Normal length for refunds?

[KevinJ]

You do have to track all this carefully. I had done some cancelling and  rebooking back in Feb for a June cruise. Totally forgot about one of the items that did not get refunded. When I was making final payment I ran into issues because they couldn't tell me exactly how much I owed due to the refund being stuck in a processing state. Eventually it got refunded twice so I may have actually come out ahead, but for a bit I was very nervous about missing final payment. My 11/18-19 refunds are still not credited but I'm definitely waiting a week or two more to let all the confusion settle out.  

[FloatyBoaty]

12 minutes ago, KevinJ said:

You do have to track all this carefully. 

When I cancel something, I manually put the credit into Quicken dated about 10 days later so I remember to keep an eye out for it actually hitting my account. When the refunds do post to my credit card account, they are usually dated the day of or after the transaction date & then I just update in Quicken. It's definitely helped me keep an eye on all the repricing transactions!

[Baked Alaska]

13 minutes ago, FloatyBoaty said:

When I cancel something, I manually put the credit into Quicken dated about 10 days later so I remember to keep an eye out for it actually hitting my account. When the refunds do post to my credit card account, they are usually dated the day of or after the transaction date & then I just update in Quicken. It's definitely helped me keep an eye on all the repricing transactions!

THIS RIGHT HERE!! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ You can also create tags. As an example, I've got tags that say Harmony #/20## with the month and year, and others.

EDIT: The problem I have is that if you buy something as a package and cancel one or all, they refund it differently. I've learned my lesson. Now I buy each item, as a single. E.g., Drink Package is one purchase, Dining Package is another. I never buy a group/a cart of items anymore. Makes tracking much easier.

Edited December 3, 2022 by Baked Alaska
Clarification

[JohnK6404]

22 minutes ago, Baked Alaska said:

I've learned my lesson. Now I buy each item, as a single. E.g., Drink Package is one purchase, Dining Package is another. I never buy a group/a cart of items anymore. Makes tracking much easier.

Oooo, thanks!... good to know. I've been doing that without thinking... makes sense not to make it more "complicated" for Royal!  

[JohnK6404]

What annoys me is that they confirm the order number, exact dollar amount, and credit card number/type used to make the original purchase in their cancellation confirmation e-mail. 

Why does it need to take soooo long to release the refund? There is no need to research the amount or form of payment. I guess they fear a system glitch that could duplicate the refunds (Royal's glorious IT) if they fully automate the process. So funny, the original charge hits my credit card within minutes!

Someone is sitting in a basement somewhere with a laptop hitting enter... enter... enter... to release our refunds!  

[DoomSlayer]

Sad to see this thread get to 2 pages. I typically keep a spreadsheet and track all my purchases and refunds. One thing I noticed is even for single items, they sometimes still break them apart on the refund. If for example, I buy a drink package and have to buy my wife one because we are in the same room, the refund is for each one of us, not the single purchase I made. 

[D Alt]

Over the 10 bus. day mark.  No refunds to my Amex yet.  But i did receive a message back from the Facebook team that said they could check for me. Just need to provide the booking numbers. 

[FloatyBoaty]

My refunds for the 3 items that I repriced on December 1st hit my credit card today, Dec 5, and are dated December 2. I know that most of the problems people are having are from the very beginning of the Black Friday sale. Feeling fortunate that everything I did during that period has been taken care of. 

[Robert M]

Still nothing on my Nov 18th….tried calling this morning and the hold time was 1 hour which I couldn’t do at work….

[FionaMG]

17 minutes ago, Robert M said:

Still nothing on my Nov 18th….tried calling this morning and the hold time was 1 hour which I couldn’t do at work….

Yes, still waiting for 19th November. I'm not making an intercontinental call to chase 200 dollars so I'll wait it out impatiently, without holding my breath and keeping my fingers crossed that I won't have to inconvenience my MEI agent to intervene on my behalf, as happened the last time I cancelled CP  purchases. That said, a couple of posters elsewhere who did manage to get through on the phone were told 30 days. I guess it's anyone's guess. 

[D Alt]

1 hour ago, D Alt said:

Over the 10 bus. day mark.  No refunds to my Amex yet.  But i did receive a message back from the Facebook team that said they could check for me. Just need to provide the booking numbers. 

They found all my refund notifications and have to check further with the accounting dept.  

[SeniorCruiser]

I got my Debit Card refunds from Black Friday today. About what I expected considering the volume of transactions they had to deal with.

[Ampurp85]

All of my refunds posted today but they were split up vary randomly and made me crazy trying to match them.  They split a $299 internet purchase, multiple devices, into 3 random refund payments. I finally just added all the refunds and checked with my orders to make sure everything was correct. 

[RCLblue10]

still no refunds on my visa - this is from 11/18 cancellations.  I have not called RCI yet to address this issue.

 

[DoomSlayer]

34 minutes ago, RCLblue10 said:

still no refunds on my visa - this is from 11/18 cancellations.  I have not called RCI yet to address this issue.

 

Same.  I leave this weekend to head to Galveston for my cruise and am debating on calling now or after.

[twangster]

48 minutes ago, DoomSlayer said:

Same.  I leave this weekend to head to Galveston for my cruise and am debating on calling now or after.

 

1 hour ago, RCLblue10 said:

still no refunds on my visa - this is from 11/18 cancellations.  I have not called RCI yet to address this issue.

 

 

30 days yet?  Be prepared for "30 business days" on that phone call.    

 

[DoomSlayer]

15 minutes ago, twangster said:

 

 

30 days yet?  Be prepared for "30 business days" on that phone call.    

 

That was my thought to.  Past performance and experience are not indicative of the future.  Fortunately, it's not a huge amount, it just would be nice to get it before next year.

[Baked Alaska]

They amount to short-term, interest-free loans to Royal Caribbean.

 

 

[DebsGlass]

I’m still waiting. My question is for those waiting, does it say refunded in your order history? I cancelled and repurchased at a lower price. When I didn’t get an email confirmation I was worried. The other 2 items have already posted to my cc. 

[twangster]

28 minutes ago, DoomSlayer said:

That was my thought to.  Past performance and experience are not indicative of the future.  Fortunately, it's not a huge amount, it just would be nice to get it before next year.

I did several repricing of excursions over the past few weeks.  Saved hundreds.  

One was a refund of combined OBC and credit card payment.

Cancelled 11/21/22.

Credit card portion of refund posted to card 11/30/22.

Think I'm whole with Royal at this point.  

I haven't seen issues with cruise planner purchases.  Cruise fares and FCC adjustments are another story.  

[twangster]

12 minutes ago, DebsGlass said:

I’m still waiting. My question is for those waiting, does it say refunded in your order history? I cancelled and repurchased at a lower price. When I didn’t get an email confirmation I was worried. The other 2 items have already posted to my cc. 

The type and look of the order history and email will depend if you are using the new "My Royal Cruises" or the old Cruise Planner. 

Some of these land in my junk mail folder.  Here is one I cancelled to buy again at a lower price.  

Email:

 

 

In my order history it appears like this:

 

[DoomSlayer]

32 minutes ago, twangster said:

I did several repricing of excursions over the past few weeks.  Saved hundreds.  

One was a refund of combined OBC and credit card payment.

Cancelled 11/21/22.

Credit card portion of refund posted to card 11/30/22.

Think I'm whole with Royal at this point.  

I haven't seen issues with cruise planner purchases.  Cruise fares and FCC adjustments are another story.  

I did the same - repricing of excursions and drinks with the cruise planner, but on 11/18 and have not seen anything yet.  2 items should be refunded to credit cards and one item to a debit card.  I have not seen anything on any of them.

 

[twangster]

16 minutes ago, DoomSlayer said:

I did the same - repricing of excursions and drinks with the cruise planner, but on 11/18 and have not seen anything yet.  2 items should be refunded to credit cards and one item to a debit card.  I have not seen anything on any of them.

In my experience VISA takes days longer than Amex to process refunds but debit cards?  Banks hold onto the money forever on the premise of protecting themselves from scammers but I think they just want to use your money for a week or two.  

I've stopped using debit cards entirely due to the way banks handle the transactions.  

[DoomSlayer]

12 minutes ago, twangster said:

In my experience VISA takes days longer than Amex to process refunds but debit cards?  Banks hold onto the money forever on the premise of protecting themselves from scammers but I think they just want to use your money for a week or two.  

I've stopped using debit cards entirely due to the way banks handle the transactions.  

I have you beat there.  I have one of each type of card.  The Key was with a Visa Credit Card.  The Christmas Excursion was on my Amex.  And the Refreshment Package was on a debit card.  I did expect the debit card to take longer, but I have never had a credit card refund take this long.  I am starting to think their batch processing may have been screwed up for activities on the 18th when they were having so many system issues.

[Mike n Ky]

It's now 14 days from the cancelations on my previous internet purchase to my CC. Rebooked charges went right through. I did get the refund a few days ago on the Debit Card charges for other cancelations on dining.

[BobNoxiousUSA]

Still no refund from 11/18 cancellation of excursion.   Something is bugged in Royal's system.

[DoomSlayer]

5 hours ago, BobNoxiousUSA said:

Still no refund from 11/18 cancellation of excursion.   Something is bugged in Royal's system.

Same for me on the 11/18 dates.  I did call them today and surprisingly got through quickly.  However, they just restated the "up to 30 days" language on their response sheet.  Guy was friendly and sympathetic; he just was not in a position to do much until after 30 days.  Funny thing is, if they would refund this quicker, I would probably just turn around and spend it on the ship next week.  But if it drags on, it will mean I have less in my vacation budget to spend with them next week.

[AndyPandy]

Nothing from 17/18th, last week customer service said, they could see they were sent for processing a refund”, but a week later nothing. 

[Robert M]

I called today on my lunch and was told they were sent for processing...but no ETA on when it would be done...

[DoomSlayer]

I guess we are all members of the dreaded 11/18 club.  Hopefully they get it sorted out soon.

[BigKarl]

I just got off the phone with RCL concerning my Nov 19th Beverage package refund.  I was told that there was an error and my refund "did not complete ?" and that they were restarting my refund manually.  When they finished I was told "You should see your refund in 14 to 30 days"  

[letscruise]

3 hours ago, BigKarl said:

I just got off the phone with RCL concerning my Nov 19th Beverage package refund.  I was told that there was an error and my refund "did not complete ?" and that they were restarting my refund manually.  When they finished I was told "You should see your refund in 14 to 30 days"  

Oh no!!!! I've been giving them the benefit of the doubt and waiting, but I also canceled a deluxe drinks package on that same date.  Was really hoping to avoid a call, but I guess I have to suck it up and ensure it's in progress.  Thanks for posting your update; so frustrating.  

[DoomSlayer]

14 minutes ago, letscruise said:

Oh no!!!! I've been giving them the benefit of the doubt and waiting, but I also canceled a deluxe drinks package on that same date.  Was really hoping to avoid a call, but I guess I have to suck it up and ensure it's in progress.  Thanks for posting your update; so frustrating.  

Let me know if you get someone to look at it for you.  The person I spoke to said I just had to wait the 30 days before they would do anything.

[twangster]

21 minutes ago, DoomSlayer said:

The person I spoke to said I just had to wait the 30 days before they would do anything.

That's a CSR "easy-out".  

[AndyPandy]

They are putting mine to the finance department re errors there. 

[jrey51]

I am still waiting on a Nov. 18th refund of about $500 CAD.

Their terms and conditions for beverage package refunds says it should take about 3 business days. Email so 10-14 business days. I reached out to Customer Support yesterday, and they said it would be another 5-7 days.

I am not necessarily recommending this for everyone, but I disputed the charge with AMEX and they refunded me immediately. I am fine with a delay, but this looks like a widespread internal issue with no clear timeline for a resolution, and is a violation of their own T&Cs. Might be an option for others, especially if it's a significant amount and/or you need the cash flow to pay for repriced purchases. 

[DoomSlayer]

So I called in again today using the C&A phone number instead of the Casino line I used before.  I had used the Casino line before because this was a Casino Comp. cruise associated with the refunds.  Today's call made me feel confident that they have identified and acknowledged that their system had issues related to the 11/18 date.  The rep I spoke to today took the time to go through each order in question with me in detail and verified that each one was resubmitted for refund as of yesterday.  She clearly had access to the transaction logs because she started cross referencing internal timestamps and unique identifiers for each logged activity.  I left the call feeling confident I should get my refunds to my cards in the next week.

The rep stated that they had seen a lot of issues with refunds associated with 11/18 and apologized several times for their system issues.  I told her I appreciated her help in looking into this with me at the level she did and did not give me the standard "30-day" answer.  If you are concerned about your particular status, I would call in; but I do believe they acknowledged the problem system wide and fellow members of the dreaded "11/18" club should begin seeing refunds next week.

 

Edit:  I received the following from Royal Caribbean via Facebook messenger after I called.  Took them a while to respond to the initial message, but they clearly are working to right all the wrongs in their system.

[Robert M]

Ok I gotta say WOW….my phone started ringing earlier and it said Royal Caribbean so I instantly thought oh crap something is wrong with our July cruise…it was Javier the gentleman I had spoken with about my issue calling me personally to inform me that the refund funds should be back in my account by the 14th…..took the time to call me from Guatemala to let me know…I was speechless…never have had that level of customer service before

[DoomSlayer]

17 minutes ago, Robert M said:

Ok I gotta say WOW….my phone started ringing earlier and it said Royal Caribbean so I instantly thought oh crap something is wrong with our July cruise…it was Javier the gentleman I had spoken with about my issue calling me personally to inform me that the refund funds should be back in my account by the 14th…..took the time to call me from Guatemala to let me know…I was speechless…never have had that level of customer service before

Thats awesome.  They seem to be owning the issue and trying their best to make it right with us.

[RCLblue10]

I emailed mbayley also and got an "executive" to respond with similar answers.  So it could have took a lot of us calling or emailing to get their attention.