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CRUISE REFUND RECEIVED


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9 hours ago, Selbourne said:


Interesting as I think we were under the false impression that the Iona Maiden had been prioritised for refunds. I had two separate bookings for that cruise and received them both 45 days after claiming them. Can’t think it would take 2 weeks to process one cruise, so the randomness of the refunds is very strange indeed. 

 

Most of my cruises are with Celebrity and so I keep an eye on their board too.  There are just the same issues being reported there - people waiting excessive amounts of time on early cancelled cruises and others receiving refunds quickly on more recently cancelled cruises with no rhyme nor reason to it. 

 

I haven't had to cancel a Celebrity cruise - but I have moved two to late next year (and only small deposits on both) - so I don't know if their acknowledgements have been any better.  P&O's lack of communication was just dire, and the odd explanatory email would have helped enormously, although would not have allayed people's fears because it's easy to forget that until relatively recently, the focus was not on 'when will I get my money back?', but 'will I get my money back?'.  Let's hope that continues.

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11 hours ago, wowzz said:

Which makes it worse for those of us that are still waiting , long after 57 days.

Glad you got your refund of course, but how on earth are P&O deciding the priority on refunds? Surely, after 10 weeks they should have sorted out a repayment schedule based on cruise date.  Any 12 year old could programme a schedule- unfortunately P&O seem to have neglected (I'm being kind) their whole IT department over recent years, hence the current debacle. 

It does seem an absurd system doesn’t it. I can understand some process delay for refunds. Being part of a huge corporation P&O will have very strict rules and controls (some would say “hurdles”) about any money flowing out of the company for refunds, and of course this wretched virus makes everything more difficult. However, there should be some sort of priority in terms of aging refunds, but it does not appear to be a visible one. I sincerely hope you get your money back soon.

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7 minutes ago, Sussexboy said:

It does seem an absurd system doesn’t it. I can understand some process delay for refunds. Being part of a huge corporation P&O will have very strict rules and controls (some would say “hurdles”) about any money flowing out of the company for refunds, and of course this wretched virus makes everything more difficult. However, there should be some sort of priority in terms of aging refunds, but it does not appear to be a visible one. I sincerely hope you get your money back soon.

Surely anybody who owes money, especially big business, would start with the oldest first.. 

I have heard all the reasons about different people working at different paces etc, but I don't buy it... 

Lets just quote unprecedented times and we will have to lump it... 

I still strongly believe the initial delays were planned to see what the Government would say about being allowed to just give credit and when it was obvious that wouldn't happen and Which? started to put the pressure on, they had no choice. 

Andy 

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12 minutes ago, Sussexboy said:

It does seem an absurd system doesn’t it. I can understand some process delay for refunds. Being part of a huge corporation P&O will have very strict rules and controls (some would say “hurdles”) about any money flowing out of the company for refunds, and of course this wretched virus makes everything more difficult. However, there should be some sort of priority in terms of aging refunds, but it does not appear to be a visible one. I sincerely hope you get your money back soon.

I was told by a P&O person about 5 weeks ago that staff were each taking a bundle of refunds home with them and it was dependent on how quickly they each worked as to when refunds were done and was told there was no cruise order they were being done.

This has subsequently been bourne out by how some got Refunds in 40+ days while others have waited 60+ and even now 70+ days.

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5 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

Surely anybody who owes money, especially big business, would start with the oldest first.. 

I have heard all the reasons about different people working at different paces etc, but I don't buy it... 

Lets just quote unprecedented times and we will have to lump it... 

I still strongly believe the initial delays were planned to see what the Government would say about being allowed to just give credit and when it was obvious that wouldn't happen and Which? started to put the pressure on, they had no choice. 

Andy 

I would go along with this too.

I think they thought cruising might restart in 2-3 months and by hanging onto customers money it would safeguard their cashflow until fresh money came into the business.

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4 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

Lets just quote unprecedented times and we will have to lump it... 

I still strongly believe the initial delays were planned to see what the Government would say about being allowed to just give credit and when it was obvious that wouldn't happen and Which? started to put the pressure on, they had no choice. 

Andy 

I strongly suspect the same.  The one explanation they have not come forward with is why so few (if any) refunds left Carnival House in April, as this thread is a case study of.

 

Granted they might have installed a new system, but Refunds are a common process across any business - the ability to transact supplier payments and reversals will have had to have existed throughout that period in some form.

 

ABTA have a lot to answer for when this is all over - they certainly did not think customer first when the pandemic struck.

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34 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

I was told by a P&O person about 5 weeks ago that staff were each taking a bundle of refunds home with them and it was dependent on how quickly they each worked as to when refunds were done and was told there was no cruise order they were being done.

This has subsequently been bourne out by how some got Refunds in 40+ days while others have waited 60+ and even now 70+ days.

If that was true Graham, a lot more would have received refunds earlier. 

It may have been the case in the end, but what were these staff doing for the first 6 weeks.. 

A company this size allowing staff to grab a handful is totally unbelievable to me, but then again, nothing would surprise me with P&O at the minute. 

Andy 

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Things seem to be improving - apparently the system for April onwards is now up and running, but March is still causing issues.

Lots of refunds appearing today, on a sunny Sunday... so at least it looks like they are trying to fix things now. People getting refunds after a 40 day wait, which was unheard of before.

I’m on day 38 so maybe see something in the coming week [emoji1317]

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5 hours ago, mrsgoggins said:

 

Most of my cruises are with Celebrity and so I keep an eye on their board too.  There are just the same issues being reported there - people waiting excessive amounts of time on early cancelled cruises and others receiving refunds quickly on more recently cancelled cruises with no rhyme nor reason to it. 

 

I haven't had to cancel a Celebrity cruise - but I have moved two to late next year (and only small deposits on both) - so I don't know if their acknowledgements have been any better.  P&O's lack of communication was just dire, and the odd explanatory email would have helped enormously, although would not have allayed people's fears because it's easy to forget that until relatively recently, the focus was not on 'when will I get my money back?', but 'will I get my money back?'.  Let's hope that continues.

We are waiting to rebook our June 2020 Alaska/Rockies holiday for next June. The Celebrity cruise is about the same price as this year and we have some FCC bonus. Problem with the BA flights and Globus Rockies tour as the are not on sale yet and we need to coordinate all the dates,so can't book anything til end of June.  Never mind, still got our end of August Iona cruise to look forward to 😁 and Cornwall in July. I wonder if my wetsuit still fits?

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4 hours ago, grapau27 said:

I was told by a P&O person about 5 weeks ago that staff were each taking a bundle of refunds home with them and it was dependent on how quickly they each worked as to when refunds were done and was told there was no cruise order they were being done.

This has subsequently been bourne out by how some got Refunds in 40+ days while others have waited 60+ and even now 70+ days.

I could easily see that Graham.  One person takes a load of Britannia refunds to do, another takes Aurora.  The pile gets unsorted and...........................🤣

Edited by jeanlyon
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On 5/30/2020 at 8:01 PM, Happy afloat said:

There's no doubt a lot of people -me included- think that he should be held to account for the appalling conduct of the company. However,  even though he fronts the business, is he still not an employee of Carnival, and therefore doing his masters bidding? It could potentially be that they are extremely happy with the fact that he's held on to millions of pounds that they had no right to, without litigation (so far).

If he does have to fall on his sword, then would it be just for appearance sake, and with a massive pay off and a job in a sister company?

Leaves a bad taste in the mouth......

 

From what I have read, he has been an employee for nearly 14 years and is now president.

 

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/paul-ludlow-bb24151b

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11 hours ago, PandNo Refund said:

I’m on day 38 so maybe see something in the coming week

I will be seriously upset if you get a refund when I have been waiting 60 days already!

No offence!

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15 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

I could easily see that Graham.  One person takes a load of Britannia refunds to do, another takes Aurora.  The pile gets unsorted and...........................🤣

I'm not buying it Jean.. 

A multi billion pound company let's employees take handfuls???

Maybe in a small office but if this was allowed to happen in a corporation of Carnivals size, Bedlam.. 

It sounds feasible, which is why they are spouting it but imagine the accounting nightmare this would cause... 

I still believe there was a deliberate delay and the ones who shouted loudest got theirs first, hence the inconsistency... 

Andy 

 

Edited by AndyMichelle
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55 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

I'm not buying it Jean.. 

A multi billion pound company let's employees take handfuls???

Maybe in a small office but if this was allowed to happen in a corporation of Carnivals size, Bedlam.. 

It sounds feasible, which is why they are spouting it but imagine the accounting nightmare this would cause... 

I still believe there was a deliberate delay and the ones who shouted loudest got theirs first, hence the inconsistency... 

Andy 

 

Definitely a deliberate delay.

It was a customer relations rep who told me it took them a week to set up at home when the office was closed and staff were each given a bundle of Refunds to work on.

In March the TA told me P&O were working on February Refunds.

Blatant lies but which we queried and they constantly said they would have to email someone and wait for a reply which was a fob off but difficult to dispute except for taking their names.

No one would divulge a manager's surname.

Ludlow to his bosses has probably done an excellent job in retaining customer money for 60+ days.

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9 hours ago, emam said:

A worthwhile read which provides insights into a lot of the questions we have been asking.

Overall I got the impression that cruising is unlikely to re-start until the autumn, and that it will be a phased start both in locations and ships.  

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I bumped into my sister's friend on Tesco car park this morning, she had been planning to go on her first cruise in July but obviously it has been cancelled.  She told me how impressed she and her husband have been with P&O's refund process.  Like most of us they filled in the refund request when P&O cancelled in April and they got their refund after 17 days.  It has made me wonder if P&O may have been prioritising first time cruisers given that most of us on this board are regular cruisers but have all waited for refunds indeed some are still waiting after more than 70 days.

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5 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

I bumped into my sister's friend on Tesco car park this morning, she had been planning to go on her first cruise in July but obviously it has been cancelled.  She told me how impressed she and her husband have been with P&O's refund process.  Like most of us they filled in the refund request when P&O cancelled in April and they got their refund after 17 days.  It has made me wonder if P&O may have been prioritising first time cruisers given that most of us on this board are regular cruisers but have all waited for refunds indeed some are still waiting after more than 70 days.

That's  a good theory Josy when you consider all P&O are doing to attract the new, younger cruisers at the expense of the "older faithful" bunch.

Avril 

 

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11 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

I bumped into my sister's friend on Tesco car park this morning, she had been planning to go on her first cruise in July but obviously it has been cancelled.  She told me how impressed she and her husband have been with P&O's refund process.  Like most of us they filled in the refund request when P&O cancelled in April and they got their refund after 17 days.  It has made me wonder if P&O may have been prioritising first time cruisers given that most of us on this board are regular cruisers but have all waited for refunds indeed some are still waiting after more than 70 days.

Once cruising restarts this could become the new over dinner topic, replacing how much/little you paid for your cruise, with how soon you got your refund!!!

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