Refund Issues - Anyone with Prior Experience?

[GalvestonCruiser]

Long story somewhat short, I cancelled my cruise back in early July. I advised the rep at the time that my account I used to make the payment was now closed, however she stated that all refunds must be made to the original payment method. Crazy but whatever. So several weeks pass and of course no refund. I call my previous bank and they tell me exact amounts and dates that they received the refunds and then sent them back to RCCL. I call RCCL to see what's going on and I am finally told that they did receive the money and it takes 6 weeks to process so I should have my money by Sept 3rd. Another crazy but whatever moment. I call back on Sept 7th because still no money. After going around in circles and supposedly dealing with a supervisor I am told a workaround has been submitted and 2 more weeks. Lo and behold 2 weeks pass and nothing. I call Sept 21st and I'm told it's been completed and the check will go out Sept 23rd. Yay finally. But of course it's Oct 3rd and still no check. I am :mad: at this point. Any ideas on what I can do to get my refund? This is insane.

[champagne123]

Holy cow. UNACCEPTABLE. :mad:

[Kamloops50]

The fact that a cheque is processed , doesn't mean it was sent that day .

Princess says that you should receive a cheque about 4 to 6 weeks after processing.

RCI might have a similar delay. I would check if that is the case.

Many large companies take time to print and mail the checks after cheque is processed for payment.

[Big_G]

Have you elevated to Resolutions yet? If not, that would be the next step. When Resolutions couldn't resolve our issue we went right to the CEO's office. He has people that handle these things. Royal has some communications issues between their front line, Resolutions, and Revenue. In our case, they literally lost our deposit in their system and every time I called, they charged me another $500 deposit. My cruise was almost paid off before they found the original deposit. The Resolutions agents were exasperated and couldn't apologize enough. Cynthia Lembo from Adam Goldstein's office finally resolved the issue when he was still CEO of RCI. Michael Bayley is now CEO and I don't know if she is still there or not. It took 48 days for them to finally start refunding me money but it all didn't come at once.

[GalvestonCruiser]

Have you elevated to Resolutions yet? If not, that would be the next step. When Resolutions couldn't resolve our issue we went right to the CEO's office. He has people that handle these things. Royal has some communications issues between their front line, Resolutions, and Revenue. In our case, they literally lost our deposit in their system and every time I called, they charged me another $500 deposit. My cruise was almost paid off before they found the original deposit. The Resolutions agents were exasperated and couldn't apologize enough. Cynthia Lembo from Adam Goldstein's office finally resolved the issue when he was still CEO of RCI. Michael Bayley is now CEO and I don't know if she is still there or not. It took 48 days for them to finally start refunding me money but it all didn't come at once.

 

Thanks I will see if I can get to the resolutions department.

[medic368]

We used a prepaid card for a deposit and the company that issued it switched their bank and converted from MC to Visa. Even after informing RCI that we would have no access to funds if they were applied back to that card, their only response " We are sorry for the inconvenience but it is our policy to return funds to the issuing source. " so now the bank who accepted the money won't talk to me because I'm not a customer, & RCI won't help because the bank accepted the transfer, and I'm out $600 because " policy must be followed"

 

Sent from my LG-H811 using Forums mobile app

[kknorr0320]

If the bank accepted the transfer they have to do something with the money. I'm guessing regular customer service people probe have no access to the information though since you aren't a customer. They should cut you a check just as any account would do with an overpayment or excess funds.

I cancelled an over the water cabana on Labadee in July and booked the half price one on Columbus Cove and it took a month to get my refund because for whatever reason their system never sent it to be refunded.

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Forums mobile app

[DebJ14]

I had an issue with a refund on a cancelled cruise with RCCL. The credit card used to pay the deposit was still up and running, but for some reason they sent it to the TA. She called me to let me know that it came with her commissions, but was marked refund. She was the person who had cancelled the cruise at our request when we switched sailings.

 

She told me I could come pick up a check that day, or she would put it in the mail. Even with it going to the TA I had my money back in under 3 weeks.

 

The specialty dining and shore excursions were refunded to the credit card within a week. I did cancel those online prior to calling the TA to cancel the entire cruise.

[SPacificbound]

Long story somewhat short, I cancelled my cruise back in early July. I advised the rep at the time that my account I used to make the payment was now closed, however she stated that all refunds must be made to the original payment method. Crazy but whatever. So several weeks pass and of course no refund. I call my previous bank and they tell me exact amounts and dates that they received the refunds and then sent them back to RCCL. I call RCCL to see what's going on and I am finally told that they did receive the money and it takes 6 weeks to process so I should have my money by Sept 3rd. Another crazy but whatever moment. I call back on Sept 7th because still no money. After going around in circles and supposedly dealing with a supervisor I am told a workaround has been submitted and 2 more weeks. Lo and behold 2 weeks pass and nothing. I call Sept 21st and I'm told it's been completed and the check will go out Sept 23rd. Yay finally. But of course it's Oct 3rd and still no check. I am :mad: at this point. Any ideas on what I can do to get my refund? This is insane.

 

I had the same situation that drug on for months. By then we had some cruises coming up and I requested they credit us with OBC and cancel the check since we were not going to be here to know if we received the check or not.

 

The amount was a deposit of $900. for a cruise RC cancelled. They still managed to drag it out. We were on 5 consecutive cruises and the OBC was spread out over 4 of the 5 cruises. We did eventually get all of the amount we were owed but it was an effort.

[Galveston Cruiser]

By accident I have come across your post. Needless to say, I was very surprised.

It seems that Cruise Critic dropped the ball when you registered your CC name as I registered 2 years earlier.

I have contacted CC to resolve the issue.

Hope you have many days of good sailing.

 

The "Original" Galveston Cruiser

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[SPacificbound]

By accident I have come across your post. Needless to say, I was very surprised.

It seems that Cruise Critic dropped the ball when you registered your CC name as I registered 2 years earlier.

I have contacted CC to resolve the issue.

Hope you have many days of good sailing.

 

The "Original" Galveston Cruiser

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

There is a space between "Galveston Cruiser" in your CC name. There is no space in the other poster's CC name "GalvestonCruiser"

 

CC did not "drop the ball".

[Galveston Cruiser]

There is a space between "Galveston Cruiser" in your CC name. There is no space in the other poster's CC name "GalvestonCruiser"

 

CC did not "drop the ball".

 

Still the same moniker.

How would you feel if someone took yours with a space between the S & P?

[SPacificbound]

Still the same moniker.

How would you feel if someone took yours with a space between the S & P?

 

It would not bother me at all.

[awestover89]

Having to refund back to the original bank makes sense, the bank should just forward the refund back to the customer, we had similar issues when we were due a property tax refund after selling our house. The property tax was paid to the state from the mortgage account and the state said that all refunds legally must go back to the account that made the payment.

 

There is a lot going on behind the scenes with payments nowadays, if they just gave you a check when you cancelled after paying with a CC, it would be like giving you a fee free cash advance on your CC. Refunding to the card ensures that any cash back is correctly retracted, any credit card bonuses earned on the purchase are reverted, and it would cut back on fraud. If RCCL would give a cash refund after paying a cruise with a CC I could use a travel rewards card with 6% points back, buy a bunch of cruises, get refunds via check, pay off the card, and then just bank near infinite reward points.

 

One other point is the CC processing fee. When Royal takes payment from a credit card they pay a processing fee to the issuing bank. If that transaction is later refunded, the bulk of that fee gets returned to Royal. If they just write a check they will eat the full cost of the transaction fee. It's a long obnoxious process, but the way banking laws are set up it's the way Royal has to go.

 

They should be better at applying it as either non-refundable OBC or as a Royal gift card/future cruise certificate though. Doing that should be easier and more cost effective than processing the refund.