over" ? 

[SpeedNoodles]

3 minutes ago, disappointed said:

How does "transfer to an agent" work? Is that a RC agent or it's a third party agent? Do I pay an agent to take over my booking ? How much do they charge usually for this kind of "take over" ? 

This would be to a third-party agent.  You will not pay the new agent at all (if they want to charge you, pick another agent/company).  The new agent can do all of this for you with the booking information.  It just has to be within 30 days of the original deposit.

[disappointed]

Thanks! I reached out to RC in Twitter and they are responding. I'll see how that works out. If it doesn't work. I'll try to find an agent to take over. I booked and paid deposit on Cyber Monday. So I should have some time. 

[disappointed]

Thanks to RC in Twitter! They made "the category you booked for has opened one stateroom for three guests", and told me to call rep ASAP to add the third person. I now added in the third person with the same per person discount I got with the original cyber Monday sale.

Here's my speculation on what happened:

CyberMonday sale opened the Balcony Guarantee for two, but the booking system didn't know it's a special sale for two person, as all balcony room can have 3-4 guests, so my booking went through without issue. But on their "stateroom category" confirmation end, it has only two spots, so the third person got cut off (And that may caused some issue in their invoice system, causing the invoice never got sent out. I got invoice this time right away). When I bring the issue to them through twitter, they realized what happened and opened a new "stateroom category for three" on the Balcony Guarantee Category for me, so I can add the third person back. 

I would say RC's Twitter team are very professional and helpful but the phone rep are not so much. It could be they are trained to deal with common issues and not as resourceful as the Twitter team to look into complex issues. As @Pooch suggested, I think if you have not so common issues, reach out to them in social media is much more effective than calling customer service number.