RCCL Customer Service....Some Good News

[joeyancho]

We all tend to post our negative experiences with RCCL customer service, so I thought that I would post a positive experience. While on the Navigator in Feb. '05 we booked the Explorer for Feb. '06. We got a nice price and $200.00 room credit. Recently I found out that this is a Harley Davidson cruise. I had my TA call and had her explain to customer service that we were not interested in going on a Harley cruise. She suggested to the rep that we would like the same price and credit on another cruise. RCCL said that they could not match the price but would be willing to shift the room credit over to our Voyager cruise in Dec. '05. I thought that this was great. The $200.00 will buy Momma a lot of foo foo drinks.............

[cruiseman_tx]

[crb04]

That worked out well, congrats. Thanks for posting example of good customer service.

 

(If you happened to get the rep's name and write a letter expressing your appreciation, it does make a difference. Have a couple of family members in retail and sales and usually people only write "complaint" letters. A good one will usually stay in personnel file and has an impact on their CS employees' raises/promotions).

[Driftwoodgal]

I have to sing RCI praises as well. We will be Platinum members after our three day cruise on the Majesty. We will walk off of that cruise and board the Brilliance for an 11 night cruise. The Crown and Anchor department helped me get my Platinum status before final payment, so we got an additional discount on our balcony. We already have JS booked b2b on the Rhapsody of the Seas in 2007.... we will walk off the ship Diamond members. If you get the right person on the phone it is amazing what can happen. I will be staying with RCI because of the service that I have received. Keeping a cruiser happy means more dollars in their pockets as you will book another cruise with them.

[kybill]

Yesterday I needed a document from RCCL regarding our Hawaii cruise in a couple of weeks. I customer service discussed my problem with Sherly and within 30 minutes I had my letter faxed right to my desk. I have found in dealing with large corporations it doesn't get much better.

Bill

[barbyma]

Another good report:

 

On the Serenade two weeks ago the agent didn't seem to be motivated to show us all the choices available, so we booked a 5-day, thinking we'd do our research & change it later.

 

When we decided on a 7-day, reservations was able to change it and keep the $50 onboard credit, but not able to increase it to $100, since their policy doesn't allow it. However, she suggested I ask someone in Customer Service then transferred me right to them. Customer Service put me on hold for a few minutes and came back to say "done!"

 

Nothing extraordinary, but I thought it was a nice gesture.

 

Barb

[MikeKool]

To Joeyancho,

I'm not trying to belittle your praise for RCI.....but what they did is "standard procedure". Any cruise line will give "room credit" for booking onboard even if you switch ships. Provided you are outside penalty phase. I've done it with most cruise lines with no problems at all. Enjoy your cruise!

[cruiseman_tx]

To Joeyancho,

I'm not trying to belittle your praise for RCI.....but what they did is "standard procedure". Any c...ruise line w...ill give "room credit" for booking onboard even if you switch ships. Provided you are outside penalty phase. I've done it with most c...ruise lines with no problems at all. Enjoy your cruise!

 

That's the point, isn't it? Good customer service should be "standard procedure", and it's nice to hear these reports from satisified customers.

[gwen_cpk]

I would like to add my experience to this post. I was on a cruise last year that was interupted by a hurricane and received a nice voucher for 1/2 my next cruise. Well it turned out that I lost the voucher. :eek: I was frantic since we were ready to book the next cruise- everything was planned out and searched hours and couldn't find the voucher.

 

So I called the RCCL 800# not expecting them to be able to do anything and the lady on the phone says, "no problem- it's all in the computer." I was so relieved. :D The company I work for isn't like that. No voucher- no discount.

 

This one instance of customer service has sold me on RCCL.

[MikeKool]

To Cruiseman TX..

I'm glad your impressed with RCI doing something they are supposed to do. When you book on board you're supposed to get OBC. If you don't pass that booking over to a TA you have no chance on getting a better fare which is what RCI would like. This way they pocket the comission rather than your TA sharing a portion with you. To impress me with customer service I like to see a complaint solved. On my last RCI cruise I heard the phrase...."I'm sorry but there's nothing we can do" several times. What really got me was the Captain was saying it. Pretty ironic when they always seem to be telling customers to read their contracts. Pretty sad when the master of the vessel tells the passengers repeatedly there's nothing we can do. My A/C was blowing full blast the whole cruise.....I'm sorry there's nothing we can do. You would think after reading the contract there isn't anything the Captain can't do!! My cold water was warm to hot.....I called 3 days in a row before they told me there's nothing we can do. We missed Key West because the port was closed.....you guessed it.....there's nothing we can do. Waiting on line at the main desk I heard that phrase several more times being spoken to other passengers. I'd like to hear a somewhat complicated problem fixed.

Gwen's problem with the voucher was also nothing special. Cruise lines always enter that stuff in their computer. The voucher part is issued as a reminder to the customer to use it. Folks lose that stuff all the time. You could show up at the pier with no documents....providing you have the proper I.D........you'll get on because your in the computer. So far all I've read is stuff thats supposed to be done....standard procedure. Someone impress me with a real complaint that was dealt with satisfactorily.

[HB Cruiser]

Here Mike, maybe this one will satisfy you.

 

We were on the Sovereign about a month ago. To make a long story short, the A/C was not working very good in our cabin. We made several complaints to guest relations (purser desk), four in fact. When we got back we called Miami customer service and told them of our adventure. They asked if we would give them a few days to get information from the ship. Three (3) days later they contacted us and gave us $125 per person coupon on our next RCL cruise. No letter writing, additional phone calls, NOTHING!!!

 

Is this good customer service? WE THINK SO!!!

 

Tim & Crystal

[cruiseman_tx]

To Cruiseman TX..

I'm glad your impressed with RCI doing something they are supposed to do. When you book on board you're supposed to get OBC. If you don't pass that booking over to a TA you have no chance on getting a better fare which is what RCI would like. This way they pocket the comission rather than your TA sharing a portion with you. To impress me with customer service I like to see a complaint solved. On my last RCI cruise I heard the phrase...."I'm sorry but there's nothing we can do" several times. What really got me was the Captain was saying it. Pretty ironic when they always seem to be telling customers to read their contracts. Pretty sad when the master </SPAN>of the vessel tells the passengers repeatedly there's nothing we can do. My A/C was blowing full blast the whole cruise.....I'm sorry there's nothing we can do. You would think after reading the contract there isn't anything the Captain can't do!! My cold water was warm to hot.....I called 3 days in a row before they told me there's nothing we can do. We missed Key West because the port was closed.....you guessed it.....there's nothing we can do. Waiting on line at the main desk I heard that phrase several more times being spoken to other passengers. I'd like to hear a somewhat complicated problem fixed.

Gwen's problem with the voucher was also nothing special. Cruise lines always enter that stuff in their computer. The voucher part is issued as a reminder to the customer to use it. Folks lose that stuff all the time. You could show up at the pier with no documents....providing you have the proper I.D........you'll get on because your in the computer. So far all I've read is stuff thats supposed to be done....standard procedure. Someone impress me with a real complaint that was dealt with satisfactorily.

 

Mike...I didn't say I was overly impressed. I did state that good customer service should be standard procedure. It's simply what we all expect and hope for. The reason threads like this pop up is that people with complaints are always eager to start a thread and tell all the world how badly they were treated, but too few will relay their good experiences.

Sorry about your A/C on your last cruise. Perhaps there was nothing that could be done at the time. Maybe the only options were full blast or off untill the ship got to port for a replacement part. (Just speculation on my part as I was not there.) Hope all your future cruise are wonderful experiences.

[kenandlaura06]

I have to sing RCI praises as well. We will be Platinum members after our three day cruise on the Majesty. We will walk off of that cruise and board the Brilliance for an 11 night cruise. The Crown and Anchor department helped me get my Platinum status before final payment, so we got an additional discount on our balcony. We already have JS booked b2b on the Rhapsody of the Seas in 2007.... we will walk off the ship Diamond members. If you get the right person on the phone it is amazing what can happen. I will be staying with RCI because of the service that I have received. Keeping a cruiser happy means more dollars in their pockets as you will book another cruise with them.

 

That is great...enjoy those b2b!

[tootsieh]

We are also booked on the Explorer in Feb-'06. When is the Harley Davidson Cruise?

Thanks

Tootsie

[Erie Dave]

To Joeyancho,

I'm not trying to belittle your praise for RCI.....but what they did is "standard procedure". Any cruise line will give "room credit" for booking onboard even if you switch ships. Provided you are outside penalty phase. I've done it with most cruise lines with no problems at all. Enjoy your cruise!

 

Not true of RCI, you can only transfer that credit if you retain the reservation number. If RCI transferred the credit to an existing booking, they stepped outside of regular policy.

[joeyancho]

Tootsieh, The Feb. 5th sailing is the Harley sailing. Bon Voyage

 

Mike, Either I didn't explain the situation correctly or you missed the point. I canceled my Feb sailing and RCCL transfered the credit over to an existing reservation which was not eligible for the credit. Erie Dave explained it the right way.

[MikeKool]

Yes...the original posting was a little confusing. I didn't understand the Voyager cruise was an existing booking. RCI was being generous by extending you the OBC. Kudos to RCI on that.

To Cruiseman...the A/C problem was the least of our problems. It was a drop in the bucket compared to constantly hearing...." I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do about it." If I thought it was serious I'd be calling RCI or writing them letters. Just to set the record straight.....in MY opinion (from a culmination of events over the YEARS) RCI customer service stinks. Just IMHO.....don't want to debate it with anyone on this board.

To HB.....Yes that was nice for RCI to give you credit. Contrary to what you may think....I don't let these things bother me while I'm on a cruise. I am very observant of what goes on around me.....but don't make a fuss. If given the opportunity I will state MY opinion but have better things to do than spend time on the phone and writing letters of complaint.

[shazzz]

I travled VOS in July..first cruise ever..when we returned my daughter urged me to write a nice letter to RCI...I did, stating the wonderful time we had, great service, and I mentioned all the people that made our trip even more special...3 weeks later, I received a call from RCI, thanking me for my nice letter. I was then given a 100 gift cert for each of the 4 in my family to be used on our next cruise...400 bucks off !!!! We are booked on the July 14 sailing of EOS....

 

it pays to be nice!!!!