NCL lost our trust forever

[cruiser4801]

NCL's 90 day delay to issue refunds is ridiculous.  The payments are all stored electronically and can be refunded swiftly with 10 days at most.  They are doing this for cash flow purposes and that makes us angry.  I for one will never cruise on NCL again if they survive, which I truly doubt they will.  The way NCL has handled the Covid-19 crises and processing of refunds for cruises they had to cancel and did as a result of the pandemic shows what little regard they have for their customers.  

 

I was Platinum level at NCL and am done with them.  Why would anyone ever subject themselves to having NCL hold your money for 3 months after a cruise they canceled.

Goodbye NCL-- you lost our trust..  

 

 

[goodml]

Buckle up. The cheerleaders will be here in droves shortly to sing the praises. I get what you’re saying though. It’s soured my group of 12 as well. A company that’s operating this thinly doesn’t inspire much confidence that we’ll see any money back period. I’m still waiting for amenities refunds from over 5 weeks ago. I call once a week and they tell me they can see they've been cancelled properly and they’re not sure why they haven’t been processed but call again next week if it hasn’t come. Then there’s the refunds for the actual voyage that we entered today. Good luck to all of us on that one.

Edited April 14, 2020 by goodml

[mnsweeps]

Totally agree. My cancellation policy was refund in 7 to 14 days but its been 5 plus weeks and nothing..already disputed with CC few weeks back...I will never cruise NCL again in my life.

[Budget Queen]

Good grief.  As long as I get my account credited correctly.   Time doesn’t make any difference to me.    

[Roger88]

I dont understand why you are surprised. As many said earlier, the companies will try to postope all the refunds and will keep your money as long as the legislation and bank regulations allow them to. They are afraid of taking any loans, they want to operate with the money they have right now to pay all the salaries and taxes. Be sure you will get your refund, but it will take exactly 90 days.

[mianmike]

2 minutes ago, Roger88 said:

Be sure you will get your refund, but it will take exactly 90 days.

 

I wish I shared your optimism.  One month later I'm still waiting for the refund of my pre-paid DSC that will take "7-10 days." 

[sparks1093]

4 hours ago, cruiser4801 said:

NCL's 90 day delay to issue refunds is ridiculous.  The payments are all stored electronically and can be refunded swiftly with 10 days at most.  They are doing this for cash flow purposes and that makes us angry.  I for one will never cruise on NCL again if they survive, which I truly doubt they will.  The way NCL has handled the Covid-19 crises and processing of refunds for cruises they had to cancel and did as a result of the pandemic shows what little regard they have for their customers.  

 

I was Platinum level at NCL and am done with them.  Why would anyone ever subject themselves to having NCL hold your money for 3 months after a cruise they canceled.

Goodbye NCL-- you lost our trust..  

 

 

Good luck finding a cruise line that is handling things differently. Carnival and Royal are both experiencing the same delays in processing refunds. Tens of thousands of cancellations being handled by reduced staff is going to take time. Yes, the payments are all stored electronically but each refund has to be initiated by a human being and that is just going to take time. 

[KateQ22003]

36 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

Good luck finding a cruise line that is handling things differently. Carnival and Royal are both experiencing the same delays in processing refunds. Tens of thousands of cancellations being handled by reduced staff is going to take time. Yes, the payments are all stored electronically but each refund has to be initiated by a human being and that is just going to take time. 

You make it sound like each refund is made by a single person writing checks, like "The Jerk". It doesn't work that way. Bill paying in large corporations is automated and done in batches. It is actually quite simple.

[tallnthensome]

7 minutes ago, KateQ22003 said:

You make it sound like each refund is made by a single person writing checks, like "The Jerk". It doesn't work that way. Bill paying in large corporations is automated and done in batches. It is actually quite simple.

LOL, I can picture Nathan sitting at that desk writing those checks! Great analogy! 

[ray98]

Well....I guess you should be 'done' with the entire industry.  They ALL have similar delays as they deal with this unprecedented situation.

[sparks1093]

1 hour ago, KateQ22003 said:

You make it sound like each refund is made by a single person writing checks, like "The Jerk". It doesn't work that way. Bill paying in large corporations is automated and done in batches. It is actually quite simple.

This isn't bill paying, it is initiating a refund. (And even bill paying needs human intervention at some point in the process, even if it is only inputting the invoice into the system.) 

Edited April 14, 2020 by sparks1093

[callmebetty]

I feel like it wouldn't be unreasonable to refund shortly after what was supposed to be the last day of the cancelled cruises...we were supposed to cruise 4/9-4/19, it was cancelled in March and we had to wait almost 2 weeks before we could even request a refund.Holding the money beyond the cruise date seems unfair, and I won't be rebooking until my postponed surgery is done (who knows when hospitals will be back to non critical levels) so an FCC is useless. The prices for next year's possible cruise went up 1200 pp since the beginning of March. I know this pandemic was not something the lines could have planned for, but 90 days in addition to the week and a half we had to wait before we could even file a request is not great business...

Edited April 14, 2020 by callmebetty

[Murph269]

1 hour ago, sparks1093 said:

Good luck finding a cruise line that is handling things differently. Carnival and Royal are both experiencing the same delays in processing refunds. Tens of thousands of cancellations being handled by reduced staff is going to take time. Yes, the payments are all stored electronically but each refund has to be initiated by a human being and that is just going to take time. 

If this is the case, than people should start seeing refunds every day until everyone is refunded. However, the letter NCL sent makes it sound like you’ll get your refund 90 days AFTER the form was filled out. That leads me to believe they truly are delaying the refunds and holding on to the money. It’ll be interesting to see if anyone on here who had a cruise cancelled and opted for the refund actually receives their refund before 90 days. If they’re processing them daily, we should start hearing of some refunds hitting account soon. If not, than we know NCL is using less than desirable tactics.

[Laszlo]

6 hours ago, cruiser4801 said:

NCL's 90 day delay to issue refunds is ridiculous.  The payments are all stored electronically and can be refunded swiftly with 10 days at most.  They are doing this for cash flow purposes and that makes us angry.  I for one will never cruise on NCL again if they survive, which I truly doubt they will.  The way NCL has handled the Covid-19 crises and processing of refunds for cruises they had to cancel and did as a result of the pandemic shows what little regard they have for their customers.  

 

I was Platinum level at NCL and am done with them.  Why would anyone ever subject themselves to having NCL hold your money for 3 months after a cruise they canceled.

Goodbye NCL-- you lost our trust..  

 

 

On the other end.......we canceled our cruise Saturday March 14th, by Tuesday March 17th we had our refund 

Edited April 14, 2020 by Laszlo

[ellasmomanddad]

The government said we will start to send out stimulus checks yesterday, mine was in the bank by 11. If the government can issue 325.000.000 checks in a day ncl can do a 100000. The government isn’t a retail industry that does this daily like NCL. I think with those checks the cruise line just lost there 90 day argument. 

[mjkacmom]

2 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

Good luck finding a cruise line that is handling things differently. Carnival and Royal are both experiencing the same delays in processing refunds. Tens of thousands of cancellations being handled by reduced staff is going to take time. Yes, the payments are all stored electronically but each refund has to be initiated by a human being and that is just going to take time. 

Add princess, celebrity and HAL to that list, all of them are doing the same exact thing.

[Murph269]

24 minutes ago, Laszlo said:

On the other end.......we canceled our cruise Saturday March 14th, by Tuesday March 17th we had our refund 

This must be for a deposit? You can’t opt for a refund if you cancel. You can only opt a full refund if NCL cancels. It doesn’t sound like yours is an apples to apples comparison. 

Edited April 14, 2020 by Murph269

[disneykins]

I don't think they're deliberately holding on to your money. I think they've already spent it and don't have any to give you as a refund. Their holding off for 90 days hoping to get an influx of cash from new bookings (not likely), or government bailouts (probably due to pressure from states that need the cruise industry). If they haven't got the cash after 90 days they'll try to extend again. They're hanging on right now hoping to still be in business in 90 days. All the cruise lines are having the same problem and using similar tactics.

I have about $2,000 tied up with each of the 3 major cruise lines in stock or future deposits so I hope they all survive.

Do your part to help them and put a deposit on a cruise. Just kidding.

[hallux]

29 minutes ago, ellasmomanddad said:

If the government can issue 325.000.000 checks in a day

But the reality is that the government DIDN'T!  There's ZERO indication that my deposit is pending.

 

Sorry, but people that think large corporations have a single bank balance and everything comes from that account are mistaken.  Money needs to be shuffled into the account from which a refund can be issued, this takes time and is not done for each individual refund but in batches.  As was noted - every line is having delays in refund processing.  I'm not trying to sound like a "cheerleader", I'm trying to bring some logic to the conversation and a post not driven by emotion.

[roger001]

I agree that it is a delaying tactic while waiting to try and come up with the money which has already been spent.  I can understand, but sucks.  At 90 days, maybe chapter 11?   

[sparks1093]

48 minutes ago, Murph269 said:

If this is the case, than people should start seeing refunds every day until everyone is refunded. However, the letter NCL sent makes it sound like you’ll get your refund 90 days AFTER the form was filled out. That leads me to believe they truly are delaying the refunds and holding on to the money. It’ll be interesting to see if anyone on here who had a cruise cancelled and opted for the refund actually receives their refund before 90 days. If they’re processing them daily, we should start hearing of some refunds hitting account soon. If not, than we know NCL is using less than desirable tactics.

I don't know what any of the letters say because I haven't cruised with them in quite some time, all I'm pointing out is that if NCL is screwing their customer base over then many other cruise lines are because other cruise lines are also taking up to 90 days to issue refunds.

[ellasmomanddad]

3 minutes ago, hallux said:

But the reality is that the government DIDN'T!  There's ZERO indication that my deposit is pending.

 Mine was as well as everyone I know. 

[brovol]

This issue, and folks being so upset over the refund delay, is a bit curious to me.  You paid for a cruise in advance, which means that you budgeted that money accordingly, and since you spent it on a cruise I assume this was surplus, or play type vacation $, rather than the part of your budget that should be used to pay basic necessities; food, mortgage payment, shoes for the kids....  The cruise was cancelled, so you didn't get that vacation, but you also shouldn't be in a position where you "need" that money immediately, because until now it was already "spent" as far as you were concerned, right?.  Actually, if we assume you would have spent more of that "vacation" money while on the cruise, like most tend to do, you actually already should be in a better financial position than you would have been had the cruises never been cancelled. 

 

I get it, and don't disparage anyone for being upset over the situation.  I generally expect a merchant to provide me with an immediate refund when I return something, or when, for whatever reason, the merchant cant provide the product or service I paid for.  I am just surprised that so many folks, (1) don't understand that the cruise companies are in a desperate mode, and are working on passifying a lot of masters at the same time; creditors (including cruisers looking for their refunds), governments, shareholders, and more, and aren't in a position to simply refund everyone immediately; and (2) seem to be so cash strapped themselves that you cant wait 90-120 days to get money which you already budgeted to be gone anyway.

[hallux]

Just now, ellasmomanddad said:

 Mine was as well as everyone I know. 

Good for you, doesn't mean everyone's was.  Case in point - my bank account shows no indication of a deposit pending.  Could it be my bank?  Maybe, my bank sticks solidly to the check date (co-workers with other banks get their checks on Wed. or Thurs. while I get paid on the official day of Friday), but until I see it in my account my check hasn't been cut so your statement that the government has already cut a check for everyone is not true...

[ellasmomanddad]

1 minute ago, brovol said:

The cruise was cancelled, so you didn't get that vacation, but you also shouldn't be in a position where you "need" that money immediately, because until now it was already "spent" as far as you were concerned, right?.

You forget that we went from 3% unemployment to 30% overnight.