Consequence of getting cruise refund by disputing the credit card charge

[crooooze]

Not sure if anyone experienced this....

Last year when it was taking forever to get refunds, I went the route of contacting my credit card to dispute the charge.

Everything worked out and I ended up getting my refund.

 

Fast forward a year, and I’m booking new reservations - Now Carnival is refusing to accept that credit card.

They said it is part of their “Fraud prevention”... I say it is spite.

Very annoying because that card gives me the most reward value.

[Essiesmom]

Consequence of being impatient.  EM

[Seany527]

Tell your credit card company that you lost your credit card. They will issue you a new credit card number and maybe Carnival won’t be able to link the credit card dispute to you. 

[WhaleTailFlCruiser]

6 minutes ago, crooooze said:

Not sure if anyone experienced this....

Last year when it was taking forever to get refunds, I went the route of contacting my credit card to dispute the charge.

Everything worked out and I ended up getting my refund.

 

Fast forward a year, and I’m booking new reservations - Now Carnival is refusing to accept that credit card.

They said it is part of their “Fraud prevention”... I say it is spite.

Very annoying because that card gives me the most reward value.

I mean they could have just blocked you entirely from booking after disputing legitimate charges. Should count your blessings they only blocked the card 

[crooooze]

Thank you, Essiesmom and whaletail, for your immediate negative judgement.
Not that I owe you any explanation, but patience ran out at 7 months for a refund that was supposed to be sent in 90 days. Carnival themselves threw their arms up, not understanding why I didn’t receive the refund yet. My TA finally suggested contacting the credit card company, which finally issued the credit after the 8th month.

 

Anyways, ancient history... Moving on...

Edited August 14, 2021 by crooooze

[Seany527]

12 minutes ago, WhaleTailFlCruiser said:

I mean they could have just blocked you entirely from booking after disputing legitimate charges. Should count your blessings they only blocked the card 

How is it a legitimate charge?

 

OP paid for cruise. Cruise was canceled. 

[Lee Cruiser]

I think most businesses would do the same thing if a charge was disputed.

[4hunters]

1 hour ago, crooooze said:

Not sure if anyone experienced this....

Last year when it was taking forever to get refunds, I went the route of contacting my credit card to dispute the charge.

Everything worked out and I ended up getting my refund.

 

Fast forward a year, and I’m booking new reservations - Now Carnival is refusing to accept that credit card.

They said it is part of their “Fraud prevention”... I say it is spite.

Very annoying because that card gives me the most reward value.

OP, I was in the exact same situation as you and same thing happened to me (CC denied due to a successful credit card dispute and eventually refunded by Carnival as well). 

 

Forgetting about that whole debacle from last year, I went ahead and booked using a different card with no problems.  A few business days later my cruise was cancelled with no reason given (they sent me a canned email).  I called to try and get an explanation.  The customer service rep couldn't tell me why, only that there was a note in my file that I needed to contact Carnival's accounting dept.  I did and was informed I was on the much famed "Do Not Sail" list! 

 

I was provided instructions for wiring Carnival the money for the cruise from last year and was immediately removed from the list (edit:  AFTER my wired payment was received by CCL).  I'm almost certain you're on the same list as I was.  Recommend you call them and take care of it before trying to book anything with Carnival.

Edited August 14, 2021 by 4hunters

[4hunters]

1 hour ago, Essiesmom said:

Consequence of being impatient.  EM

I wonder how long you would have waited for your money to be refunded until you took some action?  Just curious.

[firefly333]

2 hours ago, crooooze said:

Not sure if anyone experienced this....

Last year when it was taking forever to get refunds, I went the route of contacting my credit card to dispute the charge.

Everything worked out and I ended up getting my refund.

 

Fast forward a year, and I’m booking new reservations - Now Carnival is refusing to accept that credit card.

They said it is part of their “Fraud prevention”... I say it is spite.

Very annoying because that card gives me the most reward value.

On every thread where people posted to dispute it with your credit card I warned that just getting credit this way does not mean you were right or that the charge went away. I worked in disputes for amex and angry people called to say the merchant put them in collections when the money was taken away.

 

Sometimes the merchant doesnt answer on time, chargeback. We always leaned toward giving the cardholder the credit.  .. again dont assume that you were right for that your obligation to the merchant is gone.

 

We carefully worded the letter to the cardholder saying, the credit will remain on your account. .. note we NEVER say to card holder they were right. I warned countless times. People who argued with me never worked credit card disputes. People read into the letter what they wanted to hear.

[firefly333]

2 hours ago, WhaleTailFlCruiser said:

I mean they could have just blocked you entirely from booking after disputing legitimate charges. Should count your blessings they only blocked the card 

Or be glad this merchant didnt send the charge to a collection agency that you have to deal with. It happens all the time. 

 

I get it after 7  months the op was tired of dealing with it. Just saying understand they may be repercussions.  Keeps dispute folks with jobs. But of course many disputes have legit reasons and people say let the credit card company deal with it. Assuming the problem is gone. 

 

Use another credit card. Move on. 

[BlerkOne]

Maybe it is their way of telling you you're banned and dispute that with the credit card company.

[sammee]

I've heard of this happening before Covid problems, never really knew if it was true. I disputed one from NCL last year, I guess I'm banned too. I'm sure they all have similar rules in place.

 

[BoozinCroozin]

Actions do have consequences. Contact your credit card company, tell them the card is lost, and they will issue a new one with a different number. Then, you could use it with Carnival. 

 

I don't blame Carnival at all for this one.

[Iplayslots]

Perhaps before putting blame on the cruise line. check with your CC bank. They could be blocking Carnival’s merchant id from processing your card due to your dispute. They could easily lock that merchant from your acct and come up unauthorized. After all why would you deal with the same merchant again if you did not trust them previously. Your actions are juvenile. Everybody waiting, some of us very long for our refunds.  You were just impatient. And screamed the sky is falling.

[firefly333]

28 minutes ago, Iplayslots said:

Perhaps before putting blame on the cruise line. check with your CC bank. They could be blocking Carnival’s merchant id from processing your card due to your dispute. They could easily lock that merchant from your acct and come up unauthorized. After all why would you deal with the same merchant again if you did not trust them previously. Your actions are juvenile. Everybody waiting, some of us very long for our refunds.  You were just impatient. And screamed the sky is falling.

I've never heard of such a thing happening from one charge being disputed.

 

If it was so easy we could have blocked recurring charges like internet or gyms. I cant tell you how many times I was yelled at I told you to stop accepting charges from gold gym or whomever. It's not something easily done even if you believe it. Most people seem to believe it from those who yelled at me. .. if you dont stop my wifi charges I'm cancelling my card. No amount of explaining seems to work. Recurring charges cancel and get a cancel number .. dont just say stop these charges. That's not how it works.

 

Its carnival. They have a record of the chargeback so to them you took money from them you owed. 

[MrMarc]

I am willing to bet this is an automatic flag triggered in their accounting system as a protection against recurring chargebacks.  It is probably usually a good thing for a company to do, but in this case they were in fact wrong.  But for security in their accounting system, there may only a few people that can change that, or it may be impossible to change.  So I don't blame you for what you did. nor do I blame Carnival.  I would ask Carnival if it is restricted to that specific card number, or to your name.  If it is possible for it to be removed, you will probably have to go through a number of layers of people to get it done. 

[gaunerdog]

I did this with Celebrity last year but they still accept the same credit card without any propblems.

[firefly333]

8 minutes ago, gaunerdog said:

I did this with Celebrity last year but they still accept the same credit card without any propblems.

It's possible celebrity issued the credit to your credit card within the 90 days allowed time so the dispute person closed the dispute as credit received and reversed the temporary credit. 

 

By law the dispute can be held open for 90 days .. exactly. Not a day longer. (10k fine to the credit card if not closed on time, so they have alerts set on the time). 

 

I'm assuming carnival was charged back by the credit card co for the outcome he described. 

[Cherries Jubilee]

Uber does this too if that makes you feel any better. I don’t think it’s spite. I think it’s computerized. A new card number is all you need for them.
 

It is amazing that a company could still think you owe them for a cruise that they canceled and took their sweet time refunding. I guess it’s just another flaw in the system. It’s probably an automated block as opposed to a case file that a human being looks through to resolve.

 

 I would have been fed up after a wait that long too; especially if I had contacted them many times. I doubt OP has this problem but at some points during this shutdown I would have literally NEEDED the money that I was actually entitled to have refunded. These companies aren’t the only ones who need money in the bank. 

 

That being said thank you to the OP @croooooze@firefly333@4hunters informed us of how wrongly this could go. I bet there are several people on this board who considered doing the same thing and this post is going to save them a lot of stress. 

[satxdiver]

Anytime you pay with a credit card and then refute the charge, the credit card issuer will notify the merchant (Carnival in this case) that the charge has been challenged and cancelled.  The merchant's computers will see this and mark the card as illegal and any future attempts to use that card number to charge anything at that merchant will be automatically rejected by the merchant's computer.  It could happen with any large merchant where all credit card transactions are totally handled by computers.  The merchant themselves have no action in this.  

 

The solution is to get a new card with a new account number preferably another issuer and the new account number will not get flagged as illegal by the merchant's computers. 

Edited August 14, 2021 by satxdiver

[4hunters]

I guess folks aren’t reading my explanation correctly or maybe I wasn’t clear.
 

I made another reservation and successfully paid in full using another credit card. Cruise looked like it was a go until about 3 business days later when my cruise was cancelled due to being on the Do Not Sail list.

 

So, those of you who recommend using a different credit card, this is incorrect and will not help in the long run. Just pay Carnival what you owe and they (accounting department)  will remove you from the Do Not Sail list.  

[LadyMac72]

19 minutes ago, Cherries Jubilee said:

Uber does this too if that makes you feel any better. I don’t think it’s spite. I think it’s computerized. A new card number is all you need for them.
 

It is amazing that a company could still think you owe them for a cruise that they canceled and took their sweet time refunding. I guess it’s just another flaw in the system. It’s probably an automated block as opposed to a case file that a human being looks through to resolve.

 

 I would have been fed up after a wait that long too; especially if I had contacted them many times. I doubt OP has this problem but at some points during this shutdown I would have literally NEEDED the money that I was actually entitled to have refunded. These companies aren’t the only ones who need money in the bank. 

 

That being said thank you to the OP @croooooze@firefly333@4hunters informed us of how wrongly this could go. I bet there are several people on this board who considered doing the same thing and this post is going to save them a lot of stress. 

I wonder if it has anything to do with the OP using a TA.  Wouldn't the TA own the booking and thus the refund would come back to them and then it gets passed onto the OP? So we really don't know if it was entirely on Carnival's end.  

[Essiesmom]

7 hours ago, 4hunters said:

I wonder how long you would have waited for your money to be refunded until you took some action?  Just curious.

My three cruises - Celebrity, Carnival, Cunard - were refunded in parts from 6 weeks to 3 months.  Fourth cruise I moved to next year.  EM

[kdr69]

I also cancelled a cruise last year and waited almost a full two months before calling and inquiring about my refund to my credit card.  They told me it was refunded to the original card used to book.  This card had been compromised and was replaced by my cc company so i called them and sure it enough the refund was sitting on my old credit card account that i had cancelled.  Just sitting there.  No one at the Credit card company called or moved it or anything.  The agent on the phone said he would move it to my new account and didnt have an explanation as to why they would just leave a credit on a cancelled account.  Sometimes the refund issue isnt with the issuer but the bank or Credit Card company.  They are always quick to take your money but slow to give it back.  7 day holds being one example.