Credit Card Dispute - Success

[ABoatNerd]

Hi ellasmomanddad:

Many municipalities, state/provincial governments and large private companies have Ombudsman offices.

 

This part of the organization is separate from the operating divisions and usually reports directly to the top person in the organization. Their mandate is to resolve customer issues after other prior steps up the food chain have not yielded a solution.

 

Generally, operational staff freak when the Ombudsman enquiry arrives.  The Ombudsman's goal is to avoid any negative publicity to the organization and they have considerable latitude to fix a problem.

 

I have used Ombudsman offices for many disputes over the years and find them very helpful.

 

As this is a credit card dispute thread - I have contacted my Bank of Montreal dispute resolution office 4x in a month and not a peep. Called again today via a different route and got a hostile person who indicated that my paperwork from Air Canada did not say my flight was Cancelled - this vicious airline used the words "will not operate as planned" - a way to avoid the word cancellation which would legally trigger a refund.  Hummmmmmm despicable behavior for an organization holding onto my money. 

 

So I informed her that she is operating on semantics and that is offensive and her requiring the word Cancel makes her appear to be working for Air Canada, not the bank.  I also told her that my flight (which was supposed to be today) had not operated in 21 days and did not fly today - so that is evidence of cancellation. She would not listen.

 

So I called the Bank of Montreal Ombudsman's office and left the required voice mail with details.

 

So never give up and never give in whether it is a cruise line, air line, hotel, restaurant - Fight!

[Travelling2Some]

On 7/1/2020 at 10:27 AM, fragilek said:

My daughter got given a credit note for canceled Iceland air flights.  She did not want that she wanted her money back but at that time the airline was just not playing ball.  She contacted her bank (credit card booking) and they took up the case and she was refunded in full.  The bank were fully aware that she had been issued a credit voucher she did not want  & that did not make any difference to the refund.  

We had the exact same experience with TAP Portugal.  The airline was making up their own rules, disregarding both EU and US regulations and trying to re-define the word "refund" to be synonymous with "credit refund".   I always use my Amex card for travel or anything involving future performance for this very reason.  Amex hires intelligent people and they have your back.  We had our money back immediately.  This was our first charge back ever.  We got our refund from NCL in about 60 days but I was willing to wait (although not cheerfully). 

[seaman11]

On 7/1/2020 at 11:36 PM, emm126 said:

It's funny to me how some think it unethical or dishonest that cruisers file a dispute with their credit card company however find nothing wrong when NCL basically lies in their 70 plus page reply and states the cruiser "chose" the FCC, so no refund is due. I have seen the cancellation email, you can choose a refund or FCC. OP picked cash refund. NCL knows this when they answered the dispute? but that is not dishonest?

That is odd to me, its as if some wish we lose our money.  i won my dispute and received a letter about the judgement going in my favor.   NCL cant hold the money if it doesn't know when it will cruise again,  and at the same time not extend the fcc expire date. 

[MoCruiseFan]

On ‎6‎/‎30‎/‎2020 at 8:34 AM, TexasDad2018 said:

I did not disclose that I received a FCC as I immediately requested a refund when the window to do so opened.  I would not say the refund was protracted as I received it much earlier than the 90 days communicated by NCL.

IOW you committed fraud.

[Cindy]

I had two refund experiences with NCL companies, and both were negative.

 

In February I booked an Oceania cruise and cancelled it the next day. According to the contract I should have had my deposit ($1,500) refunded immediately, but they decided that even though I booked and cancelled 3+weeks before the shut-down I would have to wait 90 days. Numerous phone calls got me nowhere, and I thought the people I was communicating with there were rude and condescending. At 91 days I filed with my credit card company who reversed the charge. The refund was finally posted on my cc at the end of June, so the credit card company took their credit back (as they should have).

 

My other problem was again a deposit, and if I had it to do over again I would NEVER make the same decisions. Our POA cruise was originally scheduled for April and we were in the first round of cancellations. On May 31 we decided Hawaii was off the table for the foreseeable future, and we moved our FCC (paid POA cruise + 25%) to a Europe sailing next October. Even though I had a ton of credit, I had to pay an additional $1,500 deposit to secure the additional 20% off promo they were running for cancelled cruises — something about how they handle FCCs. I was promised that deposit would be refunded in 3-4 days. Of course, that didn’t happen. My communication with them got more strongly worded around Labor Day, and the refund finally showed up on my credit card today, 114 days after I paid the deposit.

 

Live and learn. I wish I had just requested a refund in the first place, but like others we never dreamed this stoppage would be so long-term. Since we really don’t know what cruising will look like in the next year or two I hate that I’m in a “use it or lose it” situation for a lot of money.

 

 

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