NextCruise Snafu

[Bular]

I doubt anyone can help me, but I'm having a major issue with the NextCruise department and I'm not sure what to do next.

We got off our cruise on Saturday, November 12. On Friday, November 11, we filled out a form to book a NextCruise.

The following day I received two (2) confirmations, and my card was charged for $400. I did not ask for two bookings, only one.

I figured this would be an easy fix, as it is obvious the two bookings were made minutes apart.

I have now spent over 5 hours on the phone with RC, and am no closer to getting my $200 back than I was earlier. Since I was on a cruise booked by a travel agency, BOTH of these new bookings are tied to the agency, and THEY are in charge of my reservations. I have tried contacting the travel agency, as has RC. We cannot get ahold of them (it was an online deal, I don't actually know these people.)

RC says there is nothing I can do until we get in contact with the travel agency. Even though this is RC's fault, they say things to me like "as a one time courtesy we will be able to cancel once the travel agency requests it" etc.

It has been over a week, and many wasted hours of my life. I'm about to dispute my charge with my CC company and move on, but I just want RC to do the right thing. I cruise with them all of the time, have never used NextCruise before, and honestly this really sours my opinion of them as a whole.

As a side note, I have already booked the first (and only legit) cruise, as we had 7 days from getting off the ship to get our casino offer.

[SpeedNoodles]

I'd first dispute it with the credit card company, and then never, ever, use that travel agency again.  I'm sorry  you're having so much difficulty.

[wordell1]

1 hour ago, Bular said:

I doubt anyone can help me, but I'm having a major issue with the NextCruise department and I'm not sure what to do next.

We got off our cruise on Saturday, November 12. On Friday, November 11, we filled out a form to book a NextCruise.

The following day I received two (2) confirmations, and my card was charged for $400. I did not ask for two bookings, only one.

I figured this would be an easy fix, as it is obvious the two bookings were made minutes apart.

I have now spent over 5 hours on the phone with RC, and am no closer to getting my $200 back than I was earlier. Since I was on a cruise booked by a travel agency, BOTH of these new bookings are tied to the agency, and THEY are in charge of my reservations. I have tried contacting the travel agency, as has RC. We cannot get ahold of them (it was an online deal, I don't actually know these people.)

RC says there is nothing I can do until we get in contact with the travel agency. Even though this is RC's fault, they say things to me like "as a one time courtesy we will be able to cancel once the travel agency requests it" etc.

It has been over a week, and many wasted hours of my life. I'm about to dispute my charge with my CC company and move on, but I just want RC to do the right thing. I cruise with them all of the time, have never used NextCruise before, and honestly this really sours my opinion of them as a whole.

As a side note, I have already booked the first (and only legit) cruise, as we had 7 days from getting off the ship to get our casino offer.

This problem is an example of why I would never use an "online" travel agent.  You need to be spending you time contacting your TA.  Royal has already told you they will refund it once they are contacted by the TA.

[Bular]

14 minutes ago, wordell1 said:

This problem is an example of why I would never use an "online" travel agent.  You need to be spending you time contacting your TA.  Royal has already told you they will refund it once they are contacted by the TA.

Yes I definitely agree with this, and lesson learned. It was the first time I had done it, enticed by a good deal.

However, what gets to me is that this was a f-up by Royal, and they can't fix it. I should not have to be spending my time (which I also have done, too much) trying to fix it for them.

[wordell1]

23 minutes ago, Bular said:

Yes I definitely agree with this, and lesson learned. It was the first time I had done it, enticed by a good deal.

However, what gets to me is that this was a f-up by Royal, and they can't fix it. I should not have to be spending my time (which I also have done, too much) trying to fix it for them.

They just need to speak to your TA.  It's always been like that if you used a TA.

[Pattycruise]

I’ve read somewhere on these forums about people successfully getting a TA removed from a reservation.  Perhaps try again? I imagine the lack of response from the TA would be a valid reason.

if you are a C&A member call them 1 (800) 526-9723  instead of the generic line.

The problem with the next cruise form and I imagine the app is there is no choice to sever the relationship with the TA.  When you book directly in person with next cruise they don’t always ask if you want to sever that tie, but they have the proper form to do so if you ask, or they remember to ask.

[Bular]

This is great advice. Thank you, I will try C&A tomorrow. 

[D Alt]

yes I would try another dept. of Royal and escalate it, but there is also a form you can fill out to remove a travel agent's authority.  No offense to the TAs in the group but this is why I will no longer use a TA...loss of control for my own reservations. 

[wordell1]

11 minutes ago, D Alt said:

yes I would try another dept. of Royal and escalate it, but there is also a form you can fill out to remove a travel agent's authority.  No offense to the TAs in the group but this is why I will no longer use a TA...loss of control for my own reservations. 

Royal is not a joy to deal with either, as we have seen in this thread.  The problem is that you don't really have a TA when you use one of the mass market TA's.  I learned this the hard way myself.  I now have an MEI TA who takes care of all of these kinds of issues.  She is a quick email or phone call away and is always responsive.

[Traveling Mike]

These are the kind of issues where I call RCL and ask for a supervisor.  Do not tell the person anything or they will try to fix it and waste your time.  Just insist on a supervisor.  Then explain to the supervisor you did not approve the travel agent and you expect RCL to remove them. (period).  it is their mess up without your permission.

[twangster]

1 hour ago, Traveling Mike said:

These are the kind of issues where I call RCL and ask for a supervisor.  Do not tell the person anything or they will try to fix it and waste your time.  Just insist on a supervisor.  Then explain to the supervisor you did not approve the travel agent and you expect RCL to remove them. (period).  it is their mess up without your permission.

No mistake was made with respect to travel agency.  By booking the cruise with the travel agency they did, all cruises booked on the ship go to that same travel agency by default.  It's been that way for years but it's not a documented feature that is immediately obvious.  

The same behavior occurs when booking by physically visiting NextCruise.  Most of the time the NC agents will neglect to mention that a new booking will be assigned to agency you booked the current sailing with.  Occasionally the NC agent will mention it, more so lately compared to a few years ago but even then it's not always in your face obvious.  

Receiving two future cruise bookings could either be an app error or user error.   There isn't a lot of feedback in the app that your attempt to make a future cruise booking was successful.  It does state you'll receive an email with 24 hours but I can see where the lack of immediate feedback could lead to someone tapping again or being under the impression their attempt was not successful. 

This is compounded by crappy Voom so an attempt to use the app can yield a pathetically slow app response.  Heck I've tried to post something on this forum only to find out that crappy Voom resulted in my post being made 3 or 4 times in succession.

I'm more inclined to blame crappy Voom for this outcome.  

[WAYNO]

I hate to be one to pile on, but...

 

We got off Navigator less than one week ago.  While cruising, both my Wife and I won lucrative free cruises with a fair amount of free casino play on upcoming cruise(s). 

I filled out the Next Cruise form giving me a week to book these free cruises.

 

An hour on the phone today with the Next Cruise people resulted in much heartburn.  They insisted I did not receive the certificates we received.  They demanded photos of the free cruise certificates, which we provided, and then said they would have to make major exceptions.  Finally, the best they could offer is they'd look into it and get back to me in a couple days.  But I only have til Friday to book the cruises and receive the cruises as well as the free play.

We know how many points we had in the casino, and we know which free cruise offer corresponded to that amount of points.  The certificates were correct.  Even the rep finally admitted we had the correct number of points, but she still could not give us the cruises on the certificates, as we still  didn't qualify.  My head is spinning.

The sad part is on our previous cruise, we also won substantial cruises with free play money included, and they made up some new rules on the spot to not give us the certificates, as we already had certificates waiting for us on our bed on the first day, for less value than the certificates we earned during the cruise would have been worth at the end. 

 

I think these folks were car dealers in their earlier life. 

[Pattycruise]

56 minutes ago, WAYNO said:

I hate to be one to pile on, but...

 

We got off Navigator less than one week ago.  While cruising, both my Wife and I won lucrative free cruises with a fair amount of free casino play on upcoming cruise(s). 

I filled out the Next Cruise form giving me a week to book these free cruises.

 

An hour on the phone today with the Next Cruise people resulted in much heartburn.  They insisted I did not receive the certificates we received.  They demanded photos of the free cruise certificates, which we provided, and then said they would have to make major exceptions.  Finally, the best they could offer is they'd look into it and get back to me in a couple days.  But I only have til Friday to book the cruises and receive the cruises as well as the free play.

We know how many points we had in the casino, and we know which free cruise offer corresponded to that amount of points.  The certificates were correct.  Even the rep finally admitted we had the correct number of points, but she still could not give us the cruises on the certificates, as we still  didn't qualify.  My head is spinning.

The sad part is on our previous cruise, we also won substantial cruises with free play money included, and they made up some new rules on the spot to not give us the certificates, as we already had certificates waiting for us on our bed on the first day, for less value than the certificates we earned during the cruise would have been worth at the end. 

 

I think these folks were car dealers in their earlier life. 

I hope you meant the Casino Royale people. 1 (888) 561-2234 

[Bular]

12 hours ago, Traveling Mike said:

These are the kind of issues where I call RCL and ask for a supervisor.  Do not tell the person anything or they will try to fix it and waste your time.  Just insist on a supervisor.  Then explain to the supervisor you did not approve the travel agent and you expect RCL to remove them. (period).  it is their mess up without your permission.

This is what I did the last 2 times I called. The supervisor was as unhelpful as the first people I have spoken to.

[Bular]

10 hours ago, twangster said:

No mistake was made with respect to travel agency.  By booking the cruise with the travel agency they did, all cruises booked on the ship go to that same travel agency by default.  It's been that way for years but it's not a documented feature that is immediately obvious.  

The same behavior occurs when booking by physically visiting NextCruise.  Most of the time the NC agents will neglect to mention that a new booking will be assigned to agency you booked the current sailing with.  Occasionally the NC agent will mention it, more so lately compared to a few years ago but even then it's not always in your face obvious.  

Receiving two future cruise bookings could either be an app error or user error.   There isn't a lot of feedback in the app that your attempt to make a future cruise booking was successful.  It does state you'll receive an email with 24 hours but I can see where the lack of immediate feedback could lead to someone tapping again or being under the impression their attempt was not successful. 

This is compounded by crappy Voom so an attempt to use the app can yield a pathetically slow app response.  Heck I've tried to post something on this forum only to find out that crappy Voom resulted in my post being made 3 or 4 times in succession.

I'm more inclined to blame crappy Voom for this outcome.  

I would typically agree with you (I am a software developer, we see things like this all of the time), except we did not use the app to make the NextCruise booking. It was late night the night before we got off of the ship, and the person at the NextCruise booth handed me a physical form, which I filled out by hand. I would definitely notice if I filled out two

[Bular]

Update on the situation: I was finally able to get in touch with the Travel Agency. The Agent I had originally gone through is no longer employed there, which is why it was so difficult for me to connect with them. They assigned me a new agent, who spoke with Royal Caribbean, and they finally "as a one time courtesy"  cancelled the booking and are in the process of refunding the money they erroneously took from me. It took almost 2 weeks, around 5 hours on the phone to Royal Caribbean, and trying to get ahold of the TA for a long time. Thankful it's done, but I don't think I'd use NextCruise again.

[WAAAYTOOO]

10 hours ago, WAYNO said:

not give us the certificates, as we already had certificates waiting for us on our bed on the first day, for less value than the certificates we earned during the cruise would have been worth at the end. 

It's been nearly 3 years since we have cruised and I'm sure much has changed BUT the rule used to be that if you had more than 1 certificate awarded, you could choose which one you wanted.  It sounds like that has either changed or they are just making it up as they go along, which was your analysis, too.  UGH

[AshleyDillo]

2 hours ago, Bular said:

 It was late night the night before we got off of the ship, and the person at the NextCruise booth handed me a physical form, which I filled out by hand. I would definitely notice if I filled out two

I wouldn't bother trying to get Royal to resolve it any further. You did your due diligence already and gave them a chance to correct things. Dispute the second charge with your credit card company and call it a day. Royal will have to prove you bought 2 certificates to dispute the charge back.