Summary: Extremely unfair policies coupled with poor customer service makes for a nightmarish booking experience.
My partner and I have been on various ocean cruises and have found the Cruise Critic Community extremely helpful on gaining insights on various ships and cruise lines. Based on the recommendation of my mother, we have decided to try river cruising for the first time with Viking. We are having an extremely negative experience with the Viking Reservation team and I was initially hesitant to share it because I didn't want to make the forums overly negative, but I was curious if others had been in similar situations and how they were able to resolve it.
We booked our trip, the Romantic Danube, for October 2023 through a TA from a reputable agency. The TA used my mother's referral code as my mother has traveled on Viking river cruises in the past. My partner's parents also booked the same cruise and used my mother's referral. My friend heard about this trip and spoke to his parents, and his parents also ended up booking a river cruise with my mother's referral code. Although there were no more verandas nor any staterooms available for the time period that worked for both myself and my partner, we were still excited to experience our first river cruise. We fully paid for the cruise almost a month ago and selected our flights. All seemed well until a couple of days ago when my TA called me to tell me that Viking has retroactively reneged on the discounts that were given through referrals, that we now have $200 outstanding for each room, and that the Viking rep said that the reservations will be canceled if it's not paid. My TA has tried to reach out to Viking multiple times but they won't tell her why the referrals were revoked. In desperation she asked me to call to see if they'll at-least tell me the reason.
The first Viking agent I spoke with claimed that the referrals were revoked because the customer ID for the referral was invalid. I double checked with my TA, and she claims that it'd be impossible because when she booked the cruises, the Viking rep asked for confirmation for my mother's name (meaning the ID used was correct and in their system). I called Viking again and this time the agent told me that the referrals were flagged as fraudulent in an audit but he couldn't give me a specific reason why. He connected me to his manager to see if his manager had more information. While unhelpful, the two agents I spoke with previously were at-least polite and inquired about my situation. The manager, however, was very unpleasant and did not even pretend to care. I get that customer facing roles can be stressful, but being rude and condescending does not solve any problems. The manager kept insisting that the referrals were fraudulent and he kept repeating the same sentences over and over again, even when being asked why the referrals were being flagged as fraudulent (he kept repeating that the referrals were marked fraudulent because they were fraudulent, without explaining where the alleged fraud occurred). When being asked whether he can inquire into the cause of why it's marked fraudulent he said no, because it wouldn't matter since the discount will never be reapplied under no circumstances. When being asked if I could speak with someone who is involved with the audits, such as the legal department, instead of giving me a phone number or an email, (I kid you not) he gave me a physical mailing address. It became abundantly clear that Viking does not care about their customers.
Currently, my TA's manager reached out to his contact at Viking, as all of the Viking referral discounts from the travel agency were declared fraudulent. The Viking contact said that Viking claimed to have called a referred passenger and they did not know who referred them. I asked my partner, her parents, as well as the parents of my friend; they all said that Viking had not reached out to them. My hunch is that another referral from the agency had been flagged as fraudulent, and instead of taking the time to verify all the referrals, they just bulk declared that all referrals from the agency were fraudulent. I get that it's just a couple hundred dollars, but I still feel betrayed as Viking had multiple weeks in-between when I first paid the deposit and when I paid the full amount to bring this up, but instead they did it almost a month after we had already paid the full invoice. I feel extorted as now my trip is in jeopardy but I also feel that it's wrong on principle to pay the extra $200 per room, as our referrals were legitimate and had not violated any Viking terms and conditions. Dealing with the Viking customer support manager also left me feeling disgusted at the complete lack of accountability from Viking and left a very sour taste in my mouth.
Has anyone else experienced a similar situation, and if so how did you resolve it? Thanks in advance.
