Caribbean Cruise Line Impersonators

On Saturday (2/17/11), I received a letter in the mail from Caribbean Cruise Line stating I won a free cruise. I was so excited that I called right away to claim it. I also find out that I also won a week stay in Florida, Las Vegas, and Mexico. All food is included as well as a $50 gambling card. I was very happy until they requested my credit card to pay the $900.00 cost! I told them no, I'm a student and cannot afford this, so they reduced it down to $800, which I declined and then again to $415. Along the decrease they shaved off some accommodations along they way. I agreed to pay $415 for a 2day cruise, a week in Las Vegas, and a week in Florida.

After them taking down my information and receiving a reservation number, I went online to do a little research. I went to google and typed in Caribbean Cruise Line and google auto corrected me to include Scam in the name. I knew right then I made a mistake. Every hit was informing everyone to save their money and to not go on this cruise. It's a big scam and should be avoided at all costs. Seeing this, I called up Visa and canceled my credit card right away. However, it was too late, a pending charge of $415 was already present. I said that I wanted this charge removed and they advised me to call the cruise-line to cancel and request a refund.

So the fun begins. I called that Monday to cancel my trip. Since the charge was still pending, they said they couldn't do anything about it. Therefore, I had to wait until today (Thurs 2/17) to talk to a person from customer service. When I finally got on the phone and asked for a refund, they prompted me with all this information about my trip and how much of a great deal I have and shouldn't let it go. They were trying to convince me not to cancel. After arguing for a few minutes, she put me on the phone with her supervisor who came on the phone and gave me the same information. I told him that all I wanted was a refund, I'm not going on the trip and it is very unfair that they are keeping my money. He told me that the best he could do was to refund me $208 (1/2 of the original $415), and to keep my file open to book at a later date. I said no, I want a full refund and I want my file terminated but this was no use. He said the only way I could get the other $208, was to transfer my cruise to a friend or family member and have them physically pay me $208. That was ridiculous.

After arguing for another 10 minutes, I told him I will take what I can get and to refund me the $208. I called Visa and explained my situation. Since the cruise never told me the cancellation terms upfront, I deserve a full refund which they are prepared to fight for. This has been a big mess and I hope that other people read this and aren't fooled by the words free because everything comes with a price.

I spoke with a representative by the name of Eddie on 04-30-10 and made changes to my reservation by removing two passengers and replacing them with two new passengers. I requested an additional stateroom on the cruise and this upgrade was added for an additional cost of $598.00 for two nights. Eddie also told me that childcare services are offered on the cruise 24 hours a day, seven days a week at a nominal fee.

He explained to me that when we dropped off our children, they will give us each a wristband to match the colored band given to each child to identify the parent of the child. Eddie said he would also give us an additional hotel room in Fort Lauderdale for two nights as a gift during the vacation. However, when we arrived to Customs, we were told that we only had one room during our stay on the cruise.

We all had to share an uncomfortable stay with two babies and two adults in one room. Also when we inquired about the childcare services at the information desk, we were told that we received false information from the reservations representative and that the cruise ship has never provided such services. We were very disappointed, did not get to enjoy the amenities offered, and very unsatisfied with our stay on the cruise ship.

Subsequently the hotel did provide us with two rooms in Fort Lauderdale but not on the ship. I would like a refund of the upgrade that was purchased and expect this matter to be handled promptly.

My 85 year old mother was solicited by phone to buy a cruise package deal that cost her over $1000. I didn't realize what she had paid until after the fact and after the 3 days she supposedly had to return it. She and I both talked to their customer service and were told that she can send it back, but she won't get a refund. It is one of those listen to the time share spiels and certainly shouldn't cost $1200 plus port taxes.

My mother is widowed and lives on a fixed income. She could not afford this. She didn't even want to go on a cruise and only bought it thinking one of her children would go. She was brow beaten into it by a high pressure sales person.

I got a call representing my timeshare company (RCI) offering me a three-day cruise. It sounded like a nice way to take a first cruise. Next thing I know, the rep (Angela) has talked me into a stay on land, another vacation in Vegas and another that I can't remember. I was going to surprise my husband with the cruise. About half hour after I got off the phone, I realized that I shouldn't have made the reservation. They told me that I had three days to cancel it if I wanted to. I have been trying to cancel but all they do is talk in circles and refuse to cancel the $498 charge on my Discover. I didn't stop to think how many hours extra my husband would have to work to pay for the cruise and therefore, I don't want to have him work extra hours especially for the likes of the people I have just been dealing with.

I am a citizen of India residing in Houston, TX, USA. My call was transferred to Caribbean Cruise when I was on call with another third party tied up with your company.The reason for my mail is a request for a full refund as I am returning back to my country. With all my calls to the specialists, travel coordinators etc, I have always asked about the cancellation and refund procedures which they said I can get it at any point of time. No one has ever explained the T&C even upon request nothing was notified to me about the state statutory period or anything. They always made it appear like the process was very easy to cancel. I did not receive any package from Caribbean Cruise.

Even the welcome letter does not say anything about cancellation. Please go ahead and review all the calls I have made with Chris ** and Shauntel and also the call with Pam, the floor supervisor, today which was very unpleasant. I am the one who has lost my hard earned money here. I bought the service from you and I claim the refund from you. They cannot tell me to transfer and sell it to someone here. The transactions from your end has never been transparent. I have all my record and proofs to show that I have been tricked into this process. I want a full refund of US$648.

In 2009, I made a reservation with the Caribbean Cruise Line for July 13, 2010, to embark on a three day cruise with my family and to celebrate the day of July 14 because it was the 25th wedding anniversary. Now when I made the cruise, I told the lady that these dates could not be exchanged under any circumstances and I asked her to send me some sort of papers stating that I had the two reservations were set; fast-forward an year and I finally get the confirmation papers and I find out that geniuses managed to screw up the reservations, placing my 3 children on the July 13 to July 15 cruise and placing my wife and I on the July 15 to July 17 cruise.

I have taken the necessary days off from work and booked my airfare and all the other preparations that come with a cruise and now they go and change my dates.

I'm suppose to have won this cruise but with all the noise and switch to different people, I thought I was getting a upgrade in room but found out that it was a hotel in Fort Lauderdale and a car rental of $430 some prize. They make so much noise that it is hard for you to think.

The company aired a commercial late night offering a free 2-night cruise to the first 500 registrants in the area. It sounded like a good deal because I read why they were offering the free cruises. The reason was apparently to promote both the ship and the Bahamas by doing a promotional partnership. Upon registering, an email was sent with a confirmation number which had to be activated by calling.

I was asked for a major credit card to hold the cabin but payment for government taxes and fees would not have to be paid until it was time for sailing. I was told at the time of activating my "free cruise" that my credit card would not be charged because I let them know I did not have the funds readily available, not knowing it was a scam. They said it was fine but the total cost would be $99 per person for taxes and fees as well as a $9.50 processing fee per person. That equaled to be about $217 according to him, and that's what needed to be available when I called back to book the cruise. I was then placed on hold. When the rep came back on the phone, he told me I was approved at $120 which had gone through my bank account already.

I let them know I did not authorize any charges and he claimed that I did. I asked him to cancel the transaction and refund my money or let me speak to a manager. He did not want me to speak to a manager, of course, so he "cancelled" the charges. Upon completion, I called my bank and cancelled my credit card. I was then informed that the company attempted to make four charges on my bank account which did not go through, none of which I authorized. The amounts were for $799, $599, $399, and $199. None were approved but one for $120 was. My money has not been replaced.

My mom, who is 78 years old, was contacted in May of 2009, saying that she had won a "free cruise". They talked her into paying extra so that she could have two rooms and better accommodations. She wanted to surprise my Dad, but when she showed him what the arrangements were he told her that they couldn't do it. The trip included travel all over Florida, and truly isn't geared for an elderly couple. She had paid $498 for the first room, and $373 towards the second room. She was told that she couldn't get her money back. She was trying to give the tickets to children/grandchildren for quite some time, and finally gave the tickets to me so that my children could use them.

At some point at the beginning of this year, she was contacted and told that there were errors on those tickets--that she needed to return them, and they would send the one package back. At some point she was led to believe that in order to pay off the packages so that she could give them to my children and they wouldn't have a balance due, that she would pay another $898, which she did on Feb. 4, 2010. I called Caribbean last week to find out what the accommodations and arrangements would be, and they told me that she had booked one room.

I got the payment info from my parents, then called back today. I found out that they have her paying for three rooms now! She has been trying since the beginning to just get a refund but now they have her with three nonrefundable rooms. I told them to refund her money because she has not used any of their services at all. They say no, that she has enough accommodations now for up to 12 people in the three rooms, which is so far from what she was told in the beginning! With port charges, if we took 12 people we would be paying another $1500. We couldn't even get four people in the family to get vacation time together to use the two rooms, and now they've ripped her off for another $898!