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πŸ‘‰ 200 days πŸ‘ˆ have now gone since I was promised a full refund from Royal Caribbean


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I have not been reimbursed yet for a pre-paid booking that was cancelled due to tighter Covid restrictions over last Christmas in my country (no inbound/outbound flights) and which according to the terms of my cruise ticket qualified me for a full cash refund. Which I requested by phone on December 27th 2021 (the cruise was supposed to depart on December 31st)Β  and was approved after an hour on the call and with supervisors getting involved. I later called again after some time has passed with no money-transfer coming through and was again told by Royal that my reimbursement had already been approved and was being processed for payment.

Now I have waited for almost 7 months and I don't think the cruise line can keep using a high volume of requests as an excuse anymore for not returning my money and honouring their own terms of payment.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? Or have you perhaps mostly received your reimbursement?Β 

This is very frustrating and is not instilling me with much confidence in the Cruise line.

I understand that the company is not financially in a good spot after Covid but I do no think that makes it okay to just withhold $6000 for 7 months and not give any updates. Each time I contact them they make me wait a long time, seem very surprised and then confirm I am due to be repaid for the tickets. I am speculating this is deliberate (by top management, not the people working in the service centres) to maintain their cash on hand and to wear customers like myself down until we accept a future cruise credit or until their cash reserves allow for repayment.Β 

What is for sure is that they are not honouring the terms they offered when I bought the cruise.Β 

AndrΓ©s

P.s. I bought the tickets directly on the website.

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You probably need to call again and ask to speak to a supervisor. You may have been issued a FCC (future cruise credit) that's sitting out there and you didn't even know that it happened. Either way, Royal dropped the ball but you have to keep on them to make sure you get your refund. Don't let more than 30 days go by without making another contact and keep notes of who you spoke to and when and what was said. You may also want to try to contact them via social media (Facebook or Twitter) and see if you can't get some direction there as well.

We used a Travel Agent so it fell on her to get our refunds and it was even an arduous and confusing process for her.

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9 minutes ago, RogerC1 said:

Contact the Better Business Bureau. They have helped me in situations in the past when I went through something similar with a different company. Probably wouldn't hurt to let Royal know you will be going that route as well. You've waited long enough for the refund.

Thanks Roger.

Yes. I think that might be the next move. These practises are not fair towards customers.

And regrettably such action, preferably by a number of people who are in the same spot, is sometimes the only way to hold corporations accountable.

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11 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

You probably need to call again and ask to speak to a supervisor. You may have been issued a FCC (future cruise credit) that's sitting out there and you didn't even know that it happened. Either way, Royal dropped the ball but you have to keep on them to make sure you get your refund. Don't let more than 30 days go by without making another contact and keep notes of who you spoke to and when and what was said. You may also want to try to contact them via social media (Facebook or Twitter) and see if you can't get some direction there as well.

We used a Travel Agent so it fell on her to get our refunds and it was even an arduous and confusing process for her.

Yes ditto to all of this. I have heard making the complaint on Twitter can sometimes get a quicker response.

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12 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

You probably need to call again and ask to speak to a supervisor. You may have been issued a FCC (future cruise credit) that's sitting out there and you didn't even know that it happened. Either way, Royal dropped the ball but you have to keep on them to make sure you get your refund. Don't let more than 30 days go by without making another contact and keep notes of who you spoke to and when and what was said. You may also want to try to contact them via social media (Facebook or Twitter) and see if you can't get some direction there as well.

We used a Travel Agent so it fell on her to get our refunds and it was even an arduous and confusing process for her.

Thanks Ashley. You might be right.

I actually got an email in between the two calls which mentioned that I had a FCC ready to use. Which is what they tried to let me accept on the 1st call but I would not budge.

Not because I was not thinking of buying another cruise with Royal, but just to have more flexibility in terms when it would happen and it being a large amount of money.Β 

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24 minutes ago, WAYNO said:

Stick with this.Β  If not just for you, for everybody that ends up on the back burner when they have uncomfortable business with Royal.Β  When I'm spending money with Royal, they answer the phone really quick.Β  When I have issues, they have a real habit of ignoring my calls.πŸ₯΄

I am on the phone with them now. Let's see what happens πŸ€“

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I spoke to a guy just now with Royal after almost an hour on the line.

Actually I had forgotten the exact amount. It was more than $10.000.Β 

Anyway. He apologised and promised to have it reimbursed within 30 days. I will update you guys if this happens or not.

Thank you for the support and encouragement 😊

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34 minutes ago, Andres Jonsson said:

I spoke to a guy just now with Royal after almost an hour on the line.

Actually I had forgotten the exact amount. It was more than $10.000.Β 

Anyway. He apologised and promised to have it reimbursed within 30 days. I will update you guys if this happens or not.

Thank you for the support and encouragement 😊

Fingers crossed for you (good luck).

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14 minutes ago, Pooch said:

Of course I didn’t get an answer from HIM!!! Β But the staff overseeing his emails are much more responsive than calling the customer service line.

Well, I'm glad you got some satisfaction from "THEM".Β Β πŸ˜†

BTW:Β  When I'm not satisfied, I mean really not satisfied with something, I write a letter, yes I use snail mail, to the CEO of whatever company.Β  I once got a phone call, within a couple of weeks of sending a letter, from the CEO of Chevron.Β  I'm now loyal to Chevron because he took the time to listen and then took the appropriate action.

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14 hours ago, Andres Jonsson said:

I spoke to a guy just now with Royal after almost an hour on the line.

Actually I had forgotten the exact amount. It was more than $10.000.Β 

Anyway. He apologised and promised to have it reimbursed within 30 days. I will update you guys if this happens or not.

Thank you for the support and encouragement 😊

It doesn't hurt to get contact information for various Royal executives (another site publishes such information).Β  We were able to get some intervention when my wife's suitcase was lost/stolen.Β  Good luck!

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You are not alone.Β  I'm having a similar situation (just not the same amount or the same length).Β  I unfortunately got COVID 2 days before the sail date and could not sail (so cruise was paid in full).Β  My TA contacted Royal and provided the details to include the test results from the Abbott test.Β  Royal indicated that they would be providing a 100% refund as a result.Β  Now, what actually has been happening is that Royal has been disbursing some of my money in increments and spaced apart by a few weeks.Β  We are now approaching 50 days since they were notified and they still have about 20% of the funds.Β  The TA that we used called Royal again this week and was told that the system had a block on my account for that sailing.Β  Her note indicated that meant it was holding my money as a "penalty" for not going.Β  The TA has escalated to the resolutions desk and another commitment was made to disburse within 10 days.Β Β 

Hang in there!Β  For me I'm still a cruising nut and Royal fan.Β  While this is happening, I have booked three more cruises with deposits.Β  I still want the full refund and I will pay these cruises independently.Β  πŸ™‚Β Β 

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13 hours ago, Pooch said:

Of course I didn’t get an answer from HIM!!! Β But the staff overseeing his emails are much more responsive than calling the customer service line.

I tried a few years ago, cant recall if it was Bayley or a predecessor. As you indicate I got an almost immediate response from one of his "assistants" who completely ignored what I had said in my message and trotted out a "canned response". Then ignored my explanation of the actual problem and hung up on me.

That was the day I stopped being "Loyal to Royal" and started branching out to other cruise lines, in general it has worked out well for me πŸ˜‰

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22 minutes ago, Carlos A. said:

You will probably get an answer from someone of his staff. I've solved several issues this way.

I'm sure you are right.Β  BUT, if it is important enough for me to seriously complain about something, I will send a written letter, certified.Β  I have a great friend that I grew up with who is a retired police chief and mayor of a city.Β  He once (many years ago) told me what he does.Β  That's find out the name if the CEO, and Corp address, don't ask or be demanding of anything, be somewhat humble.Β  Personalize the letter by addressing the envelope directly to him/her and in the salutation.Β  I took his advice and it has always worked for me, both in Military life and as a civilian, except for Brand X Cruise Lines.Β Β 

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On 7/15/2022 at 9:09 AM, Moby Dick said:

I'm sure you are right.Β  BUT, if it is important enough for me to seriously complain about something, I will send a written letter, certified.Β  I have a great friend that I grew up with who is a retired police chief and mayor of a city.Β  He once (many years ago) told me what he does.Β  That's find out the name if the CEO, and Corp address, don't ask or be demanding of anything, be somewhat humble.Β  Personalize the letter by addressing the envelope directly to him/her and in the salutation.Β  I took his advice and it has always worked for me, both in Military life and as a civilian, except for Brand X Cruise Lines.Β Β 

I've done this a couple of times in the past, and it's worked most of the time. However, Royal Caribbean may be another of the exceptions. In 2013 my wife & I were on a cruise with RCL and made a deposit for a Future Cruise. Before we could take another cruise w/ Royal our dog became very ill and required constant attention. She died about the time COVID hit, further preventing us from cruising. We finally got going again this year and attempted to use our FCC from 2013. It's been a comedy of errors tragedy. The FCC was associated with a local travel agent who went out of business during COVID. I requested that RCL reassign the FCC to our new agent. They said (via email) they'd done this but the new agent couldn't find it. After a month with no news I decided to call customer service and was told that instead of transferring the credit it had been refunded to the original credit card. That card, however, had been cancelled in 2016. CS said they'd alert "someone in finance" and get it resolved. After six weeks I emailed again asking for help and was told to call CS (initially they gave me a number for a psychic service. I replied with a ???? msg and they gave me the correct number). I called, and sat on hold for an hour before being told I'd be transferredΒ  to a supervisor. Then the line went dead. Undeterred, I called back. I went through all the explanations again, and was told I'd be transferred to the "Resolutions Department". After 30 minutes the CS rep came back and said he was still waiting. After another hour and a half with no further contact I hung up. That was early July.Β 

On 4 July I wrote and mailed a letter addressed to Vicki Freed, whose name and address I'd obtained from the internet. She is supposedly Royal Caribbean's senior vice president ofΒ Sales, Trade Support and Service. I have yet to hear anything back.Β 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/15/2022 at 7:00 AM, DMLM said:

You are not alone.Β  I'm having a similar situation (just not the same amount or the same length).Β  I unfortunately got COVID 2 days before the sail date and could not sail (so cruise was paid in full).Β  My TA contacted Royal and provided the details to include the test results from the Abbott test.Β  Royal indicated that they would be providing a 100% refund as a result.Β  Now, what actually has been happening is that Royal has been disbursing some of my money in increments and spaced apart by a few weeks.Β  We are now approaching 50 days since they were notified and they still have about 20% of the funds.Β  The TA that we used called Royal again this week and was told that the system had a block on my account for that sailing.Β  Her note indicated that meant it was holding my money as a "penalty" for not going.Β  The TA has escalated to the resolutions desk and another commitment was made to disburse within 10 days.Β Β 

Hang in there!Β  For me I'm still a cruising nut and Royal fan.Β  While this is happening, I have booked three more cruises with deposits.Β  I still want the full refund and I will pay these cruises independently.Β  πŸ™‚Β Β 

I just wanted to provide an update.Β  We finally received our remaining balance last week.Β  The good news is that we received the funds within the time defined by the resolutions desk.Β  Glad the TA continued to work this for us.

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