Regent Refund Experience (please limit to received refunds)

[Pcardad]

My advice was relevant...but you don't have to read it if you don't agree. I was meant to be on the Feb 12 cruise. I was denied boarding because Regent booked me through HK enroute to Bali. They refunded 100% of the fare in about 2 weeks with no prodding (but this was early in the cancellations...possibly the earliest). They also refunded another party on the same trip in about 4 days. My refund was 100% of the fare (Thank you Regent for the free airfare and the 9 days in Bali) as well as a $$$ FCC. The other party was refunded 100% MINUS air as they had already been on a leg.

 

I've yet to have a negative experience with Regent...and I am extremely critical and generally a PITA when it comes to details and customer service. The people they have really make all the difference...I can't say enough good things about them.

[pappy1022]

I will probably get reprimanded for bringing up a refund issue about a normal cruise cancellation but here it goes ........

I cancelled a September cruise a day before my friend cancelled the same cruise and we both have the same TA. He received his refund within 2 days, I am still waiting. I called Regent last week and the agent told me, after looking at my request in detail, that I was in the automated queue and then he was certain that I would get my refund within the next week. Didn't happen. I called again and another agent said I was in the queue but all refunds of any kind are all being processed manually and that they are being processed in the sequence they were submitted. If that were the case, I would have received my refund before my friend because my request was submitted before his. I understand that refund demands are high and I would expect it to take longer than normal. What frustrates me is that you get a different story depending on who you talk to at Regent. Unlike Jack Nicholson's famous line in the movie A Few Good Men, I can handle the truth.

[Pcardad]

Charge it back to your credit card.

[pappy1022]

Not sure what you mean. The refund is supposed to go back to my credit card. The same one I used to charge the down payment. 

[Pcardad]

Call your bank, tell them you are disputing the charge that appeared when you booked the cruise because Regent has cancelled the cruise and has not yet refunded your money as per Regent's policy. Bank refunds money and yells at Regent.

[Travelcat2]

4 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

Call your bank, tell them you are disputing the charge that appeared when you booked the cruise because Regent has cancelled the cruise and has not yet refunded your money as per Regent's policy. Bank refunds money and yells at Regent.

 

This is one area where we disagree.  Regent has stated that it will take around 90 days to process refunds, FCC's, etc.  It has not been 90 days since Regent cancelled their first cruises.  Unfortunately, those passengers that chose to cancel their cruise is likely mixed in with the "Regent cancellations" which are many.  So, IMHO, you are asking people to contact their credit card holders which takes up their time.  Then they contact Regent which is already overloaded and they have to find your paperwork and will end up telling the credit card company that passengers were told how long the refunds will take.  Then the credit card company has to contact you to relay the information.  In the meantime, you still do not have your refund but have caused people to research a claim that should not have been made in the first place.

 

In terms of someone submitting before someone else that has already received their refund.  With hundreds (if not thousands) of refund requests, emails, letters, etc., it is likely that people are assigned to opening letters (or printing emails) - sorting them  and giving them to the people too be processed.  While not intentional, it is possible that some people are processing slower than others (and some Regent employees may be working at home).

 

Bottom line.  Please have some patience.  We are all in the same position when it comes to dealing with Covid-19.  We need kindness and a heck of a lot of patience.  If someone does not receive a refund or FCC's by the time Regent has had the request for 90 days, give them another call and let them know that, at that point that, you may have to go to the credit card company.  

[Pcardad]

As a 30 year banker, 90 days is unreasonable. Regent needs a kick in the butt on this. I would happily wait 30 days but at 45 I would get the ball rolling. Many banks require you to bring an item to their attention with a certain time frame.

 

I agree, there is no system at Regent at all....imagine buckets of mail coming down a chute in a huge room and people grab a handful at a time to work on.

 

I guess this is where we differ...I don't side with Regent on this. Taking 90 day to process a refund in the current climate would not work for me and I certainly would not accept it for my clients.

 

Don't worry, I still like and respect you though. 😃

[pappy1022]

I understand that Regent is swamped with requests and it will take longer than usual to get a refund. What I am not fine with is that they are telling me things that aren’t true and it differs with who you talk to at Regent. 

[Travelcat2]

49 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

As a 30 year banker, 90 days is unreasonable. Regent needs a kick in the butt on this. I would happily wait 30 days but at 45 I would get the ball rolling. Many banks require you to bring an item to their attention with a certain time frame.

 

I agree, there is no system at Regent at all....imagine buckets of mail coming down a chute in a huge room and people grab a handful at a time to work on.

 

I guess this is where we differ...I don't side with Regent on this. Taking 90 day to process a refund in the current climate would not work for me and I certainly would not accept it for my clients.

 

Don't worry, I still like and respect you though. 😃

 

The feeling is mutual!😺

[ronrick1943]

7 hours ago, Pcardad said:

As a 30 year banker, 90 days is unreasonable. Regent needs a kick in the butt on this. I would happily wait 30 days but at 45 I would get the ball rolling. Many banks require you to bring an item to their attention with a certain time frame.

I agree, there is no system at Regent at all....imagine buckets of mail coming down a chute in a huge room and people grab a handful at a time to work on.

I guess this is where we differ...I don't side with Regent on this. Taking 90 day to process a refund in the current climate would not work for me and I certainly would not accept it for my clients.

Don't worry, I still like and respect you though. 😃

I agree, 90 days even with this problem is way too long.  On one cruise we took the FCC, it was transferred within the week to another cruise we had, with a credit of a little over $2,500 cash.  Got the cash credit to my credit card within 2 weeks.  The cruise that I took a full refund which was a week before, I'm still waiting.  It just should take 90 days period.

Now the Insurance we had my an outside company move the full amount of coverage to a land trip we had booked without insurance.  So they will cover first air, hotel suites, car services, trip cancellation, medical fly back if needed.  This was more than expected (trip is 2020 - 2021).

[SusieQft]

9 hours ago, Pcardad said:

As a 30 year banker, 90 days is unreasonable. Regent needs a kick in the butt on this. I would happily wait 30 days but at 45 I would get the ball rolling. Many banks require you to bring an item to their attention with a certain time frame.

Could you be more specific about the range of required time frames?  For many, the final payment could already be 3 months before cancellation, and the deposit maybe over a year before that.  Then add on another 90 days and it could be 6 months since the last charge and 2 years since the initial deposit.

[Pcardad]

I would think that Regent would only owe you the funds back when they agreed to refund the money and the timer would probably start then.

[SusieQft]

3 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

I would think that Regent would only owe you the funds back when they agreed to refund the money and the timer would probably start then.

But if you are disputing a charge, I thought the timer would start when the payment was made to Regent.  If there is no refund forthcoming, you are disputing something that never happened, from the credit card company's POV.  I would love to be wrong about this.

Edited April 17, 2020 by SusieQft

[orvil]

I am waiting for RSS to cancel my June 14 Venice-Venice.  I am certain that they will cancel it.  They seem to be using a 30 days out from sailing metric for cancellation.

 

I want my money back.  I do not want a FCC.  Under the terms of cancellation, I have to wait for them to cancel first.  Once that happens, I will notify them of my decision to request a full refund.  Ninety days is too long.  If I don't get satisfaction after 30 days, I will notify my credit card company of the issue.

 

This is my plan of action.  I've got the same situation with my airline.  The tickets are non-refundable, but I know they will not be operating my flight.  They are also running on a 30 days out from flight metric.  I am pretty certain that I will have go the credit card cancellation route with the airline.  Thus, I am prepared for that contingency.

 

My hotel in Venice pre-cruise is already paid, too.  I can't hazard a guess as to when the Italian authorities will open hotels in Venice.  Right now, the hotel isn't showing cancelled for this date.  I'm not happy about it, but I'm prepared to eat that loss.  

 

I like using RSS.  I enjoy their product.  But, this is business.  It's not sentiment.  They can't fulfill my purchase.  I want a timely refund.  90 days is not timely.  It's excessive and it's taking advantage of the situation.  I get cash flow issues.  I just don't want to be at the back of the line when the party stops.  It's all about risk management.

 

[pingpong1]

20 minutes ago, orvil said:

I like using RSS.  I enjoy their product.  But, this is business.  It's not sentiment.  They can't fulfill my purchase.  I want a timely refund.

Orvil - I completely agree!  [My highlighting above].   For a few on this board, it IS "totally sentiment".  I wouldn't be surprised if FDR gets a Christmas and birthday card every year from some!  Best Regards.

[wcsdkqh]

Spelling

Edited April 17, 2020 by wcsdkqh

[barko4441]

50 minutes ago, pingpong1 said:

Orvil - I completely agree!  [My highlighting above].   For a few on this board, it IS "totally sentiment".  I wouldn't be surprised if FDR gets a Christmas and birthday card every year from some!  Best Regards.

Reallly??? I know I'm new here, but why attack people because, you don't agree with them.  

[Portolan]

I politely suggest that everyone reread the stated purpose of this thread and move the general discussion of refunds and how long they take elsewhere.  I think we all agree on the points raised.  But, the goal of this thread was to gain actual data points about how long between a Regent-cancelled cruise full refund request has taken between the request date and the actual receipt of the money.  Only one relevant post about this to date.  

[pingpong1]

6 minutes ago, barko4441 said:

Reallly??? I know I'm new here, but why attack people because, you don't agree with them.  

Please explain how you consider that to be "an attack"?  Who was it, specifically, that I was "attacking"?  What is it, specifically, that I'm not "agreeing" with?

[barko4441]

30 minutes ago, pingpong1 said:

Please explain how you consider that to be "an attack"?  Who was it, specifically, that I was "attacking"?  What is it, specifically, that I'm not "agreeing" with?

It's very evident that either you don;t know, or just don't care. I'm moving on. Have a great day.

[orvil]

Pingpong1,  No worries.  I understood what you meant.  I agree with you, btw.

 

To bring this thread back around, I'll let you know the status of my refund when there is an update.  It's hard to be patient.  

 

One thing is for certain, 90 days is too long.

 

 

[DarthCruiser]

On 4/16/2020 at 11:33 AM, pappy1022 said:

I will probably get reprimanded for bringing up a refund issue about a normal cruise cancellation but here it goes ........

I cancelled a September cruise a day before my friend cancelled the same cruise and we both have the same TA. He received his refund within 2 days, I am still waiting. I called Regent last week and the agent told me, after looking at my request in detail, that I was in the automated queue and then he was certain that I would get my refund within the next week. Didn't happen. I called again and another agent said I was in the queue but all refunds of any kind are all being processed manually and that they are being processed in the sequence they were submitted. If that were the case, I would have received my refund before my friend because my request was submitted before his. I understand that refund demands are high and I would expect it to take longer than normal. What frustrates me is that you get a different story depending on who you talk to at Regent. Unlike Jack Nicholson's famous line in the movie A Few Good Men, I can handle the truth.

We had the same issue for a September cruise cancelled on March 10.   Regent thought the refund was processed on March 30.   I've been in contact with Regent several times by email and today I got the following response:  "I spoke with my supervisor in regard to this refund and it seems that there has been indeed a few bookings that have called us back saying that they have not received their refund despite the fact that it shows approved and finalized on our system. This matter has been escalated to our accounting department who is working with the respective banks in order to identify the reason why such funds have not yet been received by clients."  So I will be patient a while longer.  I suspect you might be in the same case.

 

[Travelcat2]

2 hours ago, barko4441 said:

Reallly??? I know I'm new here, but why attack people because, you don't agree with them.  

 

Thank you so much for saying what I am thinking and feeling.  It seems that people are only responding in two ways - either very nicely and considerate of others or total bashing of other posters as well as Regent.  I understand that people are under a lot of stress right now but the anger that people seem to have isn't good for themselves or anyone else.

 

In terms of the subject and Regent letting passengers know that it could take 90 days to process, I doubt if any credit card company will spend much time researching this.  People may not like that it is taking so long to process claims and may not care that Regent Corporate has been cut down to a 4-day workweek which gives them less time to do the processing but it is what it is.  Once the credit card companies read Regent's statement about how long the refunds will take to process, they will likely shut down the investigation.

 

In any case, barko4441, welcome to there Regent board!  If you have any questions, we are here to answer them (in a kind way).

[barko4441]

n any case, barko4441, welcome to there Regent board!  If you have any questions, we are here to answer them (in a kind way).

 

 

Thank you so much, I have already learn quite a bit by reading others posts. I'm sure I will be learning a lot more before November

[Travelcat2]

2 hours ago, barko4441 said:

n any case, barko4441, welcome to there Regent board!  If you have any questions, we are here to answer them (in a kind way).

 

 

Thank you so much, I have already learn quite a bit by reading others posts. I'm sure I will be learning a lot more before November

 

Good to see you back.  As a long time Regent cruiser and CC member, I would ignore both the doom and gloom and overly positive posts (which mine tend to be).  Reality is somewhere in the middle.  Unfortunately,  it may be a while to learn what the "new reality" will be.