The MSC cruise website is horrible

[AmoMondo]

Well the saga continues after all........Despite getting confirmation that the failed online booking had not completed and no payment had been made, I've just discovered today that they've charged the full amount of the cruise (not the £100 deposit I authorised online) to my card. So I've paid for the cruise in full and paid a deposit over the phone.

 

There is no one at MSC today who can deal with accounting issues, nor at my credit card either. Really could have done without this hassle a week before payday! I've emailed Rachel Green to get the full refund for the aborted online booking.

 

I'll be making all future bookings by lhone for the immediate future until they get these glitches with the UK site sorted. Not a happy bunny! :(

[AmoMondo]

I was considering booking one of their cruises. I am in the United States but after reading this thread, no way will I even give them a chance.

 

The UK website is a complete pain in the proverbial at the moment but that doesn't mean absolutely everything is dire. The phone booking service in the UK is very slick. I certainly would not completely discount a company because of online booking glitches. You could also use a TA.

[sidari]

The website is getting worse cannot even log in to it today! come on MSC get it sorted.

[AmoMondo]

The website is getting worse cannot even log in to it today! come on MSC get it sorted.

 

Maybe they're working on it today....wishful thinking probably!

 

In this day and age, they're shooting themselves in both feet having such poor web capability. Trend is for more and more people to want to book online.

[jdvmd]

If you thought the consumer site was bad, the agent site is MUCH worse. Something needs to be done.

[monicajay]

OMG!! this is bad.

 

It used to be I could price a date and destination. Now, I get a pop up saying I need to be a US or Canadian resident. I click yes, and instead of letting me find a price it sends me back to the original page. Just keep doing a big loop. No way to see prices never mind actually try to make a booking.

 

Was looking for 28th Dec. on Divinia.

[AmoMondo]

Well the money they took from my credit card in error from a failed booking, is back in my account today, so at least that was sorted out quickly.

 

However the site does appear to be deteriorating. I used to be able to see prices via my IPad without logging in, but now if I do that it has decided I was born in 1994, won't allow me to change it and then tells me my DOB is wrong! So you login, but it doesn't take tou back to where you were and the Find the Cruise section doesn't work - it only let's you choose a month but nothingnelse and it refuses to search without a second search category being chosen. Around a dozen clicks later navigating through various pages, I'm back to where I started and get a price. What should have been a 2 minute job, becomes 5 times that or more. If I'd never sailed with them before, I'd give up and try a different company.

 

I work in an area where we own around 30 systems which are only used internally, but if I had such poor testing capability and launched something so full of bugs on our user base, I'd be fired! Some of these issues don't even require in depth User Acceptance testing to detect, they are revealed in a minute or 2 of basic skim testing. If I were them, I'd get a banner message upmsaying they were aware they have a number of technical issues with the site, apologise and then chuck experienced IT resource at this to get it resolved ASAP!

[moomoocow]

Amo - looks like you and I do a very similar job. I love hearing the acronym UAT :p

[AmoMondo]

Amo - looks like you and I do a very similar job. I love hearing the acronym UAT :p

 

We should offer to write and run their test scripts. I'd be happy to accept a freebie in a YC cruise of my choice as payment

[Skipper Tim]

Amo - looks like you and I do a very similar job. I love hearing the acronym UAT :p

 

.... and I am a software engineer and taught computer science. MSC's site offends my sensibilities. It is inexcusable. As I have intimated on this thread before, the web site is just the veneer. It would probably be easier to start a new cruise line than to correct the current IT issues.

[moomoocow]

.... and I am a software engineer and taught computer science. MSC's site offends my sensibilities. It is inexcusable. As I have intimated on this thread before, the web site is just the veneer. It would probably be easier to start a new cruise line than to correct the current IT issues.

 

I think between the three of us and our friends and colleagues we could knock up a universal website and at least point them in the direction of a well rounded e-commerce and call centre solution.

 

Give us six months and we will achieve it. Payment could be unlimited YC cruising for life. :p

[Skipper Tim]

Give us six months and we will achieve it. Payment could be unlimited YC cruising for life. :p

 

I would accept that.

 

We have been promised an all-new MSC website by Pierfrancesco by the end of the year but in the meantime it is quite clear that MSC continue to actively work on the existing website to make it worse.

 

1) Why can I not book an MSC cruise when I am out of my home country, as I often am?

 

2) Why is it impossible to search for a cruise when logged in ?

 

3) Why does the booking procedure consistently appear to fail at the payment stage - but actually succeeds?

 

4) Why do I need to enter my date of birth just to see availability? Is MSC ageist?

 

5) Why is access to 'My reservations' so thin, patchy and unpredictable? AmoMondo, a multi black card cruiser, had never seen 'My reservations' until a screenshot was posted on this thread.

 

6) Why can't extras be booked online for repos?

 

Any advances on these?

Edited April 28, 2013 by Skipper Tim

[sthelder]

Think many other cruiselines also restricted bookings to the same country ip address, probably due to regional pricing. From my knowledge, from the top 4 major cruiselines, only NCL allows international bookings at a global price.

 

I just checked out MSC US website, Divina is still shown as going to repo to Europe in April 2014. Apparently bookings could still be made (I could not proceed further than getting a price quote as I am not accessing from an US ip address).

 

Crazy.

[Skipper Tim]

Think many other cruiselines also restricted bookings to the same country ip address, probably due to regional pricing. From my knowledge, from the top 4 major cruiselines, only NCL allows international bookings at a global price.

 

I just checked out MSC US website, Divina is still shown as going to repo to Europe in April 2014. Apparently bookings could still be made (I could not proceed further than getting a price quote as I am not accessing from an US ip address).

 

Crazy.

 

Yes, I had my eye on that cruise too until it disappeared from the UK website. It is now back and at the regular £25/£35//£45 repo pricing.

[sidari]

Is the Divina not supposed to be staying in Miami doing a full year of sailing from November 2013 ?

[sidari]

One week you can book drink packages for a TA and this week you can`t ! come on MSC get a grip ... :mad:

[Skipper Tim]

One week you can book drink packages for a TA and this week you can`t ! come on MSC get a grip ... :mad:

 

Ooh! I wish you had told me when you could book packages on a TA. I have never seen that!

[sidari]

It was available on ours in February but for some reason it has now been taken off! no idea why, it is available to book though because our travel agent has confirmed it is having asked MSC.

[AmoMondo]

A couple of times this week I could not get the details button to work on the UK site, so had to resort to the Irish one instead! For prices, just arrival times but it seems a new week, a new glitch!

 

Don't think it helps that I only access via an IPad.

 

Roll on the daybthey fix it! Not holding my breath though!

[sidari]

In March I printed out our Boarding pass for our June Opera cruise which as many will know includes passport details,today i had an e mail from our travel agent saying that MSC wanted our Passport details and Nationalities etc! go figure .... :rolleyes:

[Skipper Tim]

In March I printed out our Boarding pass for our June Opera cruise which as many will know includes passport details,today i had an e mail from our travel agent saying that MSC wanted our Passport details and Nationalities etc! go figure .... :rolleyes:

 

I had that too. It is because the 'compulsory' information requested by the online checkin process is insufficient! If you also fill in all the non-compulsory information then you won't get the pre-ticket email.

 

Thank heavens for online self-help communities but they really should not be required to deal with a commercial website.

[sidari]

Tim ... Everything to fill in is filled in ! cannot understand what is going on but then again we have been waiting from early March for an updated Invoice from MSC. It is hard to understand why anyone would have a website where you have to go back to step 1 every time you want to look at something else on any bookings and have to log out and then log in again .... :confused:

[Skipper Tim]

Tim ... Everything to fill in is filled in ! cannot understand what is going on but then again we have been waiting from early March for an updated Invoice from MSC. It is hard to understand why anyone would have a website where you have to go back to step 1 every time you want to look at something else on any bookings and have to log out and then log in again .... :confused:

 

If you had access to "My Reservations' you wouldn't have to - just select the reservation number from the pull-down menu. But then you don't have it. Mmmm.

[sidari]

What makes things twice as bad you may recall is that the MSC site would not recognise my main E mail address and so to log in i have to use my Secondary one which their website accepts and recognises. Any contact with MSC is done via my main E mail address but automated mails go to the Secondary one!

 

How hard can it be to have a home page where you log in using the recognised E mail address to see all of your bookings and what has been ordered on them ?

[Skipper Tim]

What makes things twice as bad you may recall is that the MSC site would not recognise my main E mail address and so to log in i have to use my Secondary one which their website accepts and recognises. Any contact with MSC is done via my main E mail address but automated mails go to the Secondary one!

 

How hard can it be to have a home page where you log in using the recognised E mail address to see all of your bookings and what has been ordered on them ?

 

Ditto! I have my own domain name so I can make up as many email addresses as need be. I made one up especially for MSC (msc@...) and it is only by this that I am able to see 'My Reservations'!

 

I really think we should form an independent think tank for the MSC website. We could issue rational critiques once per month and report on progress, if any. They would pay thousands to professionals to do this, but won't. So we could get together at our own expense every so often as an independent panel and issue a report until the job is done. What do you think?

 

Tim.