1y ago

‘I don’t know what else to do’: Carnival Cruise customer spent 2K on trip. Now that she’s passed away, they want a $1,300 cancellation fee

www.dailydot.com

Big ole business just itching to get more money from people's grief.. until they're called out in front of enough people online.

47 comments

From the article:
If Caitlin did want to try to get the original amount back, she’d have to email and send the death certificate to a specific email address
Did she try - you know - doing that?
- For those that haven't had to deal with handling the closing of accounts for someone that passed away, sending a Death Certificate is an extremely common request from a company. You usually should get 10 to 20 Death Certificates because many companies (especially banks) will require a real one, not a picture or email.
  
  My country blew a hole in that logic by making essentially any government issued document a virtual certificate accessible through a permanente code.
  You can get one copy, scan and email it indefinetely and all entities receiving only need to check the permanent code online.
  It was complete chaos when it rolled out, especially for old, outdated, progress resisting entities.
- It says it would take 30 business days. That means it would pass the date the cruise starts, so she would not be able to get a refund at all.
  
  It says it would take 30 business days.
  If Caitlin did want to try to get the original amount back, she’d have to email and send the death certificate to a specific email address, which may take up to 30 days to respond.
  This kind of language usually means "Yes, we will refund you in full as you have notified us. However, this processes isn't fast and it has the requirement of us receiving the Death Certificate and validating it on our side before we issue a refund."
  Did she specifically ask: "Okay, if I send in the request now to the email address you've given me, and I send the Death Certificate, does that mean I'll be receiving the full refund even if your process takes time and the ship sails without them?"
  
  No. That's not how things work.
  The refund could take 30 days to go into her bank account. She would get the refund if she sent them the info like a normal person.
  
  It says it could take up to 30 days. That doesn't mean that the refund might still not have been granted even post-cruise.

Why can’t they just do the right thing from the get-go?
Because like all nice things, people abuse them. Not to indicate that Carnival Cruise is some saint here, but the reason most companies don't just default to "benefit of the doubt" is because there are a ton of very bad people out there that abuse any inch a company will give them.
My step mother was one of those entitled ass people who thought the world owed her. One day she put on some act about a late fee and the person on the other side of the desk was saying "oh I'm sure there's something we can swing…" And having enough of her shit, I was basically, "Do not give this lady a wavier on that late fee, everything she just said is some massive warping of the actual truth!"
Maybe it's because of her, but I find it difficult to ding companies who don't default to "benefit of the doubt". I'm glad the lady got it sorted out. But shoot, I've got massive distrust of folks in general and my step-mother is a lot of the blame for that. Side note, that's likely unhealthy kind of stuff that I should one day sort out.
- If you're a customer who is usually in good standing, when you call and ask for late fees to be waived, they usually are.

capitalism gonna capitalism
- You could say they’re capitalizing on her misfortune.

Just Weekend at Bernie's it. Cruises are already floating disease incubators, what difference is a corpse or two?
- do you want zombie covid?
  because that’s how you get zombie covid.
- Fun fact: Almost every modern cruise ship has a fully functioning morgue.

It sucks that you have to go to social media to reach these companies and actually get results. What if you don't have any social media or very few followers?
- Then you send them a copy of the death certificate like they asked her to, and they refund the full amount.

Cancellation fees are bullshit.

She should bring a lawsuit against Carnival cruiselines and tell them to go fuck themselves for being such filthy disgusting assholes.

Cruses have always been no cancelations for any reason. Which is why cruise forums are full of debate on what instance is best, with few saying don't get it.

I mean the mother signed a contract? there's a "classic" case that if an old person ordered a stair lift and then died before construction started the heirs will still have to pay for that.
It's just that you inherit not just the values but also the obligations as shitty as it might be
and that she apparently didn't even send them the death-certificate before going to the media makes this just drip from big Karen-energy...
- the heirs will still have to pay for that.
  I don't think you can sign your children into a contract of any kind. If there's money they're inheriting the estate would have to pay contracts before the heirs in some cases but if there's no money to be had I don't think the kids are on the hook for anything.
  
  The quick way around this is to be in debt to your kids!
- At least it's that way in Germany
  My father died 2 years ago and my sister and I had to pay for construction at the house he signed off a month before his death even though we didn't want that and both our lawyers said there's no way to get out of that unless you deny the whole inheritance

Show up, firebomb the ship, justice. Ez pz.
- They’re probably less likely to be as covered by insurance if you intentionally start a norovirus incident, and maybe get your money back.

I doubt she can afford it but if so, she could try to bring a suit against Carnival Cruise lines. They hate negative publicity. Or talk to an AP reporter, maybe they could do a story about it. She could also start a GoFundMe to cover the cost of cancellation but I do hope Carnival Cruise gets a lot of flack for being so inflexible and insensitive and money hungry. Another example of how we get screwed because a large corporation with tons of money is unwilling to bend the rules a bit and must follow every word of their "you have to pay us this" script to the letter, no matter who suffers.
- Why? All she needs to do is send them a copy of the death certificate. That's how it works, they're not asking for anything out of the ordinary. That's simply what you do when someone passes away.
  
  Carnival Cruise lines has a net worth upward of $19 billion. I truly believe that it won't bankrupt them to bend the rules and cancel this fare once and for all without causing this undue hardship during this woman's period of grieving. Yes she can just send a death certificate, but if I were her there's be a big "FUCK YOU" note attached. And they could bill me (without success) for the remainder of my life as far as that goes.

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