Deposit refunds.....

[sw18]

Has anyone recently had their 10% deposit refunded? We booked a voyage on the Cloud back in April, changed it to a crossing on the Wind & now wnat to cancel completely & give Sea Dream a try. Just wondered how efficient SS are at processing the refunded deposits.:confused:

[texanaust]

Very inefficient to put it bluntly. It took the Silverseas office over three months to process our refund, not to mention at least 3 phone calls escalating our displeasure.

[Observer]

Very inefficient to put it bluntly. It took the Silverseas office over three months to process our refund, not to mention at least 3 phone calls escalating our displeasure.

 

I had a very similar experience. In fact, I think it took longer than three months. There were always excuses, excuses. It doesn't take that long to process a credit to the credit card used for the deposit. I believe that others have had similar unhappy experiences with SS US front office.

[surfklutz]

Has anyone recently had their 10% deposit refunded? We booked a voyage on the Cloud back in April, changed it to a crossing on the Wind & now wnat to cancel completely & give Sea Dream a try. Just wondered how efficient SS are at processing the refunded deposits.:confused:

 

You are going to love SeaDream!

[sw18]

Thanks all, I sent the cancellation email to SS UK office in in English legal terms (handy having a lawyer as a partner!), so if they stick to the law here I should get it within the next 30 days. Somehow we think though that SS UK will say it's nothing to do with them and will shift the responsibility to the Florida HQ.........call me cynical :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

 

Looking forward to Sea Dream, tried Oceania for the last crossing & it was very much trading down apart from the food & will not go back, as it cost the same as an equivalent SS cruise once all the incidentals were added on, & consequently poor value. We have managed to secure the OS on Sea Dream & at current rates is VERY good value compared to a SS crossing.

[mvmag]

You've got me worried. I waitlisted for a trip in May through email. A couple of days later I telephoned on another matter and the reservations agent convinced me that waitlisting alone wasn't enough: I'd have to make a $500 deposit to increase my chances of making the voyage. How do I get that back? And is it true or did I just lend Silversea $500????

[ltsally]

To preserve our on-board booking discount, we "loaned" SS $700 last year. Since there was nothing in '07 that worked for us from a time/appeal standpoint, we "booked" the farthest-out voyage we could in order to roll it over to an '08 cruise if we want.

 

My question, however, is whether the experience of getting the down payment back from SS is as lengthy and negative if one is going through a travel agent rather than trying to deal with SS directly. Any feedback on that?

[dusababy]

I would expect it depends upon your TA -- I've canceled cruises and had no problem or delay in having the refund show up on AMEX the following month. That's just my experience though -- I have an excellent TA.

[SonomaWine]

We have had no problems with getting refunds in a timely manner, or having them applied to a new booking. This has been our experience utilizing a TA or booking direct.

[ppiew]

Our refund took 3 days - you can't get much better than that!

[sw18]

It's not looking good for us so far....my partner & I split our £1100 deposit 50/50 on 2 credit cards back in April last year, & guess what? I have been refunded my £550, but my partners share has not. On calling the SS call centre which from the UK is a premium rate 0870 number which SS make £$£ from, we were told, after explaining the situation for the nth time, that it would "be dealt with at the next billing cycle" & after explaining again we were told "you're not listening to me - it will be refunded at the next billing cycle". We asked to speak with a manager - we were begrudgingly transferred but told "she'll just tell you the same thing".....

 

The manager was far more helpful but didn't have access to our booking & despite it being an active reservation the billing details were archived. When she called us back on both landlines and cell phones the quality of the call was awful & sounded like we were communicating via walkie talkie rather than an international satellite call....whoever their long distance provider is they must be cheap!!

 

Despite one person wanting to help & being thwarted in her efforts, our opinion of SS customer service is one of inconsistency - when it's great it's perfect, when it's bad it's pretty dire.

 

SS are going to have to work very hard at winning us back - we have just booked our next cruise with Sea Dream, 0800 telephone number, straight through to an agent in Oslo (whose command of the English language was better than my own!) and a "can do" attitude. If 3 telephone calls are anything to go by we are off to a very good start.

 

With the 2 new Seabourn ships & the SS newbuild this sector of the market is going to get interesting......SS are going to have to work harder at retaining the faithful.

[ltsally]

Reviving this just to share our recent experience. Contacted our TA the first week of May to ask for a refund on our deposit, since nothing was looking feasible in the forSEAable future. And the amount showed up as a credit on our statement that arrived next week. No complaints here about the time it took. It is sounding like working directly with SS is where the trouble lies.

[lord of the seas]

A good travel agent is invaluable and worth their commission.

[simonv]

We had to cancel a couple of SS cruises recently, and the refund was no problem. Showed up within just a few days. But we use a TA. Maybe the SS systems aren't really set up to deal with retail directly? As Lord says, a good TA earns his commission.