Nastiest Customer Service Reps: now I know why

[Anniesails]

I had 4 cabins booked on the POA for a trip in August. One of the cruisers had to cancel, this caused us to reconfigure our group to 3 cabins. We had 2 teenagers going with us, so decided to move most of us around and have one cabin with 3 pax .

 

called Norwegian yesterday to make the changes. The rep I dealt with was clearly annoyed. Asked questions like, what caused the cancellation. Why didn't you make these changes earlier. If you do this again you will be charged. I told him how clear it was that he was annoyed and he told me I had "no idea how tedious this is". I asked him to email me the changes and he said he would.

 

1 hr later still no email confirmation. Called back and got a 2nd rep who was short tempered but not as nasty. I asked her why I couldn't speak to the rep that booked me. I usually cruise Princess and these folks are cruise consultants, so they get a commission. She explained they don't work on commission just answer the phones and are "so short staffed.":mad:

[Freehike]

Odd. We have a PCC for our POA cruise. Anything we have needed, he has taken care of. We booked 5 months ago via the NCL website. Afterwards I called to make a change and was assigned a PCC. He took over our reservation, gave us a free upgrade to a balcony from an Oceanview, $100 on board credit AND lowered the price by $150pp.

 

Needless to say, I'm pretty happy.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk

[khaide612]

First off, let me say I have never had an NCL rep with an attitude or even in a bad mood. Years ago I was disconnected and then when I called back kept getting transferred as a simple question about a price drop took over an hour to answer. When I got home, the first person who disconnected me had left me a voicemail apologizing and trying to rectify the situation. Guess I am lucky!

 

I would think if they were straight salary they would have a better attitude knowing none of the changes would affect their pay. Dealing with the public in general can suck and affect your attitude but it has to be worse if you are short staffed and the people you work with are terrible with their customers so you have to finish their work or correct their errors. But each cuatomer is different and should be treated with courtesy and respect no matter what.

[khaide612]

Also I do not use my assigned PCC. I usually book cruises through CAS but then I call the main 800 number for questions or add ons or payments or changes - lower hold times than trying to get through to CAS.

[pieshops]

there is something to this that op is not telling

[newmexicoNita]

I had 4 cabins booked on the POA for a trip in August. One of the cruisers had to cancel, this caused us to reconfigure our group to 3 cabins. We had 2 teenagers going with us, so decided to move most of us around and have one cabin with 3 pax .

 

called Norwegian yesterday to make the changes. The rep I dealt with was clearly annoyed. Asked questions like, what caused the cancellation. Why didn't you make these changes earlier. If you do this again you will be charged. I told him how clear it was that he was annoyed and he told me I had "no idea how tedious this is". I asked him to email me the changes and he said he would.

 

1 hr later still no email confirmation. Called back and got a 2nd rep who was short tempered but not as nasty. I asked her why I couldn't speak to the rep that booked me. I usually cruise Princess and these folks are cruise consultants, so they get a commission. She explained they don't work on commission just answer the phones and are "so short staffed.":mad:

sorry you were treated poorly; there is no excuse for that, but I will tell you, as for the first agent telling you another change and there will be a charge. Believe it or not, most lines charge for name changes in cabins and that seems like what you were doing.

[newmexicoNita]

there is something to this that op is not telling

 

I thought it, you said it.

[thistimeplease]

Let the "blame the OP" games begin.

[NMLady]

I had 4 cabins booked on the POA for a trip in August. One of the cruisers had to cancel, this caused us to reconfigure our group to 3 cabins. We had 2 teenagers going with us, so decided to move most of us around and have one cabin with 3 pax .

 

called Norwegian yesterday to make the changes. The rep I dealt with was clearly annoyed. Asked questions like, what caused the cancellation. Why didn't you make these changes earlier. If you do this again you will be charged. I told him how clear it was that he was annoyed and he told me I had "no idea how tedious this is". I asked him to email me the changes and he said he would.

 

1 hr later still no email confirmation. Called back and got a 2nd rep who was short tempered but not as nasty. I asked her why I couldn't speak to the rep that booked me. I usually cruise Princess and these folks are cruise consultants, so they get a commission. She explained they don't work on commission just answer the phones and are "so short staffed.":mad:

 

Just ask for a PCC (personal cruise consultant). You will be given a name and phone number and that NCL rep will be the one you work with for that booking and future bookings.

Otherwise it is like all other 800# -- you get a different person every time.

[LMaxwell]

Let the "blame the OP" games begin.

Just what I was thinking. What OP needed to have done or what day they called is irrelevant. They still dealt with a rude person and were just informing us all...

[Anniesails]

there is something to this that op is not telling

I am the OP and can assure you, there is nothing more afoot other than reporting my experience. Not always a big conspiracy. :)

[sprint180]

there is something to this that op is not telling

 

Not necessarily. I called a couple of years ago to ask a simple question about a cruise I was looking at. The lady was so rude I couldn't believe it. I booked with Carnival instead. It took 3 years for me to bother calling them again and this time I got a very nice helpful man. I work with the public every day. I was not rude or anything but polite and she totally was. Obviously she was having a bad day but didn't need to take it out on me. I would have gotten a very stern talking to if I treated a customer like that.

[Ilovesailing]

I find the story to be hard to believe. close to 30 cruises and never an issue with PCC's

Did you get their names so that you could report them.

 

Guess you'll just have to stick with Princess.

[DavyB]

I'm sorry you had a bad experience with NCL's customer service. I will let you know that I'm a travel agent that deals with many cruise lines. From my experiences, NCL's customer service is my favorite to deal with because they are the friendliest and always seem eager to solve any problems whether they are with my or my customer's reservation.. I hope this is a one time problem and you give NCL another try.

[swedish weave]

I had one bad experience with NCL customer service and it was not appreciated by me. I handled it in my own way.

 

Several years ago, the company I worked for gave me a troubled customer service department to manage. The complaints were similar to those reported here, so I called a meeting and told the employees we had two ways to correct the problem.

 

We could either change attitudes or change people. It was amazing how fast the change came about.

[travelerpair]

Thank you for making it clear that the Customer is who makes your job possible. There are many places and cruises to choose from. A good experience with a customer service person can turn a bad situation around. Even without getting everything you want. I think NCL has outsourced to other call centers to reduce costs. The quality of information on their own product has declined and varies agent to agent. It is never acceptable to be rude to a book passenger unless they use abusive laungage.

[CasinoCruzGirl]

Let the "blame the OP" games begin.

 

 

Why do people do that all the time

[Karysa]

I'm sorry you had a bad experience with NCL's customer service. I will let you know that I'm a travel agent that deals with many cruise lines. From my experiences, NCL's customer service is my favorite to deal with because they are the friendliest and always seem eager to solve any problems whether they are with my or my customer's reservation.. I hope this is a one time problem and you give NCL another try.

 

I too have had pleasant NCL customer reps. They gave me incorrect information but they were pleasant. Not good enough for me though. I think that customers and TA's deserve polite service reps that provide accurate information. Having to come on cruisecritic to verify if the information that the NCL rep has given is correct is just not acceptable to me. I have done it on more than one occasion though.

[$hip$hape]

I too have had pleasant NCL customer reps. They gave me incorrect information but they were pleasant. Not good enough for me though.

I think that customers and TA's deserve polite service reps that provide accurate information.

Having to come on cruisecritic to verify if the information that the NCL rep has given is correct is just not acceptable to me.

I have done it on more than one occasion though.

 

I don't like to hear the NCL rep say, "I know what I'm talking about !", when they are wrong.

 

*Hear, hear is an expression used to represent a listener's agreement with the point being made by a speaker.