With NCL slow walking refunds, employee pay cuts and furloughs has Del Rio suspended his pay?

[mianmike]

Royal Caribbean's CEO Richard Fain has agree to suspend his pay and other RCL executives are taking a 25% pay cut.   https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/22719-fain-foregoes-salary-other-royal-caribbean-execs-agree-to-pay-cut.html 

 

Has Del Rio announced a similar salary suspension?  While the savings from Frank Del Rio forgoing his salary would be minuscule in comparison to NCLH's debt it would send a message of shared sacrifice to his customers, his crews and employees.  NCLH has little cash on hand thanks in part to stock buybacks which frequently enrich company executives.  Del Rio et al. gambled NCLH would not need much liquidity in the near future and lost.

 

I get why Del Rio has decided to hold our refunds hostage.  It's an effort to save NCL, but I hope he is putting his salary in the same place as my refunds; in an I.O.U. 

[pcakes122]

As you said, his salary is minuscule in comparison to what NCLH is losing, but if it makes you feel any better the VAST MAJORITY of his compensation is NOT in salary but in performance incentives (which will be non-existent after a year like this) and stock options (NCL stock is practically worthless right now.)

 

So, he has lost ALOT of money, as have the other NCL senior execs.

[babydaryl24]

2 hours ago, pcakes122 said:

As you said, his salary is minuscule in comparison to what NCLH is losing, but if it makes you feel any better the VAST MAJORITY of his compensation is NOT in salary but in performance incentives (which will be non-existent after a year like this) and stock options (NCL stock is practically worthless right now.)

 

So, he has lost ALOT of money, as have the other NCL senior execs.

Miniscule.. But how many refunds could move today if he did????

 

food for thought.

[BirdTravels]

6 hours ago, mianmike said:

Royal Caribbean's CEO Richard Fain has agree to suspend his pay and other RCL executives are taking a 25% pay cut.   https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/22719-fain-foregoes-salary-other-royal-caribbean-execs-agree-to-pay-cut.html 

 

Has Del Rio announced a similar salary suspension?  While the savings from Frank Del Rio forgoing his salary would be minuscule in comparison to NCLH's debt it would send a message of shared sacrifice to his customers, his crews and employees.  NCLH has little cash on hand thanks in part to stock buybacks which frequently enrich company executives.  Del Rio et al. gambled NCLH would not need much liquidity in the near future and lost.

 

I get why Del Rio has decided to hold our refunds hostage.  It's an effort to save NCL, but I hope he is putting his salary in the same place as my refunds; in an I.O.U. 

You do realize that FDR is not the CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line. Harry Sommer (and Andy Stuart before him) is the CEO of NCL and is responsible for management decisions. 

[jingle5616]

11 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

You do realize that FDR is not the CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line. Harry Sommer (and Andy Stuart before him) is the CEO of NCL and is responsible for management decisions. 

Thank you for reminding us for the 10th time.  Del Rio is the head of the corporation that owns NCL and has much say about how NCL operates.  But go ahead and ignore that little tidbit and continue your hero worship.

 

[graphicguy]

Yet....I got a mass mailing from NCL reminding me I have FCC and 20% off my next cruise, even though it's going to take them another 10 weeks to issue my refund for my canceled 3/38 cruise.

 

Do right by your customers.  Instead of spending millions sending out mailers trying to get people to rebook, just issue the refunds they requested.

 

Honestly, FDR is so blatant in his unabashed disregard for his customer base, I may never sail NCL again.

[Waquoit]

3 hours ago, pcakes122 said:

So, he has lost ALOT of money, as have the other NCL senior execs.

Good

[Steff79]

1 hour ago, BirdTravels said:

You do realize that FDR is not the CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line. Harry Sommer (and Andy Stuart before him) is the CEO of NCL and is responsible for management decisions. 

do you realize where the money is coming from what Del Rio get?

Del Rio is the boss, look at Encore.....

Edited April 7, 2020 by Steff79

[mianmike]

3 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

You do realize that FDR is not the CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line. Harry Sommer (and Andy Stuart before him) is the CEO of NCL and is responsible for management decisions. 

 

LOL.  You're an enigma Birdtravels.  You write these fantastic reviews full of useful factual information and then you intentionally sabotage your credibility with these ridiculous posts.  Why so self-defeating?   

[AL3XCruise]

3 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

You do realize that FDR is not the CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line. Harry Sommer (and Andy Stuart before him) is the CEO of NCL and is responsible for management decisions. 

You do realize the OP specifically referenced NCLH, of which Mr. Del Rio is the CEO?

[Mrdodgy]

On 4/7/2020 at 7:09 PM, mianmike said:

 

LOL.  You're an enigma Birdtravels.  You write these fantastic reviews full of useful factual information and then you intentionally sabotage your credibility with these ridiculous posts.  Why so self-defeating?   

 

On 4/7/2020 at 7:09 PM, AL3XCruise said:

You do realize the OP specifically referenced NCLH, of which Mr. Del Rio is the CEO?

Two of the best comments I have seen (ignore post numbers)

 

 

knowing how large corps work I guarantee Harry Sommer is a puppet of FDR. It would not surprise me if the amazing Andy Stuart left for that reason  -Just my feelings!!!

 

 

[luv2kroooz]

On 4/7/2020 at 2:09 PM, mianmike said:

 

LOL.  You're an enigma Birdtravels.  You write these fantastic reviews full of useful factual information and then you intentionally sabotage your credibility with these ridiculous posts.  Why so self-defeating?   

LOL...Your well-written comment reminded me of other extreme, self-defeating posts including references to minimum wage earning, call center employers that effectively know nothing about anything and baseless claims that every credit card dispute results in a criminal investigation, even when made in good faith. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

[MoCruiseFan]

Who said they are slow walking refunds? I am amazed that they are going to try to get 8 weeks worth of cruises for 17 ships complete in less than 90 days, especially with them working at home.  That is 136 cruises if they are all 7-day, but using an average of 9½ days, it is still slightly over 100 cruises.  The ships average 3000 passengers, so we are talking roughly 300,000 passengers.  Most reservations are for two passengers but considering there are some with more and some singles as well, lets estimate 2½ passenger per reservation.  That gives us roughly 120,000 reservations.  To be conservative we can round that all the way down to 100,000 reservation.  Now each reservation normally has multiple payments such as, the deposit, pre-paid DSC, shore excursions, and any number of add on items such as wifi, soda card, OBC, specialty dining, dinner shows, spa treatments or passes, photo packages, and then final payment [remember each payment must be refunded individually to the original form of payment] lets say an average of just four payments per reservation.  Now we are up to 400,000 payments that must be refunded.  Ninety days is pretty darn good to get that done under current circumstances.  Certainly not slow walking by any means.

[mianmike]

51 minutes ago, MoCruiseFan said:

Who said they are slow walking refunds? I am amazed that they are going to try to get 8 weeks worth of cruises for 17 ships complete in less than 90 days, especially with them working at home.  That is 136 cruises if they are all 7-day, but using an average of 9½ days, it is still slightly over 100 cruises.  The ships average 3000 passengers, so we are talking roughly 300,000 passengers.  Most reservations are for two passengers but considering there are some with more and some singles as well, lets estimate 2½ passenger per reservation.  That gives us roughly 120,000 reservations.  To be conservative we can round that all the way down to 100,000 reservation.  Now each reservation normally has multiple payments such as, the deposit, pre-paid DSC, shore excursions, and any number of add on items such as wifi, soda card, OBC, specialty dining, dinner shows, spa treatments or passes, photo packages, and then final payment [remember each payment must be refunded individually to the original form of payment] lets say an average of just four payments per reservation.  Now we are up to 400,000 payments that must be refunded.  Ninety days is pretty darn good to get that done under current circumstances.  Certainly not slow walking by any means.

 

That does seem like a lot of work with all the pre-paid DSC, shore excursions,  wifi, soda card, OBC, specialty dining, dinner shows, spa treatments or passes, photo packages.  How long do you think should it take to calculate FCCs and then calculate another 25% FCC?  60 days sound reasonable?   

[Waquoit]

The above watercarriers make it sound like NCL is processing the refunds by hand. They have computers you know.  After I jump through their required hoops to request a refund, I can't see the process taking more than one mouse click. Of course they are slow walking refunds.

[Mrdodgy]

19 hours ago, blcruising said:

LOL...Your well-written comment reminded me of other extreme, self-defeating posts including references to minimum wage earning, call center employers that effectively know nothing about anything and baseless claims that every credit card dispute results in a criminal investigation, even when made in good faith. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

They will not reply on this forum 

[sfaaa]

10 hours ago, Waquoit said:

The above watercarriers make it sound like NCL is processing the refunds by hand. They have computers you know.  After I jump through their required hoops to request a refund, I can't see the process taking more than one mouse click. Of course they are slow walking refunds.

Checking and keying in info into the computer are still done by hand. We are still not quite at the stage where robots have replaced bean counters with coke bottle glasses in the office.

Edited April 10, 2020 by sfaaa

[HEATH3913]

1 hour ago, sfaaa said:

Checking and keying in info into the computer are still done by hand. We are still not quite at the stage where robots have replaced bean counters with coke bottle glasses in the office.

 

How did they know what my 125% FCC was right away then? Seems like it would be easy to just refund the credit card transactions as they are requested.

[julig22]

2 hours ago, HEATH3913 said:

 

How did they know what my 125% FCC was right away then? Seems like it would be easy to just refund the credit card transactions as they are requested.

From an IT perspective, pushing out the 125% fcc is relatively simple process.  As long as they have the latitudes #,  the breakdown of what people bought, the cruise fare and cancellation status, they can calculate everything and automatically populate every account.

Returning money is an entirely different process as it is tied to who paid and how they paid.  Some of those transactions were done too long ago to just reverse the charges.

[sfaaa]

Just to add to the above comment, when it comes to refunding money, standard internal control procedures would require a second more senior person to review the supporting documentations and co authorize the go ahead before the refund can go out. No organization worth a grain of salt would allow a junior accounting clerk alone to process and refund thousands of dollars to a customer without going through a second checking process to catch accounting errors and potential fraud. Unlike FCC which can be amended or void if issued in error, once money goes out of the door, it's gone for good.

Edited April 11, 2020 by sfaaa

[fshagan]

On 4/10/2020 at 6:26 AM, Waquoit said:

The above watercarriers make it sound like NCL is processing the refunds by hand. They have computers you know.  After I jump through their required hoops to request a refund, I can't see the process taking more than one mouse click. Of course they are slow walking refunds.

 

They are probably slow walking refunds, but I have never, ever worked for a corporation where giving money back was a simple mouse click. There's usually a process with multiple levels of approvals - at least two above the worker who is inputting the actual refund. 

 

But, I would think they could streamline that process a bit when they are the ones that cancel a cruise; the reason doesn't have to be questioned like it does for a regular refund. They just have to make sure they are processing the refunds in accordance with their accounting principles and making sure a manager signs off on them (to make sure employees aren't stealing refunds). 

 

In all the cases of employee fraud I've been involved in over the years about half are distributions of either refunds or invoice payments that are forged by the employee. 

Even after NCL clicks the refund button there can be a 10 to 14 delay for the banks to process the refunds. They also don't like to give money back, and you have two banks involved.