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Balance Due E-mail....just to add to my stress level!


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Leaving on our first post-pandemic cruise in 13 days.

Got an e-mail (actually two of them since we have two cabins booked) today of a balance due.

I paid for the cruise the day I booked it and Cruise Planner all along has said no balance due on either reservation.

E-mails state balance must be paid by May 6th, which i think might be the day I booked the cruise, or the cruise will be cancelled.

Cruise planner still says no balance due.

So I guess I will be on the phone all night seeing what this is about?  Anybody else experience this?

Between this and pre-cruise testing I am really regretting even booking this trip!

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15 minutes ago, OrlandoDad said:

Leaving on our first post-pandemic cruise in 13 days.

Got an e-mail (actually two of them since we have two cabins booked) today of a balance due.

I paid for the cruise the day I booked it and Cruise Planner all along has said no balance due on either reservation.

E-mails state balance must be paid by May 6th, which i think might be the day I booked the cruise, or the cruise will be cancelled.

Cruise planner still says no balance due.

So I guess I will be on the phone all night seeing what this is about?  Anybody else experience this?

Between this and pre-cruise testing I am really regretting even booking this trip!

This is definitely something to take care of ASAP.  I have read many accounts of people getting “balance due” emails; some of them are told not to worry about it - IT glitch, we’ll take care of it and then wham !  Cruise cancelled for non-payment.  While those tales generally end with the cruise being re-instated at the original cruise fare, any Cruise Planner purchases which automatically get cancelled when the cruise gets cancelled, do NOT get re-instated and are not price protected.  You have to rebook those at prevailing rates which, of course, are considerably higher than what you originally paid.
 

I would advise that when you call, do not hang up the phone until you get a new confirmation showing a -0- balance due. It’s rather sad that this same issue keeps coming up again and again and the cruise line keeps cancelling these cruises over and over again.  You’d think that with this being such a common “glitch”, that they would hold off cancelling the cruise until they could confirm that it truly is a non-payment situation.  

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I imagine you did not book with a TA since you are getting the emails direct? (if it was via a TA they have to make the call)
I had a balance due on one of my bookings, it had to do with some sort of a change I did that cost me OBC which had been used to make a purchase.  So the purchase was not automatically cancelled, instead it showed as a balance due, my TA was able to get the balance of that cruise planner purchased via my credit card.  Did you do anything with some purchases recently, maybe it impacted OBC and your balance due     (it would seem impossible for this to happen, but it did)

 If you are booked with a TA maybe you get emails like I do.....when she looks at the booking I get an email that says balance due (dear Lord, why??)  meanwhile I have the confirmation showing zero balance.  TA has since left that company, but until all my bookings via them are over, I will still get this nonsense.

I agree to get it addressed immediately.  

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Holding....total due on both reservations totals a credit I am expecting from a cancel rebook....so that is kind of weird.

Starting to think I messed up with the canceling and rebooking of items to get lower price....if anything they owe me $32 if all the credits I am due come to my card....the charges sure as heck cleared fast.

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22 minutes ago, OrlandoDad said:

Holding....total due on both reservations totals a credit I am expecting from a cancel rebook....so that is kind of weird.

Starting to think I messed up with the canceling and rebooking of items to get lower price....if anything they owe me $32 if all the credits I am due come to my card....the charges sure as heck cleared fast.

Oh, that's definitely the cause of the issues that people are having where they're getting incorrectly canceled.  You need to stay on top of it definitely and keep watching your account that the cruise doesn't drop off or cruise planner items get canceled on you.  Having all your records will be good because they will give you OBC if they can't get you the same prices you originally paid for Cruise Planner purchases if it does happen.

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47 minutes ago, CruisingfromClayton said:

I just received one as well for our cruise in Aug. It advises "balance due" with an account balance due of $0. I'll send good vibes while listening to the hold music with you! 😉

So I am on with RCCL. They are stating the their system identified a portion of my final payment (roughly $40) as an overpayment, which was refunded to my credit card. Both the email and my landing page show a balance of zero so there is no way for me to remit payment. I believe my favorite part of this conversation was the statement that my cruise will cancel within 48 hours if I don't settle the balance. Dear Lord! 😱

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8 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

Oh, that's definitely the cause of the issues that people are having where they're getting incorrectly canceled.  You need to stay on top of it definitely and keep watching your account that the cruise doesn't drop off or cruise planner items get canceled on you.  Having all your records will be good because they will give you OBC if they can't get you the same prices you originally paid for Cruise Planner purchases if it does happen.

Starting to think I should just pay them the $275 they say I owe, then work this out later.  If that goes to OBC I'll be good as we will likely spend that much on board anyway.

Someone or something does not want me on this cruise.

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8 minutes ago, CruisingfromClayton said:

So I am on with RCCL. They are stating the their system identified a portion of my final payment (roughly $40) as an overpayment, which was refunded to my credit card. Both the email and my landing page show a balance of zero so there is no way for me to remit payment. I believe my favorite part of this conversation was the statement that my cruise will cancel within 48 hours if I don't settle the balance. Dear Lord! 😱

Even though the e-mail says no balance due, if you click make payment you will see what they think you owe.  That's what I did.

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23 minutes ago, CruisingfromClayton said:

So I am on with RCCL. They are stating the their system identified a portion of my final payment (roughly $40) as an overpayment, which was refunded to my credit card. Both the email and my landing page show a balance of zero so there is no way for me to remit payment. I believe my favorite part of this conversation was the statement that my cruise will cancel within 48 hours if I don't settle the balance. Dear Lord! 😱

You getting anywhere?  I'm not

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10 minutes ago, OrlandoDad said:

To add insult to injury...just got another e-mail regarding my Key reservation telling to arrive at 11:30.   My check in time is 10:30.   Also said MDR was open at 12:00 for Key lunch.  Is that normal?

Pretty much. The Key gets to go in first with the suites whenever they open up the terminal doors.

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Was told it had to go to resolution and they would call me back.  Refused to hang up.  Said I would wait.  About an hour in now.  But to their credit they check back with me every 20 minutes or so.  I got all night and my phone charger is on my desk if I need it.

Also to their credit, I got disconnected and was ready to go nuclear.  As I was dialing back they called me.

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33 minutes ago, CruisingfromClayton said:

An hour in - they opened a ticket. I was advised to keep calling in to check the status. 🤣 How's it going with you? Just to add, it advises my booking is locked when I attempt to access "pay now" via the link in the email. Good times!

Was getting the same thing as I was looking at stuff while I was on hold.  It cleared up eventually.

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I got two of those emails today for my two reservations in July.....one says I own $208 and the other says I owe $1081 on reservations that have been paid in full since May 2020 and 'lifted/shifted' twice.  So now I am on hold waiting for someone to answer wondering if I will get through before they close for the day with the tons of OTHER people probably all calling in with the same issue

The 12 minute later update....CS rep gets on, says no problem, everything shows 0 here, let me just generate and send you a new invoice....he sends the new invoices....they all say "Money due" and he is like WTF....so now....he is also calling resolutions department

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They wouldn't let me wait any longer.  Said they would call me back Friday after they 'investigate'.  Whatever.  So over this whole nonsense.  Royal Caribbean OWES ME $32.00 and tonight I will go to sleep worried about them cancelling my reservations and not refunding my cruise fare that was paid in full the day I booked the cruise.

 

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Looking like I may end up there as well....resolutions can't help and they are opening an IT ticket because sometimes when their screen loads it says balance due, then they refresh and it says no balance due, then they refresh and it says balance due.......this is sounding like clearing a db issue where someone ran a script against production that failed and it recalculated everyone's balance in a shared environment and they stopped it...but it over wrote on some servers and not others.

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8 minutes ago, dodgestang said:

Looking like I may end up there as well....resolutions can't help and they are opening an IT ticket because sometimes when their screen loads it says balance due, then they refresh and it says no balance due, then they refresh and it says balance due.......this is sounding like clearing a db issue where someone ran a script against production that failed and it recalculated everyone's balance in a shared environment and they stopped it...but it over wrote on some servers and not others.

Well their database now shows an incorrect 'amount paid' on both of my reservations on May 6th.  I see the Cruise Planner is 'down for maintenance'.  

But I bet if I wanted to make a payment on something right now it would hit my credit card within 30 seconds.

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Sounds like it could be.....When I act as if I am going to pay my 'balance due', it allows me to see my payments made.  That info is all jacked up.   What gives me hope is the Cruise Planner is down, which I have never seen happen, so maybe IT is trying to correct things.  Guess we will see, and I'm glad to see I'm not the only one in this boat.

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10 minutes ago, dodgestang said:

Misery loves company 😉

 

It's my 25th anniversary and my daughter prepared a piano concert for us tonight and she is getting impatient waiting for to finish on this phone call with royal.

Misery would describe how I am feeling right now with respect to this upcoming cruise.

Happy Anniversary and I hope you get to enjoy your concert tonight.  👍

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Yeah, I'm one of the people who had the $0 balance due email (my TA didn't get it because it's related to the Cruise Planner) and then had my cruise canceled.  I am so thankful that I had a wonderful TA who spent the better part of a Sunday getting everything reinstated.  

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Last month on the Allure, there were two couples traveling together in two separate cabins and they had similar stories. They paid for their cruises and cruise planner items in full before the deadline. Then each party got a letter stating that they still owed money and their cruise would be canceled if not paid. One person was able to resolve it after a lot of struggle, but the other party had their cruise canceled despite trying to sort it all out with Royal. They were then guided through the process of re-booking and re-booking all of their cruise planning activities as well, but at a higher price. They were convinced that what happened happened on purpose as a way to get them to pay more. 

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I also got one of those emails today I paid the balance in full back in January and leave in 25 days from Barcelona. After 90 minutes on the phone with the customer service rep and the resolutions desk their solution was to refund me the exact amount the system is saying I owe, pushing my balance due date out to the end of the month and in 7 business days when I receive the refund I need to call them back to reapply the payment. I explained that made no sense and if they are just going to refund me anyway they should let me pay against the "outstanding" amount she said that would not be possible and the only thing I could do was wait for the refund then call and make the payment. End of the day they wouldn't put anything in writing but I can confirm the due date is now 6/30 from the payment site although it doesn't allow me to make a payment so I will wait the 7 business days and try and get everything resolved before 6/30.

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2 hours ago, OrlandoDad said:

Misery would describe how I am feeling right now with respect to this upcoming cruise.

Happy Anniversary and I hope you get to enjoy your concert tonight.  👍

 

Concert was a blast......also.....opened up the IT tickets and call we over with.  They did move the last payment due date for the cruise a few weeks to allow them time to resolve the issue without it impacting anything with regard to automated processes

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We also received the dreaded email saying pay up or we'll cancel while showing a balance due of 0.00 on the email.   Duh!!  After calling RC "yes it's an IT glitch" he said, because it shows zero but when he refreshes it shows a small balance due, then refreshes again and it shows zero.  Anyway, I paid the small balance and figured when they get their act together it will just be shown as an OBC.  However, their IT department should hold all cancellations for nonpayment until this issue is resolved.  It would cut down on customer dissatisfaction, cust rep phone calls and give them a chance to identify the cause and fix it.  It wouldn't be a big deal for them to hold the cancellations for a week or two.  A lot less disruptive than what they are doing now.  

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14 hours ago, OrlandoDad said:

Leaving on our first post-pandemic cruise in 13 days.

Got an e-mail (actually two of them since we have two cabins booked) today of a balance due.

I paid for the cruise the day I booked it and Cruise Planner all along has said no balance due on either reservation.

E-mails state balance must be paid by May 6th, which i think might be the day I booked the cruise, or the cruise will be cancelled.

Cruise planner still says no balance due.

So I guess I will be on the phone all night seeing what this is about?  Anybody else experience this?

Between this and pre-cruise testing I am really regretting even booking this trip!

We had similar issue and I was concerned as you are that the cruise would be canceled.  Our issue stemmed from a canceled specialty diner reservation which was refunded to our method of payment (credit card) and ALSO the same amount deducted from our cruise invoice balance.  Cruise Planner had "Pay Balance" link disabled with a note we did not have a balance due.  If I went to the bottom of the RC home page and chose "Make a Payment" it said I owed the $44.99 and it must be paid.  Somehow that erroneous balance reduction became a Cruise Invoice Balance Due amount.  I actually tried to pay the $44.99 to get our balance cleared and it was refunded the next day to our CC as an over payment!   After 3 separate calls I finally got a supervisor to do a deep dive into it and she confirmed I was paid in full and the accounting system confirmed I had paid in full.  She assured me several times the cruise would not be canceled as the amounts paid footed with the actual amount the cruise cost. 

This is the bug and I was told the IT TEAM COULDN'T FIX IT!  After 35 years in IT I blew off as a bunch of hooey!  It could be fixed, they didn't know how to because I think they really didn't know why it was happening and it wasn't a current priority.

Anyway, if the reservation still shows on your dashboard after you log in that is a good sign the cruise has not been cancelled.  I also went to the RCC home page and went through the "Make a Payment" process and it now shows a zero balance due.  I would still try to get your situation confirmed!!  

Like you, I am hesitant to book with Royal Caribbean again.

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13 hours ago, CruisingfromClayton said:

So I am on with RCCL. They are stating the their system identified a portion of my final payment (roughly $40) as an overpayment, which was refunded to my credit card. Both the email and my landing page show a balance of zero so there is no way for me to remit payment. I believe my favorite part of this conversation was the statement that my cruise will cancel within 48 hours if I don't settle the balance. Dear Lord! 😱

So they still haven't fixed the issue that I noted in this thread (which happened three times on the same cruises):

 

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12 hours ago, dodgestang said:

Looking like I may end up there as well....resolutions can't help and they are opening an IT ticket because sometimes when their screen loads it says balance due, then they refresh and it says no balance due, then they refresh and it says balance due.......this is sounding like clearing a db issue where someone ran a script against production that failed and it recalculated everyone's balance in a shared environment and they stopped it...but it over wrote on some servers and not others.

IT tickets were opened for the same issue a month ago. 

More of the "Royal IT is rarely competent" situation.

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14 hours ago, dodgestang said:

Looking like I may end up there as well....resolutions can't help and they are opening an IT ticket because sometimes when their screen loads it says balance due, then they refresh and it says no balance due, then they refresh and it says balance due.......this is sounding like clearing a db issue where someone ran a script against production that failed and it recalculated everyone's balance in a shared environment and they stopped it...but it over wrote on some servers and not others.

In my former work life we had an issue where the web traffic was directed to multiple web servers via a load balancer.  The issue we had was one of the web servers failed a software update and traffic routed to that server still had the bug.  Most would see the fix but the unlucky few did not.  The team doing the update missed the failed update 😞 

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Thank you all.  Yes, this stemmed from a cancel and rebooking of a cruise planner item.  Saved $32 and cost me a lot of time and aggravation. They took the amount of the rebooking off two reservation payments, so it was a little hard to track down.  
I am expecting to hear something Friday.  Reservation still shows up and I was assured twice it would not cancel. 
Out of an abundance of caution I went to pay the balances on the account figuring I’d fight this fight later, but not have to worry about them cancelling my rooms.  I was able to pay one rooms balance.  Not the other.  I called back this am to make the payment and they would not take it, as it is under investigation.  We shall see. 

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11 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

I saw on a casino Facebook group that one passenger got her notice of cruise cancelation for a mistaken balance due while she was on the actual sailing 🙄

It ended up making the app unusable for her while onboard since it no longer showed that cruise for her but at least she made it on the ship.

Good luck getting any more money out of that cruiser after the fact!

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