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Waiting for a Refund

almostnewtocruise

By almostnewtocruise,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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almostnewtocruise

almostnewtocruise

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On November, 8 were  supposed  to embark on  Epic . Starting in  Civitavecchia  - ending in Haifa. 
We were very excited, as it would have been our very first cruise on NCL and  - to make it even better - the cruise was going  to end for us  "at home" (we are Israelis). 
At this point the cruise was of course already paid off.
 
But on October  7 a war started in Israel  - and everything  has changed.
To make the story short.. Of course NCL changed its itineraries for the region. 
Haifa , as a disembarking and embarking port, was replaced with Athens. Other ports have been replaced too.
All the   customers  were notified of  the changes and were given a choice to cancel. The general public had been offered FCC instead of  this changed itinerary.. The Israelis were offered a total refund.. Not only for this specific cruise but also for their other cruises this year.  Which I thought was quite considerate of NCL. 
 
So (of course) we did cancel.. and were promised to receive a refund within 14 days.  This was on the 13th of October. 
After we waited and waited, our TA contacted NCL several times and,  at some point,  have been told that it will take another 10 days.. Those have also passed many days ago. And still nothing.
 
I wonder if there are other people here in the same situation.. Or whoever has any experience with NCL refund policies. 
 
(I must say that I am quite disappointed with NCL.  We had another cruise booked with RCI (Rhapsody of the Seas).  They cancelled their cruise (also from Haifa) and we got a refund in less than a week. )
 
 
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9tee2Sea

9tee2Sea

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if you are really concerned about not getting your money back, contact the credit card company and file a dispute ( refund owed, never refunded).  The card company will send a letter to NCL ( I assume the accounting dept) with the reason for the dispute, and NCL will have a certain amount of days to respond.  I bet your refund will show up very shortly.  If it does, of course the honorable thing to do would be to contact the credit card company and tell them the issue has been resolved.  Im pretty sure there is a long line for refunds, so it just might take a bit longer than expected.  Hope your family and friends have been safe.  

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shof515 "Live from...." Rare

shof515

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28 minutes ago, 9tee2Sea said:

if you are really concerned about not getting your money back, contact the credit card company and file a dispute ( refund owed, never refunded).  The card company will send a letter to NCL ( I assume the accounting dept) with the reason for the dispute, and NCL will have a certain amount of days to respond.  I bet your refund will show up very shortly.  If it does, of course the honorable thing to do would be to contact the credit card company and tell them the issue has been resolved.  Im pretty sure there is a long line for refunds, so it just might take a bit longer than expected.  Hope your family and friends have been safe.  

be careful with this. lots of people did this years ago during covid 

 

chargeback will get your refund quicker but will cause other issues in the future like you can no longer use that card with norwegian again 

Edited by shof515
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tomk3212

tomk3212

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As several other posters have pointed out NCL is infamous for delaying refunds; this was even before COVID struck.  In this now post-COVID world keep in mind that NCL (and MANY other cruise lines) are carrying gigantic (compared to pre-COVID) debt loads they had to assume to merely stay in business during COVID.  Also I'm sure that NCL is waiting on the refund of port fees & such from yours & other cancelled cruises as a result of the war.  I'm not offering this as an excuse for NCL's obviously bad behavior in delaying your refund; your example of how RCCL handles similar situations is spot on.

 

Contacting your credit card company is a viable option so if you need the $$ back ASAP I'd go that route.  Otherwise I'd try contacting whomever you booked the cruise with (travel agent or NCL directly) & see what they can do, if anything.  Unfortunately, the 'squeaking wheel gets the grease' so if that doesn't work I'd contact your credit card company & go that route.

 

Good luck & stay safe!  You & your countrymen (country-people?)  are in my prayers..

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DCGuy64 Great Review Rare

DCGuy64

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Please bear in mind that doing a chargeback can take time. I work for a financial institution, and generally the merchant has at least 30 days to acknowledge your request and another 30-45 days to respond. We always tell the customers at our bank to try and resolve these issues directly rather than go the chargeback route, because it's usually much faster. Also, as someone else has pointed out, NCL may disallow you from using the same card with them in the future. Just consider the consequences.

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almostnewtocruise

almostnewtocruise

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Thanks to you all for taking the time to reply!

 

(And special thanks to those who expressed their concern for our situation here 😍)

 

I do appreciate the advice about involving the credit card company. 

I must admit that I didn't think about this route at all. And, to tell the truth, the perspective that I won't be able to use this card for future NCI cruises doesn't "scare" me at all. As it is, I don't feel that I even want to try them again. Of course, this can change.. (as so many things in life do 😉) 

 

So I think that for now I'll take the advice to wait a little longer.. Involve (yet again) our TA.. (maybe she can "scare" them with the CC thing? I just can't  imagine waiting 16 months for the refund! 😉 )

 

Will keep you posted if/when  anything good happens

 

hoping for better times

Miriam

 

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almostnewtocruise

almostnewtocruise

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19 hours ago, Huntingdon1701 said:

Very frustrating for you - I suggest keep calling, and possibly email the post-cruise desk.

 

I cancelled and rebooked a cruise last week and the refunds were back with me two days later, so they can do it in a reasonable time. 

 

Good luck!

 

Wow! 

That's impressing.

Still nothing, but my TA says they promise it will been "very soon" 

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DCGuy64 Great Review Rare

DCGuy64

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2 hours ago, almostnewtocruise said:

Happy to announce that the refund has arrived (yesterday) !

 

I don't know if the "threat" of involving the CC company helped or is it just that "the time has come".

Anyway - thanks everybody for your advice and sympathy !

 

Happy sailings and good news to all  ! 

Great! I guess your TA wasn't too far off. Glad you received your refund. 😄

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