HOLIDAYREADER

4 hours ago, HOLIDAYREADER said:

Hi

We have had some news to update in that we have been contacted by our Chorley TA to check financial details with a view to payment! Needless to say, we haven't received payment yet but it is promised for this week. I have not posted until we have some news because I have been upset by the unsympathetic attitude of some on this thread who presumably have been paid but think it's a good idea to lecture to other people who haven't about the error of their ways. Sharing the information we have been given, when Oceania say they've 'refunded' it just means that the paperwork has been passed to another department who approve it and then it is passed for payment. Hence, in our case the 2 week delay between Oceania saying they've paid and the monies being received. The travel agent apologised for the service which had not been as professional as they would like but because staff have been furloughed and are also working from home they have, apparently, one lady in the accounts department trying single handedly to pay the thousands of people who are owed money! This sounded genuine. I know when cruise firms pay the TA they just give them the money and a list and it is up to them to work out who is owed what. This may be the case with Regent, who we haven't used again since they cancelled our flights mid-cruise and rebooked them both in the same name consequently leaving my husband without a flight home from New Zealand, but that's another story! Hoping that all of us who are waiting DO get paid and can put this nightmare behind us.🤞

As an update to my previous post of today, we have now been fully refunded for our cruise and the money is safely in our account! For those who are still waiting, please don't give up hope! As far as we are concerned, although the communication from the customer service department of our TA has been poor, our cruise concierge was as helpful as she could be. It was 109 days after our cruise was cancelled before we were refunded; 101 days before Oceania refunded the TA and 8 days (6 working days) before the TA repaid us. So who do we blame for the delay- Oceania! For those who can't find any reason why people in the States are repaid first, a suggestion that probably the majority of their clients are American so they are protecting their market. Understandable of course, but not when they've had your money for 9+ months as an interest free loan and they are using it to pay back people on cruises that go after yours.

17 hours ago, piscean said:

 

Hello HolidayReader

I hope you have received your monies from our Chorley TA?

I have now been waiting over 100 days....today I was informed that they( Regent) have paid my TA.

next problem is getting the TA to pay. They are saying they are still waiting for suppliers of flights, hotels and transfers.

My application for a credit card cash back was made 2 months ago...only just being addressed!

 

Hi

We have had some news to update in that we have been contacted by our Chorley TA to check financial details with a view to payment! Needless to say, we haven't received payment yet but it is promised for this week. I have not posted until we have some news because I have been upset by the unsympathetic attitude of some on this thread who presumably have been paid but think it's a good idea to lecture to other people who haven't about the error of their ways. Sharing the information we have been given, when Oceania say they've 'refunded' it just means that the paperwork has been passed to another department who approve it and then it is passed for payment. Hence, in our case the 2 week delay between Oceania saying they've paid and the monies being received. The travel agent apologised for the service which had not been as professional as they would like but because staff have been furloughed and are also working from home they have, apparently, one lady in the accounts department trying single handedly to pay the thousands of people who are owed money! This sounded genuine. I know when cruise firms pay the TA they just give them the money and a list and it is up to them to work out who is owed what. This may be the case with Regent, who we haven't used again since they cancelled our flights mid-cruise and rebooked them both in the same name consequently leaving my husband without a flight home from New Zealand, but that's another story! Hoping that all of us who are waiting DO get paid and can put this nightmare behind us.🤞

On 6/27/2020 at 7:22 PM, LHT28 said:

I just  had a look at P & O forum    YIKES  if they think Oceania is bad good thing  they did not book their local line

P & O is part of the Carnival Corporation & is a British-American cruise operator based in Miami, Florida. It is not local to anyone in the UK if that was your point. They also own the Princess Line.

37 minutes ago, ORV said:

So to repeat this where people will maybe get it: the UK problem seems to be with their TA system that they use there, not really Oceania. 

 

A second point is that many people here in the US have waited considerably longer for a refund than what some of you have reported. 

I can only speak for our situation which is the opposite to the one you describe; the refund arrived at the TA last Monday over 100 days after Oceania cancelled the cruise, so the TA has had the money 6 days. They were supposed to be actioning payments on Friday which could take 3 days to hit our bank accounts. They have been slow and unhelpful and they may be delaying things OR it may just be too difficult to allocate all the payments in less than a week with minimum staff; either way we will find out on Monday. Oceania, on the other hand, didn't send us any details of the cruise being cancelled, didn't authorise our payment for over 100 days and then told us they had paid the TA when they hadn't sent them the money. From our own roll call, all the people from the States were posting that they were being paid in April and May and in fact most are not posting at all now because they've been paid. The only people posting are from the UK, Europe and Australia who are still waiting.

39 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Just curious if you booked direct with Oceania  or used  a TA in the UK?

We used a travel agent in the UK which is common practice here.

2 hours ago, Janet- said:

We received the full refund on 11 June for our 2 May cruise which was cancelled by O in March.

Nothing yet for the follow on cruise departing 14 May.

It's making me so annoyed when I read that others have been refunded much later sailings.

Why is O treating it's European customers differently than those from USA? I was willing to allow them some easing  from their contracted 2 week refund clause  due to the present situation, but now I just feel like a second class customer and it is rapidly changing the way I feel about O.

Hi Janet and Piscean. We still haven't received our refund for our April 14th cruise cancelled by Oceania in March. It does seem unfair that the European customers are being treated very badly, I am wondering if they have taken a decision to protect their American customer base. We have been told that the money had reached our Chorley TA on Monday and it would be paid on Friday but no sign of it yet. Back on the phone to the accounts department on Monday I guess! We have held off with our credit card as we have another unrelated claim ongoing which is taking ages too and were hoping that we could avoid going that route again. We will not be using Oceania again.

1 hour ago, piscean said:

Holiday reader and others that are using a TA in Chorley....I’m still waiting over 100 days and have been advised that they have received the refunds but have no remittance in order to pay me. Also they are still waiting on other suppliers!

I have requested a section 75 card chargeback and have reported the TA to the 

https://www.coronavirus-business-complaint.service.gov.uk/

 

Hi Piscean. We rang the TA on Monday and were told that the money from Oceania had just reached them that morning! We have been told that we are on the list for processing this week and that the payment should be authorised on this Friday's payment schedule. We are keeping our fingers crossed🤞. We are at 103 days since the cruise was cancelled although we were told that Oceania were taking the date as from 31st March and not 13th which was the actual date. It seems strange that cruises recently cancelled are getting paid back so quickly; a big difference in people's experiences.

On 6/20/2020 at 8:28 AM, royallondon said:

In the UK looking for a new TA is the easy part.  Looking for a better one I suspect will be the difficult part.  
 

Too many other boards also have references to frustrations with their TA for it to be confined to just one brand.

 

Regards

 

 

Also, I think that we are not always told the whole story. After emailing Oceania directly and waiting for 10 days for a response, we were told that the refund had been 'processed to your travel agent on the 8^th of June'. This morning, exactly two weeks later we were told that the money had only been received by the travel agent today and that 'processed' was a misleading term. We are now 101 days since our cruise was cancelled by Oceania  and they have been holding nearly $20,000 dollars of our money since October 2019.

3 hours ago, LHT28 said:

As per your post #598   the refund  went to your TA  so time to start  bugging your TA or go to your CC company & file  a dispute

According to you  Oceania refunded your money so they did  their part

Two points; we have been 'bugging' our TA from day 1. Oceania SAY they have refunded our money but we haven't seen it yet. In our contract with them they state that if they cancel the cruise they will refund within 14 days but they haven't refunded within 90 days- they didn't even inform us that the cruise was cancelled. I don't consider they have done 'their part'. Reading these posts those people who are satisfied with the refund process are those who have now got their money back, mostly much more quickly than we have, but thanks for the empathy.

25 minutes ago, piscean said:

Hello

i believe  we are using the same Agent in Chorley. We are having the same difficulty getting our refund from them although I have it from the cruise company (Regent) that my refund is processed. 
Now the agent is saying that they have to wait for the other suppliers and they haven’t yet received the refund.

It is now over 90 days!
 

Yes Oceania say they have refunded it but they apparently have just refunded it in a chunk and it is now up to the TA to decide who gets what. Having said that I don't think either Oceania or the TA come out of this well as neither of them have kept us up to date with what is happening; we weren't notified by either of them that the cruise was cancelled, let alone letting us know when they were processing our claim. Both of them are making the maximum use out of our money. I know that Covid has made it difficult for companies, but it has made it difficult for those of use who are self employed and need to use our own money to survive. We are pressing the TA but their customer service department are very unhelpful.

8 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

It took me 43 days to get back 3 deposits and 53 days to get a refund for a fully paid cruise.

Whilst we are pleased that people are getting their money back, we would have expected that cruises cancelled by Oceania would be paid back before those cancelled by passengers and that cruises with an earlier leaving date would be refunded first. We are 98 days from a cruise which was cancelled by Oceania and should've left on April 14th. We are in the UK though and that seems to make a big difference. Our TA keeps promising us the money should be here soon but we are losing patience, we paid in full in October 2019 which means that they have had our money for 8 months +, earning interest from it and we have had nothing from them. On our roll call, people have been posting when they have been refunded quickly and without exception they have been from the US.

On 6/8/2020 at 6:05 AM, roger b said:

I also booked with Six Star Cruises and was in your position , as I have posted before open a dispute with your credit card company money was back in my credit card account as soon as I showed that they wanted 90 days to refund, I also told S.S what I was doing  !!

Hi

I have been told by Oceania that they refunded Six Star Cruises on 8th June. Our TA has confirmed that they have the money but apparently it comes in a lump sum with a spreadsheet and they have to work out who is owed what. I am not sure how long this will take but we haven't received anything yet!

9 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Isn't the 14 day rule  from ABTA  in the UK?

The wording in Oceania  N.A. contracts do not have that clause

 

Just curious if you used  a TA  ?  It seems they are part of the delay problem  from other posts here

 Some have posted they are contacting their CC for  a refund

It is on Oceania's own terms and conditions for the UK which is not the same as ABTA which is an organisation which guarantees the money if the TA goes bust. We have contacted our TA, they contacted Oceania directly who told them that they would not consider paying their UK clients until 90 days from 31st March although the cruise was cancelled on 13th March. They said that after this time it could take more than 14 days to process claims leading to a refund period of 120 days +. Of course, our TA could have paid us and waited for a refund from Oceania as one UK TA has done; I presume our TA does not have the funds to do it due to the down turn in business.

11 minutes ago, KS&JW said:

 

Very few people in the US got their money back within 14 days.  

No that wasn't my point. According to their own terms and conditions those who had their cruises cancelled by Oceania should have had their money returned within 14 days, whereas Oceania seem to be prioritising the return of deposits to customers who cancel the cruise themselves which ( according to the terms and conditions) might be expected to take longer. On our cruise, the cruisers from the US have all got their money back in stage payments whereas most passengers from other places such as UK and Australia have received nothing and are being told that they have to wait 120 days. I was wondering whether this was because Oceania thought it would be less likely for customers outside the US to launch a class action lawsuit for the return of their money.

(b) Pre-departure cancellation
Occasionally, it may be necessary to cancel confirmed holiday arrangements. In the event we are prevented from performing your contracted holiday arrangements as a result of unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances (see clause 10) and we notify you of this as soon as reasonably possible, we have the right to terminate your contract. In this situation, we will refund all monies you have paid to us within 14 days of the date we inform you of the cancellation but will have no further or other liability to you including in respect of compensation or any costs or expenses you incur or have incurred.

42 minutes ago, Rob the Cruiser said:

Our deposit refund arrived yesterday. It was exactly 60 days from the time we cancelled. 

2 hours ago, clo said:

We got our refund (deposit) one day short of the six weeks they had said. So good.

So glad to hear that you've got your money back! It's good to hear of people being refunded but interesting to see Oceania's priorities; they seem to be making sure people's deposits are returned if they cancel, before attending to those of us who paid in full more than 8 months ago and who had our cruise cancelled by Oceania. We have been waiting 88 days and have been told it will be another month. We haven't even had our deposit back. Also all the folks who live in the USA seem to have been refunded first, possibly this may be a legal issue though it was my understanding that if Oceania cancelled they should refund within 14 days?

2 hours ago, Glenndale said:

We booked thru the Eskimo house and we have had zero information from them.

We are now within a week of the 90 days limit that O had previously referred to.

I have emailed O again today to try and discover when we will be refunded and am now seriously considering either going for a chargeback on our CC or a section 75.

Which route have you all decided to take?

Sharon, I'm assuming you were only waiting for a return of deposit? whereas Medeba and myself had paid in full for our holidays.

Roger B and Holidayreader are you waiting for a deposit or a return of your total holiday payments?

 

 

We are waiting for the whole of our payment back! Our cruise concierge has rung Oceania for further information and I can share what we were told. Our cruise was due to start on April 6th and was cancelled by Oceania on 13th March, though we didn't find out directly from them, we haven't had any communication from Oceania, and we began the process for a refund straight away. We have been told that Oceania are doing the cruises in groups and for their purposes they consider our cancellation to be 31st March and so 90 days start from then! Consequently although we are now 87 days since the cruise was cancelled we then have to add another 18 days to that! It may then take at least another two weeks to process. All this does not seem to explain why people who cancelled the cruise themselves or are in a different country (mostly USA on our roll call) have been receiving stage payments from the beginning and now mostly seem to be reimbursed in full. We were told by other cruisers who booked through ROL that they had been reimbursed at the beginning of May but that must be down to ROL themselves as apparently Oceania are saying that they haven't paid ROL. Good for ROL if so!

On 6/4/2020 at 10:43 PM, Medeba said:

 

What I forgot to say was that I got an automated email from my TA saying that it could take 14 days to get a reply!  If I don't hear anything in a couple of days, I think a phone call will be in order.  And yes, Glenndale, after many years of my business and recommending them to friends, I think I may well be looking for another agent (if we ever decide to cruise again).

Hi

I have reading through this thread as we are on day 86 waiting for a refund from Oceania with no sign of any payment at all. I am just wondering whether Oceania has refunded to our TA who may be holding on to it. As you are also in the UK can I ask who you used? Just because on our roll call there are another couple who also booked through Six Star Cruises who haven't received a penny yet either and I am wondering if this is the same in your case?

Thanks

Yes we were, Jan 12th sailing? Our first trip with Regent and a real disappointment! Things got worse, when we got to the airport we found that Regent had cancelled my husband's ticket and not re-booked him so we had to pay £2500 NZ to make sure he wasn't stranded in Auckland!

Hi Davyjones,

We are on the Q614 in August too but haven't found a roll call yet. We are hoping to do some tours too but are not sure whether to pick Cunard or to try some private ones. The Golden Circle tour with Cunard seems to work out at about £109 but I have seen it for £72 with private operators.