What would you do if this happened to you?

[FastFreddie]

I won't mention the ship. My wife and I had a suite, and as I was in the process of disembarking the Butler came up to me and said "Did you mention me and the room steward in your survey, because they use that to determine how well we did"? I answered him that I did, he said "I noticed that you didn't and that's why I mentioned it to you".

 

Now am I crazy expecting my survey comments, albeit left on the coffee table in my stateroom to be sacred? The butler did a very nice job. I tipped him 3x the normal tip, however this really irked me that he would:

 

1) Approach me

2) Read my survey before I turned it in

3) Be stupid enough to let me know he did

 

I am debating wether or not to write a letter to Celebrity letting them know of this. The butler worked hard, but he crossed a boundry. What would you do if this happened to you?

 

 

FF

[jerseygirl3]

I agree that it was a very tacky thing to do. The only reason I would hesitate to "report" him to Celebrity would be because sometimes I think people of other cultures (I am assuming he is not American) do not do things the same way we Americans do. In other words, we are taught certain etiquette growing up that perhaps they are not. Maybe he just didn't realize what he was doing was inappropriate.

[thomasale]

forget it

[mii]

I agree, let it go.

 

Marilyn

[Ma Bell]

On all the Celebrity cruises I've been on they specifically ask you to put the surveys in the box down by the customer relations desk and never leave them with employees. If it is left in the cabin you know they will read it. I imagine if you left a generous tip, your steward thought you were satisfied and wanted favorable comments. He shouldn't have approached you, but he obviously did a good job, so I wouldn't be too harsh with him.

[garykool81]

On all the Celebrity cruises I've been on they specifically ask you to put the surveys in the box down by the customer relations desk and never leave them with employees. If it is left in the cabin you know they will read it. I imagine if you left a generous tip, your steward thought you were satisfied and wanted favorable comments. He shouldn't have approached you, but he obviously did a good job, so I wouldn't be too harsh with him.

 

Working in high-end property management, I have to agree. If I were walking into a residence for whatever reason and noticed a comment card filled out, I could not restrain myself from reading it. Now, would I *DARE* approach the customer about that comment card no matter how good or how bad it was? Never!

 

He did cross a line in that aspect, but I would say it isn't too shocking that his curiosity got the best of him to take a gander at how you thought the ship performed -- from that angle, one might even commend him for at least being interested :-)

[ABSCruiseLuvers]

Don't worry about it...move on

[lougee1043]

forget about it -----------if he did such a good job that you tipped him 3x and you took the time to fill out a comment card why didnt you mention him and the room steward

[dmk]

Is it a common thing for room attendants to ask you to mention them by name on the survey? My room attendant asked me to do this also. I hadn't put mine it yet so I did. However, I don't think one should be pressured to do it.

[MSBYRDY]

Let it go and next time don't leave it laying around for anyone to read.

Marilyn

[Kirsten T]

It's interesting to note that Celebrity apparently assigns some importance to these cards, enough so that a "high-end" staff member would mention it. We also stay in suites, and I always fill one out and mention specific people when they deserve it, but I've often wondered if it mattered. Now I know!

 

I'd also vote for letting it pass. The comment was uncalled for, but if his service was otherwise excellent, it's probably not worth pursuing.

[Two@Sea]

We have never been fortunate enough to stay in a suite, but on our last cruise I purposely left the comment card where our cabin steward could see that we had recognized his excellent service. He had been great the entire trip, going out of his way to inquire if we needed this or that. (On previous trips, after giving out generous tips, we hardly ever saw our stewards. Our room service order on the last evening was even totally ignored once!) It was no surprise that 'Allen' attended to our needs right up to the very last minute, and even gave us a box of those wonderful chocolates as we exited the stateroom.

[allyfl]

When we were on Connie in October, the management was very clear that these cards are taken very, very seriously. We learned that comments on the cards are copied and posted in the staff hallways to acknowledge great service. They also said that the box in the lobby is being watched by closed circuit cameras at all times, upon docking, someone from the company comes aboard and takes the surveys off and Fed-Exes them to Florida. It was pretty funny in a way, hearing the description of the "security" involved, but also good to know that within 3-5 days, all comments were read and processed. Our waiter on another ship did ask us to please mention him by name if we felt it was proper since they use the comments for raises and promotions. He already knew we loved him, so no problem!

[hdawson]

Since everyone is requested to place the surveys into the box in the lobby, it should be assumed that since you left it in your cabin you must have meant for him to read your comments. I suspect the request to use the box in the lobby is so people will feel that their comments are private and not for the steward or butler. The butler certainly did nothing wrong in reading it. Mentioning it is questionable but certainly honest of him.

[davehau]

It's interesting to note that Celebrity apparently assigns some importance to these cards, enough so that a "high-end" staff member would mention it. We also stay in suites, and I always fill one out and mention specific people when they deserve it, but I've often wondered if it mattered. Now I know!

 

Kirsten,

 

From what I have heard from numerous staff on the ships, these cards can be the ticket to a better job, or to watching the ship sail off without you, if you are staff. Celebrity seems to take them very seriously, enough so that I've heard multiple Cruise Directors stress their importance in their "last day of the cruise" talks. One CD stated the he had seen circumstances where a group of guests treated the cards as a joke, and almost got some staff in serious trouble with their comments, until it was noticed that the "guests" all has similar negative comments despite being served by different staff members. The extra complaint/comment cards you can get at Guest Relations are also considered pretty heavily -- one waiter I talked with said he has been given an extra day off in port because of a particularly good comment card.

 

As to this incident, I'd let it pass... it was a lapse in judgment on the butler's part, particularly in asking about the card, but if he otherwise gave good service....

 

As an aside, on one of the later nights in the dining room, I always ask either the waiter or assistant waiter to write down the full names of the waiter, assistant, and assistant Matre D -- this way I am sure the praise goes to the right folk.

 

Dave

[Susan-M]

What would I do: I would have been embarrassed to have been caught in a lie (telling him that you specifically mentioned his name and the steward's, when you didn't).

 

If he did a good job he deserves credit. I'm sure it was hard for him to have to ask for it, but worthwhile, because even though it may not benefit him this time, it will make you, and others who are reading these posts, to think about giving recognition where it is due. How else does management know what kind of job their staff are doing?

[DestinFlGirl]

I work in the hospitality industry and have all my working years and this is ridiculous and appalling! I think Royal Caribbean SHOULD know about this because the next guest he does this to will be just as shocked as you. You would be wrong not to let Royal know about it. As a hospitality worker this is a huge no-no and is horrible.

 

I hope that nothing like this happens again to you and I'm sorry it did!

[C 2 C]

By the number of times our waiters have raised the topic of praising good service I agree that the survey is taken very seriously. Your butler obviously was very concerned.. Take it as a lesson that if correspondence is private it should not be left where others may read it..

[turtlemichael]

You said the guy did a nice job. Why get him into trouble? It might be cultural, he might think he had a closer relationship with you than he actually had or it may just be bad judgement on his part.

 

I wish I could say I had judged every social situation perfectly in my life and always done the right thing - and I'd be really worried if every time I made a social gaff, and a minor one at that, I had put my job at risk. Just let it go.

[19stephanie66]

fast freddie ........was on a celebrity ship.......butler did a "very nice job" and you tipped"3x normal amount".......you filled out the comment and did not comment on the butler or steward? :rolleyes: i am just wondering why.....wish i could have been there to see your face when he asked you about the comment card :eek: and caught you in a lie...lol......(the average person lies 26 times a day )i do not feel the card is sacred....and would of hand deposited it in the comment box :) and i think i would drop the issue........and forget about it.chaulk it up to experience...........it just could be a cultural thing.....................stephanie from beantown(boston)

[garykool81]

Stephanie,

 

.................

 

 

Sorry. Couldn't resist hehe :-)

[Kami's pal]

He took a risk, trusting that you would forgive a little forwardness. Who knows what kinds of pressure he's under? Between war and plague and floods, this seems very little. Why sweat it? Perhaps he'll forgive someone else and so "pay it forward."

[dougnewmanatsea]

Personally I'd let it go. I do think this was very inappropriate - I can forgive his having read the comment card, but not so much his actuall taking you to task for not mentioning him - but if he otherwise did a good job it's not worth getting him into trouble IMHO. I'm always very wary about mentioning anything negative about specific individuals unless they did a genuinely BAD job (something that I have yet to experience from any shipboard staff, anywhere - landside staff is a different story). I imagine that snooping on someone's comment card, let alone criticising what they wrote, is probably a huge no-no and unless you truly want to get this guy into trouble I wouldn't make an issue of it.

 

A few other posters brought up cultural differences - and it's true that this is definitely something to take into account; having had waiters, cabin stewards etc. from many, many different parts of the world on my cruises I've definitely noticed that the perception of the relationship between the passenger and crew member varies very, very widely depending on the nationality of the crew member. In some cases - the exact opposite of this, I suppose - I've been made slightly uncomfortable by a sort of subservient attitude that most Westerners, myself included, are not accustomed to. It all comes down to how their job is perceived in their culture, and the variations here are very wide. I always try to take this into account when judging service (which is of course hugely subjective) but the fact is that we are inherently biased towards service that's along the lines of the ideal in whatever society we come from - it's just unavoidable. I don't know where your butler was from or whether this was one of those incidents, but I suppose it's a possibility.

 

I do know that on RCI (and presumably Celebrity too) it is extremely common to be asked at the end of the cruise by your waiter/cabin steward/whoever to please give them an "excellent" rating - apparently corporate does not consider anything other than "excellent" to be acceptable (if "good" is unacceptable, I do have to wonder what "fair" and "poor" are for). This can be somewhat uncomfortable, but from what I gather a lot of importance gets placed on whether they were rated "excellent" or not, so it's not an easy position that they're in.

 

I honestly have never been asked to mention anyone by name and frankly did not know it made a difference - obviously from what waiters and cabin stewards have told us time and time again, the line knows from the cabin number on your form who your waiter and cabin steward are and considers your ratings ("excellent"/"good"/"fair"/"poor") an evaluation of their personal performance, so it never struck me to mention them by name.

[halos]

I hate to say this...and I'm gonna get really flamed for it.

Personally, I don't mind forwardness...especially from someone whose culture may be a bit different than my own. As far as the guy reading the comments card...sorry, if it was laying out, I'd have read it too. That's the honest truth...which leads me to say that...to me, the Butler's forward behavior isn't half as appalling to me as the blatant lie you told.

Sorry. Trust means a lot to me.

Let it go. I think you're more upset over this than you would be otherwise because you got caught in that lie.

Now...if he had routed through your things to find that comment card...that would be a bit different...but you left it laying out...what did you expect?

[starsjohn]

No harm in trying, as those that ask, often are those who get what they are asking for. Tacky? maybe, cultural? I would say yes in some cases. Anybody getting a 3X tip from me would get a full comment card listing services provided beyond expectation.

 

John