Americans, how long until you received your refund?

[TomC21]

I cancelled my November cruise a few days ago and was told on the phone it would take (up to) 60 days for a refund. If they’re now saying I won’t get a refund until 60 days after my November sail date, that won’t fly with me. I will dispute after I reach 60 days of my phone call. I was given a reference #

fortunately we’re only out our deposit of $398

Edited April 30, 2020 by TomC21

[Até]

The "after the sail date" part only comes in with the MSC cancelled sailings.  If you cancel it is X days from the date you cancel.  Over the last 8 weeks when I cancelled I was given a range from "7 days" to "at least 60 days" as more cruises were being cancelled.

[Cruising89143]

Below is the email that I received from MSC on 3/30 when I submitted for my refund on their website which has different wording than what is currently being shown. If I don’t receive a full refund by 5/30 I will dispute the full amount with my credit card company. They asked for sixty days which I will give them but not more than that. I want to be fair but not happy with their latest refund policy change. Cruise lines need to be careful. They will need the cruising public when this is over. Do not alienate your best customers.
 

Dear ....................., 

Your MSC Cruise Assurance Form has been successfully submitted. 
Your Refund Reference Number for this request is - .................
Use this Reference Number for all future correspondence regarding this request. 
Your refund will be processed within 60 days. 
Thank you, 
MSC Cruises 

[jansarts]

I have contacted MSC again, several times. I still have not received refund of any "Pre-paids"  Or of course the cruise itself. I was told on April 16th and April 29th " a refund of the taxes and port charges has been processed back to your credit card on April 15th.. Of course nothing as of today. I called my bank  told it should take no more than 5-7 business days  for "processing". Called MSC again was told their "processing" can take up to  30 days! Come on!, really!. MSC agent had no idea why the rest  of the money was not " processed", got the usual "I am sending an email to that department, they will contact you". NEVER happens!  My Bank told me, if the Cruise line stated a time frame for a refund(60 days) they have that amount of time to refund,  not ethical but legal.May 14 will be 60 days, We'll see what happens. Frankly if the cruise lines were not planning of refunding, they should not have offered it when the cruises were cancelled.  Just wish this could  all be resolved.

[Bob7]

On 4/30/2020 at 10:51 PM, jansarts said:

(snip)  My Bank told me, if the Cruise line stated a time frame for a refund(60 days) they have that amount of time to refund,  not ethical but legal.(snip)

Were you talking to Visa or Mastercard?

[jansarts]

visa

[Rob-Bob]

I am on day 51 since MSC said I would get a refund within 60 days.  Nothing yet!

[BermudaBound2014]

I"m on day 51 also! Nothing yet for me. We can keep each other company.

[dexddd]

We were on same sailing as Rob Bob but think a couple days behind in doing request. 

 

Based on the lack of reports here, expecting 60 days to come and go.  Not happy.

[BermudaBound2014]

3 minutes ago, dexddd said:

We were on same sailing as Rob Bob but think a couple days behind in doing request. 

 

Based on the lack of reports here, expecting 60 days to come and go.  Not happy.

 

Do you mind me asking what sailing? I was April 4 on Seaside.

[dexddd]

1 minute ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

Do you mind me asking what sailing? I was April 4 on Seaside.

We were 3/22 Mera.  Had a Royal YC and with price increases even the 25% doesn't come close to what they are asking for the same category now.  Nowhere close to being whole and slow playing refund of prepaid items not making me happy.

 

I might have to take it out on DS with detention.  Oh, wait.

[Bob7]

1 hour ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

I"m on day 51 also! Nothing yet for me. We can keep each other company.

You'll have lots of company, these posters reach their 60 days same as you, mid-May:  TabbyKats, Ate, SKings, CellFree, JCollin, MandMTravel, SkiiRex, AprilF, KBaller, and Jansarts.  I'm in the late May group.  GatorMom is first, her 60 days was May 2, and she said she'd post here after she followed up this week with MSC and/or her credit card.

[Cruising89143]

Spoke with MSC this morning. Finally reached an agent that had some knowledge and took the time to place me on hold several times as she messaged her supervisor. 
 

They are handling refunds based on your “sail” date. The 60 day window of when you request the refund is out the window. I was told that they are currently working on early April sailings. Also I was told that credit card companies are pushing back due to the amount of refunds being processed world wide. I was told the same thing by Celebrity when working on my refund. She stated that the cc companies are telling them it could take up to two billing cycles to post. 

 

Bottom line is I would not expect to see a refund until after your sail date was to happen. At this point it seems that the process is changing almost daily. I read an article yesterday that Visa is overwhelmed with people disputing charges. It’s a mess all the way around and I’m to the point that it’s not worth getting worked up over. 

[BermudaBound2014]

41 minutes ago, cruisingator2 said:

Spoke with MSC this morning. Finally reached an agent that had some knowledge and took the time to place me on hold several times as she messaged her supervisor. 
 

They are handling refunds based on your “sail” date. The 60 day window of when you request the refund is out the window. I was told that they are currently working on early April sailings. Also I was told that credit card companies are pushing back due to the amount of refunds being processed world wide. I was told the same thing by Celebrity when working on my refund. She stated that the cc companies are telling them it could take up to two billing cycles to post. 

 

Bottom line is I would not expect to see a refund until after your sail date was to happen. At this point it seems that the process is changing almost daily. I read an article yesterday that Visa is overwhelmed with people disputing charges. It’s a mess all the way around and I’m to the point that it’s not worth getting worked up over. 

 

Thank you for sharing. I'm with you in that I am not at all upset or worked up, I'm just going with the flow.  I'm fortunate enough that the monies I have tied up with MSC are not needed, but I respect that others have much more at stake.

 

I am one of the early April sailings so if your MSC agent was correct, I should see a refund that is pending shortly. I had numerous concert tickets for this summer, and all tickets purchased from ticketmaster have automatically shown as a pending refund, so hopefully MSC does it the same way. Ironically, I had way more money tied up in concert tickets than I have in my MSC cruise so I'm happy those refunds were handled so competently. 

 

Hopefully we will all start to see our refunds shortly.

[NameThatFunnel]

1 hour ago, cruisingator2 said:

Spoke with MSC this morning. Finally reached an agent that had some knowledge and took the time to place me on hold several times as she messaged her supervisor. 
 

They are handling refunds based on your “sail” date. The 60 day window of when you request the refund is out the window. I was told that they are currently working on early April sailings. Also I was told that credit card companies are pushing back due to the amount of refunds being processed world wide. I was told the same thing by Celebrity when working on my refund. She stated that the cc companies are telling them it could take up to two billing cycles to post. 

 

Bottom line is I would not expect to see a refund until after your sail date was to happen. At this point it seems that the process is changing almost daily. I read an article yesterday that Visa is overwhelmed with people disputing charges. It’s a mess all the way around and I’m to the point that it’s not worth getting worked up over. 

I'm waiting on refund for a cruise that was to sail March 21st and have received nothing so far.

[MANDMTRAVEL]

I am on day 53, but I guess this does not matter anymore. My sailing date was June 11.

[Rob-Bob]

2 hours ago, cruisingator2 said:

They are handling refunds based on your “sail” date. The 60 day window of when you request the refund is out the window. I was told that they are currently working on early April sailings. Also I was told that credit card companies are pushing back due to the amount of refunds being processed world wide. I was told the same thing by Celebrity when working on my refund. She stated that the cc companies are telling them it could take up to two billing cycles to post. 

Interesting.  I am not sure why the CC companies would take so long once the refund from the cruise company (MSC) was returned.  It is not funds coming from their (CC company) pocket.  I can understand the "disputes" overwhelming the CC companies but not the actual approved refund. I hope I am making sense.

 

I would not think they would be working on April sailings at this point when the March sailings have seen nothing.

 

I booked a land vacation in July to replace 2 cancelled cruises.  I would like to pay for the July trip with my returned cruise money.  I love cruising more than most people but I do not see us cruising for a while.  After adding up all of our "land" vacation costs I really do see the bargain we have been getting over the years on the high seas. We may never get back to the good old days.

[jansarts]

On April 16th , One of my many phone calls to MSC, I was told they were currently closing out the end of the 2nd week of March, canceled cruises.( about 30 days behind, basically). One of the agents explained the entire process of closing out a ship's balance sheet, to make sure all refunds and credits balance out-- it is quite an undertaking, considering the amount  of passengers and the amount of ships around the world. At which point I asked then why was 1 of my prepaid's refunded almost instantly( the other's are still pending)?? Every time I speak to an agent, the story is different, about the refund dates and processes . I am at the point of just re-booking a future cruise and transferring my balance to it. It's not that I don't want to cruise MSC again I loved all my previous cruises with them, I just don't want to go through this again, if the trip has to be canceled again. I'm sure all the other lines I travel with are going through the same issues. Just don't know what to do.

[Cruising89143]

5 hours ago, NameThatFunnel said:

I'm waiting on refund for a cruise that was to sail March 21st and have received nothing so far.

 

Then you will have a legitimate reason to file a dispute after 5/21. 

[Cullyman15]

On 3/31/2020 at 4:43 PM, MANDMTRAVEL said:

I cancelled on March 13th and I am still waiting, patiently .

Same, we were going to be sailing on 22 March. Still no refund. 

[jstrutton]

We were booked on the 23 March Armonia cruise.  It was cancelled, we requested a refund and then got the standard email stating 60 days on 16 March.  Still waiting and on day 51 now.  We also had another MSC cruises from Hamburg (10 May) that was cancelled.  That refund was done on 31 March and obviously nothing as well. 

[MANDMTRAVEL]

And the Airlines?  Were you able to get a refund for your flight tickets or just vouchers for future travels?

[dexddd]

Delta giving ecredits to mid 2022.

[Cruising89143]

2 hours ago, MANDMTRAVEL said:

And the Airlines?  Were you able to get a refund for your flight tickets or just vouchers for future travels?

 United and Delta issued us vouchers.

[MANDMTRAVEL]

1 hour ago, cruisingator2 said:

 United and Delta issued us vouchers.

@cruisingator2 are you OK, with the vouchers? Can you dispute with the credit card company and get a refund?