Terrible Customer Service: Why does it take 45 (business?) days to refund a deposit on a booking cancelled within 24 hours?

[not-enough-cruising]

28 minutes ago, DrSea said:

 

I may have visa deal with it. This is getting ridiculous. Will RCI ban me for life? It is money owed to me that is rightfully mine.

I have challenged the charges with AMEX five times; and Royal allows me to keep booking. They know they are wrong, there is no way around that. 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

15 hours ago, coldflame said:

There is no denying Royal's refund process is opaque and slow as molases.

well, so is MSC's. I have just cancelled a sailing before the final payment date, and guess when my refund will most likely be processed? That's right, at least 6 weeks. So, how is RCI any different?

At least OP's deposit is only $200. Mine's is $800 (2 bookings).

 

So, what I am trying to say is that calling this a "terrible customer service" is a bit dramatic.

Edited January 1, 2022 by Itchy&Scratchy

[PiperHolliday]

10 hours ago, DrSea said:

I have cancelled many cruises on other cruise lines before the payment deadline for years and had charges returned to me before I had to pay the credit card statement. So this is a new experience for me actually. I literally cancelled a princess cruise a month ago and got the refund within a day.

 

Again, RCI said that they were not going to charge me bc it was cancelled within 24 hours. They ended up charging me anyways.

 

Royal is horrendous with IT and communication. But all of my refunds have shown up in a very reasonable amount of time (for me, the start of the pandemic was more like what you're describing). But what you're experiencing is not an acceptable business practice and I'd be annoyed, too. 

 

But I just want to point out that I've had horrendous customer service from Princess, as well. I've not had to deal with any refund issues with them but I have been treated very badly by their reps, even as a TA. One time, when there were charges on my onboard account that weren't valid, they tried to tell me it's okay because I was on a cheap travel agent rate (I actually was not on a TA rate). I asked them how I'm supposed to trust them with my clients and they responded with, "Well you get great rates as a TA and you have a cruise booked in two years! You should be happy about that!". So I told her to go ahead and cancel that cruise. That's not customer service. 

 

I feel like customer service hardly exists anymore. Now I just expect companies to not do what they're supposed to and that's really sad. I really hope you can get it resolved soon. 

[DrSea]

16 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

well, so is MSC's. I have just cancelled a sailing before the final payment date, and guess when my refund will most likely be processed? That's right, at least 6 weeks. So, how is RCI any different?

At least OP's deposit is only $200. Mine's is $800 (2 bookings).

 

So, what I am trying to say is that calling this a "terrible customer service" is a bit dramatic.

The $200 isn't the main issue.

 

Here are my issues

- 45 days is ridiculous.

- the first rep telling me that it will not charge my credit card since it was cancelled within 24 hours and they went ahead and charged

- waiting 60 minutes for a second rep to read the details of my 2 bookings

- I asked to speak to the supervisor 30 minutes into the rep verifying the 2 bookings and him telling me I couldn't speak to a supervisor

 

Lastly, just because another cruise line does it just as worst doesn't excuse RCI. 2 wrongs don't make a right.

 

10 minutes ago, PiperHolliday said:

 

Royal is horrendous with IT and communication. But all of my refunds have shown up in a very reasonable amount of time (for me, the start of the pandemic was more like what you're describing). But what you're experiencing is not an acceptable business practice and I'd be annoyed, too. 

 

But I just want to point out that I've had horrendous customer service from Princess, as well. I've not had to deal with any refund issues with them but I have been treated very badly by their reps, even as a TA. One time, when there were charges on my onboard account that weren't valid, they tried to tell me it's okay because I was on a cheap travel agent rate (I actually was not on a TA rate). I asked them how I'm supposed to trust them with my clients and they responded with, "Well you get great rates as a TA and you have a cruise booked in two years! You should be happy about that!". So I told her to go ahead and cancel that cruise. That's not customer service. 

 

I feel like customer service hardly exists anymore. Now I just expect companies to not do what they're supposed to and that's really sad. I really hope you can get it resolved soon. 

I have had TERRIBLE customer service with princess also. Some of them are just so extra. It's another post for another day. Long story short, the rep wouldn't give me a deal that they saw on their website and asked me to pay 800% of what I saw. 800%.

[Jingerwoppy]

They're making interest on your payment so there's no incentive to refund it to you quickly. 

[amygee666]

They play with everyone's money in the stock market...they make money, off of your money....while you are losing money, paying interest on the card you charged your cruise with. If they are able to take your money so quickly, they should be able to give it back, just as fast. Don't know about any of you, but I could put the $3500.00 to better use than to let someone massive company use it for their own benefit.

They could care less about you....it's all about the money. They are a for profit business...that's it.

 

What kind of person would not refund someone's money in a timely manner. That's a great recipe to lose a ton of business.

If I did that to my customers....I wouldn't have any....I would be out of business....period!

 

I think it is time for everyone to take a break on cruising and focus on land vacations instead.

[CSAU]

Not just the long wait for getting the money back, they cannot even provide a CONFIRMATION that the trip has been cancelled.  I had to make several calls for a "supervisor" from Guatemala to finally "manually" wrote me an e-mail. 

All these foreign workers CSR are trying their best to help but RC intentionally not give them any authority to problem solve so these big corporate decision makers can hide behind the doors while the low-pay employees get yelled by the angry customers! 🙄

[not-enough-cruising]

8 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

well, so is MSC's. I have just cancelled a sailing before the final payment date, and guess when my refund will most likely be processed? That's right, at least 6 weeks. So, how is RCI any different?

At least OP's deposit is only $200. Mine's is $800 (2 bookings).

 

So, what I am trying to say is that calling this a "terrible customer service" is a bit dramatic.

Just because other lines aren’t doing any better doesn’t matter. 
 

it IS  terrible customer service, the CUSTOMER is not being serviced at all; they are being led

on, manipulated, and taken advantage of. 

[zanydoc]

On 12/31/2021 at 6:36 PM, DrSea said:

I haven't sailed with RCI in years. I thought I try them out since one of my guests likes RCI.

 

I put a deposit on a cruise and cancelled within 24 hours due to me figuring out how to apply the firefighter/EMT discount. I made a new booking and paid another deposit. It's been December 4th, 2021 since cancelling, and RCI is still "processing" my cancellation/refund. I was on the phone with the customer rep, who spent 60 minutes "verifying" my information, which meant him digging around in my account. He said he couldn't pull up any past reservations and I had to go and pull up all of the reservation numbers from my email. Other times when I called RCI, they were able to pull up all of my past bookings, reservation numbers, and cancellations.

 

Other cruise lines have given me a refund with a much faster turn around time.

 

This is terrible customer service from RCI imho.

I completely agree-poor customer service. This happened to me as well, with the cancelling in the 24 hour window. I expressed my concern about the 45 day refund to the Royal representative and they told me there was nothing they could do so I disputed the charge with my credit card company and got the refund in 2 days. 

[geckobabe]

I've been trying to cancel the deluxe beverage package for two weeks now. The website gives me an error message. Sent a message to them via Twitter, and the rep couldn't do it, apparently had another rep try and nothing. Now, there's an open ticket with IT. Ggggrrrrr

[zanydoc]

1 hour ago, geckobabe said:

I've been trying to cancel the deluxe beverage package for two weeks now. The website gives me an error message. Sent a message to them via Twitter, and the rep couldn't do it, apparently had another rep try and nothing. Now, there's an open ticket with IT. Ggggrrrrr

Try deleting your browser history. Sometimes that helps! Or go to your account on another device. 

[S.A.M.J.R.]

On 1/1/2022 at 7:08 PM, amygee666 said:

What kind of person would not refund someone's money in a timely manner. That's a great recipe to lose a ton of business.

If I did that to my customers....I wouldn't have any....I would be out of business....period!

Here's the problem.  I'm assuming (yes, I know) that those who have had trouble with refunds continue to cruise with Royal (or whoever).  If everyone who had a unusual (IMO, more than a week) delay in at least seeing the "pending" credit on their card refused to do business with the company again, they'd change their tactics.  

 

But, since people continue to cruise, why do timely refunds?  

[geckobabe]

4 hours ago, zanydoc said:

Try deleting your browser history. Sometimes that helps! Or go to your account on another device. 

I've done that as well as tried different browsers. It fails each time. I wanted to grab the Refreshment package on sale and it makes me nervous to do that if I can't get this other package cancelled. 

[Starry Eyes]

1 hour ago, geckobabe said:

I've done that as well as tried different browsers. It fails each time. I wanted to grab the Refreshment package on sale and it makes me nervous to do that if I can't get this other package cancelled. 

You’ve mentioned trying online and via Twitter.  Maybe try a telephone call.

[DrSea]

17 hours ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

Here's the problem.  I'm assuming (yes, I know) that those who have had trouble with refunds continue to cruise with Royal (or whoever).  If everyone who had a unusual (IMO, more than a week) delay in at least seeing the "pending" credit on their card refused to do business with the company again, they'd change their tactics.  

 

But, since people continue to cruise, why do timely refunds?  

Yea, I don't enjoy being taken advantage of by RCI. As I mentioned before, my usual guests that I travel with are soured by RCI holding my $$ after they explicitly said that they weren't going to charge my card. So we will think 3x before booking with RCI again.

[MacMarauder]

Cancelling a cruise used to be easy, I remember a NE/Canada cruise I cancelled with a click of a button on Royal's page. Money was refunded in a timely manner, and the whole process took no time at all. Now you have to call, wait for customer service and then they walk your money back as slowly as possible. Clearly they are trying to keep as much cash on hand as possible. 

[katiel53]

My niece has been waiting for a refund of over $3k since August.  She booked a cruise and cancelled it within 2 hours.  When she checked with RC about the refund after a month or so, she was told the first person did something wrong and it would take 45 days for it to get the refund to her.

 

Fast forward, she received the port fees/taxes as a refund, but nothing else.  She again called RC and was told there was a problem, but to be patient and she would receive the balance.  So far, she hasn't received anything.

 

She has spoken with resolutions and didn't get an answer from them either. So, now her next step is to write to MBayley@RCCL.com.  Hopefully, she will soon get her refund.

[not-enough-cruising]

26 minutes ago, katiel53 said:

My niece has been waiting for a refund of over $3k since August.  She booked a cruise and cancelled it within 2 hours.  When she checked with RC about the refund after a month or so, she was told the first person did something wrong and it would take 45 days for it to get the refund to her.

 

Fast forward, she received the port fees/taxes as a refund, but nothing else.  She again called RC and was told there was a problem, but to be patient and she would receive the balance.  So far, she hasn't received anything.

 

She has spoken with resolutions and didn't get an answer from them either. So, now her next step is to write to MBayley@RCCL.com.  Hopefully, she will soon get her refund.

No, her next step is to file a fraudulent charge claim with her credit card company. 

[travelhound]

On 12/31/2021 at 7:10 PM, fredflint said:

They need to make sure they have the money to refund to you, I am sure sometimes they will process a refund quickly and find that the person was using a fraudulent card and they gave someone back money that they did not have.  I usually expect a credit card billing cycle myself.   Was there a reason you could not call and cancel then move the deposit over to the new booking at the same time?

Good point 👍   Most of the cruise lines have been slower than normal,  due to the current Covid crisis.  Unlike most hotels, the cruise industry has taken a significant amount of scrutiny.

[soremekun]

Getting money from Royal Caribbean be like:

https://youtu.be/irtRBhH10i4