Posted on 05/31/2024 9:37:10 AM PDT by Red Badger
A Kentucky family’s $15,000 Carnival Cruise vacation they had been planning for a year was canceled just two days before the ship was set to sail after they accidentally shared their booking number online in a case of identity theft.
Tiffany Banks was devastated to learn that her trip aboard the Carnival Celebration ship with her husband and their four kids was canceled without her knowledge the day before the family was going to fly to Florida to leave on the boat.
Banks said in a series of TikTok videos that she had no idea their vacation, for which they had already paid in full, was trashed until she got an email about off-ship excursion cancellations and called to investigate.
A Carnival customer service representative told her that she had canceled her $12,000 reservation for the ship’s largest room — the Excel Presidential Suite — through the online system.
The mom and nurse practitioner said she went into “a full-blown panic” and she and her four kids were all in tears.
“We have nearly $15,000 tied up in for this vacation including excursions. The room itself was I think $12,000 or $13,000, and then we’ve got a few grand tied up in excursions, and actually with almost $2,000 for flights,” she said in a May 12 TikTok video.
Banks said she never canceled the trip and wondered if it was a system glitch.
Carnival said the room they had booked was now reserved by another customer and offered the family two interior rooms — the cheapest on the ship — instead, but the mom did not feel it was an adequate replacement.
Carnival also refused to offer a full refund as its cancellation policy states that no money will be returned within 15 days of the cruise date.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Yes. It’s the fault of the cruise line that they didn’t somehow verify who was cancelling the reservation.
I saw a story on Reddit where a woman booked a cruise for her and her boyfriend. They broke up before the cruise, and he cancelled it out of spite. Because it was too close to the cruise date, she lost all her money. His name was on the cruise too, but she had paid for it. There was nothing she could do to get her money back.
In the case though, it was fraud so the consumer should be compensated since the cruise line was a party to the fraud by not verifying identification.
What was the fraud. I have worked in that industry. You either provide the service or you return the money, unless there is a cancellation fee. Then you are entitled to the full cancellation fee if you do not resell the service that was cancelled. It’s even worse for a fraudulent cancellation with no system in place to prevent such fraud.
I still stand with the credit card not being liable. There was no fraud when she booked the cruise. But you make good points about them leaning on the merchant.
And as we read the thread replies, it worked. Or something did. Carnival did offer the dummy a refund. Replies said she declined it since it was not the full amount. You’re correct; Carnival is allowed administrative fees.
“I have worked in that industry. You either provide the service or you return the money, unless there is a cancellation fee.”
Their cancellation fee is clearly stated.
V_TWIN wrote: “Or which cruise line for that matter.....it depends on what kind of experience your looking for. If your looking for peace and quiet stay the heck away from Carnival. Lol!”
While I’ve never sailed on Carnival, Carnival is probably getting a bad rap. Most of the stories of ‘booze cruises’ are from 4 or 5 day cruises over spring break or other holidays. These cruises attract the party hardy crowd. Other cruises are more sedate. That said, Holland is probably much more sedate among the mainstream cruises.
what a dingbat, never share info on any social media ever..
ProtectOurFreedom wrote: “My wife booked it, so I’ll blame Mrs. POF. It was our first cruise and we were wet behind the ears when it came to things like that. She probably picked the cheapest balcony cabin.”
Probabaly true. Going cheap will bite you. We are very much balcony people. We hardly ever go ashore, we just like being at sea on a balcony with a great view.
She should have taken the $10k refund and chalk the rest up to ‘experience’.................
“While I’ve never sailed on Carnival, Carnival is probably getting a bad rap”
I have.....several, and I can tell you it’s a deserved reputation and doesn’t necessarily coincide with spring break or any holiday.
So much so that we switched to Princess cruise line and have been completely satisfied.
Fun fact, Carnival and Princess are both owned by the same parent line as well as Cunard and a few others IIRC.
“So much so that we switched to Princess cruise line and have been completely satisfied.”
We sail Princess. At 77 I am one of younger passengers ...
It’s a lot more complicated than that. They resold the service; they apparently had no fraud prevention in place; and, they took payment via credit card which subjects both sides of the transactions to the terms and conditions of the credit card company. Like I said, they don’t have a loss because they resold the fraudulently cancelled rooms, a fraud against which apparently they had no protection.
Legally there is also the argument about frustration of purpose, which a fraudulent cancellation is clearly an example of.
V_TWIN wrote: “I have.....several, and I can tell you it’s a deserved reputation and doesn’t necessarily coincide with spring break or any holiday.”
Not totally surprised. Thanks for sharing your personal experience.
V_TWIN wrote: “So much so that we switched to Princess cruise line and have been completely satisfied. Fun fact, Carnival and Princess are both owned by the same parent line as well as Cunard and a few others IIRC.”
Yes, carnival owns several distinct cruise lines. We’ve done Princess several times and were generally satisfied. We’ve also done Holland but our favorite is Norwegian, but only if we can book the Haven.
“You cannot resell space and then keep anything more than the administrative costs of rebooking, “
False. There cancellation policies are clearly worded. Cancel within 14 days of sailing you lose 100%.
How can we donate to her Go Fund Me account? </sarc
Never had Facebook, never will….
100%
As you probably know cruise ships of different lines that have the same itinerary will follow each other around.
When we were walking back to our ship in Aruba we came across a lady that was lost on how to get back to her Norwegian that had been following our ship so we helped her get back to it. Making small talk during our walk she mentioned that her ship was on a 3 week cruise......THREE WEEKS??!!
Not sure I could go that long on a boat......I would imagine at some point your doin’ laundry! Lol!
yes she should have taken the refund
Right on. I’m on a neighborhood-type online website where people post things like “my dog ran off, have you seen her?” type of stuff, to “hello, can you spare a few bucks for my kid’s birthday?” It being taken over by people asking for handouts. Unless I have a very specific answer for an honest inquiry, I stay out of there. I don’t have any money to give anyone. If I did, it would be going here.
And if that is not good enough then there is the equitable principle of frustration of purpose which operates to void a contract and return all payments to the purchaser.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.