Spirit of Discovery next departure on 15th March

[beaujolais]

Still no refund and it's now 10 weeks

Latest excuse was that when they pay my refund to the TA they wanted to pay by Credit Card, can you believe that. Of course this is of no interest to my TA as the TA would have to pay commission on the amount of the refund

I still have tried 'phoning but have on two occasions had the phone message

"Office closed due to unforeseen circumstances"

and on another occasion was told, a new excuse,

" as they were working from home unable to see my details"

This company is supposedly awaiting delivery of a new ship, how will they pay for that if they cannot pay money back to people that they owe money to

Will there be a end or will I loose all my money, a considerable amount

 

[shoreham01]

13 minutes ago, beaujolais said:

Still no refund and it's now 10 weeks

Latest excuse was that when they pay my refund to the TA they wanted to pay by Credit Card, can you believe that. Of course this is of no interest to my TA as the TA would have to pay commission on the amount of the refund

I still have tried 'phoning but have on two occasions had the phone message

"Office closed due to unforeseen circumstances"

and on another occasion was told, a new excuse,

" as they were working from home unable to see my details"

This company is supposedly awaiting delivery of a new ship, how will they pay for that if they cannot pay money back to people that they owe money to

Will there be a end or will I loose all my money, a considerable amount

 

Did you pay with credit card?  Could they chase it for you if paid with card.  

[JMyrtle]

Just had the refund for Iceland which makes all three cruises now refunded. 

We now have nothing left booked now except a river cruise with Saga thru Spain and Portugal but I have only paid the deposit and don't expect to pay the balance unless I am sure it will depart. 

[beaujolais]

13 hours ago, shoreham01 said:

Did you pay with credit card?  Could they chase it for you if paid with card.  

 

I paid my TA by credit card and they paid Saga by BACS

Not sure if Amex,  the card used,  would chase my TA before Saga,  that seems wrong

[shoreham01]

Difficult situation but at the end of the day it is your money. If it was me I would wait till the end of next week and then give Amex a ring and explain the situation including the fact that you don’t want to penalise the TA.  Are you sure the TA are not in financial trouble, so many are going in to liquidation. 

[nosapphire]

I think that Amex would be obliged to go after your TA, as that is who you paid. And it is the TA who is obliged to refund you, even if they have not got the money from Saga.

As Saga are so adamant about refunding direct customers via the method they paid with (hence some of the other frustated postings here) seems odd that they do not apply it when the refund is via a TA.

Have you tried emailing Saga and asking why they have not refunded your TA? Can sometimes be better than phoning.

 

[beaujolais]

Thanks for your suggestion nosapphire

I will try emailing customer services on Tuesday after the bank holiday

They should refund via the original method paid due to money laundering regulations, that I have found out in my research for a way to get repaid

[beaujolais]

I emailed Saga Customer Services, Euan Sutherland and Robin Shaw as suggested by nosapphire and at long last I received our refund for the full amount today via our TA, they received money on Monday

Thank you nosapphire for your suggestion and I wish you well (and good luck) on your future cruises with Saga, you certainly have a relaxed attitude

[Happy Cruiser66]

https://shipmonk.co.uk/

This link may give latest information on when cruises will start

[nosapphire]

Still all just speculation and guesswork.

[kentchris]

5 hours ago, nosapphire said:

Still all just speculation and guesswork.

It's definitely on the cards, Viking are surveying existing/past customers to gauge interest in British Isles cruises. While I'd love to sail on a Viking Ocean ship I'm not usually keen on the idea of port-intensive cruising, I enjoy sea days too much, but I can see the attraction of exploring Britain with a port call practically every day.

Edited June 7, 2020 by kentchris

[JMyrtle]

You won't get me on a cruise to anywhere in this rotten country, cruising is my only means of escape since I gave up driving. 

 

Before then as far as I was concerned the best five words in Folkestone were " Welcome to the Channel Tunnel" 

[nosapphire]

On 6/7/2020 at 5:44 PM, kentchris said:

It's definitely on the cards, Viking are surveying existing/past customers to gauge interest in British Isles cruises. While I'd love to sail on a Viking Ocean ship I'm not usually keen on the idea of port-intensive cruising, I enjoy sea days too much, but I can see the attraction of exploring Britain with a port call practically every day.

Not sure what Viking are planning, but I see from the link that Saga may simply do cruises around the British Isles looking at the coastline.

This may actually have worked on their older ships, as the layout meant that functions and events could be held that the entire ship could attend; usually a ship-wide event related to the cruise destination would be organised , plus deck parties and barbecues, usually themed, with bunting and the crew dressed up, and a band playing.

The new ships have a totally different layout, there is nowhere in the ship where everyone can gather, so parties (inside or out), deck barbecues etc are gone.

This would be OK if the entertainment and facilities added to the new ships were good enough to replace the ad-hoc "let's have a..." on the old ships.

But they are not, it is still the same old, same old.

Jigsws can only keep you going for so-long,  bean-bag boules at the foot of the stair well is not really that entertaining, and I never was that interested in making bead bracelets anyway.

I used to love sea days. Two cruises on the Saga Discovery, and I have never been so bored in my life.

[kentchris]

9 hours ago, nosapphire said:

Two cruises on the Saga Discovery, and I have never been so bored in my life.

That's a shame. We don't do daytime activities apart from attend port talks and other lectures, there's enough to do on board without being organised into doing things so we never get bored.

 

Although we nearly reshelved the library one day. My wife is a librarian and the eccentric and arbitrary way it's been arranged began to get to her.

 

Viking haven't let on what they're considering in any detail apart from mentioning 'exploring' a couple of times which suggests more than just sail-pasts.

Edited June 12, 2020 by kentchris