Oceania Refunds - Has anyone actually received any cash yet?

[LHT28]

3 minutes ago, Pet said:

 Just goes to show if you don't ask you won't get! 

You should not have had to ask

 Your TA was WRONG

[ORV]

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

You should not have had to ask

 Your TA was WRONG

Or as I mentioned earlier was bluffing trying to keep the booking until after final payment. Didn't I read somewhere that commissions were only protected if FP was made?

[Pet]

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

You should not have had to ask

 Your TA was WRONG

You and ORV are perfectly correct of course.

The slightly worrying thing is that not everyone has access to CC so how many people take the reply from the TA at face value and either forfeit their money or rebook something that might not be entirely suitable for them? We had initially looked at Marina's Nov 2021 trans-Atlantic cruise but the main issues were that it isn't going to the Bahamas, nor was it offered as O Life Ultimate, so would have cost much more overall than the 2020 equivalent cruise when we booked it even though the brochure price is roughly the same. 

[Medeba]

4 hours ago, Pet said:

TA has now responded saying that I was right that a full refund of the deposit should apply under the T&Cs and that they will contact Oceania to arrange it. So no money back yet of course but looks like a positive result so will hopefully be able to book a cruise with them next year once things are clearer. Just goes to show if you don't ask you won't get! 

That's good news.  Has your TA confirmed in writing that they have cancelled your cruise?  Only asking as your 121 day deadline is fast approaching.

[LHT28]

3 hours ago, Pet said:

You and ORV are perfectly correct of course.

The slightly worrying thing is that not everyone has access to CC so how many people take the reply from the TA at face value and either forfeit their money or rebook something that might not be entirely suitable for them?

Maybe the TA  was just  not up on Oceania policy   & might treat  the deposits  like the other UK lines

 

[Medeba]

3 hours ago, Pet said:

The slightly worrying thing is that not everyone has access to CC so how many people take the reply from the TA at face value and either forfeit their money or rebook something that might not be entirely suitable for them?

Totally agree with you. 

[Glenndale]

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

Maybe the TA  was just  not up on Oceania policy   & might treat  the deposits  like the other UK lines

 

I think this is a possibility as it is very unusual for cruise lines in the UK to return deposits on cancellation.
I am not just referring to UK lines, Princess, RCI and Celebrity also have this policy for UK guests.

Not a recommendation for the TA though, who should make it their business to know.

 

Edited July 20, 2020 by Glenndale

[Pet]

12 hours ago, Medeba said:

That's good news.  Has your TA confirmed in writing that they have cancelled your cruise?  Only asking as your 121 day deadline is fast approaching.

Hi - Extract from TAs letter seems to make it pretty clear.

 

Your cruise operator is in the process of refunding you directly the monies you have paid, removing the need for us to process this and therefore reducing the time this takes to complete. We have been advised that this will be done within 90 days of the cancellation of your reservation.

[welshfamily]

I am with the same Chorley based TA as royallondon. We were well within 121 days when we tried to cancel. We were told we would lose our deposit of £4K. To be fair we did book a tailor made holiday with flights etc as well as the cruise.  There were no circumstances  in which we would have been able to get any of this back. We had to pay the balance and now are owed nearly 13k. This was due to the TA’s T&C’s. We had no worries as fully insured with cancellation insurance with an ABTA company. We paid with a CC so we should have been the most protected travellers in the Uk.

Insurance not valid due to Covid 19 ( unless we can prove we will actually lose the money) cancellation not valid as TA is refunding the money even if it’s in the far distance future( 90+), ABTA .... still waiting for reply.

CC not tried yet. 

Its just a big mess.

 

[royallondon]

5 minutes ago, welshfamily said:

I am with the same Chorley based TA as royallondon. We were well within 121 days when we tried to cancel. We were told we would lose our deposit of £4K. To be fair we did book a tailor made holiday with flights etc as well as the cruise.  There were no circumstances  in which we would have been able to get any of this back. We had to pay the balance and now are owed nearly 13k. This was due to the TA’s T&C’s. We had no worries as fully insured with cancellation insurance with an ABTA company. We paid with a CC so we should have been the most protected travellers in the Uk.

Insurance not valid due to Covid 19 ( unless we can prove we will actually lose the money) cancellation not valid as TA is refunding the money even if it’s in the far distance future( 90+), ABTA .... still waiting for reply.

CC not tried yet. 

Its just a big mess.

 

Sorry to learn of your continued frustrations.   I recently turned to my CC provider to instigate a section 75 claim against  my TA who had retained a cruise refund for approx 6 weeks.  A week later the money was credited to my account and I was able to immediately transfer it to my bank account with another provider.  This was despite the TA emailing me (previous post on this discussion) to say the S75 would not be successful as they were just an agent.  
The process was relatively straightforward and I wouldn’t hesitate in exploring this facility to be reunited with what is your money.
 

Regards

[Squidlips]

On 7/16/2020 at 6:49 PM, roger b said:

 I am in the same position had email from T.A on promising that my deposit refund would paid within 10 days to my CC on the 28th of June, 10 days past and then told they had not received the money from Oceania.

   On contacting Oceania I find that the money was not sent to T.A until 6th July , the outcome of all this is that I will have wait 14 days for the money to reach T.A from that date then another 10 days for the T.A to release the deposit to me.

             Has nobody heard of Bank transfers ??? 

Our Oceania Package Cruise was cancelled on the 13th March and we were informed by TA that it would take up to 12 weeks for a refund.  We paid for  some of our holiday by credit card, however the bulk of our payment was via electronic funds transfer, due to the credit card surcharge expense of 1.1% p.a. 

After 12 weeks arrived and no refund, I enquired again only to be told that at this stage, we can only offer you a partial refund, that being  airfares and hotel accommodation, as they had not received funds for the cruise portion of our holiday.  We received the airfares and accommodation refund within four working days, credited back to our credit card.

At the same time, we were also informed  that the processing of refunds had been extended to 16 weeks, due to large volumes and delays in receiving refunds from suppliers.

We waited till just after 16 weeks and still no refund for our cruise, so made further enquiries about how the process was going and finally I received an email the next day on the 8th July, stating that they had received cruise funds from Oceania and are now  in a position to refund our cruise. We were expecting funds that week, however they did not arrive.  Got another email from the TA a week later on the 15th July, asking for our bank account and credit card details to credit funds to, which we had already provided to them back in March.   The email also stated that it can take up to 30 days for the refund to be credited to our account,  that’s despite the fact that we have already waited for over 16 weeks for some sign of our refund being finalized.  I know for a fact that it doesn’t take 30 days for the money to hit the account, it’s a matter of a push of a button and the funds are pretty much there within 24 hours, so they have our money from Oceania and are holding on to it.  It’s now 22nd July and have been checking the bank account and credit card everyday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[roger b]

5 minutes ago, Squidlips said:

Our Oceania Package Cruise was cancelled on the 13th March and we were informed by TA that it would take up to 12 weeks for a refund.  We paid for  some of our holiday by credit card, however the bulk of our payment was via electronic funds transfer, due to the credit card surcharge expense of 1.1% p.a. 

After 12 weeks arrived and no refund, I enquired again only to be told that at this stage, we can only offer you a partial refund, that being  airfares and hotel accommodation, as they had not received funds for the cruise portion of our holiday.  We received the airfares and accommodation refund within four working days, credited back to our credit card.

At the same time, we were also informed  that the processing of refunds had been extended to 16 weeks, due to large volumes and delays in receiving refunds from suppliers.

We waited till just after 16 weeks and still no refund for our cruise, so made further enquiries about how the process was going and finally I received an email the next day on the 8th July, stating that they had received cruise funds from Oceania and are now  in a position to refund our cruise. We were expecting funds that week, however they did not arrive.  Got another email from the TA a week later on the 15th July, asking for our bank account and credit card details to credit funds to, which we had already provided to them back in March.   The email also stated that it can take up to 30 days for the refund to be credited to our account,  that’s despite the fact that we have already waited for over 16 weeks for some sign of our refund being finalized.  I know for a fact that it doesn’t take 30 days for the money to hit the account, it’s a matter of a push of a button and the funds are pretty much there within 24 hours, so they have our money from Oceania and are holding on to it.  It’s now 22nd July and have been checking the bank account and credit card everyday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 FIND a new T.A. And a it is a lesson to be learnt to pay the small % or get your T.A to accept the cost  , it is pittance in the Scheme of things . 

 

[roger b]

On 7/21/2020 at 1:45 PM, welshfamily said:

I am with the same Chorley based TA as royallondon. We were well within 121 days when we tried to cancel. We were told we would lose our deposit of £4K. To be fair we did book a tailor made holiday with flights etc as well as the cruise.  There were no circumstances  in which we would have been able to get any of this back. We had to pay the balance and now are owed nearly 13k. This was due to the TA’s T&C’s. We had no worries as fully insured with cancellation insurance with an ABTA company. We paid with a CC so we should have been the most protected travellers in the Uk.

Insurance not valid due to Covid 19 ( unless we can prove we will actually lose the money) cancellation not valid as TA is refunding the money even if it’s in the far distance future( 90+), ABTA .... still waiting for reply.

CC not tried yet. 

Its just a big mess.

 

 I finally receive the last of my deposit back from the same agent you are using it took from 6th July when O released the deposit back to T.A . So You will have to be Patient it will come  

[chloemonkey]

I admit that I have NOT read through this entire thread....just wanted to add our experience to those wondering about refunds.

We cancelled on March 6th for a March 11th cruise.  This month's American Express had over $24,000 worth of credits on it....so I am pretty sure that they got everything credited back to us.  We had made final payment of course....in addition to lots of extras that had been paid for by credit card - hence the 5 or more individual credits....

I believe this fell right within the 90 Day period that Oceania had promised we would receive our credits?  Close enough........

We also still have another cruise booked with credits from a cruise that Oceania cancelled for June.....doubt that this one will go either as it is for February......but one can hope, right?

Just wanted you to know our experience with the time frame for our refund.

[jojoparlin08859]

A MOST PROMPT REFUND  by OCEANIA !

 

July 15...E-mail TA our request to cancel our Veranda reservation for Riviera's Nov. 23, 2020 cruise. 

July 16...Reply from TA confirming cancellation and that it may take up to 90 days for Oceania's refund to CC. 

July 21...Refund credited to Credit Card by Oceania!

 

Most pleased with Oceania's promptness  and our previous 4 cruises  and will resume when virus is over.

[CintiPam]

4 hours ago, jojoparlin08859 said:

A MOST PROMPT REFUND  by OCEANIA !

 

July 15...E-mail TA our request to cancel our Veranda reservation for Riviera's Nov. 23, 2020 cruise. 

July 16...Reply from TA confirming cancellation and that it may take up to 90 days for Oceania's refund to CC. 

July 21...Refund credited to Credit Card by Oceania!

 

Most pleased with Oceania's promptness  and our previous 4 cruises  and will resume when virus is over.

Wow, that truly is great to read.

Edited August 4, 2020 by CintiPam

[1985rz1]

5 hours ago, jojoparlin08859 said:

A MOST PROMPT REFUND  by OCEANIA !

 

July 15...E-mail TA our request to cancel our Veranda reservation for Riviera's Nov. 23, 2020 cruise. 

July 16...Reply from TA confirming cancellation and that it may take up to 90 days for Oceania's refund to CC. 

July 21...Refund credited to Credit Card by Oceania!

 

Most pleased with Oceania's promptness  and our previous 4 cruises  and will resume when virus is over.

Full payment or deposit?

[jojoparlin08859]

A MOST PROMPT REFUND  by OCEANIA of our original deposit requested 8 days prior to cancellation fees

going into effect on July 23!

 

July 15...E-mail TA our request to cancel our Veranda reservation for Riviera's Nov. 23, 2020 cruise. 

July 16...Reply from TA confirming cancellation and that it may take up to 90 days for Oceania's refund to CC. 

July 21...Refund credited to Credit Card by Oceania!

 

Most pleased with Oceania's promptness  and our previous 4 cruises  and will resume when virus is over.

[1985rz1]

4 hours ago, jojoparlin08859 said:

A MOST PROMPT REFUND  by OCEANIA of our original deposit requested 8 days prior to cancellation fees

going into effect on July 23!

 

July 15...E-mail TA our request to cancel our Veranda reservation for Riviera's Nov. 23, 2020 cruise. 

July 16...Reply from TA confirming cancellation and that it may take up to 90 days for Oceania's refund to CC. 

July 21...Refund credited to Credit Card by Oceania!

 

Most pleased with Oceania's promptness  and our previous 4 cruises  and will resume when virus is over.

👍

[ORV]

I guess you can say that again.