Gift cards not received

[DaphneB243924]

I signed up for AARP a few days ago (on someone else’s suggestion). Against my better judgement I purchased a few carnival gift cards (currently on first cruise). AARP has made this vacation a nightmare for me. I finally received 3 of the gift cards I purchased, unfortunately, thinking they had fixed the problem, I purchased another gift card. Here I am stuck waiting again 3 more business days! Hopefully I receive them before my cruise ends. I suggest to anyone purchasing gift cards to do this WEEKS BEFORE you need them. I have learned my lesson the hard way. Good luck 🍀 

[LesL269823]

 Hello, hope your experiences get resolved. Yours is not the first time this issue has been presented. So likely there is more going on than simply poor process or communication in issuing high $$ gift cards.

Just curious, are you purchasing with a credit or debit card and have you contacted your financial Card provider to inquire about when they actually release the funds to the cruise line? 

Since in this case, the cruise line issues each card, some credit/debit/prepaid card service providers may not actually send the payment to the cruise line for a couple days even though the transaction shows on your account. 

This is not generally apparent to people unless as in the case of refunds for card transactions it takes several days to post to your card.

Since the cruise line is issuing the card they  may feel the need not to issue the actual gift cards until they have actually been paid to try to reduce chargebacks.  

I have never purchased these, but AARP needs to be more transparent beyond their statement Cruise Line Customer Care Information.

Gift cards will seeming simple, have federal laws, different laws by state, different policies from providers, redeemers, financial card servicers and sometimes these may also involve offshore transactions you are not even aware of.  This is what makes them so attractive for fraud. 

[AARPJanelleM]

@DaphneB243924 I'm so sorry for this experience, Daphne. Our escalations team is handling your case and you can expect to receive a response within 3 business days.