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NEED A FAIR REFUND POLICY DUE TO VIRUS


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1 hour ago, ozzicruiser said:

That doesn't surprise me at all. 

Alarm bells set off when my TA forwarded a long winded letter from Ponant saying.... They have extended the balance to 30days before the cruise if the cruise is cancelled they will give me a FCC to use within 18mths...if I don't use it within 18mths ponant will then give me a refund..... Yeah sure they will have gone under by then and I will have blown the full amount. 

 

Rather than lose all our moneys I gave in and rebooked for next May, a different itinerary , different and older ship, and we are down a deck to not owe them more money.Same number of nights... Anything extra left from 120% will be another FCC not even OBC. Still not happy with their response and am hoping I can get a better attitude before having to sail with them.

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21 hours ago, ozzicruiser said:

Well I've bitten the bullet and have decided to cancel my cruises. 

A loss of 10% is better than a FCC. 

But I have to wait 3 months to get my refund. Ponant you stink. 

 

I don't know what type of credit card protections you have in Australia, but I would contact your CC Company right away and dispute the entire amount you paid Ponant. Explain you are cancelling according to their their terms and they are refusing to refund your money for 90 days. Unless their terms state 90 days for a refund.

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2 hours ago, MrRandal said:

 

I don't know what type of credit card protections you have in Australia, but I would contact your CC Company right away and dispute the entire amount you paid Ponant. Explain you are cancelling according to their their terms and they are refusing to refund your money for 90 days. Unless their terms state 90 days for a refund.

My cancelling is viewed as change of mind Credit card don't refund for change of mind they refund if I did not receive the service I paid for. 

In that case I would have to pay the balance and if ponant collapses then credit card will refund. I prefer to lose 10% not give ponant more money which would be around $30,000

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Ponant gave us 120% credit for our cruise fare plus essentially full credit for the land extension payment as FCC.  I say 'essentially' because they did the math a complicated way.  Instead of taking the cruise fare at 120% and the land fare at 100% and adding them, they decided to reduce the land fare by 20% and then multiply the entire amount by 120%.  I lose $92.80 that way – but we were able to rebook the cruise for next January, and the new fare for the same itinerary/same cabin is $684 less than the 120% credit, so we're still almost $600 ahead.  I feel this is fair.  If they price the land extension reasonably for next year (nothing announced yet), we may come out whole.

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We have to pay for our cruise April 13th, $42000 or lose our deposit. Ponant will not defer payment date, I do not want a refund, just a delay. This would have been our first Ponant cruise. We will never book with them again. I do not trust them with any more of our money and as for a FCC it relies on Ponant remaining in business. With the crap way they have treated customers who have a current booking, I doubt strongly that they will.

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Yikes.  That's an awful lot of money.  I'm getting twitchy with our balance of £7000 due in May.  I did read that Ponant were delaying balance payments by 30 days.

Do you think that Ponant read these posts?  If they don't they will have no idea about the strength of bad feeling among their customers. Are there other platforms these post can be put on to make them realise how angry people are?

We have cruised with Ponant before and we had a fabulous time but I guess you only know good a company is when you need them to sort out a problem.  They clearly don't seem to care.

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17 minutes ago, jland said:

We have to pay for our cruise April 13th, $42000 or lose our deposit. Ponant will not defer payment date, I do not want a refund, just a delay. This would have been our first Ponant cruise. We will never book with them again. I do not trust them with any more of our money and as for a FCC it relies on Ponant remaining in business. With the crap way they have treated customers who have a current booking, I doubt strongly that they will.

My TA issued me a copy of a letter she received from ponant. They are not in a good financial position and will not borrow money like other cruise companies to give refunds. 

I have only paid a deposit and that's why I bit the bullet and cancelled my cruise. 

 

There is a facebook page and also another thread on cruise critic. 

Same sentiment as here. 

 

We all hate Ponant. 

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Like most on this thread - I have an offer of a FCC - but am concerned about Ponant going under - however I believe that your credit card company will protect you in this case - ie refund you via the chargeback process. Has anyone inquired about this - we were waiting for the 'dust to settle' before taking any action. Further - what about travel insurance - won't it cover a lost FCC if company goes under.

 

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1 hour ago, ozzicruiser said:

My TA issued me a copy of a letter she received from ponant. They are not in a good financial position and will not borrow money like other cruise companies to give refunds. 

 

Does this letter support your statement that 'they are not in a good financial position'?  If so, please post it here [redacted so they can't trace it back to your TA].  I would really like to see it.

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8 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

 

Does this letter support your statement that 'they are not in a good financial position'?  If so, please post it here [redacted so they can't trace it back to your TA].  I would really like to see it.

I'm apprehensive to publish any of the letter because it was addressed personally to the TA and she forwarded it me in good faith. So it could get traced back to the TA. 

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51 minutes ago, jland said:

Ozzicruiser, did the letter actually state Ponant are not in a good financial position? Makes me terrified of giving them any more money.

Here is an exert, they are choosing not to borrow money to pay refunds my interpretation is they are not in a good financial position because they don't have the money to refund our money. What have they done with our money. 

Really sorry to worry you jland. 

20200325_170222.jpg

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Thanks ozzicruiser for the update. I hate companies that refuse refunds. We are not giving them another $42000 with no hope of getting our money back. 120% FCC is not worth a cent if they go bankrupt. Ponant do not deserve to survive. They are giving new bookings better terms than us who booked their cruise two years ago. All we want is our final payment deferred. Plus this cruise is through the northwest passage, does Ponant still believe this is possible. It would be totally irresponsible to give this virus to the very small communities we would visit. Shame on them for not cancelling this cruise immediately.

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44 minutes ago, jland said:

Thanks ozzicruiser for the update. I hate companies that refuse refunds. We are not giving them another $42000 with no hope of getting our money back. 120% FCC is not worth a cent if they go bankrupt. Ponant do not deserve to survive. They are giving new bookings better terms than us who booked their cruise two years ago. All we want is our final payment deferred. Plus this cruise is through the northwest passage, does Ponant still believe this is possible. It would be totally irresponsible to give this virus to the very small communities we would visit. Shame on them for not cancelling this cruise immediately

Today I cancelled b2b uniworld river cruises as I'm 120days from sailing. 

The penalty is hefty but better than their policy if they cancel. 

Holland America cancelled a cruise of mine and they are giving me a full refund plus compensation for the airfares. 

 

What have I learnt from all this. 

Never book a cruise with a small company. 

 

And on a big cruise ship I will be able to afford the penthouse

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This is part of an email just received from Ponant.  Note the opportunity to make comments on their social media and Escales platform.  Will they take more notice of the comments on there?

 

 

 

For the moment, we may no longer be able to take you to the most extraordinary places on the planet, but we are going to bring them to you instead!

Beginning this week — on our social media and our online magazine, Escales — you will be able to learn about our favourite idyllic destinations and access interviews with and profiles of those who help us understand our planet and make it more beautiful.

Feel free to add your comments, anecdotes and travel memories too.
We always enjoy hearing what you have to say! You can also read a travel diary written by two of our passengers about their experiences in the heart of the Svalbard Archipelago.

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37 minutes ago, DSmith91 said:

Beginning this week — on our social media and our online magazine, Escales — you will be able to learn about our favourite idyllic destinations and access interviews with and profiles of those who help us understand our planet and make it more beautiful.
 

 

Do you have a link?  I can't even get their website to load properly or access my account.

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4 minutes ago, DSmith91 said:

  Sorry..This just takes you to my mail box

I thought I pasted a link to the whole of Ponant's email but instead it was a link to my mailbox. Thought I'd better delete that one straight away for obvious reasons.

 

I can't see at the moment where we can post comments.  Maybe that bit of Escales isn't up and running yet even though it says from today you can.  Give it a little while.

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9 hours ago, ozzicruiser said:

Here is an exert, they are choosing not to borrow money to pay refunds my interpretation is they are not in a good financial position because they don't have the money to refund our money. What have they done with our money. 

Really sorry to worry you jland. 

20200325_170222.jpg

 

I have seen that letter before.  It was designed to be sent to any Ponant customer affected, no big secret.  You have obviously chosen to read into it what you already believe.  I interpret it the opposite way:  they are in good financial position and plan to stay that way by not hemorraghing cash refunds.  Coming out of this without a massive debt load is a good thing [debt was the main factor that sank Renaissance Cruises after 9/11].

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