Overpayment Issue - Looking for Contact Suggestions

[optimusprime82]

Hello everyone!

 

Long story short version since I'm not intending on writing a novel.

 

My wife made our final payment online for our 10/04/23 NYC sailing on the Meraviglia a few days before the early July due date. For the next few days when we'd log into the MSC website it still showed a balance being due. My wife called her bank and MSC to confirm that everything had gone through correctly. During the call with her bank, who is somewhat overcautious about fraud based on the amount of calls she gets to verify transactions, they misunderstood the purpose of her call and opened a dispute on the charge with MSC.

 

Fast forward a month and my wife receives a call from MSC stating that unless we pay $500, the amount of the final charge, our booking will be cancelled because of the dispute (which my wife knew nothing about). We put the $500on my credit card to make sure our booking wasn't lost. My wife contacted her bank, who cancelled the dispute with MSC. For about a week my wife was able to chat with the MSC rep about the issue - she said that either the money would be sent back to her bank account or my credit card would be credited back the money. That was nearly six weeks ago, my wife hasn't been able to get that rep back on the phone, and I'm worried that if we sail without this issue being resolved that it's going to be even harder to fix.

 

Every time she calls she gets a different rep who doesn't understand what's going on and her emails don't get replied to. For the most part, aside from making the second final payment, I've stayed out this since I didn't want to confuse the situation further. Does anyone have any suggestions on who my wife can reach to that can give her a straight answer. I'm not super worried about the money, it's just $500, but I doubt MSC is going to be easier to deal with once the sailing is done.

 

Thanks you!

[Até]

I assume you don't see a credit balance when looking at your booking online. 

 

The best option is to send an email to mscexistingreservations@msccruisesusa.com

 

Put in your booking number and a concise account of what happened.  I'd ask that a credit balance be put on the sailing,  it might be easier than getting a refund and dealing with the dispute issue.

 

When I had a credit balance it was refunded at the end of my sailing.

 

[oceans.calling]

Try sending an email to mscexistingreservations@msccruisesusa.com. They might be able to help. Make sure you put booking number, cruise date and ship in the email. 

[mmbcater]

Typically any refund will take 1-2 billing cycles-

[Tierun]

Similar situation, but smaller dollar amount. We overpaid by $60 on a booking last month. The overage is now being credited as obc. 

[optimusprime82]

2 hours ago, Até said:

I assume you don't see a credit balance when looking at your booking online. 

 

The best option is to send an email to mscexistingreservations@msccruisesusa.com

 

Put in your booking number and a concise account of what happened.  I'd ask that a credit balance be put on the sailing,  it might be easier than getting a refund and dealing with the dispute issue.

 

When I had a credit balance it was refunded at the end of my sailing.

 

 

Nope, no credit balance. I believe she's been emailing MSCexistingreservations but I'll double check.

 

2 hours ago, oceans.calling said:

Try sending an email to mscexistingreservations@msccruisesusa.com. They might be able to help. Make sure you put booking number, cruise date and ship in the email. 

 

Thanks, I've emailed them before regarding a past sailing. It's still pretty hit or miss, like so many things with MSC lol.

 

45 minutes ago, mmbcater said:

Typically any refund will take 1-2 billing cycles-

 

Thanks. It would be nice if we knew what card/account they were going to refund - they haven't even told us that yet.

 

45 minutes ago, Tierun said:

Similar situation, but smaller dollar amount. We overpaid by $60 on a booking last month. The overage is now being credited as obc. 

 

If it was a smaller amount I wouldn't mind the OBC but as it is we already have several hundred dollars, the Easy Plus drink package, and Wi-FI. I'm sure we could find a way to spend $500 more but I'd rather not feel like I have to spend it. Like Até said, anything unused would be refunded back but we sometimes find it a little too easy to spend money when we'd rather be responsible lol.

 

[JamieLogical]

16 hours ago, optimusprime82 said:

If it was a smaller amount I wouldn't mind the OBC but as it is we already have several hundred dollars, the Easy Plus drink package, and Wi-FI. I'm sure we could find a way to spend $500 more but I'd rather not feel like I have to spend it. Like Até said, anything unused would be refunded back but we sometimes find it a little too easy to spend money when we'd rather be responsible lol.

 

 

If you haven't pre-paid your daily service charges, a decent chunk of it would go to that at least.

[optimusprime82]

The clock just struck midnight, it’s been three months since my last post about this topic. This may come as a shock but we’re still waiting for the $500 to be returned/refunded. Two “billing cycles” was in early October and we’ve now doubled that time frame. It’s really frustrating and is one of the reasons we didn’t book with MSC while on board. We love the onboard experience but the customer service from shore has been less than helpful. 
 

Any suggestions? Would contacting the Better Business Bureau grease the gears a bit?

[Mark_T]

Having been on the other side of this sort of issue (not in the cruise world), once the vendor gets a dispute, they are not going to process a refund until the dispute is resolved one way or another.

 

The risk is that they process a refund and then the dispute completes and the same amount is removed from their account even if it has already been refunded.

 

The correct procedure should be for the card holder to cancel the incorrect dispute first, so if that has not already happened that would be my first move.

 

There will be delays even then as the communication to the vendor of the cancelled dispute will not necessarily be immediate....

Edited December 13, 2023 by Mark_T

[optimusprime82]

4 hours ago, Mark_T said:

Having been on the other side of this sort of issue (not in the cruise world), once the vendor gets a dispute, they are not going to process a refund until the dispute is resolved one way or another.

 

The risk is that they process a refund and then the dispute completes and the same amount is removed from their account even if it has already been refunded.

 

The correct procedure should be for the card holder to cancel the incorrect dispute first, so if that has not already happened that would be my first move.

 

There will be delays even then as the communication to the vendor of the cancelled dispute will not necessarily be immediate....

The dispute was cancelled in August, the same day we became aware of it. MSC has acknowledged that the dispute has been cancelled, they keep saying they’ll refund the money, they just haven’t done it. I appreciate the perspective, I don’t have any other experience quite like this. 

[Mark_T]

43 minutes ago, optimusprime82 said:

The dispute was cancelled in August, the same day we became aware of it. MSC has acknowledged that the dispute has been cancelled, they keep saying they’ll refund the money, they just haven’t done it. I appreciate the perspective, I don’t have any other experience quite like this. 

Ordinarily I'd suggest (somewhat ironically) that you should dispute the 2nd credit card payment, but I suspect you are now past the deadline to do that...?