Corporate phone number for OBC complaints

Spoke to NCL and was given the phone number for the corporate office. Apparently these are the people that work directly for those that made the corporate decision to limit OBC (so said the Supervisor I spoke to)

Phone: 1-800-456-7298

Mon - Fri; 9:00 - 5:30 EST

I think we all need to call and let them know our thoughts on their "policy change"

It should be of concern to all as the cost of keeping the favorable Canadian exchange rates to try to keep Canadian customers was/is being passed along to all. I wanted to go to Europe for many years, but couldn't afford it due to weak USD to Euro (finally went late last year). If NCL was European based maybe they would have given me a better exchange rate....

I am glad as a NCL shareholder the company is finally waking up. Like you said in your own post that you "finally went last year", you went anyway just like thousands every week that have a great time and have stopped worrying about money they can't take with them after all is said and done. The boys upstairs know what they are doing!

I am glad as a NCL shareholder the company is finally waking up. Like you said in your own post that you "finally went last year"' date=' you went anyway just like thousands every week that have a great time and have stopped worrying about money they can't take with them after all is said and done. The boys upstairs know what they are doing![/quote']

 

I finally went only because the USD has revived against the Euro so I could afford it. For the previous ten plus years there was no company willing to give me a break to get my business.

I am glad as a NCL shareholder the company is finally waking up. Like you said in your own post that you "finally went last year"' date=' you went anyway just like thousands every week that have a great time and have stopped worrying about money they can't take with them after all is said and done. The boys upstairs know what they are doing![/quote']

 

 

I'm sure you have plenty of NCL preferred shares,

Spoke to NCL and was given the phone number for the corporate office. Apparently these are the people that work directly for those that made the corporate decision to limit OBC (so said the Supervisor I spoke to)

 

 

 

Phone: 1-800-456-7298

 

Mon - Fri; 9:00 - 5:30 EST

 

 

 

I think we all need to call and let them know our thoughts on their "policy change"

My thought is that it is a good policy change. Still want me to call?

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The limit on the amount of OBC you can purchase is for everyone now. So even if you live in the US, you can't buy more than $1,000 of OBC.

There's less reason for us to want to buy OBC as there isn't an exchange rate to worry about, but it still is a limit. Like most restrictive rules, the misbehavior of a few affects and costs us all.

Spoke to NCL and was given the phone number for the corporate office. Apparently these are the people that work directly for those that made the corporate decision to limit OBC (so said the Supervisor I spoke to)

 

Phone: 1-800-456-7298

Mon - Fri; 9:00 - 5:30 EST

 

I think we all need to call and let them know our thoughts on their "policy change"

I'm definitely calling to support their decision and applaud them for limiting what was an unfair benefit to a certain class of passengers (albeit a small one).

I hope others call and do the same when they learn about the previously available gravy train only to Canadians. At the rate threads are popping up about it, the entire cruise community should know shortly.

Your call to arms may turn and bite you you-know-where. But just keep yakking it up. It's what got the " perk" discontinued in the first place.

My thought is that it is a good policy change. Still want me to call?

 

 

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Sure. Give them a call. While your on the phone maybe launch a complaint as to why you are forced to subsidize my cruise for me.

So I should call them to say that the new policy is of absolutely no concern to me at all? You did say we should ALL call. It actually makes a lot of busines sene for them to limit it if you think it all the way through. :rolleyes:

Whether you agree with this change or not, here's why you might want to call.

1) Customers bought and paid in full for a product. NCL happily took their money, presumably used it in the intervening months, then silently changed a policy and backdated that change - meaning the people who paid in full will not be receiving what they paid for. NCL did not inform their employees or affected customers of the change, continued to hold and use the funds.

I would think that someone in accounting realized that NCL stood to lose significant money and had a knee jerk reaction, resulting in us having this discussion now. I would fear that NCL is (or feels entitled) to change the terms of any purchases I made. Oh, you bought Spa Passes at a good rate, we want to charge you more now - or refund the passes and sell them at a higher rate. Oh, you prepaid your DSC? We want to raise that fee now so here's a refund and we'll expect you to pay a higher fee once on board.

People have, in some cases, paid for OBC over a year ago. The exchange from NCL wasn't that much better than the banks' at that time. Now those same passengers are scrambling to get refunds (this policy supposed changed Jan 21 a ample time for us to be notified and to have funds returned). They are also now forced to buy USD at a rate that will cost anywhere from an extra 20-35 cents in the dollar. Some people need to budget for stuff like that.

One other point... $1000 may seem like plenty of OBC for two people on a seven night cruise. For those on longer sailings and with larger families, $1000 doesn't go far. This wasn't some being perpetrated against NCL. They happily and willingly sold the OBC to passengers. They seem much less willing to refund that same money back to passengers.

Don't US residents get special fares sometimes, if they live in a certain state?

I have never seen a Canadian complain about that.

Trying to not go off topic, but has anyone ever received one of these state discounts? I never heard anyone say so. Over the years I figured it was NCL trying to get demographic data and now never bother selecting a state when checking online.

Personally I have no problem with either our friends the Canadians or with Norwegian except for the aspect of retroactive policies, it isn't only about currency, it is about making terms and not living up to them.

I don't blame Canadians for trying to take advantage of an offer favorable to them and I don't blame Norwegian for trying to limit speculation. Norwegian should have foreign currency hedges with every country they deal with. That is what responsible multi-national companies do.

Just stop changing terms for those who have already booked. Grandfathering is fair and to not do so attacks those people you feed on for free advance cash. In the long run it will be an extremely bad choice if this continues with their policies, currency or other.

Whether you agree with this change or not, here's why you might want to call.

1) Customers bought and paid in full for a product. NCL happily took their money, presumably used it in the intervening months, then silently changed a policy and backdated that change - meaning the people who paid in full will not be receiving what they paid for. NCL did not inform their employees or affected customers of the change, continued to hold and use the funds.

I would think that someone in accounting realized that NCL stood to lose significant money and had a knee jerk reaction, resulting in us having this discussion now. I would fear that NCL is (or feels entitled) to change the terms of any purchases I made. Oh, you bought Spa Passes at a good rate, we want to charge you more now - or refund the passes and sell them at a higher rate. Oh, you prepaid your DSC? We want to raise that fee now so here's a refund and we'll expect you to pay a higher fee once on board.

People have, in some cases, paid for OBC over a year ago. The exchange from NCL wasn't that much better than the banks' at that time. Now those same passengers are scrambling to get refunds (this policy supposed changed Jan 21 a ample time for us to be notified and to have funds returned). They are also now forced to buy USD at a rate that will cost anywhere from an extra 20-35 cents in the dollar. Some people need to budget for stuff like that.

One other point... $1000 may seem like plenty of OBC for two people on a seven night cruise. For those on longer sailings and with larger families, $1000 doesn't go far. This wasn't some being perpetrated against NCL. They happily and willingly sold the OBC to passengers. They seem much less willing to refund that same money back to passengers.

I've been following these threads with interest. The issue that seems to be eluding folks though is this, OBC is not a purchased product. You draw parallels to purchased items and this is not one. What you have with an OBC is similar to a bank. You give them money to hold for you for your convenience. They in turn get to use it for a period of time until you draw it down. Some mention lost interest on their money, but the choice is yours. For many years many of here question the reasons for buying OBC. I have always agreed, why give them your money in advance. For some of the Canadians, the answer was obvious. They were making money on NCL's exchange rate. We know this is true because they were bragging about it on here.

I've asked and am still waiting for an answer to where is the contract between you and NCL regarding OBC? There is none. As long as the money you put into OBC is returned in same amount as you gave them, you are made whole. I agree with others that say it was time for NCL to close this Canadian bonus. That's what it truly was, no other country could make this work to their advantage and it is time for it to be closed. The cost of providing this benefit was certainly coming out of NCL's coffers and so was being passed on to all cruisers.

Nicely stated vivocala.

Anyone who has traveled internationally has winced at some point through the years while their currency was devalued. I agree NCL set a bad example of going back retroactively on everyone after figuring out some were taking advantage of their favorable rate.

Part of the debate here is that the rate given to some is at the cost of all other cruisers, but doesn't seem to be an issue now as a recent poster stated the rate is now actually unfavorable at $1.46 CAD to USD. So who still wants $5K in on board credit?

Why do people buy OBC months in advance? There is no advantage to this. The exchange rate is set when you book your cruise.

Yes I am Canadian and was planning to take advantage of this loophole if it was still available when I got on board, but it is not so I won't cry about it, I knew it was coming. This is only a big deal now because our dollar has dropped a lot over the past year with the falling oil price. That makes my drive to Florida cheaper.

I am sure if this deal was available to everybody, everybody would take advantage of it.

Greg

If you're a capitalist, there's nothing immoral or "wrong" about doing everything you can to maximize profit (personal or corporate) and reduce costs, provided you operate within the law.

Some smart Canadians saw an opportunity and took it. Those people did absolutely nothing wrong.

NCL saw they were potentially losing money there and closed the loophole, well narrowed it. Can't fault them for that either.

Will the goodwill and potential future business they lose over not grandfathering early adopters in be worth the exchange rate savings for that limited number of people? Time will tell.

It should be of concern to all as the cost of keeping the favorable Canadian exchange rates to try to keep Canadian customers was/is being passed along to all. I wanted to go to Europe for many years, but couldn't afford it due to weak USD to Euro (finally went late last year). If NCL was European based maybe they would have given me a better exchange rate....

Ummmm you pay in US dollars on the ship, very bad example. If you cruise and book your excursions through NCL you don't need a single Euro

If you're a capitalist, there's nothing immoral or "wrong" about doing everything you can to maximize profit (personal or corporate) and reduce costs, provided you operate within the law.

 

Some smart Canadians saw an opportunity and took it. Those people did absolutely nothing wrong.

 

NCL saw they were potentially losing money there and closed the loophole, well narrowed it. Can't fault them for that either.

 

Will the goodwill and potential future business they lose over not grandfathering early adopters in be worth the exchange rate savings for that limited number of people? Time will tell.

I agree the ones that took advantage of the system did nothing legally wrong. I would have done the same thing, capitalized on an advantageous situation.

NCL also did nothing wrong. They didn't anticipate people gaming the system in such a way. Once it was brought to their attention, they shut it down. They should not reward someone taking advantage of the company by grandfathering in their scheme.

The rub, with me, is that now you have a couple of people whining that they were not allowed to complete their little scheme.

I do still agree that their funds should be returned immediately. There is no reason for them not to receive a prompt refund for amounts over $1000....unless NCL is doing to these people what they tried to do to NCL. Maybe it's punishment :D you know, legally, they have to refund the money...but there is a loophole that they don't have to do it immediately. :eek: how does it feel to have someone trying to take advantage of YOU for their financial gain?

In the end, as far as good will and future business......I think NCL will do just fine if they lose a couple of passengers over this, especially if those customers are ones that tend to plot to make their particular cruise a money losing event for the company. You really can't afford to keep clients like that.

If you did this and had your advantage taken away, then I think you should just suck it up and move along. It was bound to be discovered, especially once people came on here bragging about it.

Side note: I am curious what cabins they had. Did they book insides, ocean views, or balconies where their loophole would almost pay for the cruise fare? Or, were they in Garden Villas and Haven cabins where it would only be a small percentage of the cruise fare?

 

I do still agree that their funds should be returned immediately. There is no reason for them not to receive a prompt refund for amounts over $1000....unless NCL is doing to these people what they tried to do to NCL. Maybe it's punishment :D you know, legally, they have to refund the money...but there is a loophole that they don't have to do it immediately. :eek: how does it feel to have someone trying to take advantage of YOU for their financial gain?

 

Trying to not go off topic, but has anyone ever received one of these state discounts? I never heard anyone say so. Over the years I figured it was NCL trying to get demographic data and now never bother selecting a state when checking online.

I'm not sure there is actually a state discount on the cruise fare. I haven't noticed any difference in pricing between my stealth log ins from a VPN in another state and the regular log in where I'm identified via IP address as a Californian. Maybe there are discounts on other things like airfare, gift packages, etc. Or maybe Californians pay more. I haven't seen any evidence of either.

I have seen discounts and thought NCL was very nice for giving them to me. We joined AARP with the express intention of getting the AARP discount. I also have taken advantage of Latitudes Members discounts. I booked when promos offered more free stuff than the people who booked before me.

The discount that Canadians received doesn't affect my cruise fare in the least, except perhaps by lowering it. That's how markets work in the real world. Higher utilization leads to lower costs for everyone.

But cheaters do remove the money from the pool, and raise costs. Rather than returning a small amount of unused refundable OBC a few weeks after the cruise, NCL was faced with people having large sums they never intended to use on board refunded at a 30% loss to them.

It is analogous to someone finding a pair of shoes on sale for 30% off in one store, then driving to the next town and returning the pair of shoes and getting a refund at full price. Then going back and doing it with 30 pairs of shoes. The chain loses 30%. We would likely call the person committing such a scam unsavory (or perhaps "defendant").

Ignore those that say the favorable exchange rate is somehow unfair to others; it is not. It is just a discount. We all like them. And they benefit everyone.

I'm not sure there is actually a state discount on the cruise fare. I haven't noticed any difference in pricing between my stealth log ins from a VPN in another state and the regular log in where I'm identified via IP address as a Californian. Maybe there are discounts on other things like airfare, gift packages, etc. Or maybe Californians pay more. I haven't seen any evidence of either.

 

I have seen discounts and thought NCL was very nice for giving them to me. We joined AARP with the express intention of getting the AARP discount. I also have taken advantage of Latitudes Members discounts. I booked when promos offered more free stuff than the people who booked before me.

 

The discount that Canadians received doesn't affect my cruise fare in the least, except perhaps by lowering it. That's how markets work in the real world. Higher utilization leads to lower costs for everyone.

 

But cheaters do remove the money from the pool, and raise costs. Rather than returning a small amount of unused refundable OBC a few weeks after the cruise, NCL was faced with people having large sums they never intended to use on board refunded at a 30% loss to them.

 

It is analogous to someone finding a pair of shoes on sale for 30% off in one store, then driving to the next town and returning the pair of shoes and getting a refund at full price. Then going back and doing it with 30 pairs of shoes. The chain loses 30%. We would likely call the person committing such a scam unsavory (or perhaps "defendant").

 

Ignore those that say the favorable exchange rate is somehow unfair to others; it is not. It is just a discount. We all like them. And they benefit everyone.

I like this analogy....

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I like this analogy....

 

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Me too, nice analogy.

Unfortunately, they are also hurting those who never took advantage of the loophole and just wanted some money to spend on the ship during their cruise.

True, that's how these things play out in the long run. A few outliers mess things up for lots of people. The ones that were not gaming the system lose out and sometimes suffer. It's also the reason simple programs end up having pages of legal terms, conditions, and disclaimers.

Trying to not go off topic, but has anyone ever received one of these state discounts? I never heard anyone say so. Over the years I figured it was NCL trying to get demographic data and now never bother selecting a state when checking online.

I have seen mention from a Californian CCer getting a resident rate. I don't cruise often enough to know how often it happens though. You are probably correct regarding NCL trying to gather demographic data.

RCL recently had a sale for Texas residents, it was for last minute deals. I've entered my state on the NCL site, but have never seen a discount from them based on that.