Refund Status for canceled cruises: Retitled after merges

[hm9912]

I just checked the balance in my Princess Visa Card this morning and I received the refund for the two cabins and the two tours that we booked on the Sky Princess cruise for us and the grand kids on April 4th that Princess cancelled.

Thank you Princess and hopefully we will all be able to cruise again in the not too distant future. We also received the travel insurance premium from Allianz that we took out for the grand kids about a month ago.

We also previously received the Future Cruise Credits from Princess about a month ago. We chose Option 2

Howard

Edited May 8, 2020 by hm9912

[dog]

2 minutes ago, hm9912 said:

I just checked the balance in my Princess Visa Card this morning and I received the refund for the two cabins and the two tours that we booked on the Sky Princess cruise for us and the grand kids on April 4th that Princess cancelled.

Thank you Princess and hopefully we will all be able to cruise again in the not too distant future. We also received the travel insurance premium from Allianz that we took out for the grand kids about a month ago.

We also previously received the Future Cruise Credits from Princess about a month ago. We chose Option 2

Howard

So happy for you!

Thanks for posting. Gives others some hope. 

[LDVinNC]

Very good news, hm9912.  Hope this bodes well for the rest of us!

[jat1977]

48 minutes ago, hm9912 said:

I just checked the balance in my Princess Visa Card this morning and I received the refund for the two cabins and the two tours that we booked on the Sky Princess cruise for us and the grand kids on April 4th that Princess cancelled.

Thank you Princess and hopefully we will all be able to cruise again in the not too distant future. We also received the travel insurance premium from Allianz that we took out for the grand kids about a month ago.

We also previously received the Future Cruise Credits from Princess about a month ago. We chose Option 2

Howard

Happy that someone has gotten something!  However, this also proves that Princess is NOT processing refunds in the order of the cancelled cruises.  Our cruise was March 22, cancelled by Princess on March 12.  We got the email a week ago that they were still working on our refunds (we had two cabins).  After reading the note above, I just checked our cc, and nope, no indication that our refunds have been processed, i.e., no pending transactions.  Curious if Princess is refunding those who have credit cards affiliated with them first . . . would not surprise me.  

[sailingthrulife]

12 hours ago, CarelessAndConfused said:

 

Or someone is lying to you.  Or something is very wrong with the people managing the "system".  Bottom line, refunds should not take this long if they are working with paper and pencil.

100% agree with you.  As a business woman whose worked in many areas of business accounting.  This is BAD business at it's worst.  

[hm9912]

12 hours ago, hpeabody said:

Does Princess not realize they had passengers on board ships before mid-March that they put off in foreign ports when the pause happened.  What about us?  They owe me quite a lot and I am not a lending institution.  We seem to be put aside in favor of scheduled cruises that did not happen.  So are we at the end of the line after they cancel all cruises for the next year?  It will be interesting to see if we get anywhere with this huge new wave of cancellation upon them. 

 

Feeling forgotten.  (I know I am not alone)

Holly:

When you make a purchase on a credit card you have certain rights and protections on its terms of use. If you do not fully receive the items or services that you paid for it is up to you to contact your credit card customer service and initiate a complaint and follow up in writing asking for a refund. I initially wished we could have been on that cruise with you and joined you again at the chef's table but the DW did not want to be away from our grandkids for so long. Now we are unable to go near them except from across the street. Contact your credit card company and file a dispute for the money you paid for that cruise. Hopefully you'll get some sort of partial refund from them and from Princess?

Howard

[hm9912]

18 minutes ago, jat1977 said:

Happy that someone has gotten something!  However, this also proves that Princess is NOT processing refunds in the order of the cancelled cruises.  Our cruise was March 22, cancelled by Princess on March 12.  We got the email a week ago that they were still working on our refunds (we had two cabins).  After reading the note above, I just checked our cc, and nope, no indication that our refunds have been processed, i.e., no pending transactions.  Curious if Princess is refunding those who have credit cards affiliated with them first . . . would not surprise me.  

You need to file a dispute with your credit card company. Don't wait and expect Princess to just automatically issue a credit card refund. Princess will only give you a future cruise credit

[jat1977]

2 minutes ago, hm9912 said:

You need to file a dispute with your credit card company. Don't wait and expect Princess to just automatically issue a credit card refund. Princess will only give you a future cruise credit

Did you file a dispute with Princess before getting the refund on your Princess Visa?  If not, then it can be assumed that (1) there is no real order to how they are processing refunds and (2) they might be giving preference to customers who utilized credit cards affiliated with their brand.  

 

I have already downloaded all of my invoices for the purposes of filing a dispute with my CC company.  I also contacted our TA (an online agency) to verify that our refund was not going to them first and then being distributed to us (we paid the TA's invoices but our payments on our cc always showed as Princess charging us).  I am ready to file a dispute if May 12 comes and goes.  

[suzyed]

36 minutes ago, jat1977 said:

Happy that someone has gotten something!  However, this also proves that Princess is NOT processing refunds in the order of the cancelled cruises.  Our cruise was March 22, cancelled by Princess on March 12.  We got the email a week ago that they were still working on our refunds (we had two cabins).  After reading the note above, I just checked our cc, and nope, no indication that our refunds have been processed, i.e., no pending transactions.  Curious if Princess is refunding those who have credit cards affiliated with them first . . . would not surprise me.  

We haven’t even gotten an email!

[mcrimmins]

I filed a dispute with my CC company. We'll see.

[hpeabody]

57 minutes ago, hm9912 said:

Holly:

When you make a purchase on a credit card you have certain rights and protections on its terms of use. If you do not fully receive the items or services that you paid for it is up to you to contact your credit card customer service and initiate a complaint and follow up in writing asking for a refund. I initially wished we could have been on that cruise with you and joined you again at the chef's table but the DW did not want to be away from our grandkids for so long. Now we are unable to go near them except from across the street. Contact your credit card company and file a dispute for the money you paid for that cruise. Hopefully you'll get some sort of partial refund from them and from Princess?

Howard

Hi Howard,

Thank you for your comments.  Late yesterday I decided that today I will gather the necessary data and contact my CC bank, Chase.  Mine will be complicated because it is partial and was not paid in 1 payment, bet several over 18 months. That, and I have to guess at the amount to charge back/dispute the best I can because Princess gives no $$$$ amount.  PS I did the Chef's Table on the Pacific and it was FANTASTIC!.  Be Well, Be Safe.

[lhall85917]

For those of you who paid quite a while ago and are concerned that your credit card company won't file a dispute, give it a try. We have a Chase Reserve and I just called to file a dispute for our Feb 13 Sapphire cruise booked on July 4, 2019. They are processing the 4 disputed charges made from July 4 through October 25. Right now I'm waiting for the form to come from Chase to fill out, but they are working on it. The wait time wasn't bad either, the entire call took less than 20 minutes.

We'll see how it works out, if we can get the cash refund we will then work on getting the promised FCC's.

I forgot to ask how long we should expect it to take, has anyone been given an estimate from Chase?

[hpeabody]

48 minutes ago, suzyed said:

We haven’t even gotten an email!

 

Same here, Susan.  Only the automated response type email.  Did you get that?  We, who were actually ON A CRUISE when the pause was announced seem to have been forgotten about.

[BigTimeCruiser]

21 minutes ago, mcrimmins said:

I filed a dispute with my CC company. We'll see.

Yesterday, filed a multiple disputes with the Princess Barclay's VISA credit card company for the two cruises Princess cancelled that we had already paid in full.  Figured that waiting almost 2 months for them to refund our money was more than reasonable on our part and we are in no position to continue to bankroll a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & pcl--a multibillion dollar corporation.

[trrn2016]

31 minutes ago, lhall85917 said:

For those of you who paid quite a while ago and are concerned that your credit card company won't file a dispute, give it a try. We have a Chase Reserve and I just called to file a dispute for our Feb 13 Sapphire cruise booked on July 4, 2019. They are processing the 4 disputed charges made from July 4 through October 25. Right now I'm waiting for the form to come from Chase to fill out, but they are working on it. The wait time wasn't bad either, the entire call took less than 20 minutes.

We'll see how it works out, if we can get the cash refund we will then work on getting the promised FCC's.

I forgot to ask how long we should expect it to take, has anyone been given an estimate from Chase?

Your situation is almost exactly as ours. We had 4 charges and I could dispute one of them online since that payment was  in January 2020. Waiting on the form to dispute the other 3. Chase put those funds back in my account the next morning . Those are temporary until they review the claim. At least I feel I am doing something!

[remydiva]

3 hours ago, hm9912 said:

I just checked the balance in my Princess Visa Card this morning and I received the refund for the two cabins and the two tours that we booked on the Sky Princess cruise for us and the grand kids on April 4th that Princess cancelled.

Thank you Princess and hopefully we will all be able to cruise again in the not too distant future. We also received the travel insurance premium from Allianz that we took out for the grand kids about a month ago.

We also previously received the Future Cruise Credits from Princess about a month ago. We chose Option 2

Howard

Maybe Howard went to front of the line cuz he used a PRINCESS Visa?!

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

Maybe if we all just understand that when the refund offers started they did say 60-90 days and understand that is what it will take. Almost 60 days for us. If you happen to receive your refund sooner. Great, if not. You all knew how long it might take. So no sense to complain and talk about the cruise line as if they were hiding something or holding our money to benefit them. I am sure they wish this was all over as we all do. Speculation and accusations do nothing to help at all.

[LDVinNC]

2 minutes ago, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

Maybe if we all just understand that when the refund offers started they did say 60-90 days and understand that is what it will take. Almost 60 days for us. If you happen to receive your refund sooner. Great, if not. You all knew how long it might take. So no sense to complain and talk about the cruise line as if they were hiding something or holding our money to benefit them. I am sure they wish this was all over as we all do. Speculation and accusations do nothing to help at all.

 

Nope.  They first said "up to 60 days" from the date they received our choice.  I have a screenshot from their website.

 

And now it is a moving target.  We have every right to be upset and I do think they are deliberately dragging their feet.

 

I will file a cc dispute next Wednesday, 62 days in.

[Coral]

7 minutes ago, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

Maybe if we all just understand that when the refund offers started they did say 60-90 days and understand that is what it will take. Almost 60 days for us. If you happen to receive your refund sooner. Great, if not. You all knew how long it might take. So no sense to complain and talk about the cruise line as if they were hiding something or holding our money to benefit them. I am sure they wish this was all over as we all do. Speculation and accusations do nothing to help at all.

I cancelled before the pause. In normal cases, I should have gotten my 25% back, EZ Air that I was due plus refund of port taxes and fees immediately. I did not. When the pause occurred a week later, we were told 30 days. I am past 60 days.

Edited May 8, 2020 by Coral

[PrincessLuver]

5 minutes ago, CarelessAndConfused said:

 

First off, it was 30 days when it started (and even that may not have been communicated well) and many of the reps over the phone indicated it would be sooner than that.  There are PLENTY of unseemly things by Princess that aren't "speculation".

 

Not to mention all of the pre mass cancellation cruises where people are still waiting for their refunds after having been stuck on Princess ships or in terminals or while in transport to the cruise or whatever. Many of them are well past 60 days.

 

 

 

These are our sentiments too....we originally were told 30 days and as of last week the Auto Email Response systems was saving refunds would be processed in 60 days.  Not sure where people are getting 90 days because I must have missed that one.  But I do have documentation of 60 days.  Either way, do not believe what they say anymore and filed CC dispute this week.  Stay tuned!!

[jat1977]

6 minutes ago, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

Maybe if we all just understand that when the refund offers started they did say 60-90 days and understand that is what it will take. Almost 60 days for us. If you happen to receive your refund sooner. Great, if not. You all knew how long it might take. So no sense to complain and talk about the cruise line as if they were hiding something or holding our money to benefit them. I am sure they wish this was all over as we all do. Speculation and accusations do nothing to help at all.

Speculation would be based on an assumption that may or may not be true.  But it isn't speculation when I was personally told by a Princess rep that they were processing refunds based on sailing date (and I believe this was posted on their website at some point too) and today we learn that people with sailing dates after ours already have their refunds, but we do not.  Even if Princess isn't hiding anything or doing anything nefarious with customers' money, they certainly can't claim to be organized.  Reading this entire thread proves that as everyone seems to get different answers depending on who they talk to, and as others have said, Princess keeps "moving the ball" as to when refunds are going to be processed.  

 

FWIW, my TA got back to me after talking to Princess about our reservations.  Princess told her that they are still processing our refunds and that we should give them a few more weeks.  🙄  May 12 marks 60 days and I think that is long enough.

[ceilidh1]

4 hours ago, hm9912 said:

I just checked the balance in my Princess Visa Card this morning and I received the refund for the two cabins and the two tours that we booked on the Sky Princess cruise for us and the grand kids on April 4th that Princess cancelled.

Thank you Princess and hopefully we will all be able to cruise again in the not too distant future. We also received the travel insurance premium from Allianz that we took out for the grand kids about a month ago.

We also previously received the Future Cruise Credits from Princess about a month ago. We chose Option 2

Howard

Good to hear, but just to clarify - was your refund from Princess or was it the result of a credit card dispute? If it was from Princess with no dispute process, then I think you may be one of the first to receive an actual refund from that first round of cancellations!

[hm9912]

55 minutes ago, remydiva said:

Maybe Howard went to front of the line cuz he used a PRINCESS Visa?!

No I don't think so.

Prior to retiring I managed telecommunications in a large call center so  know a few things because I've seen a lot of things in a large call center.

When making a telephone call to any customer service call center, no matter how upset you are against the company, be nice and stay calm to the agent that takes your call. Their job is stressfull and not a highly paid one.

You can state calmly that you are upset and may need to speak to a supervisor if they are unable to resolve your problem but will give them a 10 on the survey if they can resolve your issue. (Agents live and die by those surveys and are very important to them)

The agents have a script in front of them and are told exactly what to say to customers but can often make adjustments for you so you want to be nice. Never use abusive language or swear at them. If you do don't be surprised if you get disconnected. One other thing I discovered is my call to Princess Visa was answered by an agent working from home in The Philippines  which is GMT +8. As I write this it is 1:08 AM Saturday morning.

Any credit card dispute should be initiated as soon as possible.

First call Princess and ask for the refund of a cancelled cruise. They will tell you it will take 60 to 90 business days.

Then immediately call your credit card company to request a credit for the charges on a cruise that Princess cancelled. They will ask you if you have contacted Princess and you will say yes.

 

Good luck

Howard

[hm9912]

14 minutes ago, ceilidh1 said:

Good to hear, but just to clarify - was your refund from Princess or was it the result of a credit card dispute? If it was from Princess with no dispute process, then I think you may be one of the first to receive an actual refund from that first round of cancellations!

It is technically a credit card dispute for promised services that were not received and Barclay's Princess Visa gets the money back from Princess for a cancelled cruise.

[usmprez]

On 5/4/2020 at 12:27 PM, usmprez said:

Just to close the loop, I was advised by Chase this morning that they had now resolved the dispute with Cunard in my favor and this provisional credit was now permanent. All cruise payments have now been refunded to me. For those on a cruise cancelled by the cruise line and still on the fence, my advice would be file a dispute with your cc company. You will almost certainly get your money back in your account promptly!