Future Cruise Deposit Princess: think twice

[Frans]

For over 5 weeks I have been trying to get my expired future cruise
deposit (FCD) refunded, without any success. Numerous telephone calls
and emails to both the US office and the UK office stay unanswered or
are putt off with all kind of false promises. The two FCD's (for me and
my wife) already expired 22 feb 2016 and by coincidence I discovered
that I never got refunded.

The deposit was made with the term, and I quote from the FCD form:
"The FCD will be automatically refunded if not applied to a new booking created within two years from the date of purchase."

I strongly believe that the whole future cruise program is a big scam
and if you are not able to take another Princess cruise within the two
years that the FCD is valid, you are screwed and never see your money
back. In my case that is 200 EURO ($230).

I feel it my obligation to warn others for this doubtful practice of
Princess Cruises.

--Frans

[storybookcruises.com]

Looks like someone didn't join the forum to ask for help - just wanted to complain. Probably just something simple, like Princess trying to refund to their credit card, which has expired or has a different expiration date.

But words of wisdom; if you're not going to use it, cancel it before it expires and save yourself alot of hassle.

Should have just let their agent make a call and could have gotten the whole thing solved very quickly. Haven't heard of anyone else having any problems like this, so there's probably more to the story.

Pete

[Donna]

Yes, there is usually more to the story than told....

[Frans]

Nope there isn't. It just as simple as I wrote above. I paid 200 euro's for a deposit which, if I didn't make use of it within 2 years, Princess should automatically have refunded. Which they didn't. My credit card was changed by the cc company, but my email, phone number and street address hasn't, so why didn't they contact me? They have all that info on file. That I checked with them. Makes you wonder...

And what if I did book the cruise with them directly and not via an agent?

I am open to all kind of suggestions. Yesterday I finally got a reply using their Twitter account that they (the people behind the US Princess twitter account) would inform the Europe office in the UK about this situation, so I am hoping again.

[Donna]

Sounds like you are getting somewhere, keep us posted...

[storybookcruises.com]

If you book directly with the cruise line and have any problems, who do you think they represent?

I've been involved with travel for over 35 years and if there's one thing I learned, when you book directly with the cruise line and have a problem, they will normally give you the runaround and delay taking care of the problem. The more they delay, the better chance they have of you getting tired and just giving up. If they're able to get 9 out 10 people with complaints give up, then they only have to take care of 1 person. Financially, it's a good idea. But trust me when I say it's not just cruise lines. Most big business have the same philosophy.

When you book with an agent and have problems, they have access to contacts not available to you. They've developed good working relationships with those who can help solve problems fairly quickly.

The prices are the same and a reputable agent will normally not charge any fees, so it makes sense to utilize their expertise and knowledge. And if a problem arises, that's when their worth is invaluable, if they're any good at their job and take pride in their services.

Now, with all that said, when there's a refund, their policy is it must be sent to the credit card used to make the purchase. Sometimes, when the credit card company gets the refund and sees you have another card, they may put the refund to the new card. If their system doesn't recognize it, then it is automatically sent back to the vendor. Usually, it's their policy to then send a check to the passenger to the address on file. If that address is invalid or the passenger has moved, it would normally be returned to the vendor. In that case, often times, the vendor does nothing at that point in the process. You would think they'd try to contact the passenger to find out how to get the money back to them, but they don't. They'll just sit on the money, hoping the passenger may forget about it. If the passenger eventually does contact them about the money, this is where roadblocks occur trying to get the passenger frustrated to the point they give up. If you're the type to be persistent, eventually you'll get your refund.

I've seen this scenario play out many times and it's definitely not unique to any one cruise line. Don't give up, be persistent, keep information as to who you talked to, when, and their phone number. They won't transfer you to the accounting department, but that's who needs to get involved to solve the problem.

Pete

[ne1cruise]

Sorry to hear of the problems and hope it works out for you.
When we had a month left on our cruise deposit I just called and spoke with a nice agent with Princess and asked if I could get an extension on the deposit since we were unable to cruise the past two years for various reasons. "Not a problem at all". They extended it for two more years and we used it for our cruise coming up in February.
Let us know what happens.