BP99

1 minute ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

 

Any type of refund I have ever had with any type of business or service the amount of time stated to receive the refund has been in BUSINESS days. That is not new and should not be a surprise.

However, they are open 24/7 for bookings. They also charge your credit card 24/7.

Yes it's not a surprise, BUT many (like me) are at day 35 (Business) and at

49 days (calendar). The MAJOR reason is stalling due to lack of funds.

40 minutes ago, eaflorida said:

On March 23rd, Royal canceled my Vision of the Seas transatlantic. On March 24th, I filled out the online request for electing to receive a cash refund. Today is May 2nd, and still no refund of my cruise fare. I am frustrated, but what can you do? Hopefully it shows up soon. Its been 40 days so far. 

 

 

Hi,

As far as i can tell from reading the boards, MOST Royal/Celebrity/Azamara cruisers 

are still waiting. I'm at day 49. I've only seen a few people from Mid March getting

refunds. Some still waiting for late March sailings. No where close to the 30 days

(or they meant 30 business days) that they said. They are stalling big time.

They are sending me email ads each day to book a cruise. They need people

to book so they can refund some of us. My MAJOR hope is to get refunded

before they go bankrupt. Their excuses for stalling are quite interesting.

7 hours ago, nps001 said:

Just a few points:    Don't know if any of you read the CC post but Celebrity is actually quoting 30 BUSINESS days for refunds and is one of the shortest times.   Some cruise lines are quoting 90 days for refunds.

 

As crazy as it sounds, credit card numbers are not permitted to be emailed which is why banks require a fax versus email.   It sounds crazy that a fax laying around is more secure than an email but if you've ever deal with a doctor regarding specific medial conditions or advice, they do the same---fax only, no fax.

Hi,

I filled out the online form for 2 cruises (first & second wave of Celebrity cancelled

cruises). After the form was done it said I would receive a refund in 30 days.

THEY did NOT say 30 BUSINESS days! I took a screen shot. ALSO the 

letter sent by the Celebrity CEO also said 30 days NOT BUSINESS days.

YES, there is a difference between calendar and business days BUT THEY

did NOT specify! It was their agreement to refund us in 30 days. We didn't

make this up! It's in writing from them. 

15 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

Are their phones rotary dial?  Seriously, it's hard to believe in this day and age that fax or snail mail are the only options. Oh well...

It's like they want to make it difficult to apply for a refund (dispute).

Sound like somebody else you know?

Maybe their commodore 64's don't accept emails?

2 minutes ago, webecruzin2 said:

Well right at this very moment we should be at the airport waiting to  board our flight to SJU for a 2 night stay before our 7 night Summit cruise with our daughter and her family 😩
Our X PCC confirmed cancelation and my refund request on March 24th and said everything would be refunded within 3 weeks.
Two days ago after one short message to X,  I received a call back almost immediately from a rep in Kansas City MO who says she works "hand in hand" with Lisa Lutoff-Perlo and that my refunds should be received within 10 days to 2 weeks.
She explained the process to me and it's basically what we've all heard before, call me naïve but I had faith in what she said.  
This morning I received notice that our shore excursions refunds had been processed.
I have to say I was very impressed with the handling of my query and the quick response from Celebrity.
Everyone sit tight,  we'll start seeing our refunds shortly. 🙂


 

Hi,

Hope your right!

However, many on these boards (incl RCL boards) have yet to see 100%

refunds for March cruises that were cancelled (by the cruise lines). YES

they are trained to give you nice excuses but...

1 hour ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

That must be what happens if you try to push too many dollar bills through one of those tiny little fiber optic cables. 🤣🤣

 

Just for kicks, I might have stayed on the line until someone could give me a technical explanation of how the system got "overwhelmed".  I think I would have been on the line a while.

LOL!

The major issue is the Commodore 64 (or VIC 20) that they use.

51 minutes ago, TeaBag said:

Good news for us.  Our Mar 15 cruise was refunded in full yesterday to Amex.  We received the taxes Apr 1.  We had originally booked through Celebrity and then switched to a TA.  The refund came from Celebrity, so this may answer some peoples' questions.  Nothing, not even taxes, for the Mar 30 cruise which was a B2B.   Maybe because it is charged to a CDN card?  I hope everyone soon has their money.

Hi,

Great to hear!

However, was that a 100% refund for the cruise portion?

Or refund with FCC?

Thanks

22 hours ago, MoniMommy said:

I am waiting for the return of a deposit. Thats probably just one bucket.  Still haven't seen a refund.

Hi,

I hope my bucket isn't labelled "TRASH", or "DREAMERS", or "FORGET ABOUT IT"

8 minutes ago, skywonder said:

Almost the same garbage story I was given. The first rep we called told us it was processed but the credit card has to release it.  The second rep said it was showing processed but was waiting for release by RCCL. They said it would be a day or two. That was over a week and a half ago. They are flat out lying!!!

Hi,

Yes, they are using a multitude of excuses (most are lies) for not giving

refunds.

19 hours ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

Yes, they are able to keep the funds rather than giving a refund now for July and they save the trouble of all the processing.  

Huh?

On the Celebrity (owned by RCL) boards no one has gotten a 100% cash refund

yer for their mid March cruises. It's not a processing issue. 

5 minutes ago, ECCruise said:

That is the very definition of a cash flow problem.

They are literally waiting for additional people to pay deposits/final payments in order to refund your money, for which you have received nothing.  Everyone is not asking for their money back at the same time, only those who have received nothing for the funds they have given the cruise line.  Many, many people who are on cruises later in 2020, in 2021 and in 2022 are not asking for refunds. 

Maybe I was a horrible business owner for 20+ years.  When someone paid me for a service, I tendered that service to them.  If they did not receive that service, their money was returned to them.  I did NOT have to wait for someone else to pay for the service to refund to the first person.  That, I think, is basically a Ponzi scheme.

Yes, finally someone else agrees that this policy is NOT correct!!!

Even with the next set of cancellations, they (RCL/Celebrity) are also offering

100% cash refunds for cancelled cruises. The ONLY difference was that they

said that the refund would be in 45 days (not business days). They didn't

say we have to wait for cruisers to pay for upcoming cruises, make deposits etc

until we have enough funds to refund you!! MANY are still wait for refunds for

cruises in mid March. Yes, I agree that they can NOT refund anyone if they do

not have any money in the bank. This is logical, BUT why pretend and offer 

100% refunds if you do not have the money!

2 minutes ago, Bo1953 said:

Thank you for the common sense approach to this situation, like a MD, if the advice will only be followed, then the patient and patience will be much improved, overall, usually.

 

bon voyage

Hi,

Maybe you have answers to my questions that I posted about their response (look 2 or 3 up from your post for them). 

Thanks

6 hours ago, JonnyCT81 said:

Hey everyone,

 

TA here - the best way that you can help out Celebrity is to reward them with your patience. To date I have had 73 client's bookings that I have had to take care of that were cancelled, or changed with their "Cruise with Confidence" program.

 

To clear a few things up:

 

1. Refunds are taking between 45-60 days to process if you choose to take them. This is not because they are hoarding your money, it's because they have to mitigate their cash flow. If everyone tried to get their money back at the same time, they (or any other service/banking related industry) would go bust - they do not have everyone's deposits and fares sitting around in the bank just waiting to go to your folio's on the ship.

 

2. Commissions are protected for TA's that are cancelled by X, or with the CWC if it is after final payment - if it is before final they are repriced when you move your sailing. There is no incentive to delay, prevent, or impede in any way you choosing to take the refund or FCC. tldr; I get paid regardless of what you do, the only thing that changes is when I get paid.

 

These are trying times for not only the cruise industry but also for your TA. We will all get through this, but we ask for your time and patience in the process.

 

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi,

I bit confused with one of your statements:

"If everyone tried to get their money back at the same time, they (or any other service/banking related industry) would go bust - they do not have everyone's deposits and fares sitting around in the bank"

So they do NOT have enough bank funds to cover refunds?

Did you get this from RCL?, Your supervisor? or your opinion?

If they presently don't have enough funds where will it come from?

Thanks!

12 hours ago, detilliondl said:

I called Royal today and told them I had not received our port fees and taxes back for two sailings (Symphony March 14 which Royal cancelled and Anthem May 29 which I cancelled; also 2 cabins for each sailing).  Since thirty days had passed I should have received the credit back to our credit cards.  She said the first sailing was reprocessed due to an error and would require an addition 30 business days (not calendar days) and the second sailing had been credited back to our credit card on April 10th.  I had already called our bank to see if there were any pending credits and they said no.  They also indicated they post all credits within 24 hrs. of receiving them.  I called Royal back and they tried to blame our bank.  Several times the representative said it would be up to my bank to find the credit.  So what now?  After 20 plus cruises, I am disappointed in Royal Caribbean to say the least.  I plan on waiting till next week and see if the credit shows up on our card.  If not, I will be calling them back.  

"require an addition 30 business days (not calendar days)"

When they bill you it's 24/7. Why should it be business days?? now!

Their online refund for the 100% cash refund will be given in 30 days (or now 45 days with the recent online cancel form) and DOES NOT say business  days. 

I've recently seen a post (RCL or Celebrity-which is owned by RCL, not sure) that

their computers couldn't handle the amount of refunds and they decided

to do refunds only once a week. I have no further info on this and if it's FAKE 

or not. However, they have MANY other excuses to NOT give you a refund.

Very creative!!

3 hours ago, rolloman said:

In reality they are keeping as much money on their books as they can. One reason is it helps them borrow and another similar reason is they need to report 1st quarter earnings to shareholders and the bigger the number of cash on hand creates the illusion they are better off financially than they actually are. Meanwhile this practice they are conducting of keeping money which does not belong to them is nothing short of theft. 

TOTALLY agree with you! Well stated!

34 minutes ago, coaster said:

I don't see how the delayed refund strategy is going to be sustainable much longer. More folks will open up credit card disputes. Card companies can revoke merchant accounts to those businesses with high chargeback rates. Going to get to the point where you have to use cash to book a cruise. I don't think many would be comfortable with that. 

"Card companies can revoke merchant accounts to those businesses with high chargeback rates". This may? be difficult since Royal has it's own VISA signature cc.

20 minutes ago, Baron Barracuda said:

Have found a way to help X

 

While cleaning out my basement came across a case of 5 1/4" floppy disks.  Should vastly increase the power of those cutting edge Commodore 64's running their refund system.  Found some 3 1/2" disks too but believe they're a bit too advanced for X.  Will mail to LLP along with some chewing gum and baling wire.

LOL

Love it!!

53 minutes ago, Roddo said:

I received an email from Celebrity yesterday saying that the refund of my full cruise cost (that they requested on 19th March) will be with my travel agent by the end of this week or the beginning of next. I will contact my travel agent next week to see if this is the case.

Huh? 

Don't they refund your credit card?

1 hour ago, justKirbo said:

We did get a 100% refund but it was for a trip booked for next year. When this all started to go down, my first thought was bankruptcy. We had a cruise on the Liberty scheduled for April 4th (I'm pretty sure that was the day) of 2021. Our friends and I had scheduled it when we got off the Liberty last year. I emailed my TA on March 15th and they canceled our cruise on the 16th. We had two rooms reserved with refundable deposits, so RCI had $1000 of ours. The credit went through on our (RC) Visa on the 23rd, I believe. I contacted the Visa and they mailed me a paper check that I deposited in our bank. 

I did email our TA to let them know we got our refund (he'd asked me to) and he said we were some of the lucky ones and he was hearing it could be up to 90 days from some lines.

But it was a future cruise that was not near its PIF day.

 

Our friends that were going with us, they used Costco as their TA and I'm pretty sure they have not received their refunds yet. She didn't call right away because the wait times were so long. I'm not sure if that's why we got our credit and they didn't or not. They also had a DCL cruise scheduled for this month (either to or from Hawaii, I can't remember which) and DCL canceled their cruise and they got full refunds credited to their card within the week of DCL canceling.

Hi,

Thank you for you reply. Glad you got your 100% refund which was a refundable deposit.

However, Most of the cruisers complaining made final payments on their cruise (what I call 

the BIG bucks- Thousands of $$$). After RCL (or Celebrity) cancelled their cruises

they offered a 100% refund that was to be given in 30 days. This was not stated as a "maybe in 30 days" So far (on these boards) I have yet to see anyone getting this. They are only getting other creative excuses either from the cruise line or their TA.

They broke their agreement. They had NO updates to anyone who filled out the

online refund. They also did NOT contact anyone that they even received the online form.

Silent. Many are (like me) out large sums ($5K to even 20K) and are worried that 

they may never see this money again. Several cruisers have posted that many can afford

the loss but many can't and their financial status should NOT play a role in this

discussion!!! Money is money! All they want is what RCL/Celebrity promised them.

In all THEIR (RCL) contracts, times are specific. They use them to the day in their benefit.

29 minutes ago, jeremybe said:

 

I filed a dispute with Amex last week - Was told I had 60 days from the actual cruise departure date to file the dispute - My initial deposit was close to 2 years ago and they are still covering this as a valid dispute

Hi,

THANKS!!! 

I will look into it soon. I have also heard that some credit card companies allowed

disputes that went over their 90 day limit.

6 minutes ago, 20165 said:

Thats a heck of a statement and i didnt realize that no one has received a refund.  That give me pause especially since these cruise lines have some rough times ahead.

I do not have inside information. My statement was based on what is posted on these

boards and yes it could be wrong. 

9 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

You have to be real careful with absolutes.

Sorry, it's based on what I read on these boards and yes there are a few that DID

get a refund from their credit card company by filing a dispute. Also many got

refunds for taxes and fees, drink packages etc. but not for the cruise.

Also, there many be cruisers who got a 100% but have not reported this

on these boards. 

46 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Good news someone on another group posted they got refunds for march 27. Its progressing. You should be within the next week. Lots of new threads by impatient folks it seems.

On several other posts (also Celebrity posts that is owned by RCL) people got

refunds BUT this is:

If they filed a dispute with their credit card.

Taxes and fees.

Drink packages, internet etc.

FCC 

Upgrade cabin refund.

etc.

BUT no one got the full 100% cruise refund!! The BIG buck refund!!

I'm sure you know why!!

Forgot to add:

They may be dragging it out so people CANNOT file a dispute with the credit card

provider. Some have a 60-90 day period from payment date to file a dispute.

After this you out of luck. Unfortunately I usually plan well in advance and cannot file a 

cc dispute.

25 minutes ago, vkb2751 said:

Just received this reply from TA in NH for 3/23 sailing that we requested refund on 3/13/20:

 

At this time, Celebrity has advised that refunds may take up to 30 days from the original sailing date, so you should be receiving it within the coming weeks.

 

New response

Hi,

The online form said 30 days after completion. NOT 30 days from sail date.

Was that 30 days or 30 business days?? They make up stuff every day!

Why can't they be honest? New excuses every day! I'm not blaming you

or your post. Just a friendly observation of their poor tactics.