How long is reasonable to wait for deposit return

[scifimonkey]

NCL seem to have a policy of 90 days for deposit return even when they are for the most part just reversing credit card payments. I have multiple thousands tied up in a cruise deposit that they cancelled in early feb ( to Asia). Expedia managed to refund me in a couple of days for the land based hotels I booked in association with the cruise??? why so different?

Hard pressed, hard working company weighed down by the impact of CV 19? .................Or downright crooks?

[Petoonya]

That's crazy that it would take so long! If it helps for comparison, I put a 10/20 cruise under deposit in late Feb, cancelled it a week later and my deposit back in my card Mar 15. Hope you see your money SOON.

[BirdTravels]

In the past, a simple cancellation has been faster than 90 days. But anything that requires audit has taken 90 days or longer. 
 

For example, we had a cruise cancellation last year due to a hurricane and had a refund on a few weeks. But on another cruise where we had airline and hotel charges, those refunds took over 3 months. 
 

The cancellations of all cruises with hundreds of thousands of passengers is unprecedented and no matter how much people say “it’s easy, just refund me my money”, it isn’t. 
 

in our office, less than 20% of our staff can be at work at any one time to maintain separation. So rather than surging staff to handle requirements, we significant reduce staff. 

Edited March 28, 2020 by BirdTravels

[luv2kroooz]

Removing Covid from the discussion, I think two calendar weeks or ten business days is fair.

 

Considering Coronavirus and the increased demand for refunds coupled with reduced work week for NCL, I would say four calendar weeks is fair.

[drbeamer]

My PCC told me it’s taking 90 days for refunds at this point

Edited March 28, 2020 by drbeamer

[rachiem]

My TA is mostly closed and haven't even started the process to apply for a refund.

We have been told nearly 4 months!

[schmoopie17]

On March 8th I called NCL to cancel the Beverage and Dining packages for our May 3rd cruise and to request refunds of the gratuities. I was told that the refund would take 7 to 10 business days to be be applied back to my credit card. As of today, it has been 15 business days and still no refund.

[hallux]

Note that the wording is often "UP TO 90 days".  It could well take less time.  I get that some people might be in need of funds if they happen to be unexpectedly out of work, but (excuse the pun) a large ship (not talking cruise ships that can turn on a dime here) takes a lot of time to turn and it takes time to get money in the right places to back the refunds being issued.

 

Companies don't have a single bank account.  Think of it this way - your fare pays into an account, which is then distributed to "envelopes" labeled fuel, food, crew wages, etc.  With no new income coming into the bank account, it takes time to get money shuffled to where it can be issued out to refunds, especially if logistics are in the works to spend that money on what it was intended for.

[scifimonkey]

18 minutes ago, hallux said:

 

Edited March 28, 2020 by scifimonkey

[scifimonkey]

My heart bleeds..... they cancelled the cruise not me and this was weeks before the main shut down. That was a specific business decision not to send the Spirit to Asia of which a known consequence was the requirement to repay deposits. Other companies seem to be able to reverse credit card payments within days, not months. This experience has seriously dented any faith I have in NCL. I don’t expect them to be angels, they are a business but I do expect them to meet the same standards as other large travel companies which was brought into sharp focus by the contrasting behaviour of Expedia.

[MoCruiseFan]

EASILY it will be up to 90 days.  They are not simply reversing charges, and absolutely not simply to your account.  There are in excess of 100,000 refund or future cruise credits to calculate and process.  Ninety days is easily within the acceptable and normal time frame for such mass refunds to be completed.  Remember that a vast majority of these people are working form home.

[luv2kroooz]

4 minutes ago, MoCruiseFan said:

Ninety days is easily within the acceptable and normal time frame for such mass refunds to be completed.  Remember that a vast majority of these people are working form home.

Say what? 90 days is longer than anything I've ever heard of, not to mention its at least 30 (and sometimes even 60) days longer than the stated refund time of any of their competition.

Edited March 28, 2020 by blcruising

[debeni]

I submitted my “Refund Request” on March 24^th for the canceled Jade March 18^th sailing. 

After I submitted the form, I received the following email:

 

Cancelation Request Confirmation

Your request was submitted successfully. Please allow 90 days for us to process your request.

[luv2kroooz]

When my TA cancelled my upcoming cruise with penalty last week, I received the email below. I am due back port charges and beverage charges. I wonder why there is such a large difference? Allow 90 days vs  within 10 days....

 

"Thank you for choosing Norwegian Cruise Line for your vacation.

As a company, we continuously aim to offer an enhanced experience for all our guests. As per your request, we have canceled your current reservation under our standard cancellation policies. All refunds will be processed within the next 10 business days.

We look forward to welcoming you onboard in the near future.


Sincerely,
Norwegian Cruise Line"
 

[debeni]

59 minutes ago, blcruising said:

cancelled my upcoming cruise with penalty

I wonder if the different is that you “cancelled with penalty”, probably before the cruise was cancelled?  I waited until NCL cancelled the cruise so I will get a full refund.  Maybe this is why I have to wait up to 90 Days?

[pokerpro5]

90 days is unreasonable.

 

Once your cruise is OFFICIALLY cancelled (that is, you get a letter or e-mail from NCL stating so), you can charge this back on your credit card, stating unreasonable wait time for refunds due to poor staffing.

 

You will most likely win.

 

I won a similar chargeback against an airline about 6 years ago, when they owed me $120 and quoted 12 weeks to get the refund.

 

If it really is only 10 days, then obviously don't charge back, and just wait the 10 days.  You should get full clarification which one it really is.

[pokerpro5]

Also, to all the NCL apologists explaining "why" it is okay to take 3 months to refund people, don't bother.

 

It is not the customer's responsibility to worry about internal staffing or workload issues for a company, much like it's not the company's responsibility to worry about the reasons you can't pay them.  If you can't make final payment and tell NCL that it's because your mom needed the money to pay for a cancer treatment, will they forgive you and let you take extra time?  Obviously not.

 

It's a simple business transaction which both sides must conduct in a reasonable fashion.

 

If they cannot refund you for an undelivered service in a reasonable amount of time, you have both a moral and legal right to issue a chargeback.  Period.  The rest is just fluff.

[julig22]

47 minutes ago, pokerpro5 said:

Also, to all the NCL apologists explaining "why" it is okay to take 3 months to refund people, don't bother.

 

It is not the customer's responsibility to worry about internal staffing or workload issues for a company, much like it's not the company's responsibility to worry about the reasons you can't pay them.  If you can't make final payment and tell NCL that it's because your mom needed the money to pay for a cancer treatment, will they forgive you and let you take extra time?  Obviously not.

 

It's a simple business transaction which both sides must conduct in a reasonable fashion.

 

If they cannot refund you for an undelivered service in a reasonable amount of time, you have both a moral and legal right to issue a chargeback.  Period.  The rest is just fluff.

Nobody has said it will take 90 days to get your refund.  So far, we are 5 business days into the refund process for the March 13-April 11 cancellations.  Outside that time period, the process is probably different. 

 

I would expect that if you had a simple CC transaction to book your cruise, your refund will also be simple and there is no reason to believe that it won't be in your account soon (BTW - you probably will NOT get a notification from NCL - it will just magically show up in your account).  But not every transaction is a simple credit card reversal.  Some people paid by check.  Some people paid with multiple credit cards.  Some people may have closed the account.  Some people may have moved.  Some people have applied for refunds for cruises that they canceled, not NCL.  Some people have applied for refunds and canceled the CC transaction.  Some people have applied for refunds and used their FCC as well.  And probably many more creative actions. Those are the transactions that will take time - so allow 90 days covers every situation, including the fast ones.

 

To the OP who had their Asia cruise cancelled, what did they tell you about refunds?  I had a couple of modified cruises and they notified us in late December - my airfare and transfers were credited to my CC immediately and they gave us a list of options with timelines to decide between rebooking and refunds.  So in your case, I would think that your refund should have already been issued, unless you chose a different option?

 

I'm not defending NCL in any way but perhaps a little more understanding?  Not an excuse, but nobody who had a cancelled cruise was expecting this money back - it was spent.  If your argument is that you are paying interest, then call your bank and explain - contrary to popular belief,  they might temporarily suspend the charges (to be clear, I don't mean doing a chargeback) or reverse the interest if you ask.  As to the argument that they took your money right away, not entirely true.  They might have gotten a credit but for large purchases, it could be up to 55 days or more before they get anything. I time major charges so that they hit at the beginning of a billing cycle (30 days) plus 25 days grace period, so the money is in my bank, not theirs.

 

[mnsweeps]

I cancelled my June cruise on March 6 when the 100% refund policy was in effect and time frame was 7 to 14 days. Now its been more than 3 weeks and still not refund. I have already initialed chargeback with my credit cards. NCL folks are basically downright crooks.

[Love my butler]

Don't be fooled people.  NCL is doing this to keep as much of YOUR cash as possible for as long as possible.  The sad part is once Chapter 11 rolls around for NCL, and it will, those refunds might never be realized.  Also those super awesome FCC's will most likely be worthless.

[scifimonkey]

15 hours ago, MoCruiseFan said:

EASILY it will be up to 90 days.  They are not simply reversing charges, and absolutely not simply to your account.  There are in excess of 100,000 refund or future cruise credits to calculate and process.  Ninety days is easily within the acceptable and normal time frame for such mass refunds to be completed.  Remember that a vast majority of these people are working form home.

Me too and everyone in my company but that is not an excuse for not getting things done electronically ( people being ill with the virus and unable to work, that’s a different matter, but relocating computers to new locations should not have a massive impact on a global business. They should have, and be enacting, the disaster recovery plan that any self respecting business of this size should have had in place)

 I don’t think my companies clients would remain clients for long if I used home working as an excuse for not dealing with my account obligations in 2020.

[scifimonkey]

In answer to the question of what they told me when they wrote cancelling back on Feb 10th, no time frame was mentioned.

My expectation was that it might be a few weeks and bear in mind that at that point only China and a few locations in SE Asia were affected.
When nothing had happened by the end of the month I phoned to see what was happening and just got the run around and a bland commitment that it was being processed.

I then patiently waited a further month until a couple of days ago when because the deposits ( some thousands of pounds by the way) had still not been refunded I contacted them again. It was at this point that I was told that it could be up to 90 days. 

I will give them another week before reverting back to the CC company however I am concerned that because NCL have quoted a specific time period the CC company will use this to swerve their payment protection obligations. 
The cancellation of a bucket list first trip to Japan and China was bad enough ( though I do not blame NCL for that of course) but not being able to retrieve my deposit just adds insult to injury.

Had never considered the size of the deposit in 20 years of cruising but it will sure be near the top of my list when I can finally get around to booking the next one.

[rhblake]

You have to remember in these unusual times they are probably trying to process more than 25,000 (number of NCL cabins, all ships) refunds per week it may take a while. Taking 30 to 60 days would not be unusual.

Edited March 29, 2020 by rhblake

[NYcruzzer]

18 hours ago, MoCruiseFan said:

EASILY it will be up to 90 days.  They are not simply reversing charges, and absolutely not simply to your account.  There are in excess of 100,000 refund or future cruise credits to calculate and process.  Ninety days is easily within the acceptable and normal time frame for such mass refunds to be completed.  Remember that a vast majority of these people are working form home.

Are you patiently waiting for a refund as well ?

[susanf31]

"Nobody has said it will take 90 days to get your refund. "

 

This is wrong.  NCL SAID it will take 90 days to get a refund.  That's the message that popped up from NCL when we all submitted our form to receive a refund!

 

90 days is ridiculous.  It took them 2 seconds to take my money.