How long is reasonable to wait for deposit return

[hallux]

1 hour ago, susanf31 said:

NCL SAID it will take 90 days to get a refund

Actually, NCL SAID the refund is payable WITHIN 90 days.

 

Here are the words right off the site - "will receive a refund to be payable within 90 days of request"

 

People are only 6 days out from submitting the request, time will tell how long that wait actually is.  There's a phrase in business - "under promise, over deliver". NCL is estimating an extended time because they simply do not know exactly how long it will take so when it takes more than 30 days people won't come crying to customer service asking when their refund will show up.

 

See my post #8, it's not as simple as "send this customer $2,000", the money has to actually be available in the correct account in order to issue it to the credit card company as a refund and they have to have that for 25,000 people a week.  This is why it takes 2 seconds to take your money but weeks to refund in "cash".

 

Logic seems to be taking a backseat to emotion.

[scifimonkey]

As OP I would respectfully point out that I have been waiting since the 10th of Feb.

 By my maths that slightly longer than 6 days!!!

[hallux]

28 minutes ago, scifimonkey said:

since the 10th of Feb.

Excuse me, but didn't the form to submit for cash refund only become available on March 23?  That's 6 days by my count.

[resistk]

On 3/28/2020 at 10:35 AM, drbeamer said:

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

 

Anything beyond credit card dispute limit date of 60 days after statement is going to be unreasonable.

[julig22]

38 minutes ago, scifimonkey said:

As OP I would respectfully point out that I have been waiting since the 10th of Feb.

 By my maths that slightly longer than 6 days!!!

If you will note, I did address your situation in my earlier post.  Most of the responses are assuming you are part of the mass cancellations than happened a month later. I would have thought your deposit refund would have been processed, because, as you said, it was just a deposit - although I would assume they also offered you FCC?  Do you have any FCC credits in your NCL account?

 

What I didn't notice earlier is that you are in the UK.  As I understand it, under normal circumstances, deposits are not refundable, so refunding deposits isn't part of their regular routine.  Since they cancelled on you, you should get your refund.  But as you aren't included in the 90-day time frame, it might be time to contact NCL one last time, then call your bank if that option is available (not familiar with dispute issues outside the US). Good Luck.

[scifimonkey]

Hallux

My post referred to the cancellation of a Spirit cruise to Japan and China by NCL of which I was notified on the 10th Feb and in the covering letter NCL stated:

 Please be advised that a full refund of the voyage fare paid will be processed automatically to the form of payment provided at the time of booking.

I am still waiting for this’ automatic’ process to happen.

 

By comparison, due to the NCL cancellation,  I had to cancel hotel bookings for a pre cruise stay in Tokyo of almost equal value to the NCL deposit.
Expedia, through whom they were booked refunded my monies to my credit card within a couple of days.

Why can Expedia act so quickly and yet NCL be so slow, it’s the same process.
In fact Expedia were responding to my cancellation, which might have been expected to be more difficult.

I accept that I may be somewhat biased being many thousands of pounds out of pocket so I sought the views of others as to whether this represented a fair way for NCL to act.

[dexddd]

Who knows.  There are a couple posts going around and some folks have gotten monies back quickly, others waiting.

 

I can say from personal experience a couple years back when only one of the smaller ships had issues and we had  monies due to be returned it took them 16 weeks for ours and a few others on our sailing to get paid.  For our convenience, of course.

[mnsweeps]

At this point NCL seems to be only waiting for filing bankruptcy so they have to return our monies back. Credit card chargeback is the only option to get your $$ back.

[julig22]

33 minutes ago, resistk said:

 

Anything beyond credit card dispute limit date of 60 days after statement is going to be unreasonable.

By your logic, anyone who booked and paid early would be SOL, since final payment is 120 days, so already beyond the 60 days after statement.

 

Actually, the time allowed for a cc dispute for services not received is generally 120 days after the date services were not received.  The merchant must usually respond within 30 days but the bank has 90 days resolve the case.

[Bigcatmd]

I was the OP on a topic similar to this last week. I was trolled and ridiculed. I was told that if I was too poor to wait 90 days for a refund I should have not been cruising in the first place. The topic was closed by the moderator. 

 

I did get two post that had good suggetions, ie. dispute the charge with your credit card company. That's what I did on 3/24 and all my charges were credited back to my account in 2 days! 

 

Don't wait for NCL to go bankrupt...dispute the charges now. 

[resistk]

2 hours ago, julig22 said:

By your logic, anyone who booked and paid early would be SOL, since final payment is 120 days, so already beyond the 60 days after statement.

 

Actually, the time allowed for a cc dispute for services not received is generally 120 days after the date services were not received.  The merchant must usually respond within 30 days but the bank has 90 days resolve the case.

 

Two different times lines then.  One for people who simply cancelled a cruise and a second for people whose cruise was cancelled by the line. Are you saying if the line cancelled, you can dispute the entire amount even if the deposit was paid a year earlier?

[julig22]

7 minutes ago, resistk said:

 

Two different times lines then.  One for people who simply cancelled a cruise and a second for people whose cruise was cancelled by the line. Are you saying if the line cancelled, you can dispute the entire amount even if the deposit was paid a year earlier?

If you cancel, then you have to abide by the cancellation policy - unless you are more than 120 days out, you can't get a full refund.  Under normal circumstances,  you would not win a CC dispute, regardless of the timeline, if you aren't due a refund.  You are responsible to pay the cancellation penalty if between 30 and 120 days, take the FCC, or file a claim through your travel insurance, if your reason is covered.  How far back a bank would allow a chargeback claim if you cancel probably varies by bank, although I would think that if you are promised a refund and it doesn't come, they would process your claim, using the date you cancelled to start the time.

 

If your cruise is cancelled, you could dispute through your CC if the cruise line refuses to refund your money.  In that case, you can dispute the amount AFTER they fail to refund your money, once you have filed a claim.  Some feel the 90 day timeline is unreasonable, others think that by filing a claim while they wait will somehow save them from losses if NCL files bankruptcy.  I disagree with both.

 

Are people doing otherwise - of course.  Are people getting immediate refunds through their CC- kinda.  They are getting temporary chargeback credits.  Will those chargebacks remain in their accounts - nobody knows. 

[luv2kroooz]

8 hours ago, rhblake said:

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.

Maybe it isn't unusual. I'm sure they are busy. But it is too long. The fact that they are busy is their problem to solve, not mine.

[BonnieJeanne]

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?

I used cruisenext deposit and was back on my NCL account in a few days. Airfare reimbursement took about 6 weeks.


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[CherWolf]

On 3/28/2020 at 11:04 AM, schmoopie17 said:

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.

I called on the 9th for exactly the same thing.  My cruise would have been 4/19.  I was told 7 - 10 days and am also still waiting.

[Jobeth66]

We're expecting our trip to cancel (Alaska Cruisetour - the cruise portion is set to dock in Vancouver on 7/6, meaning that it's set to leave FROM Vancouver on June 22nd, before the Canadian ports are scheduled to open).  

 

If it cancels, I will happily wait until the date the trip is due to start for my refund.  If it gets past the date it was to start and I have not yet been refunded, I have no problem initiating a chargeback with my CC - at that point they will have failed to deliver what I paid for. 

 

They are delaying canceling sailings that they know are unlikely to happen, they should be staffed up and prepared to process these chargebacks accordingly.  They are canceling sailings but not even allowing passengers to apply for refunds for those canceled sailings for another 2 weeks.  That's unconscionable.  If the sailing is canceled, they should automatically be processing refunds UNLESS someone opts for a cruise credit instead.  The refund should be automatic - not the FCC.  FCC should be optional.

[Ozzieru1e]

NCL is telling everyone it will take 7-10 business days to receive beverage/dining/prepaid service charges/shore excursions refunds but this never happens.  Also NCL asks us to allow 90 days for processing full refund requests once NCL suspends cruises.  I think 90 days wait is unacceptable for services not received.  It took several weeks calling regarding my refund status to be told they are pending!!!  In one case I was told they issued a refund a month ago so I should check with my credit card bank..I did so by filing a dispute claim & shortly afterwards received shore excursions refund.  Who do you have more confidence in, NCL or Credit Card Company/Bank???

[shof515]

patience is a virtue..if you can wait, then wait. Other cruise lines is also having issues giving out refunds and telling everyone the same 90 day timeframe

 

if you do a dispute with your credit card, that might cause additional problems in the future

[Named-Tawny]

This is basically the free-rider/tragedy of the commons problem in a nutshell.

If you file a dispute with your CC company, it's going to make refunds take longer for everybody else.

[mnsweeps]

Dispute the charges with your CC company asap. If you don't you will end up on receiving end.

[BirdTravels]

2 hours ago, Ozzieru1e said:

NCL is telling everyone it will take 7-10 business days to receive beverage/dining/prepaid service charges/shore excursions refunds but this never happens.  Also NCL asks us to allow 90 days for processing full refund requests once NCL suspends cruises.  I think 90 days wait is unacceptable for services not received.  It took several weeks calling regarding my refund status to be told they are pending!!!  In one case I was told they issued a refund a month ago so I should check with my credit card bank..I did so by filing a dispute claim & shortly afterwards received shore excursions refund.  Who do you have more confidence in, NCL or Credit Card Company/Bank???

Be patient. A dispute accuses the merchant of a fraudulent charge. When you describe your circumstances, your bank may/may not honor the charge back. If it does and NCL determines it to be a frivolous dispute, they have, in the past, black listed the person for the frivolous charge back (i.e., never allowed to cruise on NCL again). Some people say "fine, I don't ever want to sail on NCL again"... but forever is a long time. 

[Buford T Justiice]

Depending on the terms and conditions of your credit card, I would wait about 55 days and then file a protective claim with your card indicating services not provided as agreed.

[jingle5616]

Protect yourself.  You own nothing to NCL, they owe you your paid cruise fare and incidentals prepaid.  The chances of this company surviving this situation grows bleaker each day.  

 

[ColeThornton]

10 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Be patient. A dispute accuses the merchant of a fraudulent charge. When you describe your circumstances, your bank may/may not honor the charge back. If it does and NCL determines it to be a frivolous dispute, they have, in the past, black listed the person for the frivolous charge back (i.e., never allowed to cruise on NCL again). Some people say "fine, I don't ever want to sail on NCL again"... but forever is a long time. 

 

Just curious since I've seen you allude to something like this before but has this happened to someone you personally know or is this one of those "heard it on the internet" things.  I can't imagine in the future that NCL would turn down anyone's money.

 

Thx.

[dexddd]

File with CC.  We had refund due a few years ago when only one sailing from one ship had to be done.  Several of us on rollcall took 16 weeks.  NCL lost major trust there.