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Anyone heard from Seabourn about their refund?


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We were due to board Ovation on the 15th Feb for 14 nights. We were already in Singapore when we got the email 24 hours before we were due to board. However since then we have heard nothing, other than our restaurant reservations were cancelled and our son had his trip money refunded. I thought by now we would have had a letter or some form of communication from Seabourn. Has anyone heard anything?

FYI... we organised our own flights and our travel agent said the first date they could get us back was on the 25th Feb. We made the best of a bad situation, spending 5 nights in Singapore then we flew to Bali for 6 nights. However it all came at a cost and certainly not the holiday we planned for or wanted. I would be interested to hear how other people got on. 

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On a somewhat related note - we cancelled our 3/8 Encore cruise for FCC (would have preferred refund).

Received an email that about 1/2 of our prepaid excursions have been cancelled but not all - I wonder how that works. When will they cancel the rest?

Of course, the money itself for these cancellations or tax refund is nowhere to be seen as yet.

Edited by Paulchili
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Did you use a different account, I received the money and the emails for the cancelled  excursions at the same time.

 

I was looking in the wrong account at first until I realized.

Edited by ab21au
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2 hours ago, ab21au said:

Did you use a different account, I received the money and the emails for the cancelled  excursions at the same time.

 

I was looking in the wrong account at first until I realized.

I am not sure what you mean by different account but they were all booked the same way on Seabourn website in my account with the same credit card.

It is odd that they would only list 1/2 as being cancelled. When I inquired about this I was assured the rest would follow soon - I am waiting 😃

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5 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

I am not sure what you mean by different account but they were all booked the same way on Seabourn website in my account with the same credit card.

It is odd that they would only list 1/2 as being cancelled. When I inquired about this I was assured the rest would follow soon - I am waiting 😃

 

I am not saying this is what is happening but with me, the first time I looked at my bank transactions there were no credits until I realised that I had used a different No Foreign Transaction Fee Credit Card.  The dates on the excursion refunds from Seabourn actually showed in my transactions previous to the emails by 1 day.

 

I received all the refunds at the same time.  Was your cruise a B2B?  In that case SB may have not processed the other cruise yet.

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11 minutes ago, ab21au said:

 

I am not saying this is what is happening but with me, the first time I looked at my bank transactions there were no credits until I realised that I had used a different No Foreign Transaction Fee Credit Card.  The dates on the excursion refunds from Seabourn actually showed in my transactions previous to the emails by 1 day.

 

I received all the refunds at the same time.  Was your cruise a B2B?  In that case SB may have not processed the other cruise yet.

Thank you for clarifying but unfortunately none of those instances apply to me.

I used the same CC for all transactions. The cruise could have been booked as a B2B but we booked it as a single 30 day cruise. Some of the missing refunds are from the “first segment” part of the cruise while others from later. It seems so random.

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12 hours ago, ab21au said:

I was told it would take up to 6 weeks to process through. I’ve put a note in my diary when that is and so far it is 4 weeks. 

Dont you just love it? They (ANY company, not just SB) take you money instantly, but it takes weeks to get anything back.

@#$#@&^%!!!

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Perhaps the difference in when refunds are coming, etc. has more to do with where the client lives (Australia office of Seabourn may be processing refunds more quickly) or what credit card the client is using. Just supposition on my part.

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8 hours ago, buchhalm said:

Dont you just love it? They (ANY company, not just SB) take you money instantly, but it takes weeks to get anything back.

@#$#@&^%!!!

I too have always struggled with that concept, whoever's fault it is - whether it is the company's or bank's policy.

Charges appear on your account instantaneously but refunds take forever.

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12 hours ago, Paulchili said:

I used the same CC for all transactions. The cruise could have been booked as a B2B but we booked it as a single 30 day cruise. Some of the missing refunds are from the “first segment” part of the cruise while others from later. It seems so random.

Spoke with SB rep today. They claim that ALL prepaid excursions were cancelled and refunded on 3/1.

My CC shows some refunds pending from 3/1 but it is some $450 short of what I had paid.

So they have NOT been all refunded yet - more chasing to do in the next few days.

Why can't it be done properly the first time - I do have other things to do and worry about.

No sign of refunded taxes either.

Edited by Paulchili
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Looks as though our refund for the cruise has been processed. Waiting to find out about rebooking and need to check the money has gone back into my bank account. We also have a form to claim our extra expenses, which I think we are entitled to an extra nights hotel stay in Singapore. One night is really not enough, as it took us a few days to get sorted. We had booked our own flights via our travel agent and were told the earliest we could fly back was the 25th Feb. Thanks for all your responses. 

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We were also booked on the cruise from Singapore on 14 March but this was significantly changed so we also opted for a refund.  We are in the UK and when we telephone Seabourn they say they cannot talk to us and we have to go through our Agent even though we paid our monies directly to Seabourn.  Our Agents keep telephoning them and also e-mailing them but to no avail.  We have got our Fullerton Hotel, Singapore refund which we booked privately, and also our air taxes.  We are so grateful to the Fullerton Hotel and will stay there again in the future. 

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That isn’t great having issues with your refund from Seabourn. I hope you get it sorted soon.

 

Did you make a claim to Seabourn for the hotel in Singapore? How many stays did you claim for?  We didn’t have a flight package with Seabourn and ended up having to stay 3 extra nights and then flew to Bali as we couldn’t get back with Singapore Airlines until 25th February. Not the holiday we wanted or expected but we made the most of the time. 

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We only claimed the cruise from Seabourn and have still to hear from them. The hotel we booked on a non refundable/non transferable, but they kindly refunded us. We booked our own flights and were refunded the tax element. The remainder of the flight cost is being claimed through insurance.

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  • 4 months later...

We were booked on Seabourn Sojourn from Seward to Vancover from July 6 to 17, 2020. As it was cancelled, we requested a refund for the entirely paid fare.

As the journey was booked through Kreuzfahrtberater GmbH in Germany, Seabourn relegates us to them saying not being entitled to give us direct information about the wherabouts of our money. Wheras Kreuzfahrtberater informs that they simply cannot pay our money back before having received it from Seabourn. Ping-Pong at its best! This has now been going on for about 2 months and still there is no money in sight. Whoever of the envolved parties is the culprit, this is certainly not a good way to persuade good customers to book again.

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You are certainly right in your conclusion. Seabourn had an opportunity to differentiate themselves from the pack by expediting these refunds. I don't know why they didn't take advantage. They are a small cruise line, only 5 ships they could have put the pedal to the metal to get their refunds out. certainly they knew that they had to give the money back eventually. They are just being complacent ? indifferent?

    They like to think of themselves as the premier cruise line and in my opinion just blew an opportunity to prove it. The best cruise line doesn't keep blaming the pandemic or system problems. They rise above and solve the problems. I was booked on the Ovation in May. After they cancelled they told me in March that I would have my refund within 60 days. It took 90 days. Maybe claiming the money back through my credit card company helped. I don't know. Noone tells you anything. You might try that. It might help if you did pay by credit card. If not,  just be patient you'll get the money back eventually but you should stay after Seabourn. Email or call them every few days. The squeaky wheel gets the most oil. Good luck.

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On 7/30/2020 at 4:59 AM, U&R from CH said:

We were booked on Seabourn Sojourn from Seward to Vancover from July 6 to 17, 2020. As it was cancelled, we requested a refund for the entirely paid fare.

As the journey was booked through Kreuzfahrtberater GmbH in Germany, Seabourn relegates us to them saying not being entitled to give us direct information about the wherabouts of our money. Wheras Kreuzfahrtberater informs that they simply cannot pay our money back before having received it from Seabourn. Ping-Pong at its best! This has now been going on for about 2 months and still there is no money in sight. Whoever of the envolved parties is the culprit, this is certainly not a good way to persuade good customers to book again.

I'm afraid you're going to have to be very patient to wait for your refund.  It took 4 months for us to get the refund that we requested March 15.  We did get all of our money, but it took a long time.  Cunard took about 60 days to refund another cruise that we had booked.  And others have reported that other lines have been fairly responsive.  Seabourn is indeed completing the refunds, but they have been very slow.

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  • 4 months later...
On 7/30/2020 at 1:59 PM, U&R from CH said:

We were booked on Seabourn Sojourn from Seward to Vancover from July 6 to 17, 2020. As it was cancelled, we requested a refund for the entirely paid fare.

As the journey was booked through Kreuzfahrtberater GmbH in Germany, Seabourn relegates us to them saying not being entitled to give us direct information about the wherabouts of our money. Wheras Kreuzfahrtberater informs that they simply cannot pay our money back before having received it from Seabourn. Ping-Pong at its best! This has now been going on for about 2 months and still there is no money in sight. Whoever of the envolved parties is the culprit, this is certainly not a good way to persuade good customers to book again.

If you have booked with 'Kreuzfahrtberater GmbH', the Rotterdam office is responsible? Do you have access to your own customer account there?

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Waited ages for my refund.  Eventually asked my TA to inform Seabourn that I would be asking for a "charge-back" on my Amex card. Miraculously by refund appeared on my credit card statement within a week. the threat of a "charge-back" obviously galvanised Seabourn into action

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  • 3 months later...

I agree that Seabourn does an excellent job of quickly collecting funds from your credit card as soon as you authorize it, but, appears to be using the "float" to hold on to the funds as long as possible. 

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  • 1 month later...

We had our cruise cancelled at the beginning of March.  This was already put back a year so they've had our money for a long time.  We were promised repayment within 60 days but we're past that and still nothing.  The law states 14 days for the refund but Seabourn seem to be running their business with client money.  Having been on many cruises with them I'm afraid that this makes me nervous about using them again.  Loyalty for them seems to be a one way street.

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Every cruise line has been like this, to a greater or lesser extent, throughout the changing phases of the pandemic. I would say that "within 60 days" means "in approximately 60 days", so I'd wait another week or so, and if you still haven't heard anything, then reach out. If you have a travel agent, engage them to dig for information on your behalf; if you booked directly with Seabourn, ask them about the status of your proposed refund.

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