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REFUND PROBLEM


B113
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We booked an Alaskan cruise which should have sailed on June 04 but it was canceled with all other cruises. This is when the problem started. We chose to have our money refunded in March and received our deposit back in about 4 weeks. We expected the rest of our money to be refunded shortly after we received the deposit but it never showed on our bank card. I checked with RCI and of course couldn't get any info since it was a group booking through a TA. Checked with the TA who checked with RCI and they sent us a list of 5 different credit card numbers with different amounts of refunds and said that was our refund. Only problem was only one credit card number belonged to us and the deposit was all that was refunded. Finally last week I found one of the TA agents who was willing to help check into it. Come to find out the cruise was refunded and it went into the TA's account instead of refunding us. So we are out 4K for 6 more weeks while the TA is issuing the refund. All's well that ends will but it shouldn't have happened.

Edited 1 minute ago by B113
 
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When the cruise was paid for by you did your credit card show that charge as from Celebrity or a charge from the TA?  
We have done a couple of cruises that were part of a larger TA group.  In our case these  included pre-cruise hotel, transfers & 1 included air.  For these we paid the TA who paid the hotel cruise& air lines etc.  Had one of these trips been cancelled The refund would have gone to the TA and we would get our refund from them. 

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29 minutes ago, B113 said:

We booked an Alaskan cruise which should have sailed on June 04 but it was canceled with all other cruises. This is when the problem started. We chose to have our money refunded in March and received our deposit back in about 4 weeks. We expected the rest of our money to be refunded shortly after we received the deposit but it never showed on our bank card. I checked with RCI and of course couldn't get any info since it was a group booking through a TA. Checked with the TA who checked with RCI and they sent us a list of 5 different credit card numbers with different amounts of refunds and said that was our refund. Only problem was only one credit card number belonged to us and the deposit was all that was refunded. Finally last week I found one of the TA agents who was willing to help check into it. Come to find out the cruise was refunded and it went into the TA's account instead of refunding us. So we are out 4K for 6 more weeks while the TA is issuing the refund. All's well that ends will but it shouldn't have happened.

Edited 1 minute ago by B113
13 minutes ago, jelayne said:

When the cruise was paid for by you did your credit card show that charge as from Celebrity or a charge from the TA?  
We have done a couple of cruises that were part of a larger TA group.  In our case these  included pre-cruise hotel, transfers & 1 included air.  For these we paid the TA who paid the hotel cruise& air lines etc.  Had one of these trips been cancelled The refund would have gone to the TA and we would get our refund from them. 

 

  • The deposit showed Celebrity but the final payment was charged by the TA.
  •  

 

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That makes sense.  The refund goes back to the credit card it was charged against.
so the cruise line wasn’t the problem.    I can’t believe the TA didn’t notice they got the refunds; yours and probably others who were booked in this group.  Why is it taking so long for the TA to refund??

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At this point I would talk to your credit card company about filing a dispute for the charges your TA has not refunded.  The cruise lines, the TAs, the insurance companies are all using OOVIC-19 as an excuse to hold our money as long as they can.  Anything beyond 60 days is just absurd.  We had an Alaska cruise planned for July 3 and canceled on April 1 just ahead of final payment. Celebrity refunded our deposit with in a few weeks.  Our pre-paid hotel with Princess Lodges took forever to refund and when I got to 50 days and they kept saying "sorry we are taking 90 days or more", after they originally said 7 to 10 days I wen I canceled I when to Citi and they gave me temporary credits for the whole amount while they dealt with Princess/Carnival.  

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Was the TA a private/own company set up or an OnLine or BigBox TA? Sounds as if it was a BigBox type since it took a while to find one of their TA’s who would work this. As you can see from this experience, there is a big difference between real TA’s and Booking Agents who are, in almost all cases, online/BigBox types. the OP is lucky they got the info they needed; they are unlucky on who they use as their ‘TA’. I had a group booking and my TA who runs her own company and has an office, got my refund portion that was booked on her company card. 

 

Many of the issues posters have had have been because of the TA they used, thinking they were actual professional TA’s. As posted by some, there are some BigBox with real TA’s who follow-up and work issues, but my direct experience and from many posts, they are few. 

 

Den

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On 8/1/2020 at 5:26 PM, Denny01 said:

Was the TA a private/own company set up or an OnLine or BigBox TA? Sounds as if it was a BigBox type since it took a while to find one of their TA’s who would work this. As you can see from this experience, there is a big difference between real TA’s and Booking Agents who are, in almost all cases, online/BigBox types. the OP is lucky they got the info they needed; they are unlucky on who they use as their ‘TA’. I had a group booking and my TA who runs her own company and has an office, got my refund portion that was booked on her company card. 

 

Many of the issues posters have had have been because of the TA they used, thinking they were actual professional TA’s. As posted by some, there are some BigBox with real TA’s who follow-up and work issues, but my direct experience and from many posts, they are few. 

 

Den

You said it perfectly!!

 

Thank you from a "real" travel agent!!

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I've had a similar situation occur where I purchased a package vacation and later tried to claim a refund for a cancelled flight. I had paid everything through the TA so the refund went to the TA and I had to wait for them to issue a refund. If your credit card was charged directly by Celebrity then they should have refunded you. But if it was charged by the TA as part of a group pricing package then it's entirely reasonable that they refunded the TA.

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On 8/1/2020 at 4:35 PM, jelayne said:

That makes sense.  The refund goes back to the credit card it was charged against.
so the cruise line wasn’t the problem.    I can’t believe the TA didn’t notice they got the refunds; yours and probably others who were booked in this group.  Why is it taking so long for the TA to refund??

Exactly, this is not Celebrity’s fault at all..

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But some action is needed  to speed up the refund. How did OP pay the TA...maybe diapute with that card.???

 

The Covid excuse is wearing thin,..Can't even get packages on time. Same excuse whether it's USPS, fed ex, or UPS or third party agents.

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2 hours ago, hcat said:

But some action is needed  to speed up the refund. How did OP pay the TA...maybe diapute with that card.???

 

The Covid excuse is wearing thin,..Can't even get packages on time. Same excuse whether it's USPS, fed ex, or UPS or third party agents.

E-commerce has grown exponentially since the arrival of COVID. People are staying at home and ordering online rather than going out shopping at an ever increasing rate, while the range of goods available has also multiplied. Don't want to go grocery shopping? No problem, order everything from a single meal to a week's or more worth of fresh groceries. The problem is there was a steady increase in buying with no similar increase in delivery systems. While some existing delivery services may have increased their capacity, and some small, local courier services have started up, the overall delivery capacity continues to lag far behind the new found demand.

 

That's not a Covid "excuse", that's just another Covid reality.

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3 hours ago, hcat said:

But some action is needed  to speed up the refund. How did OP pay the TA...maybe diapute with that card.???

 

The Covid excuse is wearing thin,..Can't even get packages on time. Same excuse whether it's USPS, fed ex, or UPS or third party agents.

The OP.came  back in post #3 and said that the initial deposit was paid direct the Celebrity the balance was paid to the TA.  So Celebrity refunded their deposit back to the OP within 4 weeks.  The balance was refunded to the TA who was the one the paid the balance.  

Edited by jelayne
Typo
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25 minutes ago, tysver said:

Celebrity is a common thief. Sailing Apr 4 cancelled, asked for money back on March 27. Got back $2500.00 but still short 880. It has been four months and still waiting. 

Have you initiated the class action suit you were proposing some time ago? Or are you now opting to pursue criminal charges?

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The same thing has happened to us.  We got a partial refund for a cruise that we were on in Mar that was ended early.   We have been constantly calling X and always the same answer.   They are investigating and think a check was sent to the TA.  
 

I don’t know why they would do that as we paid with a CC and it was the same that they used to issue the partial credit.  
 

To further complicate things our TA had a stroke 2 weeks prior to our cruise and is  now out of business.  
 

The amount due is over $4000 

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

Edited by miched
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1 hour ago, Fouremco said:

Have you initiated the class action suit you were proposing some time ago? Or are you now opting to pursue criminal charges?

Problem with both is court services in Dade County not being really helpful. Did call today and as always sounded very helpful said refund ticket was now closed on 7-27-20 and money should be back on account Thursday or Friday. I really feel for those who have thousands coming back and need the money. 

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1 minute ago, tysver said:

Problem with both is court services in Dade County not being really helpful. Did call today and as always sounded very helpful said refund ticket was now closed on 7-27-20 and money should be back on account Thursday or Friday. I really feel for those who have thousands coming back and need the money. 

Well, I hope that they finally come through for you.

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On 8/3/2020 at 3:28 PM, Fouremco said:

E-commerce has grown exponentially since the arrival of COVID. People are staying at home and ordering online rather than going out shopping at an ever increasing rate, while the range of goods available has also multiplied. Don't want to go grocery shopping? No problem, order everything from a single meal to a week's or more worth of fresh groceries. The problem is there was a steady increase in buying with no similar increase in delivery systems. While some existing delivery services may have increased their capacity, and some small, local courier services have started up, the overall delivery capacity continues to lag far behind the new found demand.

 

That's not a Covid "excuse", that's just another Covid reality.

 

True,  delivery services are overwhelmed,  but many  businesses are using it as an excuse  for inefficient systems that needed an upgrade that were  never done.

 

Other issue is the supply chain...seems almost everything  comes from China or Korea.  Arrival and distribution seriously lagging.

 

As to the Refund Issue....Do hope OP  and  Miched get their refunds.....

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On 8/3/2020 at 5:56 PM, tysver said:

Celebrity is a common thief. Sailing Apr 4 cancelled, asked for money back on March 27. Got back $2500.00 but still short 880. It has been four months and still waiting. 

Waiting for a refund for an extended period of time is always frustrating. 

With us, took 60 plus days for Carnival and it’s been 60 plus days and counting for Princess. 

Celebrity also took around the same time but provided information and updates on a regular basis. Can only say good things about the shoreside folks with whom we have dealt. Helpful, straightforward and truthful at least in our case. Still some small amounts outstanding from our 4 B2B’s in February and March but Celebrity has advised that they are being processed, along with myriads of refunds for other guests, and should arrive shortly.

Waiting is frustrating and the money would come in useful but acting reasonably and with restraint has paid off for us.

Keep following up, tysver, keep a record of your interfaces, stay ‘cool’ and watch your credit card. Good luck...

Edited by Crown Vic
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