APRIL 6 REFUND THREAD: Have you received your refund?

[DWolf2020]

Welcome June cancellers!

The line is getting longer. 😅

[Disneycruisers]

We canceled March 11 (?) I think, yet still have another cruise booked.  We have not received a refund back to our Mastercard, even though Carnival shows it as 'processed.'  We've spoken to Carnival twice already, and they said "with all that's going on, it might take awhile, up to 90 days."

 

Is anyone else having this issue?  I can't imagine why it would take so long.

 

TIA!

 

[SLCfirsttimer]

1 minute ago, Disneycruisers said:

We canceled March 11 (?) I think, yet still have another cruise booked.  We have not received a refund back to our Mastercard, even though Carnival shows it as 'processed.'  We've spoken to Carnival twice already, and they said "with all that's going on, it might take awhile, up to 90 days."

 

Is anyone else having this issue?  I can't imagine why it would take so long.

 

TIA!

 

Everyone who has requested a refund is experiencing the same thing. Scroll through the boards and you will see a variety of theories on why it is taking so long,

[firefly333]

They been posting up to 90 days for at least a month or so, since this started. I doubt it will take longer. You already knew 90 days if you read posts. Carnival going to keep you money as long as they legally can to keep afloat. 

 

No I dont expect longer 

[Disneycruisers]

Thank you.

[Kimster]

On 4/9/2020 at 7:23 AM, sparks1093 said:

As I understand it (from something that I read in a thread on here) there are regulations covering this and cruise lines are required to have the cash on hand to handle customer refunds. Of course it is an open question how compliant Carnival is in this regard but I still strongly suspect that the number of the refunds (unprecedented in itself) plus the reduced staffing and the reduced productivity that can come from working at home (I worked from home long before this pandemic hit and my systems aren't running as fast as they were because of the number of people using the internet) is what is slowing everything down. A lot also depends on whether or not they have an automated process for this or if every refund needs to be processed manually. I doubt that their process is automated.

Credit cards refunds are automated, gift cards manually.

[CarolRoy]

My Sunrise cruise for 5/27/20 was just canceled today.  I received the email from Carnival today.  What is the best way to cancel for a full refund - call my PVP or through the email I received from Carnival.

[Elaine5715]

Easiest is to go thru the email.  PVPs are getting slammed with calls.  

[sparks1093]

8 hours ago, Kimster said:

Credit cards refunds are automated, gift cards manually.

I suppose it comes down to the definition of "automated". A human being has to initiate the refund and I don't think that an employee can input a command to initiate a refund for every passenger on a particular sailing, it has to be done one passenger at a time (in other words, tens of thousands of individual inputs). Once that command is input the rest of the process probably is automated. 

[webzila]

Like many others I have filled out the form for a full refund few weeks ago. No confirmation after submission or refund. Up until recently the cruise still appeared when I would login to my profile - today its gone. So not sure if they just removed them all up until June 26 from "My Bookings" section or if they are doing it on individual basis as they process those forms

[DWolf2020]

6 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

I suppose it comes down to the definition of "automated". A human being has to initiate the refund and I don't think that an employee can input a command to initiate a refund for every passenger on a particular sailing, it has to be done one passenger at a time (in other words, tens of thousands of individual inputs). Once that command is input the rest of the process probably is automated. 

Right now, it seems like the Carnival Customer Service is initializing/"processing" the refund and calculating the amount they're going to refund you and "verifying" that over the phone or via their refund form.  It is then being pushed to their "Accounting Dept." and all the refunds are being held there and NOT being properly automated/authorized.  That's the logjam...

This may have been their CURRENT system OR they did some change because of the millions of dollars they'll be refunding.  The customer service reps. aren't allowed to actually push the refund back to you.  But either way, the actual "initialization" of the refund back to customers is being held up in Carnival's Accounting Dept.  Obviously because of a mix of COVID-19-related State restrictions/no-one-actually-working-except-money-grabbers, Carnival's precarious financial position, and opaque/non-communicative executives...

[sparks1093]

19 minutes ago, DWolf2020 said:

Right now, it seems like the Carnival Customer Service is initializing/"processing" the refund and calculating the amount they're going to refund you and "verifying" that over the phone or via their refund form.  It is then being pushed to their "Accounting Dept." and all the refunds are being held there and NOT being properly automated/authorized.  That's the logjam...

This may have been their CURRENT system OR they did some change because of the millions of dollars they'll be refunding.  The customer service reps. aren't allowed to actually push the refund back to you.  But either way, the actual "initialization" of the refund back to customers is being held up in Carnival's Accounting Dept.  Obviously because of a mix of COVID-19-related State restrictions/no-one-actually-working-except-money-grabbers, Carnival's precarious financial position, and opaque/non-communicative executives...

At last count there are at least 8 cruise lines who are taking up to 90 days to issue the refund so it's more than just Carnival.

[Shynook11]

I filed with my cc to dispute the charges... better safe than sorry.  

[webzila]

On 4/14/2020 at 6:53 PM, Shynook11 said:

I filed with my cc to dispute the charges... better safe than sorry.  

 

What is the outcome. Is there any benefit to this?

It's not like the charge is fraudulent and Carnival is supposed to refund it - its just taking way longer than usual.

Not sure I would recommend this unless it has been 90 days and you still haven't received the refund...but that's just me.

[sparks1093]

Minor update, when I logged onto the Carnival site today my booking is no longer showing up in My Manager. 

[Shynook11]

26 minutes ago, webzila said:

 

What is the outcome. Is there any benefit to this?

It's not like the charge is fraudulent and Carnival is supposed to refund it - its just taking way longer than usual.

Not sure I would recommend this unless it has been 90 days and you still haven't received the refund...but that's just me.

It is in process.  The last time I spoke to the cruise line they told me it could take more than 90 days.   I also had several shore excursions from vendors with no window for refunds, though promised them.   Everyone I know who has taken this route has been successful.  It's not disputed as fraud, it's disputed as service not received by merchant for the cruise charges and services cancelled by me for the other excursions.

I'll keep you posted.  

[webzila]

Just saw this post from Princess that they have started processing refunds. Hopefully it's the same for Carnival since both are part of same parent Corp

[DWolf2020]

1 hour ago, webzila said:

Just saw this post from Princess that they have started processing refunds. Hopefully it's the same for Carnival since both are part of same parent Corp

Yeah, someone mentioned that on another thread that Princess has begun refunds.  Good news.

The big difference is that Princess HQ (and assume their Accounting/Refund office) is in California.  Carnival is in Miami, Florida.

You can see a clear discrepancy in Carnival's procedures and Princess's.  Carnival's customer service and PVP (anyone who can "collect money" from customers) is working....but their Accounting is not?  They're all in Florida.  Come on now Carnival...

[shof515]

16 minutes ago, DWolf2020 said:

You can see a clear discrepancy in Carnival's procedures and Princess's.  Carnival's customer service and PVP (anyone who can "collect money" from customers) is working....but their Accounting is not?  They're all in Florida.  Come on now Carnival...

most PVPs can work from home

[lulamc]

Today I got refunded for some of my daughters wedding, and the pixels I'd bought for their cabin. Got a couple thousand, they owe me thousands more.  But I'm glad to have gotten this. 

[rico]

1 hour ago, lulamc said:

Today I got refunded for some of my daughters wedding, and the pixels I'd bought for their cabin. Got a couple thousand, they owe me thousands more.  But I'm glad to have gotten this. 

Glad you got some of the refund.  When did you cancel?  Curious how long it took.  We canceled on Mar 14, still no sign of refunds for cruise or excursions.

[zpdw484]

We were scheduled to sail 3/14. We filled out the form for a refund immediately. Today received $138 refund. I think this was the initial deposit amount I paid. I booked through a travel agent that fronted the first $500 of the deposit.  Hopefully this means the rest will be on its way soon

[grandmarnnurse]

My B2B was cancelled in 2 phases. The first leg, April 5, was cancelled back in mid March. I chose the FCC with OBC. Then they cancelled the second leg around March 30, and I chose the FCC with OBC. I had about $1600 of refunds due me, as well, for various purchases between the two cruises. I called my PVP and booked a 14 day Journey cruise to Panama Canal for January 2021. After FCC was transferred, I had a balance of $914. Within 3 days I recieved a new statement saying I no longer had a balance. I called my PVP, and she verified that the balance was paid off with some of my refunds, and that the remaining $707 would land on my credit card in about 90 days. It could be sooner, but they are telling everyone 90 days. 

[Essiesmom]

My June cruise is still in my planner, and I was just able to pull it up in the HUB app.  EM

[tdggal1980]

We canceled 3/13 and just received our Spa & distilled water order refunds.  We are still waiting on much more but it’s a start!