Refundable Deposit Non-Refund

[ladysail2]

I booked a cruise using the Refundable Deposit amount.  Long before final payment, I cancelled the cruise, and did not replace it with another cruise.  Do I receive the whole deposit back, or does Royal Caribbean charge the $100 fee, and refund the balance?  I have a Cancelled invoice stating a Payment Refund of the full deposit amount dated January 9…..but have not received any refund on my cc.

 

Royal is usually pretty fast about giving refunds so I’m surprised that a month later nothing has happened. I phoned them, but the cruise was handled by a travel agent and the agent told me that Royal has 30 days to issue a refund…so I’m stuck until the 30 days are up.  I’ll remind the agent next week (she doesn’t work Fri or Sat)…

[klfrodo]

Some financial institutions also have small print where they say they have up to 1 billing cycle to issue any credits.

[Spunky946]

A refundable deposit gets the whole thing back.  

[ladysail2]

47 minutes ago, klfrodo said:

Some financial institutions also have small print where they say they have up to 1 billing cycle to issue any credits.

True, but purchases made on this cruise were refunded back to the same card within 2-3 days.  

[ladysail2]

48 minutes ago, Spunky946 said:

A refundable deposit gets the whole thing back.  

Thank you, I wasn’t sure. 

[twangster]

Cruise planner purchase refunds are processed much faster than cruise deposit refunds.  You may see them come in a variety of weird small amounts.  

[Denversail]

57 minutes ago, ladysail2 said:

I booked a cruise using the Refundable Deposit amount.  Long before final payment, I cancelled the cruise, and did not replace it with another cruise.  Do I receive the whole deposit back, or does Royal Caribbean charge the $100 fee, and refund the balance?  I have a Cancelled invoice stating a Payment Refund of the full deposit amount dated January 9…..but have not received any refund on my cc.

 

Royal is usually pretty fast about giving refunds so I’m surprised that a month later nothing has happened. I phoned them, but the cruise was handled by a travel agent and the agent told me that Royal has 30 days to issue a refund…so I’m stuck until the 30 days are up.  I’ll remind the agent next week (she doesn’t work Fri or Sat)…

I cancelled a few cruises recently and rebooked others. I did it on Royal’s website. My credits appeared on my cc the same week. I would guess that having the 3rd party involved is what is causing the delay. You need Royal to issue a credit to them and then the TA to you. At least I assume that is how it works but I’m a control freak and haven’t used a TA for a cruise in years.

[ladysail2]

10 minutes ago, twangster said:

Cruise planner purchase refunds are processed much faster than cruise deposit refunds.  You may see them come in a variety of weird small amounts.  

I didn’t know that either.  The other amounts were easy to verify.  My travel agent will have to pursue the refund now.

[ladysail2]

6 minutes ago, Denversail said:

I cancelled a few cruises recently and rebooked others. I did it on Royal’s website. My credits appeared on my cc the same week. I would guess that having the 3rd party involved is what is causing the delay. You need Royal to issue a credit to them and then the TA to you. At least I assume that is how it works but I’m a control freak and haven’t used a TA for a cruise in years.

Although one would think if Royal send the refund to the travel agent, she would have passed it on to me.  I’ll email her after the 30-day time limit has passed.  Thank you for the information.

[CAT GIRL]

Some refunds get processed faster than others. Sometimes something is snagged up for whatever reason.  If your agent calls in to follow up on it she may be told that Royal won't look into it for at least 30 days since that is the time frame they give you. After 30 days, they will take a closer look to track down the money. Have your agent call and see where things are in the process. If you indeed booked with a refundable deposit, it's probably being held up in penalty somewhere. Your agent needs to call to  move it along.  

[Russ Lomas]

31 minutes ago, twangster said:

Cruise planner purchase refunds are processed much faster than cruise deposit refunds.  You may see them come in a variety of weird small amounts.  

No kidding.  Funny how charges show up immediately but returns and refunds take several days (or even months in some cases).  Guess when you keep someone else's money for a month or so and you are a big company like RCCL, you can earn a nice bit of interest before returning the money.

[c-leg5]

1 hour ago, Denversail said:

I cancelled a few cruises recently and rebooked others. I did it on Royal’s website. My credits appeared on my cc the same week. I would guess that having the 3rd party involved is what is causing the delay. You need Royal to issue a credit to them and then the TA to you. At least I assume that is how it works but I’m a control freak and haven’t used a TA for a cruise in years.

Not my experience with my TA.

Not sure why you would speculate.

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, ladysail2 said:

 I’ll email her after the 30-day time limit has passed.

Don't wait that long.

[ladysail2]

41 minutes ago, CAT GIRL said:

Some refunds get processed faster than others. Sometimes something is snagged up for whatever reason.  If your agent calls in to follow up on it she may be told that Royal won't look into it for at least 30 days since that is the time frame they give you. After 30 days, they will take a closer look to track down the money. Have your agent call and see where things are in the process. If you indeed booked with a refundable deposit, it's probably being held up in penalty somewhere. Your agent needs to call to  move it along.  

I have the invoice with Cancelled on it. Under Payment Details, one line says Initial Deposit with the amount. The second line says Payment Refund with the same amount. So I did indeed book a refundable deposit.  The 30 days are up tomorrow but my agent isn’t in the office until next week so I’ll have her follow up.

[ladysail2]

51 minutes ago, Russ Lomas said:

No kidding.  Funny how charges show up immediately but returns and refunds take several days (or even months in some cases).  Guess when you keep someone else's money for a month or so and you are a big company like RCCL, you can earn a nice bit of interest before returning the money.

It’s the same thing with just about any cc purchase. Quick to take the money…but slow as molasses in January to return it!  😫

[Denversail]

9 minutes ago, c-leg5 said:

Not my experience with my TA.

Not sure why you would speculate.

Well I explained that I was in fact speculating. 
Not sure why you would comment except to be rude.

[ladysail2]

6 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Don't wait that long.

She said she won’t do anything until the 30-day limit has passed.  I tried phoning Royal myself, but they wouldn’t talk to me…even though I originally booked the cruise directly with them.  I thought that maybe since I cancelled it, the booking would revert to me….but I guess not.  I’m sure it will all work out.

[Biker19]

2 minutes ago, ladysail2 said:

She said she won’t do anything until the 30-day limit has passed.

Between this answer and not being able to get a hold of her till next week, you may want to start looking for another TA.

[c-leg5]

19 minutes ago, Denversail said:

Well I explained that I was in fact speculating. 
Not sure why you would comment except to be rude.

 

Not trying to be rude, just not sure how speculating helps OP. I think they are looking for personal experiences.

 

 

[Denversail]

1 hour ago, c-leg5 said:

 

Not trying to be rude, just not sure how speculating helps OP. I think they are looking for personal experiences.

 

 

I did speak of my personal experience regarding getting a refund. Get a life.

[SNemeth]

3 hours ago, Denversail said:

I cancelled a few cruises recently and rebooked others. I did it on Royal’s website. My credits appeared on my cc the same week. I would guess that having the 3rd party involved is what is causing the delay. You need Royal to issue a credit to them and then the TA to you. At least I assume that is how it works but I’m a control freak and haven’t used a TA for a cruise in years.

Did you cancel online as well?  I always book myself online, but have never noticed an option to cancel online.  Please tell me how if I am missing something. 

 

Signed,

Type A Control Freak.  🙂

 

[Denversail]

2 minutes ago, SNemeth said:

Did you cancel online as well?  I always book myself online, but have never noticed an option to cancel online.  Please tell me how if I am missing something. 

 

Signed,

Type A Control Freak.  🙂

 

You are correct. I had booked online but now that I think on it I had revised or cancelled the bookings over the phone. 

[packedandready]

We received our full deposit. Was told it would take about 2 weeks, but it actually took closer to 2 months (for the first amount). It was refunded in 3 different segments. Received the fees and taxes first, then a strange amount shortly afterwards. The remaining $107 and cents came about a month later.