Customer Service: a rant.

[Mikew0805]

This is something I have NEVER understood.

 

On previous cruises, seeing people sitting (or lining up) waiting for a representative from the "Future Cruise" department just confuses me. We walked by to pick up a catalog to look through...but some people were in there, wheeling and dealing. Later on there was an actual line!

 

Why in the world would you waste ANY valuable vacation time on your current vacation booking your next one?

 

I really, really just don't get that, especially when you can get "perks" and OBC from home. :confused:

 

This confuses me as well.

 

The on board bonus is fine. My problem comes in when the LA states that changes cannot be made. If I book far enough out, and a price drop happens.. well I want the new price as long as it is before penalty period. Seems like that cannot be done with these bookings.

 

On your point, I feel I can spend more time researching at home and would feel rushed on the ship, as I do not want to spend an hour of my cruise doing something I can do at home.

[Clarea]

This confuses me as well.

 

The on board bonus is fine. My problem comes in when the LA states that changes cannot be made. If I book far enough out, and a price drop happens.. well I want the new price as long as it is before penalty period. Seems like that cannot be done with these bookings.

 

On your point, I feel I can spend more time researching at home and would feel rushed on the ship, as I do not want to spend an hour of my cruise doing something I can do at home.

I'm not aware of restrictions on price drops for cruises booked on board.

 

However, they can take away most of the on board credit if you change ship or sail date.

[Spurschick]

We just completed our third cruise with Royal Caribbean and booked our fourth while on board. We were satisfied with our vacation and have no serious complaints about our onboard experience.

 

Our displeasure stems from some misinformation we were given concerning our future booking. I will not go into detail but will just say that we do not feel valuable to RCI. We were on the phone for over 3 hours yesterday trying to resolve our issue. Nothing was accomplished. We were given lots of empty apologies but not even the smallest token of appreciation or understanding was granted.

 

I am a veteran, a Crown and Anchor member and we paid full catalog price for next cruise. We were told by the future cruise desk representative onboard that the cruise we booked qualified for a particular discount. However once we got home and reviewed the booking we discovered that this discount was not applied to the total. Which started our phone conversation.

 

In the end the call was escalated to Mathew who works in the Loyalty Resolutions department, and he only accomplished ensuring that we do not sail with RCI or its subsidiaries again. He assured us that if we had booked with a travel agent there would have been more that he could do but since we booked directly with RCI that there was nothing he would do.

 

We split our time between Royal and Carnival and I assure you that Carnival would have handled this better, more professionally and certainly we would have not felt undervalued as a customer.

 

Lessons learned:

 

1) book RCI cruises with a travel agent

2) RCI does not believe in the customer is always right mantra when it comes to customer support.

3) loyalty means nothing to RCI, (maybe if we were pinnacle status it would have been different?

4) never expect outstanding customer support pre or post sailing with RCI.

 

I know many will have had different experiences with RCI. I am only ranting about our bad experience and will end this with two thoughts. 1) we were warned that Royal Caribbeans customer service was poor. 2) we are sharing our poor experience with Royal Caribbeans customer service.

 

 

As others have said, RC will only match their best price. Some TAs offer better packages, but RC will not match those.

 

Whilst onboard you can get free internet access to RC page to check pricing.

 

If you book onboard then NEVER leave at the end of the booking without having confirmation of price and that discounts have been applied. Until resolved don't pay the deposit. It is much easier to get them to resolve then trying to go through customer service after the fact with no evidence to back up what was said. If the next cruise consultant wants your business they will fix it. You will also recieve a printed copy delivered to your cabin whereby you can review and check details whilst still onboard.

 

Without trying to sound rude your lessons learned should have included to check reservation on board, not when you got home.

 

I agree to either cancel and rebook with TA, but you will lose whatever OBC you received, or see if you can transfer to a TA the existing reservation and get the discount applied. At that point RC won't deal with you and everything gets handled by TA.

[Spurschick]

This confuses me as well.

 

The on board bonus is fine. My problem comes in when the LA states that changes cannot be made. If I book far enough out, and a price drop happens.. well I want the new price as long as it is before penalty period. Seems like that cannot be done with these bookings.

 

On your point, I feel I can spend more time researching at home and would feel rushed on the ship, as I do not want to spend an hour of my cruise doing something I can do at home.

 

Changes refer to ship, sailing date or named passengers sailing, not standard price drops. If price drops in general than yes you can apply. If price drops due to a special that is only available to new bookings, then you would lose the obc.

[Spurschick]

This is something I have NEVER understood.

 

On previous cruises, seeing people sitting (or lining up) waiting for a representative from the "Future Cruise" department just confuses me. We walked by to pick up a catalog to look through...but some people were in there, wheeling and dealing. Later on there was an actual line!

 

Why in the world would you waste ANY valuable vacation time on your current vacation booking your next one?

 

I really, really just don't get that, especially when you can get "perks" and OBC from home. :confused:

 

Perks and OBC are great if you use a TA. However I never use if I can help it. I like control of my own booking and RC won't even talk dining with you if you have TA reservation.

 

If you get onboard knowing exactly what you want to book, it takes no more than a few minutes to do. I do it for OBC that I wouldn't get otherwise. Is it wasting valuable vacation time? In my opinion no. If I know what I want to do, I get a bonus for it, and I spend the rest of my vacation knowing I just booked another vacation I enjoy it more:D

 

On boarding day what am I missing other than unpacking which I leave to DH and DD whilst I book a cruise:D

[ryano]

This is something I have NEVER understood.

 

On previous cruises, seeing people sitting (or lining up) waiting for a representative from the "Future Cruise" department just confuses me. We walked by to pick up a catalog to look through...but some people were in there, wheeling and dealing. Later on there was an actual line!

 

Why in the world would you waste ANY valuable vacation time on your current vacation booking your next one?

 

I really, really just don't get that, especially when you can get "perks" and OBC from home. :confused:

 

Booking a 7 night Allure cruise for 50.00 deposit vs. 500.00 is why I did it. While I know a reduced deposit isnt of benefit to most, it was to me at the time. It took less than 15 minutes of "valuable vacation time" because I made an appt. I already knew the date and ship I wanted. And I got 50.00 immediate OBC.

 

It was well worth the <15 minutes spent.

Edited May 6, 2015 by ryano

[John&LaLa]

We booked 5 cruises in the hour we had to kill between noon and one. I have already upgraded one from inside to GS. The obc changed from $150 to $400 and they did not ask for any more deposit.:D

 

We don't spend the OBC until we take the cruise

Edited May 6, 2015 by John&LaLa

[russellandsam]

We just completed our third cruise with Royal Caribbean and booked our fourth while on board. We were satisfied with our vacation and have no serious complaints about our onboard experience.

 

Our displeasure stems from some misinformation we were given concerning our future booking. I will not go into detail but will just say that we do not feel valuable to RCI. We were on the phone for over 3 hours yesterday trying to resolve our issue. Nothing was accomplished. We were given lots of empty apologies but not even the smallest token of appreciation or understanding was granted.

 

I am a veteran, a Crown and Anchor member and we paid full catalog price for next cruise. We were told by the future cruise desk representative onboard that the cruise we booked qualified for a particular discount. However once we got home and reviewed the booking we discovered that this discount was not applied to the total. Which started our phone conversation.

 

In the end the call was escalated to Mathew who works in the Loyalty Resolutions department, and he only accomplished ensuring that we do not sail with RCI or its subsidiaries again. He assured us that if we had booked with a travel agent there would have been more that he could do but since we booked directly with RCI that there was nothing he would do.

 

We split our time between Royal and Carnival and I assure you that Carnival would have handled this better, more professionally and certainly we would have not felt undervalued as a customer.

 

Lessons learned:

 

1) book RCI cruises with a travel agent

2) RCI does not believe in the customer is always right mantra when it comes to customer support.

3) loyalty means nothing to RCI, (maybe if we were pinnacle status it would have been different?

4) never expect outstanding customer support pre or post sailing with RCI.

 

I know many will have had different experiences with RCI. I am only ranting about our bad experience and will end this with two thoughts. 1) we were warned that Royal Caribbeans customer service was poor. 2) we are sharing our poor experience with Royal Caribbeans customer service.

 

FYI : Alex at RCI called us this afternoon and made everything right for us.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[Spurschick]

FYI : Alex at RCI called us this afternoon and made everything right for us.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

Glad it worked out

[NightOne]

FYI : Alex at RCI called us this afternoon and made everything right for us.

 

So are you now planning to retract your earlier statements or is Royal Caribbean's customer service still poor ?

[John&LaLa]

So are you now planning to retract your earlier statements or is Royal Caribbean's customer service still poor ?

 

Who knows, just because it worked it's way out does not mean all is well.

[Cuizer2]

FYI : Alex at RCI called us this afternoon and made everything right for us.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

I guess Alex read this thread. :D

[Cuizer2]

So are you now planning to retract your earlier statements or is Royal Caribbean's customer service still poor ?

 

Royal Caribbean's customer service is still poor.

[NightOne]

Royal Caribbean's customer service is still poor.

 

Personally I have never had any problem with them.

 

Of course you are entitled to your opinion.

 

Unfortunately, the bar for some people with customer service is that it is poor if they do not get what they want.

 

Thus far the OP has very little to say after being given what they wanted which is a pretty common theme among those that complain about customer service. (in my opinion) :)

[ryano]

 

Thus far the OP has very little to say after being given what they wanted which is a pretty common theme among those that complain about customer service. (in my opinion) :)

 

Could it possibly be that its only been less than an hour and the OP MIGHT have better things to do right now than come back and answer your question?

Edited May 6, 2015 by ryano

[NightOne]

Could it possibly be that its only been less than an hour and the OP MIGHT have better things to do right now than come back and answer your question?

 

Nope, that cannot be it at all. :)

 

We can revisit this in a few days.

[Cuizer2]

Personally I have never had any problem with them.

 

Of course you are entitled to your opinion.

 

Unfortunately, the bar for some people with customer service is that it is poor if they do not get what they want.

 

Thus far the OP has very little to say after being given what they wanted which is a pretty common theme among those that complain about customer service. (in my opinion) :)

 

Good customer service would have meant either:

 

1) Giving the OP what he deserved the first time or

2) Explaining why you can't give the OP what he wanted in a why that the OP would understand.

 

Yet, shortly after the OP brings the issue to the social media suddenly, out of the blue, he gets a call back and all is promptly given what (s)he should have received originally. That is NOT good customer service.

[NightOne]

Good customer service would have meant either:

 

1) Giving the OP what he deserved the first time or

2) Explaining why you can't give the OP what he wanted in a why that the OP would understand.

 

Yet, shortly after the OP brings the issue to the social media suddenly, out of the blue, he gets a call back and all is promptly given what (s)he should have received originally. That is NOT good customer service.

 

Well shortly being 4 hours.

 

We don't know all the details so I cannot comment on whether the OP "deserved" it or not.

 

My original point is that people seem to equate good customer service as being they get what they want and bad customer service as not getting what they want. The OP stated that RCCL spent 3 hours on the phone with them and repeatedly apologized. That doesn't sound like bad customer service to me.

 

Bad customer service to me would be when they say "screw you" and hang up on you in 30 seconds. LOL

[John&LaLa]

Good customer service would have meant either:

 

1) Giving the OP what he deserved the first time or

2) Explaining why you can't give the OP what he wanted in a why that the OP would understand.

 

Yet, shortly after the OP brings the issue to the social media suddenly, out of the blue, he gets a call back and all is promptly given what (s)he should have received originally. That is NOT good customer service.

 

Personally, I don't think RC gives a rat's *ss about this site. There was someone on here for a while, but they've been AWOL for a some time now.

[NightOne]

Personally, I don't think RC gives a rat's *ss about this site. There was someone on here for a while, but they've been AWOL for a some time now.

 

I agree.

 

I think cruise forums, Facebook, Twitter, etc. are push-only mediums (same as a press release) for them to deliver information when they feel like it.

[Ourusualbeach]

We booked 5 cruises in the hour we had to kill between noon and one. I have already upgraded one from inside to GS. The obc changed from $150 to $400 and they did not ask for any more deposit.:D

 

We don't spend the OBC until we take the cruise

 

That's a nice benefit.:)

[Ourusualbeach]

Personally, I don't think RC gives a rat's *ss about this site. There was someone on here for a while, but they've been AWOL for a some time now.

 

And they never really did answer any of the more difficult questions or explain policies.

[Cuizer2]

Personally, I don't think RC gives a rat's *ss about this site. There was someone on here for a while, but they've been AWOL for a some time now.

 

Nonetheless, Royal Caribbean does read these threads.

[russellandsam]

Personally I have never had any problem with them.

 

Of course you are entitled to your opinion.

 

Unfortunately, the bar for some people with customer service is that it is poor if they do not get what they want.

 

Thus far the OP has very little to say after being given what they wanted which is a pretty common theme among those that complain about customer service. (in my opinion) :)

 

I am the OP. Royal Caribbean did not give us what we wanted which was the promised promotion for which we booked on board. They did however give us some token of their appreciation for our loyalty. Is their customer service still bad. My opinion is yes, it should have never taken 3 hours of phone conversation escalation to supervisors two times and then a management team decision 24 hours later.

 

Will we continue to sail with RCI? Yes. Will we recommend RCI, yes but not over any other line we have sailed with. We will be more cautious in our booking in the future.

 

I not going to retract my original post. If that is what it took for RCI to recognize our displeasure in the handling of our situation, then so be it. I told Mathew I would be posting this thread on Cruise Critic. And I told Alex that we would simply say that RCI made it right for us.

 

My post was our experience alone, we have left out details and we will not be specific in how RCI handles our situation. They (RCI) made it right for us. Their handling of the situation may not have been right for others. We had very specific goals in our booking, we maintained our booking and we will continue to sail RCI.

 

Our lesson learned is check twice, ask questions, verify everything before walking away from the future cruise representatives desk. Any error or misunderstanding can be impossible to remedy later.

 

To reiterate once again:

 

1) RCI made the situation right for us. It was a compromise on both of our parts.

 

2) We are happy with the outcome, we wish the option we were presented today would have been presented yesterday.

 

3) We did not set out to get something that we felt was unfairly gained. We were not dishonest in the representation of our situation to Cruise Critic or RCI. And we were prepared to cancel our booking to rebook with RCI through a travel agent.

 

4) We also admit that we are partially responsible in the miss communication during our booking, and also I freely admit that we were at times unpleasant to deal with yesterday on the phone.

 

Thanks for the feed back everyone, thanks for the remedy Alex @ RCI. Thanks for the sounding board Cruise Critic. I am not posting any further on this thread. As far as I am concerned RCI handled the situation to our satisfaction with a pleasant phone conversation this afternoon.

[Cuizer2]

Well Nightone - you got your answer. Happy now?

Edited May 6, 2015 by Cuizer2