Passengers’ fury as cruise f irms charge them twice
CRUISE firms were deluged with complaints yesterday after overcharging guests by thousands of pounds. Customers had their bank accounts emptied as holiday payments were taken twice.
Passengers with P&O Cruises, Cunard and Princess Cruises were affected by the ‘technical error’ blamed on finance company Elavon.
Hundreds of disgruntled holidaymakers bombarded the companies’ Facebook pages. One said she was now ‘very overdrawn’ because the firm had helped itself to an extra £5,000.
Last night Peter Hardman, 63, of Preston, told the Daily Mail: ‘My wife and I booked a week’s cruise in the Norwegian fjords, and on March 22 we paid the balance of £3,313.
‘Then on Friday, they tried to take another £3,313. I wasn’t very happy about it, and told my bank not to pay the money, but the bank said they had the right to take it.’
Another customer Claire Duncan wrote on P&O’s Facebook page that she was ‘absolutely livid’, saying: ‘Travelling in two weeks’ time and full cost of cruise has been charged again.
‘This is absolutely a security breach, you have failed to keep your client’s information secure.’
And Jan McDermott wrote: ‘I too am fuming as £5,000 has been taken from two of my accounts. Who has that amount of spare money? This needs resolving and compensation offered to everyone affected.’
Ann Denise Gilbert said: ‘I had to pay the double-glazing company and did not have enough money in my account to do so. Also, the surprise cruise for my husband’s 70th is no longer a surprise because P&O emailed him to tell him about the mistake of deducting money from our joint account.’
Irene Frith said £900 had been taken from her, leaving her ‘short of money to buy my grandchildrens’ birthday presents’. She added: ‘I’m furious and will be taking this up with P&O.’
P&O said it would refund customers but many complained it would take days for the cash to be returned.
Customer Patricia Hunt said: ‘Our account was wiped out. We had booked for a weekend away, as I have been ill the past six months, so my hubby wanted to cheer me up. [Our] card was declined, we were so embarrassed.’
On Cunard’s Facebook page, Stuart Roberts wrote: ‘I awoke this morning to being £1,500 down via four separate transactions.’ David Blake, a customer of Princess Cruises, wrote: ‘Outrageous. £822 of my account this morning.’
The firms said: ‘On Friday we were made aware of a one-off technical error made by Elavon, our third-party payment processor, in relation to card payments for cruise bookings with Cunard, P&O Cruises and Princess Cruises. Refunds are already being processed and we are working with Elavon at the highest level to investigate how this happened and to ensure that this could not happen again.
‘Any charges incurred by guests as a result of this issue will be refunded. Once again we apologise to those guests who were affected by this error.’
‘Our bank account was wiped out’