Regent Refund Experience (please limit to received refunds)

[SkystheLimit]

Refund Update for Explorer July 17, 2020 Cruise We Cancelled

 

3/17/20. Contacted TA to Cancel-One Day Prior to 50% Penalty Date

3/24/20  Received Confirmation from TA and Regent of Cancellation. Deposit Forfeited as Expected

4/22/20  Contacted TA who Called Regent.  Told to Expect up to 60 days for refund.

5/6/20.    TA Called Regent for Update.  Told Refund was Processed Yesterday.

5/7/20.    Refund Appeared on AMEX Account.  AMEX Wire Transfer Arranged for Transfer to Our Bank.

 

42 Days from CXL Confirmation to Refund. 49 Days from Initial TA Contact with Regent

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ronrick1943]

1 hour ago, SkystheLimit said:

Refund Update for Explorer July 17, 2020 Cruise We Cancelled

 

3/17/20. Contacted TA to Cancel-One Day Prior to 50% Penalty Date

3/24/20  Received Confirmation from TA and Regent of Cancellation. Deposit Forfeited as Expected

4/22/20  Contacted TA who Called Regent.  Told to Expect up to 60 days for refund.

5/6/20.    TA Called Regent for Update.  Told Refund was Processed Yesterday.

5/7/20.    Refund Appeared on AMEX Account.  AMEX Wire Transfer Arranged for Transfer to Our Bank.

 

42 Days from CXL Confirmation to Refund. 49 Days from Initial TA Contact with Regent

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks, sounds good for you.  However never heard oof a refund from anyone one taking 42/49 days.  Just shouldn't take that long---once they cancel on their records it's all computer driven.

[Pcardad]

Regent refunds currently being done by hand and re-checked by hand. Confirmed by a few people...please don't take my word for it. 

[Travelcat2]

Even I can verify that these are being by hand.

[pappy1022]

8 hours ago, Pcardad said:

Regent refunds currently being done by hand and re-checked by hand. Confirmed by a few people...please don't take my word for it. 

Pathetic process. My gosh this is 2020. 

[PaulMCO]

11 hours ago, pappy1022 said:

Pathetic process. My gosh this is 2020. 

Pathetic -- Regent worker's are all at home...

[Travelcat2]

8 minutes ago, PaulMCO said:

Pathetic -- Regent worker's are all at home...

 

You're right!  Plus, Regent only had 3 people that process refunds (according to my source - not anyone inside of Regent).  

 

Pcardad - where are you?  Hope that you did not decide that the Regent board wasn't worth posting on.  That would be sad.

Edited May 8, 2020 by Travelcat2

[Pcardad]

I am not going anywhere. 

[Travelcat2]

35 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

I am not going anywhere. 

 

[greykitty]

1 hour ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

You're right!  Plus, Regent only had 3 people that process refunds (according to my source - not anyone inside of Regent).  

 

 

Wait, seriously - NCLH does not have a combined financial department?  Or the combined entity has only three people using pen and paper and a 10-key?   I'd hate to see how they're doing segregation of duties. 

 

Also, to the work at home deal, if things are slowed I suspect it's because of a lack of investment in technology.  My own former firm invested heavily in remote technology over the years and it helped immensely during this situation.   I do believe I've read that none of the cruise lines are known for their high tech capabilities off ship.

 

Those may be factors - as is the controlling of hard cash flow out of the entity as a policy decision.

Edited May 8, 2020 by greykitty

[CruisetheCs]

21 hours ago, ronrick1943 said:

Thanks, sounds good for you.  However never heard oof a refund from anyone one taking 42/49 days.  Just shouldn't take that long---once they cancel on their records it's all computer driven.

 

Indeed, this refund process sounds bizarre in this day and age.  What does "being done by hand" mean?  They don't use computers and are just looking at pieces of paper?  Or they are calculating something on pieces of paper without a computer or what?  This info has to be on computers so why can't refunds be processed in a timely manner?

 

Regent does a number of things well, but too often when it comes to communication they do an abysmal job of letting people know what is going on. It would be easy to explain the reason for the lengthy refund time and to give regular updates of where they are in the refund process.  The alternative is, of course, to let people air their complaints on CC and probably other social media which does nothing good for Regent's reputation.  

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

Let’s face it... all the cruise lines are trying to space out the refunds for their financial benefit. If you believe they will recover, what’s the difference? I am waiting for my refund and have deposits on 4 future cruises. Yes, we have lots of $$$ at risk, but we have much more at risk in our stock portfolio. 
sheila

[greykitty]

I think it's just a question of transparency in the process and respect for their clients.  Goes to tone of management, IMO.  

[Travelcat2]

1 hour ago, greykitty said:

Wait, seriously - NCLH does not have a combined financial department?  Or the combined entity has only three people using pen and paper and a 10-key?   I'd hate to see how they're doing segregation of duties. 

 

Also, to the work at home deal, if things are slowed I suspect it's because of a lack of investment in technology.  My own former firm invested heavily in remote technology over the years and it helped immensely during this situation.   I do believe I've read that none of the cruise lines are known for their high tech capabilities off ship.

 

Those may be factors - as is the controlling of hard cash flow out of the entity as a policy decision.

 

1 hour ago, greykitty said:

 

 

It is my understanding that the people processing refunds for Regent are separate from those doing the processing for the other two brands.  The three brands are completely different and I assume that the processing of refunds is also different.  Regent, for instance, needs to refund monies paid for excursions (Regent Choice excursions that may not have been fully covered by OBCs).    Oceania gives a choice of what benefits you want.  Some take a few included excursions while others take a discount on the alcohol or internet packages.  Really not sure what needs to be considered with NCL refunds.  

 

Agree that cruise Iines seem to be behind in terms of high tech capabilities (as evidenced by some of the difficult to navigate website).  Regent latest iteration is much more user friendly - at least for me.  It likely did not make sense to have programmers create a new program to process refunds and/or FCC's.  That could have taken longer that processing them by hand.  

 

I have heard no evidence that the people processing refunds are working at home.  They likely are on the 4-day work week but probably could work at headquarters and maintain social distancing.  NCL in Miami is more than just one building so there is a lot of space.

Edited May 8, 2020 by Travelcat2

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

1 minute ago, greykitty said:

I think it's just a question of transparency in the process and respect for their clients.  Goes to tone of management, IMO.  

Check the other CC cruise line forums. Same story...

BTW...You must try Regent. The Regent experience is simply the best. We had sailed on most other lines, but began sailing only on Regent many years ago. Each ship has its own personality. But, we really now love Explorer ( and Splendor) best. We were scheduled on the infamous March 14th sailing, but do have several others booked on Splendor, in the future. 
I would love to answer any questions you may have. 
sheila

[greykitty]

Thanks for the reply.  Many times, even when an entity has different 'brands', they will focus not duplicating 'behind the scenes' departments for each brand, thus, hopefully, achieving some economies of scale.  For example, I could see a scenario where financial people serving all three lines are familiar with and can access  specific policies as needed and be able to process invoices, refunds and adjustments, as well as achieve segregation of duties which is tough with a tiny department.  Or advertising can have a single department for the joint entity that knows how to tailor campaigns for each brand.

 

But, yeah, not all corporations focus on making the same investments.  And maybe in 'normal' times refunds are so rare it's not a key topic.  And, possibly, to be fair, even in February/March when I'm sure the financial people were forecasting there might be a huge emphasis on both refunds and FCC's, might have been way too late to ramp up the personnel they needed to meet the demand.  And, yes, the cash flow element is still there.  All, IMO, of course.

[greykitty]

6 minutes ago, Bellaggio Cruisers said:

Check the other CC cruise line forums. Same story...

BTW...You must try Regent. The Regent experience is simply the best. We had sailed on most other lines, but began sailing only on Regent many years ago. Each ship has its own personality. But, we really now love Explorer ( and Splendor) best. We were scheduled on the infamous March 14th sailing, but do have several others booked on Splendor, in the future. 
I would love to answer any questions you may have. 
sheila

Oh, definitely the same story - I'm amazed at how many wonderful experiences are reported on so many forums, yet management response in crisis often seems 'lacking'.  I keep thinking that it appears that none of the lines invested heavily in technology (other than, I assume, shipboard navigation and other systems). 

 

If they had, even if you don't want to say I'm slow walking your refund due to cash flow issues, it might be easy enough to send a quick, individualized pro forma email weekly saying 'your refund is in process, here's your case number, we have not forgotten about you'.  More nicely worded, no doubt! 

 

And, yes, to your point - it certainly was people comparing across lines/forums that led to the great discovery that the lines seemed to be not only cancelling cruises in waves, but pushing refund times to the edge of legal terms.  Business wise - understandable.  As a customer, I would prefer to be treated as an adult and just told that this was a deliberate choice to control labor and refund costs, and not me just being left in a dark hole wondering what my status was.

[Travelcat2]

I believe (but do not know for sure) that many departments are the same for all three brands (excursions for instance).  However, they likely have different personnel working on each brand within the department due to the significant differences between the three.  

 

Bottom line is that I have no doubt that all passengers that requested a refund will have it by the 90 day mark (which has yet to come - even though it feels like forever).

[MadMarine]

On 4/17/2020 at 9:26 AM, Portolan said:

I politely suggest that everyone reread the stated purpose of this thread and move the general discussion of refunds and how long they take elsewhere.  I think we all agree on the points raised.  But, the goal of this thread was to gain actual data points about how long between a Regent-cancelled cruise full refund request has taken between the request date and the actual receipt of the money.  Only one relevant post about this to date.  

Seriously folks, was the ask of Portalan too difficult to understand?   If you want to discuss the vagaries of the refund process or your complaints about it, how about starting your own thread!

Mad

[greykitty]

noted and thanks.

[bissel]

I too am only interested in answers to the topic and don’t want to wade through the posts that are not pertinent to this. Could someone technically adept put up a graph or something that will reveal at a glance the length of time from cancellation to refund received?

It is not that the other posts are not important but maybe another thread devoted to those concerns could be created. Thank you.

[CBWIR]

2 hours ago, greykitty said:

 a customer, I would prefer to be treated as an adult and just told that this was a deliberate choice to control labor and refund costs, and not me just being left in a dark hole wondering what my status was.

First, you have said you have never sailed on Regent. Perhaps you should have said as a potential customer. Earlier this week, you predicted gloom and doom and when it was explained what was going on, you continued to post until you were proven completely wrong. You talk about your Big 4 experience but you were not on the core of the business (audit practice). Now it is public relations expertise. Please explain your experience as you asked someone else about their experience and they responded.

Thank you.

Edited May 8, 2020 by CBWIR

[MadMarine]

23 minutes ago, CBWIR said:

First, you have said you have never sailed on Regent. Perhaps you should have said as a potential customer. Earlier this week, you predicted gloom and doom and when it was explained what was going on, you continued to post until you were proven completely wrong. You talk about your Big 4 experience but you were not on the core of the business (audit practice). Now it is public relations expertise. Please explain your experience as you asked someone else about their experience and they responded.

Thank you.

In another thread?  Thank you!

Mad

[CBWIR]

26 minutes ago, MadMarine said:

In another thread?  Thank you!

Mad

Sorry,  you are absolutely correct. Should not have posted this here. I admit when I am wrong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Travelcat2]

Posts going off track has been happening for years (a couple of of us tried to keep other threads on track as well).  As long as it is related (which these posts are) it meets the rules.

 

However, I will be happy to stay off of this thread and did not realize that I was even here.  I respond to posters rather than subjects and apologize for posting on this thread.