Paid 8 days ago and still no Royal Caribbean gift cards yet!

[DonS269439]

 I purchased two $500 Royal Caribbean gift cards on 1/6/2025 and as of today 1/14/2025 I have received no order confirmation and no gift cards. My credit card was charged on the 7th and it has posted to my credit card account. I have called and then I was told it was being escalated. I received an email from an ombudsman but they do not reply to any emails and they do not answer their phone. My patience is running out for lack of communication I'm about ready to call my credit card company and file a charge back. I don't understand what the issue is I've purchased these gift cards in the past for previous cruises and received the digital gift cards shortly after making the website purchase. Also when the person on the phone told me it had to be escalated I asked them to just refund since I was never sent the gift cards and they said they're not authorized to refund. If I don't hear something shortly I'm just going to have my credit card company deal with it. 

[rednexsrus]

@DonS269439 

you said you had purchased cruise gift cards in the past with no problems, which tells me it must have been sometime ago because this fiasco with AARP & delivering on cruise gift cards has been a nightmare for an untold number of unlucky members for quite sometime.
If you had only read the numerous post in this forum from those unlucky members who tried to purchase these types of cards, you surly would have ran as fast as you could to get away from this program.
There has got to be a better place to purchase cruise gift cards on the internet besides the dishonesty surrounding AARP’s inadequate attempt at offering discounted cruise gift cards.

you really should have listen to yourself & filed a charge back on your credit card

from day one.

BEST OF LUCK

[DonS269439]

 It was about two and a half years ago last time I purchased them. Since it went so smoothly in the past I didn't think to research to see it if it now was a problem. It was only after the fact I started searching and seeing people having all kinds of issues. Safe to say I will not be purchasing any more gift cards. I actually need one more $500 gift card for my cruise in June but I'm just going to pay directly on the Royal Caribbean website. It's not worth the savings to go through all kinds of aggravation to get it. The good news is when I got home from work yesterday both gift cards showed up in my email. So I don't know if it was the multiple emails the multiple phone calls or the post on this forum that got the ball rolling after 8 days. I submitted the info to Royal Caribbean last night. I would have been fine waiting 7 days if the website clearly said you will get your gift card in 7 days. That way you can plan ahead because with Royal Caribbean they take 5 to 10 days to credit it to your account once you submit the information by email. So from the time of purchase to the time it gets posted to my Royal Caribbean account it is going to be about 3 weeks. That timeline still works out for my cruise because it's not until June.  But the lack of communication like a simple order acknowledgment when I placed the order for the gift cards is unsettling. AARP sends me at least one email a day about anything and everything else how hard is it to send a simple order acknowledgment saying we received your order and it's in process? The only proof from them of my transaction was on the AARP rewards website where it had the date and stated that I had purchased two gift cards but no order numbers to reference. For those who are still waiting for their gift cards keep calling keep emailing and keep pestering. 

[MarkD524822]

@DonS269439 

Thank goodness it all worked out for you THIS TIME.

There are members who have actually lost money fooling with these yahoo’s

again, I am so glad you got the gift cards and enjoy the cruise

lucyp

[AARPConsumerCare]

I'm sorry to hear you haven't received the gift card emails yet, @DonS269439. I understand how frustrating that can be. Sorry, refunds can't be provided for items purchased through AARP Rewards. Can you please private message us with your name and address, so we can check on the escalation for you? Visit https://aarp.info/47hWcl7 for instructions on how to enable private messages. Thanks for being part of the AARP Rewards program.

Brandon C

[RichardB815971]

The fact that no refunds are ever issued (even when certificate not delivered) makes me reluctant to enter my credit card number on the site at all.   

And it is no wonder Carnival has withdrawn this offer.  I imagine they got so many complaints that it wasn't worth it to them.

[MarkD524822]

@RichardB815971 

Richard, how were you able to post when the system was not suppose to be up until 11 pm ET

[RichardB815971]

@MarkD524822   The boards were not down when I posted nor the regular game site.  (Probably not the regular AARP site, either, but I didn't go there,)  Just the Rewards program.