Crystal Refund Roll Call

[seattleskibums]

5 hours ago, KenzSailing said:

The refund delay may be inconvenient, but to you it is nothing more.

 

We agree completely.  The inconvenience is not the issue, however.  It's the lame excuses, lies and misinformation that Crystal continues to spout about its refund policy.  And, oh, did we mention the lack of communication?  This shameless company is not doing its brand any favors by being so deceitful.  That has been our point all along, pure and simple. 

 

Surely, many will forget and even be able to overlook these indiscretions, but there is a significant number of cruisers on this forum that will divorce themselves from the "Crystal Family."  Just read some of the posts.  You probably don't care, but Crystal's bottom line ultimately could be affected.  There's nothing management can do about the coronavirus, but it can act more honestly and responsibly at any time to try to repair the self-inflicted damage it has done to its product. 

[hypercafe]

12 hours ago, John Wooden said:

So who is going to get on a cruise ship in 31 days in Florida in November 2020?  Do I have any takers?

 I was also wondering about this. The no sail order will expire not due to health reasons but due to political reasons so for me its suspect. This is more for the mainstream lines that do the many short TR cruises from Florida as Florida has opened 100% so having the ships coming and going would be OK. Here in NYC there are still tight restrictions so I do not believe they would allow the ships to dock. I am curious what will happen on the ships and also Florida.

[travelberlin]

11 hours ago, Roland4 said:

 

Not us, but I suspect a lot will depend on how the lines re-start. There is no question there is pent-up demand, certainly not among my clients, but when Carnival announced plans to start back in August they had big demand! The CLIA guidelines are essentially the same as the RCI/NCLH Healthy Sail recommendations, and while not my cup of tea, they will appeal to those who are "desperate" to cruise. I would guess there will be initial short cruises, with stops in the Caribbean limited to private islands, while they "test run" the protocols and see where the inevitable kinks will occur. Sadly, as others have commented, all it will take is another Diamond Princess event to push the entire industry back into lockdown, and that is my biggest fear as a cruise TA!

As a cruise TA what do you suggest it can be done from the side of the cruise lines ? 
ivi

[MBP&O2/O]

For what it’s worth ...
My deposit was paid in 2018
My balance was paid in 2019
I instigated a dispute in August 2020.
Today the bank informed me that they are contacting the vendors bank(TA) and that if they do not receive a response then they will credit me with the balance only. The deposit is outside of the time frame so that will be part of the Crystal wait and see game[emoji57]
I am now expecting a call from my TA. I hope they don’t want my sympathy🤬

[OceanPatter]

16 hours ago, SusieQft said:

I may be mistaken, but I thought several months ago Crystal did say that its top executives were working without pay for the rest of the year, or some indeterminate time frame.  If that is the case, human nature would suggest the possibility that they are not giving the job their full effort?  It would also make it difficult to recruit replacements for any who leave the company.

Good insight, SusieQft. They must be maintaining a skeletal staff to respond to TA inquiries. But to those waiting for a response from Tom Wolber, it may not be forthcoming ...

[remalis1]

Hello - 

 

We were set to sail on the June 7, 2020 on Crystal Sympony. It was cancelled on April 28th and we advised them on May 7, 2020 that we wanted a full refund. We were told a refund may take up to 90 days, but never told it may take more than 90 days.

 

After about 100 days, I emailed Crystal and was told they are still processing refunds and that the 90 days was just an estimate and many guests received their refunds before 90 days. I emailed them again at the end of September after another 30 or so days advising that they now can give no timeline when my refund will be paid but they assure me it's in the queue to be paid. I can only assume that they are taking future deposits from other passengers to use to pay back past passengers who want their refunds.  My cruise was paid in full last October. 

The waiting is frustrating!

[Vegas Cruiser]

For those of you who have been told your original deposits are too old to be disputed with your credit card companies: We had the same conversation with Capital One VISA. Our original deposit of plus $8k was charged in 2018 for our Crystal Yacht cruise due to sail in October 2020. We paid in full for the cruise in February of this year. Capital One refunded all but the original deposit.  We gave them a call and explained that this is NOT a dispute for an old charge since we weren't even scheduled to travel until October of this year. In other words, we were not able to dispute the charge earlier since we didn't even know until five months ago the the merchant (Crystal) was going to renege on providing the service for which we paid. They agreed and refunded our original deposit. My advise is to not give up on getting a credit from your CC company even if your charge is an old one. 

[seattleskibums]

1 hour ago, OceanPatter said:

But to those waiting for a response from Tom Wolber, it may not be forthcoming ...

 

Wolber may be in hiding, but his "special assistant," Violet Bianchi, still is responding to emails sent to him.  At least she was as of last week.  She responds from officeofthepresident@crystalcruises.com.  Even though she obviously must toe the corporate line, she is amazingly responsive and efficient.

[Stickman1990]

24 minutes ago, seattleskibums said:

Wolber may be in hiding

You’re not going to hear from Mr Wolber 

 

Edited October 1, 2020 by Stickman1990

[seattleskibums]

1 hour ago, Stickman1990 said:

Wolber is History.  Jack Anderson at the helm.

 

We can't wait to hear how Mr. Anderson plans to right Crystal's shoreside operations.  Unless he's able to print money, we don't expect a lot of progress with refunds, but it would be very refreshing if he could restore a little integrity to Crystal Cruises.

 

And we were so much anticipating a Wolber holiday greeting in which he says, "2020 was a challenging year for the Crystal Family, but we are looking forward to smoother sailing in 2021."

Edited October 1, 2020 by seattleskibums

[Sdancer]

6 hours ago, Vegas Cruiser said:

For those of you who have been told your original deposits are too old to be disputed with your credit card companies: We had the same conversation with Capital One VISA. Our original deposit of plus $8k was charged in 2018 for our Crystal Yacht cruise due to sail in October 2020. We paid in full for the cruise in February of this year. Capital One refunded all but the original deposit.  We gave them a call and explained that this is NOT a dispute for an old charge since we weren't even scheduled to travel until October of this year. In other words, we were not able to dispute the charge earlier since we didn't even know until five months ago the the merchant (Crystal) was going to renege on providing the service for which we paid. They agreed and refunded our original deposit. My advise is to not give up on getting a credit from your CC company even if your charge is an old one. 

Yes! Don't hesitate to file a dispute which is outside of time-frame.

Chase Visa told me that there is no time limit for a dispute if it is related to the pandemic.

I was told to start a dispute with them on the phone, not on-line, because a transaction is outside of a on-line time frame.

 

[Sdancer]

On 9/30/2020 at 1:17 PM, TER777 said:

Here’s the NY Times article re. 
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/health/covid-cruise-ships.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20200930&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=cta&regi_id=140362676&segment_id=39445&user_id=e63dec154a3ff679ed8b7c92bfaa7f9b

Yes, this doctor was wrong. Vaccine will be distributed in the US by the US military and the military does it very fast.

I am familiar with their distribution process.

My concern is that to be safe (rather safer) cruising, all international crew has to be vaccinated too plus ports and this takes months.

 

 

 

[Cruizer Bill]

On 8/26/2020 at 2:29 PM, Paulchili said:

Was it temporary credit from Chase or full reimbursement from Crystal? There is a difference.

I contacted CSR and they told me my refund/credit was permanent and full. I contacted them August 25th and they issued me a temporary credit and then on August 31st they game me a permanent credit.  I found the information online - go to Statements and Documents and then to the "Notices and Letters" sub folder and the notices/letters are listed there.

Edited October 2, 2020 by Cruizer Bill

[commodoredave]

18 hours ago, Stickman1990 said:

You’re not going to hear from Mr Wolber 

 

Much anticipated and expected, but nevertheless welcome news. I like the sound of Mr. Anderson's letter to TAs, and hope he will be a much better communicator than his predecessor, Mr. Wobler.  His first move should be to fire the head of marketing and public relations, who should be held accountable for the glaring lack of communication and tone-deaf messaging by Crystal. 

Hopefully, this move is the start of a concerted and genuine effort to treat customers with more respect, and to restore some measure of their past reputation for customer excellence. The future won't be easy for Crystal, but I expect and hope they will survive in some shape or form, even if it means fewer ships and new ownership.

[seattleskibums]

SusieQft:  We received notice today from Amex that Crystal has refunded the port taxes of our second cruise that they canceled on March 13.  It took a mere 202 days.  As we reported earlier, the other canceled cruise was refunded on Sept. 23 after 194 days.  Both refunds were issued without our filing disputes with Amex.

[Sdancer]

On 10/1/2020 at 1:49 PM, Stickman1990 said:

You’re not going to hear from Mr Wolber 

 

Interim definition:

"An interim CEO is a person appointed by a company's board of directors to assume the role of the chief executive officer during a time of transition or as the result of the sudden departure of the company's previous CEO. ... Interim CEOs are often called upon to "steady the ship" in periods of great turmoil."

It looks like it could be either reason (or both) to appoint an interim CEO.

At the end "great turmoil" and a "time of transition" wording would be concerns in the relation to the future of Crystal.

Let see what Mr. Anderson could do for Crystal present and, hopefully, Crystal future.

It used to be my favorite line :(.

Edited October 2, 2020 by Sdancer

[DeanHenderson]

On 10/2/2020 at 6:25 AM, seattleskibums said:

 

Wolber may be in hiding, but his "special assistant," Violet Bianchi, still is responding to emails sent to him.  At least she was as of last week.  She responds from officeofthepresident@crystalcruises.com.  Even though she obviously must toe the corporate line, she is amazingly responsive and efficient.

 

I think everyone on here that hasn't received a refund yet should start sending daily emails to this email address asking for some action.  I've done 2 in 2 days.  They have had long enough.  It's time to show them what we really thing of them.  

 

I also think we should be flooding their facebook page with our concerns.  That way, it's not just us people who they owe money to seeing it.  Everyone will get to see what Crystal has done to us. 

[juicyjuju]

23 hours ago, Cruizer Bill said:

I contacted CSR and they told me my refund/credit was permanent and full. I contacted them August 25th and they issued me a temporary credit and then on August 31st they game me a permanent credit.  I found the information online - go to Statements and Documents and then to the "Notices and Letters" sub folder and the notices/letters are listed there.

 

Thank you for that info! I logged in to CSR using your directions and found my temporary credit is now permanent 

[USC Adventurer]

hello susieQft,

today i received my second refund from b of a visa and crystal.  you can cross me off the list of those still waiting for refunds.  i've got both of mine now and i'm a very happy cruiser.  i do still have a fully paid crystal symphony cruise booked for november 2022.  i really want to take that cruise and i hope all will be fine by then however, i'm still not counting on it.

 

 

[Santonio]

6 hours ago, DeanHenderson said:

 

I think everyone on here that hasn't received a refund yet should start sending daily emails to this email address asking for some action.  I've done 2 in 2 days.  They have had long enough.  It's time to show them what we really thing of them.  

 

I also think we should be flooding their facebook page with our concerns.  That way, it's not just us people who they owe money to seeing it.  Everyone will get to see what Crystal has done to us. 

Concerning their Facebook page Crystal Society, I had my comments (3) deleted when I dared to criticize their handling of our refunds (or lack thereof) so they are covering up any critical comments of Crystal in my experience. 

[Benita]

A little off topic, but related. For awhile, we were comparing how long Crystal was taking for refunds vs other lines.  I cancelled a Viking River cruise for May 2021 yesterday morning. It was getting towards final payment and I don't think I will be cruising by then. It was only a deposit and I figured I would see it sooner or later. Sooner, it was. I just looked on my credit card app and Viking has given me a refund. Less than 30 hours, probably a record. 

[seattleskibums]

4 hours ago, Santonio said:

Concerning their Facebook page Crystal Society, I had my comments (3) deleted when I dared to criticize their handling of our refunds (or lack thereof) so they are covering up any critical comments of Crystal in my experience. 

 

If it's Crystal's policy to delete legitimate negative comments from its Facebook page, that's appalling.  Let's hope that Jack Anderson can inject some integrity back into Crystal Cruises.  If not, the excuses, lies, misinformation and apparent censorship surely will drive many prospective customers away, no matter how good the product is at sea.

[oakridger]

I don't think the Crystal Society FB page is hosted by Crystal.  As I understand it two "civilians" are the moderators.  Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

~Nancy

[Stickman1990]

2 hours ago, oakridger said:

I don't think the Crystal Society FB page is hosted by Crystal.  As I understand it two "civilians" are the moderators.  Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

~Nancy

Nancy - you are incorrect as the Crystal Society Facebook page is hosted and managed by Crystal Cruise. The Admins of that group are Crystal Cruises employees. There are however two non Crystal staff moderators 

Edited October 4, 2020 by Stickman1990

[Stickman1990]

8 hours ago, Santonio said:

Concerning their Facebook page Crystal Society, I had my comments (3) deleted when I dared to criticize their handling of our refunds (or lack thereof) so they are covering up any critical comments of Crystal in my experience. 

I don’t agree with your general assertion. I can’t comment on your particular situation as I don’t know those details 

 

However the Crystal Society Facebook page has in fact many comments critical of Crystal including their handling of refunds. They remain visible on the groups pages

 

What it doesn’t have is posts with inappropriate language or off topic comments on thread topics or those that break the groups rules 

 

All online forums including FB groups have rules which members agree to adhere to - if they don’t then it’s not surprising that posts are deleted 

Edited October 4, 2020 by Stickman1990