Credit card disputes - repercussions

[DandDM]

Was just reading another thread about a financial dispute with Royal regarding a deposit.  The suggestion of disputing the charge with their credit card company came up and made me curious as I recall this was discussed often during the covid shutdown when folks were waiting long periods to receive money back.  I frankly got burnt out on those threads after a while and stopped reading them.

 

So my questions: have folks successfully been able to dispute these charges and received refunds, and of more interest, were there any repercussions from Royal Caribbean?

 

Thanks

[firefly333]

I worked disputes for amex and frankly there is a difference between what people think is a resolution and what we do.

 

We contact the merchant on larger charges, smaller charges we wrote off. Let's say the merchant didnt respond in a timely manner. They have so many days allowed by law. A no response means we close the dispute in your favor. The letter we send says something like the credit we issued while we looked into this matter will remain on your account.  Notice the wording does not say, you won, or were right, the specific wording just says the credit will remain on your account.

 

People call and say, but you said I won, .. I'm sure we never ever said who won. 

 

Some merchants have turned the charge over to a collection agency. .. as a for instance. I red where the cruiseline blocked that charge card. 

 

We were not lawyers and cannot give legal advice. Winning a dispute means very little. 

[ARandomTraveler]

That recommendation in the other thread was from me, and it was more of a "call their bluff" suggestion. I told him that if he legitimately received a receipt that showed he has a refundable fare, he could show it to his credit card company and get the $200 penalty returned that he claims Royal Caribbean is keeping illegally. 
 

I think a lot of the talk that was going on over the pandemic about making disputes with credit card companies to get money back were frivolous and due to people being upset that they got caught up in situations where they should have purchased travel insurance but didn't. 
 

Making frivolous disputes on your credit card is probably not going to work for people in the long run. They'll either get the dispute denied, or end up with a note in their credit card account that they're making too many unwarranted disputes.
 

There are valid reasons for disputing a charge on your credit card, and with written proof that you're owed money from a company who is refusing to give it back, or who has erroneously charged you, one should get their dispute approved.
 

I don't suggest people use the dispute process to correct their own mistakes and bad judgement.

[mafig]

We did.  Not for the deposit but the whole amount.  It was Celebrity.  We just got our money back sooner rather than later.  I disputed because I initially read on here that you only had 100 days to file a dispute and we were at like 94. 

 

No repercussions from Celebrity.  

[Cigar King]

22 hours ago, firefly333 said:

Some merchants have turned the charge over to a collection agency. .. as a for instance. I red where the cruiseline blocked that charge card. 

I ran a conference for an organization I was a member of.  We had a couple people try to stiff us.  Attended, then disputed the charge.  We sent them to collections and banned them from future meetings.  They paid.

[ReneeFLL]

On 2/10/2023 at 3:36 PM, firefly333 said:

…Winning a dispute means very little. 

It does if a lot of money is on the line. 😏