Credit Patments

yorkxv

The background to it all is my wife and I were on a Cruise in South America and docked in Buenos Aires back in January.
The ship was not due to sail for about 36 hours and passengers were due to spend another night on board.
Unfortunately, on the morning of our arrival, my wife woke up very ill, confused and weak.
We went to the ships Medical Centre where she was given a number of tests and examinations. The doctor determined that she needed to go to a local hospital by ambulance for future assessment. This was approved by our medical insurance company.
In summary, my complaint is Princess Cruises failure to take care of a person who they considered was very ill. In addition, they put me in an unbearable stressful situation trying to get my very sick wife medical care from people I couldn’t communicate with.
The ships doctor informed me that my wife needed to be transferred to a local hospital in an ambulance for further treatment as she was very ill. I assumed from one hospital bed to another, we were after all in a modern large city and there was time to organise that as the ship wasn’t sailing until the following day.
After we had left the ship someone in their organisation or a person who they are responsible for decided an ambulance was not necessary. The first available taxi driver was instructed to drive us to the hospital and take us to one of the receptions. He couldn’t do this due to traffic restrictions and just pointed to one of the entrances. Unfortunately, he couldn’t speak English. We presented the documents to a receptionist and she gave us a very blank look, as she could not read or speak English which is not surprising.
It then took us nearly an hour before the Director of the hospital was available to speak to us in English. He stated that no one had contacted them about our arrival. In addition because of their office and insurance system payment, it would be difficult to pay for treatment, which again added to the stress. Seeing our dire situation he said they could accept our credit card but that could only be done in another part of the hospital. I then had to leave my wife and was taken to another office some distance away.
Princess Cruises failed totally in their duty of care to us and particularly my wife. It’s a terrible way to treat customers and the company should be ashamed of itself the way it treated a sick 76-year-old lady.
Unfortunately, Princess Cruises feels it didn’t do anything wrong but will not explain how we ended up in such dire circumstances. ABTA has been unable to resolve the situation and can not apportion blame under their rules.
I will now have to take Princess Cruises to a court or seek arbitration to resolve the matter and this where I am asking your advice on a contract issue. I did not have a contract with the company as I bought the holiday through Imagine Cruising.
However, I did pay £1403.22 to Princess Cruises for the two hours of medical tests and treatment before leaving their medical facility.
The question is does this payment constitute a contract?
I would like to stress the large payment does not form part of my complaint. That is a matter for my travel insurance company Insure and Go who have been excellent in dealing with my claim. Although, the large sum should maybe have been a bit of an incentive to ensure a seamless transfer and induction into a hospital by ambulance as promised by the ships doctor. Wishful thinking I suppose.
It might be of interest that when I finally managed to get my wife into the Argentinean hospital system the total cost only came to about £84.88. For that, they carried more or less the same tests plus an X-ray and importantly also in a very caring and friendly manner, lovely people. That in contrast to on ship care which was super efficient at testing and obtaining results but lacked nursing skills.
My concern is that Princess Cruises will use a contract legal loophole to block my case. They keep insisting they have done nothing wrong and all their procedures were followed. My answer is how come I end up in such a distressing situation with a person who they deemed to be very ill. The worry was overwhelming at the time and was still stressful for sometime after as they dragged it out hoping I would go away.
When I started the complaint procedure I genuinely believed that after being informed of what happened to us they would say sorry we messed up and we will ensure it will not happen to anyone else. Then plus a small gift or drinks voucher for the next cruise or something like that.
It appears they will do anything to get out of acknowledging their failings, the corporate way I assume. I am so furious with them now but it didn’t start out that way. I now want proper compensation as it would seem it’s the only thing they will make them change.

This must not be allowed to happen to anyone else.

[Deleted User]

Your post is very hard to read.

Could you summarise your complaint?

Paul_DNAP

This is exactly the sort of situation that travel insurance is for.


The cruise company is correct, they did everything they could to help you. Anything above that is your own responsibility, and your own duty of care.

lincroft1710

Just forget this!

Hopefully your wife is better and there have been no further issues. Pursuing any claim via a court will be stressful, time consuming and will cost. It seems you are not out of pocket as your travel insurers are reimbursing you for all the medical expenses, therefore you have no financial loss. Trying to claim for a disputed short term lack of care is virtually impossible to quantify.

You do not help your case by saying you would have been happy with "a small gift or drinks voucher for the next cruise or something like that" but now want full-blown COMPENSATION!

Finally there is no way for a company to ensure that what happened to you does not happen to anyone else. They can try to improve procedures but that is all.

Woolco

Hi. I didn't find your post hard to read at all.

It just sounds like a terrible situation to be in and hopefully your wife and yourself are in a better place now, health wise.

It seems once you were off the ship, you were on your own. I have certainly learned something from this.

yorkxv

However, I did pay £1403.22 to Princess Cruises for the two hours of medical tests and treatment before leaving their medical facility.
The question is does this payment constitute a contract?

dj1471

yorkxv wrote: »

However, I did pay £1403.22 to Princess Cruises for the two hours of medical tests and treatment before leaving their medical facility.
The question is does this payment constitute a contract?

Yes, of course it does. You went to their medical centre, requested their services and paid for them. I'm not sure how this really helps or even relates to your complaint however, especially since you've indicated that your insurance will cover it.

unholyangel

So far, you haven't stated anything which would be a obvious breach of care. Nor have you implied that their breach of that duty of care resulted in you suffering a loss/causing your wife to fall ill in the first place.

So I'm not quite sure what it is exactly that you'd be trying to claim compensation for.

Manxman_in_exile

I'm probably being stupid, but if I was ill in Buenos Aires and my insurance company approved seeking hospital treatment, I'd expect them to be able to direct me to a suitable (English speaking) hospital.


I am being stupid, aren't I?

Boomslang

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

I'm probably being stupid, but if I was ill in Buenos Aires and my insurance company approved seeking hospital treatment, I'd expect them to be able to direct me to a suitable (English speaking) hospital.

Playing devil's advocate here, how many Spanish speaking hospitals do we have in the UK?

meer53

Why do you want to take them to court ? Your wife received hospital treatment and your insurance is covering all costs ?