aprilF

Looking forward to not hearing the term COVID 20 times a day. 

2 hours ago, dexddd said:

Depending on card, it may not be there.  With Amex, only more recent had a dispute button.  All the ones I had to contact an agent.

THats bull.  Anything disputable should have a button (I'm not saying you are lying, I am saying that system sucks).  Our button was still there in May for a December charge on Costco Visa.

Disputing it with the CC is just about the only way most are getting their funds back.  If you are one day outside of the timeframe they initially gave, then dispute.

From the US?  Its not going to be sailing anyway.  Then you get your fun fight for a refund.  My advice is to let their stated refund period lapse plus one day and then dispute with your CC company.  Then its only 4 months until your funds are yours again because they wont even respond to the CC company.  That's how much MSC cares about you.

3 hours ago, cellfree said:

An article about the possibility of standardizing rules for refunds in the cruise industry popped up in my email last evening. One paragraph talked about how many cruisers are going the credit card dispute route and how this is adding extra work for cruise lines and delaying refunds. Well after waiting since March 14 for our refunds, I do not think it is unreasonable to go the credit card route. What else can someone do when all other avenues have been exhausted?!

That's just BS.  MSC doesnt even bother to respond to the bulk of the CC disputes, they just let it time out and keep your money for an extra 60 days.  Filing a dispute becomes reasonable one day after the given timeline has passed.

14 hours ago, juraspark said:

I haven't wanted to go the cc route as I will have to drag my spouse into this as I used his card to pay for the spa! It was his anniversary gift to me, He hates having to deal with refunds and exchanges and banks.

 

 

 

 

On line for our CC there is a dispute charge button next to each charge.  Click that and write a brief reason as to why you should get a refund (all we said was that cruise was canceled by MSC on X, told us they would refund by Y, they have not).  Then it was a matter of waiting 2 months for MSC not to respond and the funds were cleared as ours to keep.  Really simple and no actual interaction beyond typing a small bit.

Only allowed off at ports if on a MSC excursion.  Ive seen another line propose this too.  This really stinks unless MSC has the ability to offer at lot more excursions (both multiples of existing excursions and more variety).

That is madness.  If its any consolation, I doubt those ships will be sailing.  Then you get a 4 month or longer fight to refund.  Good luck, you need it.

On 7/17/2020 at 7:29 PM, GatorMomInNC said:

Holy Cow!  Finally!!! I called my TA today (3rd time in 3 weeks).  She said she remembered me as the one I talked to 3 weeks ago and she would "escalate" it.  Just logged onto my Chase account and all my sweet beautiful points and my $400 deposit are back!!  Yeah!

 

4 months and 2 weeks from when I requested my refund!

 

Now I can book a new cruise for next year (but not MSC after this fiasco...)

 

Editing to say, my $400  is NOT actually credited to my account, but my points, worth about $4k, are credited..

Yay! Glad you got your points back.  🙂

On 7/22/2020 at 10:54 PM, phissy said:

I am on the same page with you.

submitted paperwork for our dispute with Chase  Sapphire Reserve Card today.

we are going to let Chase deal with MSC.  Interesting to see if MSC will respond to banks request in a timely manner.

MOst of us would say MSC will not respond to the CC company.  They will let it time out to maximize the time they can (illegally?) hold onto your money.  A few have had MSC respond before the 60 days is up, usually around the 6 week mark.  And yet a couple of people have reported that MSC is saying the charges are valid

On 7/22/2020 at 1:45 PM, versuco said:

It's already 130 days waiting for us, so I guess the 120 days you heard is not correct.  Beginning to think we will never get our refund.  Love MSC cruises, but pretty sure we will not be taking another one after this refund nightmare.

You wont unless you go through your CC company.

20 hours ago, cellfree said:

Oh my, do we all have to go the credit card route? Really disappointing. I continue to be told my taxes/fees were processed April 20. July 24 - no refunds. 

Yes.

17 hours ago, phissy said:

Confusing refund vs rebate -  Costco Visa  offers Costco Cash (Rebate) on purchases.

Go to your Citi Costco Visa account online and click on Costco Cash rewards section.

It will give you your current balance. Rewards Certificates are issued at beginning of the year. If you do not have positive balance I would imagine no Rewards Certificate will be issued.

I was asking if anyone has been in this position and what was expected.  I can, of course, speculate myself. 

I keep trying to find larger ticket items I can buy through Costco (or even just with the Costco Visa being the best "deal" to use) but other places with better rewards scenarios keep winning out.  So its looking highly likely I will find out myself what happens, if its $0 or if we actually owe Costco rewards (as strange as that would be it would be fair).  LOL

On 7/16/2020 at 9:03 PM, phissy said:

OK, I think I get what you are asking.    

Just re-read your original post.

 

If you are asking if Costco will want the 3% travel rebate back if cruise is refunded, answer is probably yes. Not sure how you will be notified, but Citi may be the ones who reverse the dollar amount you received as rebate on travel.

 

Costco Citi Visa card has rebates depending on spend. Executive members get additional on spend.

  .Citi Costco Visa offers  4 % for gas, 3% for travel/restaurants,2% Costco purchases ( plus2% executive member), 1% for everything else. 

Annual Rebate Certificate can be redeemed for cash or merchandise in Costco warehouses.

Sounds like your Rebate Certificate was credited to your Costco Citi Visa Account?...or you were issued a Costco Cash Card.

I have received Costco Cash Card as part of Cruise rebate after completing cruise in the past.

If you have rebate certificate or Costco Cash Card, you can go to warehouse and get cash.

We live in Issaquah, and Costco corporate warehouse is where we shop. Sometimes the amount of cash is large and they have to go across the way to get the cash from corporate. I come back 30 minutes later and pick up at membership desk.

 I have cashed out these certificates. I have never heard of one being issued for $10,000.

If it is indeed a credit on Visa card, simply request that Citi  send you a check for that balance and deposit that in your checking account.

If Citi comes back with charge for reverse of travel rebate, you will have money in your checking account.

  

Normally, most credit cards will be glad to issue check for credit amount.  We just did this on Capitol One card.

Hope this helps.

You are still misunderstanding what I am asking, you are way over complicating things.  I cant think of a more simplistic way to ask other than to say I am asking what if my spend for the year is less than the refunds I have received.  What does that do to my end of the year refund?  I know I can request a check for the negative balance I have on my account but I cant imagine that is counted on spend and really has no bearing on the question I am asking.

7 hours ago, phissy said:

REPLY:

 

This is not what I am asking.  Costco gives a cash refund on 3% of your spending for the year.  I have a little over $10K in refunds on my Costco card.  We arent shopping a ton since we are staying at home and have no big purchases planned (and I never want to hope for something unplanned to pop up).  What happens if our spend for the year does not exceed the refunds we have received for the year?  Ive already received the cash back for most of that 10K because it was paid last year.

Anyone ever been in this odd position?  I dont care enough to call--hate phones--I can just be surprised if no one knows.

On 7/7/2020 at 3:11 PM, sfaaa said:

No cruise line does prompt refund these days. Just sayin'

This isnt true at all.  DCL the other line I have been following closely has 2-3 week refund time frame for most.  There have been some hang ups which seem to be mostly TA centered.  MSC is doing one of the worst jobs at handling refunds.  Do not lie on their behalf.

Dear OP, the answer to your question for us is "never".  MSC never refunded our money, after allowing 60 days from the cancellation of our trip we disputed the charges on our Costco Visa and the charge was just made permanent, 61 days after the dispute was filed.  So, 121 days later we have our money thanks to Visa.  MSC never refunded anything.

For those looking at datapoints:

We booked this cruise on board while on another cruise.  The original cruise was booked through Expedia so I guess they technically had the booking but something got forked up.  For all purposes (even before the COVID issues) it was as if we booked direct with MSC, Expedia couldnt really help us with too much and we could never access the cruise in Expedia's system via my account.  So there was so super strangeness happening there and I am uncertain if that was because of MSC or Expedia.  I tried several times to fix through Expedia eventually giving up since MSC could see my reservation and it seemed I could do everything I needed to do direct through MSC.  If I were one of few having difficulties, I might chalk the refund delay up to this issue.  I'm very tempted to believe based on these experiences that MSC is the one that was causing my issues as I usually use Expedia and have never had issues with them before.

I am 3 days away from being 60 days from my sail date.  Which is not when MSC said they were going to refund me but it's data.

Other than the initial cancellation via phone and then a follow up cancellation via the website (since the first cancellation didnt seem to take) I have not contacted MSC about a refund.  It seemed pointless given the run around people were getting.

Timeline- phone cancellation 3/17, told 30 days for refund less deposit. 

3/30 filled out form on line since cruise was cancelled, emailed 60 days for refund

5/16 filed dispute with Visa for both deposit and remainder of cruise balance

7/16 temp credits on Visa became permanent

Speculation: to me it looks like MSC is currently refunding deposits only cruises quickly.  Likely in hopes to keep that business in the future.  But they are keeping cruises that are paid in full as long as possible, allowing disputes to go unanswered so they get the full extra 60 days in order to continue their interest free loans they think they are due.  My advice is that if you have paid anything more than the deposit, dispute it now.  Might as well get that final clock going.

Side question, not that I think this will happen but what if our Costco Visa still has a negative balance at the end of the rewards cycle...do we pay Costco?

On 6/1/2020 at 10:53 AM, Bobal said:

Since they originally said they weren't even refunding the UK - only the US - and only caved in after pressure, I think it will be a long long time before we see many refunds in the UK.

 They are barely refunding in the US.  I think most that are getting a refund are getting it via CC disputes.  If youve waited more than 60 days and that avenue exists for you, Id recommend it instead of continuing to wait for MSC.

2 minutes ago, MsTabbyKats said:

Back to report....my chargeback credit is now permanent.

 

Short version:  I canceled an Oct 2020 cruise in mid-March. well before final payment.

I called after about a month, and I was told the TA did not do it correctly....so they "re-did" it, and I'd have to wait 60 days until I saw the credit.

I got annoyed...based on all the problems people were having.  I did a chargeback  in early May, got an immediate temporary credit...and received the permanent credit today.

It is less than 8 weeks from early May indicating that MSC likely responded to your CC company as well. 

29 minutes ago, cruisingator2 said:

I received notice this morning that my dispute has been resolved and the credit is now permanent. Finally! It took about six weeks for MSC to respond once I disputed the charges.

They actually responded?!  We are at the 5.5 week mark from filing our dispute.  I was just under the impression that we would have to wait the entire 8 weeks for no response.  A concern on my end is that we may eventually end up double refunded and the PITA it will be to resolve that.  Presumably if they are responding to disputes then they should be aware of the refund and not double refund.

14 hours ago, cruisingator2 said:

Reading the various cruise boards it seems all of the cruise lines are playing the same song and games. Hard to feel sorry for any of them. 

Not all and that will make a difference for me going forward.

I wouldnt bother until you are close enough to print documents.  Last time I did it not all information was saved and I had to redo it anyway.

97 days for us.  And GatorMomNC has to be over 120 by now.

On 6/21/2020 at 7:46 AM, PompeySailor said:

Anyone been waiting longer than 94 Days?

14 hours ago, eroller said:

MSC is a member line of CLIA, so I find it a bit odd they are still selling Caribbean cruises out of Miami for early September.  Clearly these sailings are canceled.  I just was able to make a dummy booking for September 5.  You would think they would have blocked these sailings, but not MSC!  LOL.  

 

I guess they are trying to get as much $$ on the books as possible, hoping for FCC's instead of refunds.  Just seems sketchy.    

Given they are just plain keeping monies that should have been refunded seemingly indefinitely,  why wouldnt they try for more interest free loans?  For those that still dont think its possible MSC is in trouble, they are certainly acting like they need a lot of 0% loans.

Thats a tough call because the price difference between a whirlpool balcony and just a regular balcony is big.  I know when I first started looking at my cruise, I could have payed slightly less for YC than a whirlpool balcony.  If they are giving you the difference in OBC we would certainly have a tough time spending that much OBC.

Just in case youve only been interested in rebooking and not really looking at the refund threads, MSC trails just about every other cruise line in giving timely refunds.  There are very few people (talking a handful maybe) that have actually been refunding out of all the cruises affected starting in March.  We requested our refund on 3/17 and are still unpaid at current time.  All I am trying to say is do NOT expect MSC to do right by you without a lot of prodding.  Be prepared to be an advocate for yourself.

Just curious why people are continuing to wait rather than file a chargeback?  I feel like I waited too long to dispute and I filed awhile ago.