Princess slow to return OBC

[CallyCruzer]

I posted back in December the question if others had a long wait on return of their on board credit at the end of their cruise.  I finally received my check from Princess for my OBC from the cruise that ended on November 18.  It took ten full weeks, numerous calls and emails in order to receive it.  The person at Princess I spoke to said that they usually don't mail out for eight weeks.  This is an unbelievable  way to handle business.  This OBC was over $1,200 so it wasn't just a few dollars I was waiting on.  When I have OBC with Celebrity its posted to the credit card that they have on record on the ship within 2-3 days.  

[mcrcruiser]

Agree  waiting 10 weeks for your credit is wrong  for Princess to do that  .I just canceled a cruise with them & it is refundable deposit of $400 .We will see how long it takes for princess to refund this $400 to our credit card 

[CallyCruzer]

The agent at Princess I dealt with in customer service was apologetic and even offered me "$50 OBC" for my next cruise.  I declined.  I don't do business with companies that handle their customers in this manner.  Too many other cruise lines to choose from to be treated in this manner.

 

 

[Kartgv]

Don't know if something has changed, but we've always gotten our refunds in about 3 weeks (the latest being for a February 2019 cruise).    I agree that Celebrity does a much better job here - got refund back to our credit card in about 2 days.

[greenie082756]

We just got our OBC check from our cruise that ended on Jan. 2nd. so about 3 weeks.

 

I'm sorry yours took soooooo looooong to get back and the amount of effort on your part to get your monies back. 

In comparison, that was not a small amount either so I can see why waiting that long was uncalled for.

 

I agree that Princess need to work on a faster way to give their customer the monies owed much faster than

by the old school way of cutting a check. In this day and age, this should not be how they do it.

Time for Princess to find a better accounting system.

[Steelers36]

33 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

Agree  waiting 10 weeks for your credit is wrong  for Princess to do that  .I just canceled a cruise with them & it is refundable deposit of $400 .We will see how long it takes for princess to refund this $400 to our credit card 

Anytime I have cancelled a booking that has a deposit on it and is prior to Final Payment date, the refund has hit the CC, or more likely, our FCD's are back in the account, quite quickly.

[Cruise Raider]

43 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

Agree  waiting 10 weeks for your credit is wrong  for Princess to do that  .I just canceled a cruise with them & it is refundable deposit of $400 .We will see how long it takes for princess to refund this $400 to our credit card 

 

This is handled in a completely different way.  The OP was getting a check for his unused refundable OBC ... not a return from Princess back to his credit card but a check issued by Bottom Line Technologies.  

 

I recently had several hundred dollars of unused OBC returned to me within 2 weeks.  10 weeks is really a long time.  At least they gave the OP a $50 credit ... I would have considered that acceptable.  

[polmcs]

21 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Anytime I have cancelled a booking that has a deposit on it and is prior to Final Payment date, the refund has hit the CC, or more likely, our FCD's are back in the account, quite quickly.

I’ve found that upon cancelling, the FCDs are immediately redeposited into our Captains Circle account and are available to use on a new cruise there and then and I’ve found that any deposit paid by credit card has usually been refunded in 2-3 days.

[Lolabunny488]

We are still awaiting for ours. Totally agree celebrity are by far in front when it comes to refunds! 
mots like they want you to forget about it 😏

we certainly my won’t be using them after our recent experience onboard the crown and also trying to chase up our refund. Phone calls emails and still no luck yet!

[RMMariner]

We had some refundable OBC on our b2b Alaska in August. Received a cheque after about 6 weeks for the wrong amount. It took quite a number of emails and phone calls, but we finally got the final amount last month. 

 

So it took 6 months. Princess gave us some wine etc. for the inconvenience (we did not ask for it). 

 

Twice we were told the cheque was coming. There seems to be a problem with b2b carryover, but in the end Princess did get it right.

[denmarks]

I also received mine in about 3 weeks.

[npcl]

I usually get the OBC check 3-4 weeks after the end of cruise. Have never had it go longer than 4, nor less than 2.

[neverbeenhere]

$ 1,200 is a substantial check amount to refund without some system of verification. 

 

Princess will not have to refund this particular cruiser in the future.

[Pstcrik]

It has always taken a good 6 to 7 weeks for mine to come back and it is very annoying as they are using your money to work with and not paying for it.  I am always amazed at how many people pay for gratuities, drink packages, excursions etc. sometimes many months in advance of a cruise..  Princess gets to use this money and over the number of people who do this they make a lot of money.

[Colo Cruiser]

2 hours ago, CallyCruzer said:

I posted back in December the question if others had a long wait on return of their on board credit at the end of their cruise.  I finally received my check from Princess for my OBC from the cruise that ended on November 18.  It took ten full weeks, numerous calls and emails in order to receive it.  The person at Princess I spoke to said that they usually don't mail out for eight weeks.  This is an unbelievable  way to handle business.  This OBC was over $1,200 so it wasn't just a few dollars I was waiting on.  When I have OBC with Celebrity its posted to the credit card that they have on record on the ship within 2-3 days.  

This has been like this forever.

They just hope you go away or forget.  🙄

[casofilia]

I wonder how long it is before USA banks do what has been started in New Zealand.  At least one bank will no longer deal with cheques!!!!

[hllwdcruiser]

11 minutes ago, Pstcrik said:

It has always taken a good 6 to 7 weeks for mine to come back and it is very annoying as they are using your money to work with and not paying for it.  I am always amazed at how many people pay for gratuities, drink packages, excursions etc. sometimes many months in advance of a cruise..  Princess gets to use this money and over the number of people who do this they make a lot of money.

My father used to say the same thing about taxes. He was a brilliant mathematician and calculated what he owed down to a penny. He never understood the mentality of so many getting excited by a "big refund" which was their money in the first place...

 

For the first time on our upcoming cruise we will have refundable OBC. Not gonna lie. This thread has me a little concerned.

[kywildcatfanone]

We got ours back in 3 weeks.

[mammajamma2013]

5 hours ago, polmcs said:

I’ve found that upon cancelling, the FCDs are immediately redeposited into our Captains Circle account and are available to use on a new cruise there and then and I’ve found that any deposit paid by credit card has usually been refunded in 2-3 days.

I just cancelled a cruise a couple of weeks ago. The deposit was credited to my credit card account in less than one hour. I dealt directly with Princess via phone and the rep took care of it while we were still connected on the call.

 

No FCDs applied to this cruise but on others the FCD was back in that same one hour timeframe.

[CallyCruzer]

14 hours ago, neverbeenhere said:

$ 1,200 is a substantial check amount to refund without some system of verification. 

 

Princess will not have to refund this particular cruiser in the future.

I find it interesting when I have ended a cruise with a balance of over $1,000, there wasn't time for a "verification" to charge the amount to my credit card!  Why should it take 10 weeks to verify the credit if they can instantly charge you for your on board account?  

[CallyCruzer]

14 hours ago, Colo Cruiser said:

This has been like this forever.

They just hope you go away or forget.  🙄

Exactly.  And as long as people keeping accepting this behavior it won't change.  

[CallyCruzer]

16 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

 

This is handled in a completely different way.  The OP was getting a check for his unused refundable OBC ... not a return from Princess back to his credit card but a check issued by Bottom Line Technologies.  

 

I recently had several hundred dollars of unused OBC returned to me within 2 weeks.  10 weeks is really a long time.  At least they gave the OP a $50 credit ... I would have considered that acceptable.  

I didn't find it acceptable.  I declined the credit as Princess has had the last of my business.  And not just over their ridiculous policy on returned OBC.  We were on the Emerald for 39 days and we had horrible service in dining, The Sanctuary, and several other mishaps.  After 37 cruises, it was the only cruise I have ever written a complaint and taken to the service desk.  I never heard from anyone. I always have felt a bad day at sea is better than any day back home.  I can usually roll with the punches.  But we were so taken back by things that happened on this cruise, the OBC was the last straw. Therefore, I would say they aren't interested in my business.  

[bemis12]

17 hours ago, CallyCruzer said:

The agent at Princess I dealt with in customer service was apologetic and even offered me "$50 OBC" for my next cruise.  I declined.  I don't do business with companies that handle their customers in this manner.  Too many other cruise lines to choose from to be treated in this manner.

 

 

an apology and $50 actually sounds like a good way to treat customers to me.

[hobbyfarmer2]

It is kind of hit or miss.  We have had two problems with refundable OBC in the past year.  A call or two to Princess sorted both out.  We are still waiting for refund of OBC for the 2'nd leg of a b2b.  We will have waited almost 11 weeks before it (hopefully) arrives.  It is somewhat mystifying that computer systems that are usually so good at debits have so many problems with credits.  You have to keep track of what is owed.  My amazing dad always used to say to me, "......no one should care more about your money than you do".

[Cruise Raider]

2 hours ago, CallyCruzer said:

I didn't find it acceptable.  I declined the credit as Princess has had the last of my business.  And not just over their ridiculous policy on returned OBC.  We were on the Emerald for 39 days and we had horrible service in dining, The Sanctuary, and several other mishaps.  After 37 cruises, it was the only cruise I have ever written a complaint and taken to the service desk.  I never heard from anyone. I always have felt a bad day at sea is better than any day back home.  I can usually roll with the punches.  But we were so taken back by things that happened on this cruise, the OBC was the last straw. Therefore, I would say they aren't interested in my business.  

 

That's too bad that happened to you.  Sometimes, I think they just don't realize that there is the one straw to break the camel's back.  I've been on 60 cruises and can honestly say, only one had a cascade of events similar to those you also seemed to experienced.  That was on the Crown Princess.  I also thought I was just done with cruising, well, at least on that line.  After lodging my complaint, they offered us a rather generous compensation to cruise with them again.... it was equivalent to 50% off our next sailing.  At first we weren't even interested but then reconsidered and glad we did.  We purposely chose to go on the Crown again and had a completely different experience.  Well, I don't think $50 would have convinced me to go back on them again at that time and I'm really not trying to say you made the wrong decision about ditching them, either.  Sorry to hear this was disappointing.  I also sail often with Celebrity and have found them to be top notch in my book, although, Princess has been my go to line as they have the itineraries that don't require a lot of pre/post cruise travel.  

Hope you find a cruise line that you really love to bring the enjoyment back into cruising!!