Placeholder Cancelled?

[lovewdwfun]

I booked two placeholders on my last Disney cruise in May - we had two rooms. I have confirmation emails for both. I am now on the phone with Disney and they are saying that they cancelled one of the placeholders because no funds were attached to it. We booked both together on the cruise. They claim they sent me an email and I didn’t reply so they automatically cancelled it. I have all my old emails and I have both confirmations but nothing about any cancellation. I am so upset - they didn’t even call to tell us they were cancelling it. They also took my credit card onboard. It appears they screwed up - we booked a cruise first, changed to two placeholders, they refunded part of it and I guess refunded too much. Has anyone had this happened? We were counting on this for our next cruise and are now considering not even cruising with Disney anymore because how they are handling this.

 

[Mainsail Minnie]

I booked two placeholders on my last Disney cruise in May - we had two rooms. I have confirmation emails for both. I am now on the phone with Disney and they are saying that they cancelled one of the placeholders because no funds were attached to it. We booked both together on the cruise. They claim they sent me an email and I didn’t reply so they automatically cancelled it. I have all my old emails and I have both confirmations but nothing about any cancellation. I am so upset - they didn’t even call to tell us they were cancelling it. They also took my credit card onboard. It appears they screwed up - we booked a cruise first, changed to two placeholders, they refunded part of it and I guess refunded too much. Has anyone had this happened? We were counting on this for our next cruise and are now considering not even cruising with Disney anymore because how they are handling this.

Hopefully they'll get that corrected for you. If it was their error, they should restore the placeholders & I don't see why they wouldn't. Just keep cool & polite on the phone, & gently keep insisting on escalation until you speak with someone with the authority to restore the placeholders they botched. Accidents happen, but good customer service should come to the rescue eventually.

When this is settled, please let us know how it went.

 

[lovewdwfun]

Update: I asked to talk to the manager and lo and behold...they realized they never sent me a cancellation notice. It was only after I insisted to speak to a manager and was very upset that this was the worst service I received. They ended up reinstating it after they “investigated further” and realized they probably didn’t send me anything about it (ridiculous). Guess it pays to not give up.

 

[Madame]

Update: I asked to talk to the manager and lo and behold...they realized they never sent me a cancellation notice. It was only after I insisted to speak to a manager and was very upset that this was the worst service I received. They ended up reinstating it after they “investigated further” and realized they probably didn’t send me anything about it (ridiculous). Guess it pays to not give up.

Jeez. Sorry this happened. I’m always paranoid about placeholders too & sometimes don’t receive an email! I’ve read stories about DCL claiming PH were never submitted, etc on FB & DCL basically responding with too bad for you.

This past cruise I took a photo of my PH slip and one of me putting it in the box, then immediately checked my CC pending transactions to make sure BOTH cabins were charged. Shouldn’t be so difficult to get basic service

 

[lovewdwfun]

The odd thing is I DID have the confirmation emails. And after reviewing all my old emails I am sure I never got a cancellation or a notice it would be cancelled! I think after their review they realized they sent it to Costco (our agent) or maybe no one. Moral of the story is to keep pushing! If I’d accepted the first few answers it would’ve just been cancelled.

 

[Lisa F]

The odd thing is I DID have the confirmation emails. And after reviewing all my old emails I am sure I never got a cancellation or a notice it would be cancelled! I think after their review they realized they sent it to Costco (our agent) or maybe no one. Moral of the story is to keep pushing! If I’d accepted the first few answers it would’ve just been cancelled.

It definitely always pays to talk to a manager. Low paid front end cms are never the final word and sometimes even have outright wrong info

 

[FigmentSpark]

Jeez. Sorry this happened. I’m always paranoid about placeholders too & sometimes don’t receive an email! I’ve read stories about DCL claiming PH were never submitted, etc on FB & DCL basically responding with too bad for you.

This past cruise I took a photo of my PH slip and one of me putting it in the box, then immediately checked my CC pending transactions to make sure BOTH cabins were charged. Shouldn’t be so difficult to get basic service

If you submit the placeholder on the last night, I don't know that it makes it to your room charges. I think they just charge your card (or payment method).

 

[Madame]

If you submit the placeholder on the last night, I don't know that it makes it to your room charges. I think they just charge your card (or payment method).

It was 2 days before (Thurs) and never showed on our room charges. Went straight to the credit card. Showed up as pending Saturday after we disembarked.

 

[Dug720]

While they ask if you want to use the card attached to your cabin, I do not believe they add it to the cabin charges. It is a separate charge.

OP - were you charged for both? That would have tipped me off immediately if I was charged for one but not both.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

It was 2 days before (Thurs) and never showed on our room charges. Went straight to the credit card. Showed up as pending Saturday after we disembarked.

We get a placeholder or book another cruise every cruise. They always charge the credit card on file. It never goes to the room charges. It makes no difference when in the cruise we do this.

Also, I get email credit card alerts for any charges that are not processed at point of sale, so I usually have an email from the credit card issuer before I get back to my stateroom after completing the bookings at the vacation planning desk. If I use a placeholder request card, I usually try to drop it off with at least two days left in the cruise, so I can see if the charge has been run in time to visit the desk if it has not. On one cruise, the cast member had a substantial stack of request cards that were waiting to be processed. Having read here about the many cases where passengers have not had their placeholders processed and didn’t find out until after the cruise, I’ve been reluctant to trust that the placeholder will get taken care of if I don’t get some confirmation prior to disembarking. I asked if the placeholder could be processed while I waited.

 

[lovewdwfun]

While they ask if you want to use the card attached to your cabin, I do not believe they add it to the cabin charges. It is a separate charge.

OP - were you charged for both? That would have tipped me off immediately if I was charged for one but not both.

I don’t think I was charged for both. There were a lot of charges (lol) so I didn’t pay much attention at the time. I’d originally booked a cruise, not placeholder. Then I went back and cancelled the cruise and booked two placeholders. They refunded me and it looks like the net was only $250. I also had a lot of room charges so i didn’t pay too much attention at the time because, well...who wants to scrutinize the bill after an Alaskan cruise?! We also had a lot of gift cards we paid our account with so it was complicated. Glad it worked out in the end but I will definitely check the charges more carefully next time! My suspicion is the person at the cruise desk screwed up and refunded the wrong amount. Maybe they emailed the payment information to Costco and not us, or didn’t send it anywhere.

 

[Dug720]

I don’t think I was charged for both. There were a lot of charges (lol) so I didn’t pay much attention at the time. I’d originally booked a cruise, not placeholder. Then I went back and cancelled the cruise and booked two placeholders. They refunded me and it looks like the net was only $250. I also had a lot of room charges so i didn’t pay too much attention at the time because, well...who wants to scrutinize the bill after an Alaskan cruise?! We also had a lot of gift cards we paid our account with so it was complicated. Glad it worked out in the end but I will definitely check the charges more carefully next time! My suspicion is the person at the cruise desk screwed up and refunded the wrong amount. Maybe they emailed the payment information to Costco and not us, or didn’t send it anywhere.

The charges should have been to your credit card and not your account. If the future cruise person put them on your account, they did it incorrectly.

In the future if you do not see the charge for what you booked on your card, you can call much sooner than 3 months or more after the fact. To be honest you got very lucky this time.

 

[lovewdwfun]

The charges should have been to your credit card and not your account. If the future cruise person put them on your account, they did it incorrectly.

In the future if you do not see the charge for what you booked on your card, you can call much sooner than 3 months or more after the fact. To be honest you got very lucky this time.

Yes, I could, but I think this is on Disney. I wouldn’t say I “got lucky” - when you book something and get a confirmation, it’s very reasonable to expect a call or email before they cancel it, especially at the price we pay for Disney. Seems like basic customer service, particularly because it was their mistake on the charge. With the premium we pay Disney ($10K per cruise) they should be taking care of items like this. We waited three months to call only because we were ready to book our next cruise and that is when we find out they cancelled our placeholder without telling us.

 

[Dug720]

Yes, I could, but I think this is on Disney. I wouldn’t say I “got lucky” - when you book something and get a confirmation, it’s very reasonable to expect a call or email before they cancel it, especially at the price we pay for Disney. Seems like basic customer service, particularly because it was their mistake on the charge. With the premium we pay Disney ($10K per cruise) they should be taking care of items like this. We waited three months to call only because we were ready to book our next cruise and that is when we find out they cancelled our placeholder without telling us.

You got confirmation but never paid - or never looked closely enough at things to realize you had not.

That is where we shall have to agree to disagree about it. Even with confirmation I make sure that the charge happens and if it does not I am immediately on the phone.

Different strokes.

 

[Ravenne]

If you submit the placeholder on the last night, I don't know that it makes it to your room charges. I think they just charge your card (or payment method).

I had a future sailings booking CM explain to me that they do not put it on room charges. You pay the deposit right there at the booking desk or they have Guest Services charge it to your card immediately. I couldn't even go to Guest Services, plunk down $250 into my onboard account and have them deduct it from there. He told me that if I wanted to "charge to my account" I could go to one of the shops, buy a gc for $250 (charged to my account) and go back to the desk with the gc to pay for the PH. Basically, if no payment at the time they process the placeholder, no placeholder.

 

[Dug720]

I had a future sailings booking CM explain to me that they do not put it on room charges. You pay the deposit right there at the booking desk or they have Guest Services charge it to your card immediately. I couldn't even go to Guest Services, plunk down $250 into my onboard account and have them deduct it from there. He told me that if I wanted to "charge to my account" I could go to one of the shops, buy a gc for $250 (charged to my account) and go back to the desk with the gc to pay for the PH. Basically, if no payment at the time they process the placeholder, no placeholder.

This. Placeholders or actual date cruise deposits are NOT charged to your shipboard account. So there is no need to “avoid the horror” of your cruise account. You need to be checking your bank or credit card account.

 

[Madame]

This. Placeholders or actual date cruise deposits are NOT charged to your shipboard account. So there is no need to “avoid the horror” of your cruise account. You need to be checking your bank or credit card account.

Yes & I think that’s where many of us run into problems: we can’t check our CC acct until we’ve arrived back in PC since we don’t have Internet access. Might be better if they did put it on the shipboard acct.

 

[FigmentSpark]

I had a future sailings booking CM explain to me that they do not put it on room charges. You pay the deposit right there at the booking desk or they have Guest Services charge it to your card immediately. I couldn't even go to Guest Services, plunk down $250 into my onboard account and have them deduct it from there. He told me that if I wanted to "charge to my account" I could go to one of the shops, buy a gc for $250 (charged to my account) and go back to the desk with the gc to pay for the PH. Basically, if no payment at the time they process the placeholder, no placeholder.

I thought that might be the case, but I didn't want to be presumptuous. Thanks for clearing that up. Mine always went straight to my credit card and that was the only indicator I've ever had that it was processed. I never did get emails. Just the charge.

 

[scgustafson]

The reason why you cannot charge onboard bookings, including placeholders, to your onboard account, is because at the end of your cruise, the onboard account is made to a $0 balance and permanently closed. Onboard bookings need to be charged to something that will remain open after the sailing, as a place for refunds to be applied needs to exist, and your defunct onboard account no longer is an option, in the case of a cancellation, especially on placeholders not used within the 2-year window.

 

[Dug720]

Yes & I think that’s where many of us run into problems: we can’t check our CC acct until we’ve arrived back in PC since we don’t have Internet access. Might be better if they did put it on the shipboard acct.

Drop the card at the end of the cruise! Gives you a few extra days as well!