My complaint:
I’ve just spent about 10 hours on the phone chatting with various supervisors regarding the cancellation of our transatlantic cruise (Reservation ID: 2072551). The reason for the cancellation was because of the vaccine mandate. The first question we asked when booking this cruise last November was, Is there a vaccine mandate? The answer was no!! We just learned a few weeks back of the vaccine mandate for this particular cruise. We spent 3 hours on the phone explaining that we are not going to get the vaccine and were lied to in the original conversation. The supervisor indicated that he would pull the audio tapes and get back to us within 48 hours. Almost a week later we called back to find that they approved the cancellation, but we would be penalized $400 for the flights. We have received some of the refunds but not all. When we called back and spoke to another supervisor, he indicated that they would process vacation protection plan but I would have to talk to the flight team to get a refund on the flights. So, I contacted the flight team and they agreed to refund all but the $400 penalty to which I never agreed to. So I asked to speak to another supervisor, Carol. I explained my situation and that Celebrity cancelled the cruise on us not the other way around as they lied to us about the vaccine requirement. I told her that Celebrity should pay the penalty not me. She then proceeded to talk over me and anytime I wanted to say something she would basically tell me to listen to her rather than being heard. She was so rude and condescending that the only way I could get a word in was to shout. I finished by telling her we were lied to from the beginning and now they are trying to steal money from our account. We did book another cruise to replace this one on Celebrity Edge on May 1st but after this experience I don’t want celebrity to ever get another dollar from me!! I let them know that I have a credit card dispute filed and would prevail in the end either through the dispute or bad reviews. This has been a nightmare to get resolved in addition to having to put up with such rudeness and condescension!!
Suggested solution:
Refund all my money from the cancelled cruise including the $400 so called penalty which was not our fault. The refund process was supposed to be automatic but I have spent hours pulling eyeteeth (pardon the cliche) trying to get the entire refund. It was not automatic and I personally feel that it is by design to keep as much of a clients money as possible. I think an apology is certainly in order.