Did most new passengers boarding Majestic Princess in Auckland have charges on their account from the previous occupants of their cabin? A system error still existed onboard for over two months after we were stung for USD $376 for telephone calls (not ours)!

The Pathetic Princess

Do not pay for a Princess cruise
Unless you have money to lose
If you’re irate and lost
At inflated great cost
Extra charges you must refuse

Alan Grace
5 February 2024

Do you know anyone who was on Majestic Princess or any other Princess or P&O cruise from October 2023 to January 2024?

If they boarded the ship after it first sailed, they may have been charged for items that were bought by and should have been charged to the previous occupants of their cabin.

Double dipping? Princesss this year (only in February) claims not but can we believe this?

A system error still existed onboard for over two months after we complained when we were stung for USD $376 (over NZD $600) for telephone calls that were not ours or authorised by us. This was within NZD $50 of the fare paid by each of us.

Our complaint was ignored and hit a block wall for over two months! We were fobbed off.

We took a cruise on Majestic Princess from Auckland to Sydney starting one day late on 31 October to 4 November 2023.

It sounds like Majestic Princess may have been “double-dipping” charges for over two months.  Certainly over this period they have been charging passengers for items bought by other passengers in their cabin before them. The system error was occurring for over two months according to Princess. it was more than two months before Princess identified a system error that had caused us to be charged for calls made by the previous occupants of our cabin. Until this happened Princess was not aware of this system error.

A redacted statement from the previous occupants of our cabin could have been sent to me to demonstrate there was no double-dipping if this did not happen.

Princess refuses to provide internal information to me. Not even passenger numbers. See the 5 February email below.

Around eight hundred new passengers or more boarded Majestic Princess in Auckland. They could have incurred similar charges by Princess Cruises.

Could there also be thousands of charges on new passengers’ onboard accounts from the previous occupants of their cabins?

We were charged USD $376 (over NZD $600) to our onboard account for our minisuite M325.
According to Tegan (Princess), the USD $376 charged to the account on our cruise were for telephone calls made by the previous occupants of our cabin. This system error (computer bug) still existed two months after our cruise!

To put this into context NZD $600 is within $50 of the fare each of us paid for the cruise.

I wonder if all new passengers boarding the same cruise in Auckland had the same issue?

It is quite likely a staff member of the company we booked through  had charges put on her account (for drinks not ordered by not her?) that were caused by the same system error?

Over two months just to get this much sorted!

Ahoy there me hearties!

Are these P&O staff showing their true colours when we visited Conflict Island on a P&O cruise last year?

Maybe Princess staff should do the same?

Princess Cruises and P&O are owned by the same company.

Do I need to go into hiding?

Maybe it is best to not show my face!

Everything is still not sorted three months later (tomorrow) since I first complained.

Here’s a recent email I sent after over two hours on the phone with Nicole (Princess), a complete waste of time, on Friday:

EmailPrincess2NicoleResponse

The reply from Nicole is below (it arrived after my original post):

Princess has now slammed the door closed in my face. See the last paragraph above.

When something is bought onboard it usually is charged quickly using the passenger’s medallion on to the onboard account. Why would it not be on the passenger’s account before departure? If it goes on to the next passenger’s account (using the cabin next), why would it not have already been there before those passengers boarded?

Our cruise ended on Saturday 4 November. We only knew about the USD $376 when our statement was emailed to us on 5 November. I complained on 6 November.

All my emails hit a block wall for over two months until I received this email from Tegan:

A major concern for us was a cheque refund in USD for any credit remaining on our accounts mentioned in the last paragraph above. We were told this by Ines when we got onboard and immediately went to Reception (Nicole confirmed in the phone call over three weeks later that payment by USD cheque had not happened for NZ guests for over 12 months). Ines knew we were from New Zealand because I told her when we were at Reception that most banks in New Zealand do not accept cheques even in New Zealand dollars.

We also expressed out concern to Ines that we were only credited for USD $18.96 each (approximately NZD $30.25 according to Princess) for the day missed onboard (in for our first minisuite!) when passengers boarding in Auckland boarded a day late. Clearly this was not a one-day refund of the fare we each paid (NZD $649):

Two days after her first email, another email from Tegan:

After this email I got no response to other emails I sent until Nicole’s call.

As you can see, we were only given a future cruise credit of NZD $150 per person. Hopefully this is still there unless Princess reneged even on this after the phone call from Nicole.

This appeared to us to be an onboard credit but Nicole confirmed it was a credit towards payment for a future cruise.

No response to further emails sent by me until I got a phone call from Nicole on Friday 2 November. Over two hours on the phone and only an increase of $50 each offered on the future cruise credit.

Clearly $50 was not worth the time spent during the phone call.

We were charged more than the USD $10 we actually spent onboard:

These timestamps are useful:

We booked through LetCruise as usual. I remain happy with LetsCruise. They have great deals and you can also pay by credit card without them charging fees for doing this.

Also see:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1903318183220086/search/?q=majestic%20princess

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1903318183220086/search/?q=princess

The phrase in the picture above was inspired by this book:

Do you get the pun in the title?

For more posts see:

https://aaamazingphoenix.wordpress.com/category/princess/

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