Refund in Form of a Check - How Long Should it Take?

[abisha]

On 2/28/16 I cancelled my cruise (before being paid in full) and was told I would receive full refund of my deposit. That part is not the issue.

 

The credit card I used for the deposit at the time of booking was cancelled due to fraudulent activity, and my credit card company issued me a new card w/new card number. I had forgotten which card I used since I had booked it over a year ago.

 

Anyhow, when Royal tried to process the refund, it got rejected (they tried it twice). After a week, I called back just to check on the refund, and they told me what had happened (was anyone going to call me to tell me this? probably not, so good thing I called).

 

They said I would still receive a refund in form of a check. I explained what had happened w/that card and that I had a new card number from same credit card company, but they said they were not able to refund back to another card. Ok, no problem..understood.

 

However, I still do not have my refund check. I called yesterday, and the rep put me on hold to call over to the payments processing department to see if it a check was cut and mailed. He told me that it wasn't, but no one even knew status of when it would be cut, etc. He just said that someone from that department is looking into it and will call me over the next few business days. My gut tells me no one will be calling me back. The rep tells me "don't worry, you'll get your check eventually". Really? I told him I really needed that money back as quickly as possible, since I re-booked that same cruise (I upgraded my cabin) and need it to pay my credit card.

 

Has anyone had any experience with refund in form of a check? How long should this take? Usually 7 to 10 business days (sometimes a bit longer) is acceptable, but the fact that no one can even tell me what the status is and don't even see a check had even been cut at this point, is quite disturbing. Should I be calling over to a specific department myself? If so, does anyone have a number or department I can ask for?

 

Thanks

Lynne

[cb at sea]

I'd wait another week...even a CC refund takes MUCH longer than it takes them to charge your card!

 

Be patient...it will arrive....eventually!

[cruisenfever]

Has anyone had any experience with refund in form of a check? How long should this take? Usually 7 to 10 business days (sometimes a bit longer) is acceptable, but the fact that no one can even tell me what the status is and don't even see a check had even been cut at this point, is quite disturbing. Should I be calling over to a specific department myself? If so, does anyone have a number or department I can ask for?

 

Thanks

Lynne

Have never had a refund in the form of a check, but have had refunds back to the credit card on file. Took about 2-3 weeks.

 

Once a refund is requested, it goes through several departments before a check/refund back to cc is finally issued.

Edited March 18, 2016 by cruisenfever

[spookwife]

actually paper check refunds tend to take MUCH longer than 7-10 days. as much as 30-45 days.

[birdylady]

I can't speak to how long it will take for a check. But as an FYI, if you ever have a card closed due to fraud and the company reissues a new number, you can still have refunds applied to the old credit card number. I had this happen a couple years ago and RCI was able to apply the refund to the old number and the credit showed on my credit card account.

 

Erika

[abisha]

I can't speak to how long it will take for a check. But as an FYI, if you ever have a card closed due to fraud and the company reissues a new number, you can still have refunds applied to the old credit card number. I had this happen a couple years ago and RCI was able to apply the refund to the old number and the credit showed on my credit card account.

 

Erika

 

This is what the issue is all about. They did try to apply to the old credit card #, which is what they had on file to begin with. But it kept getting rejected.

 

I also called the credit card company and asked about this, and they said it couldn't be done either.

 

I asked Royal if they could apply the refund to my new card #, and they said they couldn't do that.

[abisha]

Have never had a refund in the form of a check, but have had refunds back to the credit card on file. Took about 2-3 weeks.

 

Once a refund is requested, it goes through several departments before a check/refund back to cc is finally issued.

 

I actually had made a couple of other payments for this trip with another card, and that refund back to that card took about a week!

[abisha]

Have never had a refund in the form of a check, but have had refunds back to the credit card on file. Took about 2-3 weeks.

 

Once a refund is requested, it goes through several departments before a check/refund back to cc is finally issued.

 

I completely get that as I work in the corporate world and also work alongside our accounts payables department with various issues. And I get the fact that they are a company with high volumes. But there still should be something visible in their system as to the workflow of the check processing itself. What status is the check in (waiting to be cut, cut but waiting on signature, cut and signed and ready for mailing, etc.).

 

They should at least be able to tell me something vs. "we don't know".

 

I'll give it another week. Hopefully someone will contact me like they said they would.