Norwegian: Gives Military Discount and Cancels! (Reveiw of Horrible Customer Service)

[MOcruiserman]

While we don't know if or how the cruise was cancelled we do know a few things.

 

We do know that the OP paid for the cruise by credit card - she has proof of that.

 

We do know that she's a military family.

 

We do know that she showed up at the dock with her family after a 10 hour plane ride.

 

Norwegian should have given her a stateroom - no question.

[CasinoCruzGirl]

While we don't know if or how the cruise was cancelled we do know a few things.

 

We do know that the OP paid for the cruise by credit card - she has proof of that.

 

We do know that she's a military family.

 

We do know that she showed up at the dock with her family after a 10 hour plane ride.

 

Norwegian should have given her a stateroom - no question.

 

 

Exactly and Amen

[titangas]

While we don't know if or how the cruise was cancelled we do know a few things.

 

We do know that the OP paid for the cruise by credit card - she has proof of that.

 

Actually she did not "pay" for the cruise at all it was reversed. She intended to pay for the cruise by cc and used one to book.

Nowhere does she state that she received a credit card BILL/INVOICE that has the charge on it.

An email is not proof she was charged or paid.

 

We do know that she's a military family.

 

We do know that she showed up at the dock with her family after a 10 hour plane ride.

 

Norwegian should have given her a stateroom - no question.

So NCL should just give her a stateroom if the reservation was cancelled and not paid for without any question. I don't think so.

 

 

Responses in red above.

 

I want to add that I think it is possible that this could have been worked out.

 

It is, however, not as cut and dry as some people state as obviously the ship was near or at capacity and in essence the OP DID NOT actually have a valid paid for reservation.

Edited March 1, 2015 by titangas

[sundercruiser]

why kick someone when they are down.

 

Are you asking a rhetorical question? This IS Cruise Critic, after all. It's just that for some the default position is that the cruise line is never criticized, only passengers.

[EyeSeaEwe]

" I understand mistakes are made. Things are overbooked and seeing as how they offered us a military discount we were probably the cheapest of the last few reservations made, so they gave us the boot. All relatively understandable, however the way the company and ship handled the situation is deplorable. They did not inform us of the cancellation at all, and they made little to no effort to help us out, or to even acknowledge their mistakes."

 

 

This is a VERY poor assumption.

 

As far as the CC charges go, of course they posted. A legitimate booking was made and a charge was processed. The fact it dropped off only supports what NCL is saying in that the crusie was cancelled. Had it not been, the charge would have remained on the account.

 

My question is how do you get a confirmation or cancellation email if you have no internet access?

[EyeSeaEwe]

Point taken regarding the military fights. However, my point remains that ncl exhibited poor customer service when they cancelled the cruise (15 min after booking with no email) and at the port. As far as checking in online before the cruise, it's optional. This is true for all cruise lines, as I've explored booking on various lines. No cruise line will cancel you for not filling out edocs before the cruise. That would cut their bottom line bc everyone is not Internet savvy. I've travelled with family in a different cabin who did not fill out their edocs before the cruise. It took them longer to register the day of the cruise but with the randomness of the lines to board they took more time to check in but boarded before me. Plus, I've been praised on two different lines at the terminals for having everything filled out ahead of time. There are always two sides to a story but why kick someone when they are down. Also, operational experience counts and there are data points that show that type of lost reservation has happened before (and thus the reference to the B2b case).

 

No one said it was NCL who cancelled the cruise.

[SeaShark]

While we don't know if or how the cruise was cancelled we do know a few things.

 

We do know that the OP paid for the cruise by credit card - she has proof of that.

 

We do know that she's a military family.

 

We do know that she showed up at the dock with her family after a 10 hour plane ride.

 

Norwegian should have given her a stateroom - no question.

 

 

No question? Really? Why exactly?

 

 

Sure, the OP paid for the cruise by credit card. WHO did she pay? If she paid a travel agent, that would not obligate NCL unless the reservation was accepted. The fact that it was cancelled 16 minutes later is a strong indication that it was, in fact, NOT accepted. A Travel Agent has to transfer your money to NCL and then received a confirmed reservation acceptance BEFORE you actually have a reservation. Occum's Razor suggests this as the probable cause for the whole issue.

 

Sure, the OP is in a military family. However, we all know that this fact has no bearing on whether or not the OP held a valid reservation for the cruise.

 

Sure, the OP showed up at the dock after a long plane ride. Surprising fact, most people who show up in Hawaii have had a long plane ride. Again...the length of the plane ride has no bearing on the existence of a valid reservation.

 

 

Yet NCL should just GIVE them a stateroom? Do we know, for a FACT, that an empty stateroom that sleeps four was available onboard?? What should NCL do with the people who are in that stateroom?

 

 

 

Give me 15 minutes with Photoshop and I can produce a paid cruise invoice, a complete set of edocs, and luggage tags for an NCL cruise**. However, you wouldn't get onboard with these documents and NCL isn't going to simply "give" you a stateroom based on documents or emails that YOU have that don't exist in THEIR system.

 

**NOT saying that the OP did this, this is used for example ONLY.

[missintuitive]

First, this is a discussion forum...not a support group. Empathy based on one side of a story is not why this board exists.

 

People here do NOT have a problem pointing out that a cruise line (NCL included) makes a mistake. However, most do wait for all of the facts before passing judgment.

 

How do we know...for a verifiable FACT...that the OP in this case did not book through a Travel Agent? How do we know that it was the Travel Agent who did not notify the OP that the cruise was cancelled within 15 minutes? IF that occurred, then it is the Travel Agent at fault and NOT the cruise line.

 

It is often best to hear BOTH sides of an issue BEFORE passing judgment...especially if your "go to" action is to jump on the social media/local news soapbox.

 

 

 

Consider: Like any cruise line, or other business, NCL exists to earn a profit for their owners/shareholders. What possible gain could come to NCL if the OP's version of this story is the complete truth? Why on earth would they want paying customers to show up at the pier only to turn them away with a complete refund?

 

Any for profit company should know that " the customer is always right." It wasn't as if she was trying to get something for nothing. She provided her cc #, showed proof that ncl initiated the transaction (whether it was pending or not ncl would not have access to her cc info if she had not supplied it to them) and showed up to the port in good faith as a customer contributing to their bottom line. I acknowledged that there is two sides to every story. But in some cases it just doesn't make sense to automatically jump to "it was your fault" especially if you don't have all the info.

 

And if I knew I had supporting documentation I would 100% share my story on social media and to anyone that would listen bc my time is a commidity that I cannot get back. Plus the laws of competition and supply and demand dictate that I can spend my money where I am valued as a customer.

[Medtech2]

Please everyone be aware that sometimes e-mails do , in fact, disappear. They are routed from server to server. There are instances where they basically get " stuck" in one. I once had an e-mail show up months after it was sent. My brother explained it all to me at that time and sorry I cannot remember the exact nomenclature but suffice it to say they can arrive late or not at all...

[newmexicoNita]

Confused, you say you were on the cruise with this passenger, but in your post on the other thread said they were left in port. ?????

 

I am questioning this whole things from start to finish and especially the response you are referring to right now.

 

Of course none of us were there, we alll have our views on this, and none of us know what happened and maybe not getting the entire story. When any of us are frustrated we are inclined to see things just one way. At least I know I am.

 

I will say a couple of things: 1-I hope NCL didn't treat the family as poorly as we have been led to believe. I don't care who's fault this was, you don't treat people disresptfully and we are talking about someone who is putting his like in harms way to protect us.

 

2-I really wonder about the email; yes, it might have confirmed a reservation but did the conformation say Pail in full? They do, if they are paid. It sounds like, regardless of how it happened, the OP only had a held reservation istead of a true confirmed one. If it was exactly as she says there would have been either a gty or a cabin number on the email.

[AngAndBoys]

Ok, besides the accusatory tone of some of the questions from other posters, I am most horrified by the fact that shore employees left it up to OP to call Miami to straighten it out herself. WTH? Isn't that their job? And then nobody answers the number they give her? That's ridiculously lax customer service.

[NLH Arizona]

I guess if the OP doesn't come back, we will never know the outcome.

 

I would hope that the offending party does the right thing. It NCL was at fault, I think they need to give the family another cruises or, if they don't want it, reimburse them for their airfare. If the OP is at fault, then I think she should come back and apologize to NCL on this forum. If a TA is at fault, they should do the same as I said above that NCL should do. If the OP's credit card company is at fault, they should also make it good. But at this point, we have no real idea who is at fault, it could be any one of the four examples above.

 

Not to mention, none of us were at the port, so we don't know what the conversation was and what the tone of the individuals was. I would guess that if someone didn't have proof of a paid in full reservation, the folks at the port would tell the person to call NCL.

Edited March 1, 2015 by NLH Arizona

[SeaShark]

Any for profit company should know that " the customer is always right." It wasn't as if she was trying to get something for nothing. She provided her cc #, showed proof that ncl initiated the transaction (whether it was pending or not ncl would not have access to her cc info if she had not supplied it to them) and showed up to the port in good faith as a customer contributing to their bottom line. I acknowledged that there is two sides to every story. But in some cases it just doesn't make sense to automatically jump to "it was your fault" especially if you don't have all the info.

 

And if I knew I had supporting documentation I would 100% share my story on social media and to anyone that would listen bc my time is a commidity that I cannot get back. Plus the laws of competition and supply and demand dictate that I can spend my money where I am valued as a customer.

 

Yes, the "customer is always right". Sure, but unless you have a confirmed valid booking, you actually are NOT a customer, are you? Without a confirmed valid booking, you are nothing more than a person on the pier asking for something to which you aren't entitled.

 

You said her cc# was proof NCL initiated the transaction...however, that hasn't been shown as fact. She has a credit card transaction, but it could be with a Travel Agent and NOT with NCL. Unless the Travel Agent received a confirmed valid confirmation back from NCL, there is no valid reservation. The mere fact that the request was cancelled within 16 minutes is a strong indication that the OP NEVER held a valid reservation for this cruise.

 

 

There are too many holes in this story. I'm not blaming the OP, but I'm not blaming NCL either. NCL is certainly to blame if they accepted the reservation, confirmed it with the TA, and then cancelled. However, we haven't seen anything the OP received from the TA to indicate that this occurred.

 

 

Jump on social media all you want, all I suggesting is that you actually gather ALL of the facts before doing so.

[camper06]

I was truly much more angry with the way they handled the situation than the situation itself.

 

The OP seems much more concerned with the way they were treated than the fact of the lost/cancelled reservation. I think she may realize that a cancellation may have been emailed to her but without internet access, she just didn't receive it.

 

I agree with her that it seems she was treated poorly. I would expect someone (Jason?) to be assigned to handle the problem including making the necessary phone calls (especially since OP did not have a phone with her). It seems she was just left to her own devices to try to find out what had happened. This is NOT good customer service, and she has every right to be upset (IMHO).

__________________

[newmexicoNita]

Confused, you say you were on the cruise with this passenger, but in your post on the other thread said they were left in port. ?????

 

I am questioning this whole things from start to finish and especially the response you are referring to right now.

 

Of course none of us were there, we alll have our views on this, and none of us know what happened and maybe not getting the entire story. When any of us are frustrated we are inclined to see things just one way. At least I know I am.

 

I will say a couple of things: 1-I hope NCL didn't treat the family as poorly as we have been led to believe. I don't care who's fault this was, you don't treat people disresptfully and we are talking about someone who is putting his like in harms way to protect us.

 

2-I really wonder about the email; yes, it might have confirmed a reservation but did the conformation say Pail in full? They do, if they are paid. It sounds like, regardless of how it happened, the OP only had a held reservation istead of a true confirmed one. If it was exactly as she says there would have been either a gty or a cabin number on the email

 

3- no, emails are not sent for reservations cancelled if full payment hasn't been made. Do any of you have any idea how many reservations are put on hold each day. Any cruiseline would be doing nothing but sending cancelation notices when there is really nothing to cancel.

 

This entire situation sounds like a total misunderstanding somewhere along the way; my heart goes out to any family that travels that far just to be left at the door.

 

4-OP, I hope you enjoyed some amount of vacation in Hawaii. I know they have some great military accommodations on Oahu. Please do not put all the blame on NCL. Yes, the customer service isn't always perfect, no place has perfect CS, but if you had total proof of a paid in full conformation you would have had your wonderful cruise. I did notice you made a remark about NCL was the only line that you could get an Hawaiin cruise on at this time. That indicates you were not wanting to cruise them in the first place. It sounds like they were your last resort.

[NLH Arizona]

I am questioning this whole things from start to finish and especially the response you are referring to right now.

 

The poster brought another passenger's issue into this thread (which totally confused me, since we weren't talking about them) who was on her cruise and was not saying that the military family was onboard the ship.

[SeaShark]

Ok, besides the accusatory tone of some of the questions from other posters, I am most horrified by the fact that shore employees left it up to OP to call Miami to straighten it out herself. WTH? Isn't that their job? And then nobody answers the number they give her? That's ridiculously lax customer service.

 

No, actually it is NOT their job. The shore-side people working on the pier are employees of the PORT, not of the cruise line. Their job is process guests onto the ship as long as that guest holds a valid reservation. They are not there to process your paperwork with the cruise line headquarters.

 

Even IF someone in Miami could have been reached, what do you think would have happened? They would have looked in their system, seen that the person on the pier did NOT have a valid reservation, and informed them that they would not be permitted to board.

[newmexicoNita]

I'm so surprised at the apparent lack of empathy for a fellow cruiser by some who responded. It appears as if some ppl cannot admit that sometimes cruiselines get it wrong. This is an extreme case and the company should have provided an extreme solution (or compensation) but to not acknowledge that it even happened is egregious. Clearly, the military mom didn't get a cancellation notice so there is fault on behalf of ncl there. At a minimum, ncl should keep you up to date on your status (ie email if you're booked, email when you're payed in full, email especially if you or ncl cancels). It's called simple customer service. Plus, I take it that folks are not aware that military families can fly standby on military airplanes for free or at a very low cost (that's a major perk for military families) so I doubt there were any last minute flights booked on a commercial airline. I have cruised Disney and carnival and I'm booked for my first NCL cruise. I would be mortified if this happened to me.

 

I would take to social media, and maybe the regular news, to get my story out there. I bet the evening news would be chomping at their bits to have a story like this about a military family with two cute small children. It really is a nightmare!

 

Your advise has to be the worst I have ever seen. You forget, there are things that do not add up as to what really happened. This doesn't mean we do not sympathize with the op, I think most of us do, but to run to social media with everything is one of the things wrong with our country right now. As for the regular news, that would be ok, except unless she has more to go on than what she has told here, it would go onwhere unless the media was hard up for stories and we know lately they have had so many phoney stories they have had to retrract. My guess is they are not about to jump on this one.

[Swells1]

A few years ago, I booked two cabins through a travel agent. I used my credit card for both reservations. The travel agent (not NCL) required a credit card authorization form for the 2nd cabin, and I didn't receive the email until I was away from a Fax machine and wouldn't be near one for a few days. Because of this, the T/A didn't submit my payment, and the reservation was cancelled. I had an original confirmation, but never got a cancellation. Luckily, I tend to book 100 years in advance, so I had plenty of time to rebook. Maybe something similar happened to OP.

[Shawnino]

I am questioning this whole things from start to finish and especially the response you are referring to right now.

 

3- no, emails are not sent for reservations cancelled if full payment hasn't been made. Do any of you have any idea how many reservations are put on hold each day. Any cruiseline would be doing nothing but sending cancelation notices when there is really nothing to cancel.

 

 

4-... I did notice you made a remark about NCL was the only line that you could get an Hawaiin cruise on at this time. That indicates you were not wanting to cruise them in the first place. It sounds like they were your last resort.

 

 

In re: 3): I received confirmation CXL e-mails when I had put down only a deposit.

 

In re: conclusion to 4): What possible relevance does your supposition have?

[newmexicoNita]

In re: 3): I received confirmation CXL e-mails when I had put down only a deposit.

 

In re: conclusion to 4): What possible relevance does your supposition have?

 

Yes, if you have put down a deposit but if you don't there generally is no email cancelling what never was. NCL sends conformations for held cabins, they send conformations when a deposit is made and when final payment is made, but no cancellations when the cabin is on hold only. I suspect, for whatever reason the reservation never went through as paid. That is what it sounds like.

 

I am just trying to understand how this happened. If she had everything she needed including a conformation saying Paid in full that is one thing, if not that is another.

 

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying I do not feel sorry for the family, I am simply saying something is not fitting together and I believe it is a horrible mix up on someone's or maybe both sides fault. I do not think we can blame NCL only...I don't think we can say OP screwed up, she thought she had a reservation, she did not. yes, she needs to do whatever possible to make sure she gets her money back, and she needs to be careful nothing like this happens again.

 

I will give you an example of mistakes made and how we all make them; I recently thought I was ordering 6 bottles of wine, but when the order came I had 12. I didn't know why: I should have called the company but I blew it off only to be billed for the 12 of course. I couldn't understand how I got the 12 bottles. I couldn't understand the charges when I knew I had a $50 coupon, so called the company. Before I even talked to someone I realize what I did. I took a 6 pk special and then remembered I had hit 2 bottles for a few of the wines discribed. It is too conplecated to explain any more. Did the company use slightly less than honest representation? Yes, but in the long run, it was my fault. This is what I was trying to explain. We make mistakes, we need to be careful and we can't always blame someone else Plus,as I have said, none of us really know that happened or how it happened.

[electro]

While we don't know if or how the cruise was cancelled we do know a few things.

 

We do know that the OP paid for the cruise by credit card - she has proof of that.

 

We do know that she's a military family.

 

We do know that she showed up at the dock with her family after a 10 hour plane ride.

 

Norwegian should have given her a stateroom - no question.

 

They should have at least done more than hand her the phone number to the Miami office! That is really unacceptable customer service no matter what the problem.!

Edited March 1, 2015 by electro

[sprint180]

Wow, I would be mad. NCL definitely dropped the ball. Hope it all works out.

[LHT28]

I wonder if her CC declined the cruise charge because it is out of their normal routine???

 

I have had smaller amounts declined & had to call my CC company to tell them to authorize the purchase

Over their credit limit ??

booking a cruise & airfare would certainly be pricey

 

Just something to consider

 

Maybe the OP will come back

[DevCruise]

3- no, emails are not sent for reservations cancelled if full payment hasn't been made. Do any of you have any idea how many reservations are put on hold each day. Any cruiseline would be doing nothing but sending cancelation notices when there is really nothing to cancel.

 

Actually, I have a copy of an email with attached PDF of a reservation I made in the summer of 2013 that is a cancellation email of a reservation that was not paid in full.