This is Customer Service?

[shepp]

Two mornings ago, my TA forwarded a move-over offer for our Japan cruise on the 17th, which I read a few hours later. Now, never having gotten one before I was excited, but it would mean a major change in plans. I figured I would discuss it with Princess, so around noon I called the number I was given and left a message on the voicemail of someone in the Inventory Department.

 

When I hadn't heard back by mid-afternoon, I called and left another message. And then yesterday, when I still hadn't heard back by noon, left a third. And here I am, without ever having received the courtesy of a call-back. No more move-overs available? OK, tell me. Understaffed office? Um. But hey, when a time-sensitive major offer like that is made, to not even have my call returned in a full 2 1/2 days? Cripes, I've been on Princess a total of six months, and this is the Customer Service I (don't)get?

 

Fortunately, we ultimately decided definitely not to take the offer, or else I would have been really peeved. Anyone else experience such really cruddy service on a move-over offer? Or is it just that Princess hates me?

[CruiserBruce]

As you were using a TA, why not have the TA do this? Will Princess even talk to you if you are using a TA?

[M4dC0w]

When you book through a TA, their customer service is what you need, as Princess doesn't deal with you, only your TA

 

Also they may already gotten their volunteers they needed already

Edited July 4, 2015 by M4dC0w

[DrivesLikeMario]

They would not return your call, but would contact your TA. That's who you need to talk to about it. Betcha they tried her. When you work with a TA, they contact the TA directly, rarely ever the passenger.

[RickEk]

Yep, as the other two posters mentioned, since you used a TA, Princess won't talk to you concerning anything that has to do with money on the original booking. That being said, I do think a callback would have been nice to tell you that...

[DrivesLikeMario]

Funny! We must've all posted at the same time!

[shepp]

I stand corrected. I just went back and looked, and sure enough I missed the e-mail text where the TA told me to call her back ASAP if I was interested. Duh. Guess I was over-excited. But, in my defense, the attachment from Princess read "This offer is only available by calling 1-800-243-7342, extension 30741, but please act quickly as this offer will be accepted on a first come, first served basis." I figured "only available" meant just that.

 

Lesson learned. I'll know next time, if there is one. Still, it would have been nice to have one of my three calls returned. Really nice. Just because I have a TA doesn't mean I have cooties.

 

And like I said, taking the offer would have meant undoing many months of planning, frequent-flier flights, and a lot of looking-forward-to-the-cruise. Maybe it's for the best that I wasn't further tempted.

Edited July 4, 2015 by shepp

[Putterdude]

Our experience has been that move over offers come direct from Princess but are time sensitive and are often off the table after an hour or two. Up grades usually come thru the TA....I suppose so that he or she can tell you what a great relationship they have with Princess and what a terrific job they are doing for you.

[M4dC0w]

Double post

Edited July 4, 2015 by M4dC0w

[M4dC0w]

Think it may have something to do with privacy policies. As your TA booked and paid for it. Imagine if everyone that used a TA called them, they would have to answer everything twice.

Edited July 4, 2015 by M4dC0w

[ar1950]

.................................

"This offer is only available by calling ....... but please act quickly as this offer will be accepted on a first come, first served basis." I figured "only available" meant just that.

...................

 

Boilerplate wording. Over and over on these boards it has been pointed out that if you use a TA for your booking that is the only way to communicate with Princess (or any other cruise line). Somewhat confusing, probably, but, it is what it is. Glad that you didn't really want the move over offer so no harm no foul. This is a good lesson for any new people who read this thread. Thanks for posting. :cool:

Edited July 4, 2015 by ar1950

[SoCal Cruiser78]

I stand corrected. I just went back and looked, and sure enough I missed the e-mail text where the TA told me to call her back ASAP if I was interested. Duh. Guess I was over-excited. But, in my defense, the attachment from Princess read "This offer is only available by calling 1-800-243-7342, extension 30741, but please act quickly as this offer will be accepted on a first come, first served basis." I figured "only available" meant just that...

 

I might have done the same if I didn't know better. Your TA should have made it clear to not call Princess directly, despite the wording to the contrary, as you are using a TA.

[shredie]

Yes, Princess hates you. :p;) I hope I never get a move-over offer because I would be all in a quandary about what to do. Since it would have involved changing all kinds of other plans, it's probably for the best.

[Colo Cruiser]

I agree the offers are very time sensitive within an hour or two as stated above. I am sure they send out multiple emails to many passengers.

First come first served. :(

[shepp]

Yes, Princess hates you. :p;) I hope I never get a move-over offer because I would be all in a quandary about what to do. Since it would have involved changing all kinds of other plans, it's probably for the best.

 

Yeah, if it had been a simple r/t SFO-Hawaii, it would be one thing. But I would have had to undo frequent flier freebies, hotel ressies in Hawaii, Kyoto, and Tokyo (including some comps I scored), train tix, goodwill guides in five cities, and a loveboat-load of planning. Heck, when the offer came, we were already half-packed. It would have meant saving money (and not braving Japan in mid-summer) but not going really would have disappointed me, and it's not like the money at stake would have meant the difference between us starving or not. Get thee behind me, Satan!

 

It was just so cool to finally get a moreover offer that I downloaded the attachment without carefully reading the e-mail, silly me. So turns out I didn't waste my TA's time, but a one-minute callback from Santa Clarita would've been nice.

 

Tokyo DisneySea, here I come!

Edited July 4, 2015 by shepp

[Times Prince]

When booking through a TA, all matters and communications relating directly with the cruise must be through that TA.

 

Your TA sent an email? A time sensitive offer like that is what telephones are for, and your TA should have phoned you and your spouse and at least left voice mail or text messages.

 

We've had a couple of opportunities for a move over offer, and accepted one, just 3 days before the cruise (which started in Europe - we were all packed). We had a 2 hour deadline from the TA getting the notice until we had to respond. Definitely not a time for emails. The one we took was great - we were able to substitute a cruise that was normally out of our price range, with an upgrade to minisuite, Princess handled all the flight changes (money back to us, there too), plus a generous refundable OBC.

 

Everybody's situation is different, and the decision to take or reject an offer must be made quickly, knowing your own limitations. It either works or doesn't.

[shepp]

]

Your TA sent an email? A time sensitive offer like that is what telephones are for, and your TA should have phoned.

 

Agreed. I've generally been very happy with her, but this time she dropped the ball. In fairness, though, she's in Florida and got the offer at, I think, 6 am our time.

 

One other factor is that the cruise was originally at the upper end of our price range, but we were able to get re-fared after final payment, when the fare plunged, and we saved a couple thousand bucks. Had it been at the original price, I might have been more prone to accept. (Though the offer just was a 50% refundable OBC on the fare we paid, so the "free" cruise we substituted would have actually cost half what we're paying for this one.)

 

Glad the move-over worked for you.

Edited July 4, 2015 by shepp

[Putterdude]

We always book through a TA but our move over offers have come directly from Princess via telephone.

[caribill]

Two mornings ago, my TA forwarded a move-over offer for our Japan cruise on the 17th, which I read a few hours later. Now, never having gotten one before I was excited, but it would mean a major change in plans. I figured I would discuss it with Princess, so around noon I called the number I was given and left a message on the voicemail of someone in the Inventory Department.

 

 

There have been other threads by people who have received such an offer and called the 800 number and did not hear back for several days, so your experience is not unusual.

 

Supposedly they do call back in the order that phone messages were left at that 800 number.

[cruzsnooze]

 

Lesson learned. I'll know next time, if there is one. Still, it would have been nice to have one of my three calls returned. Really nice. Just because I have a TA doesn't mean I have cooties.

 

.

 

You don't own the reservation so cooties or not it's not an offer to you but to your TA. I never use TA's because i like dealing with the cruise line when I have an issue or want to get a lower fare or anything. Next time decide if you really want to give up control of your booking.

[shepp]

You don't own the reservation so cooties or not it's not an offer to you but to your TA. I never use TA's because i like dealing with the cruise line when I have an issue or want to get a lower fare or anything. Next time decide if you really want to give up control of your booking.

 

As I said, the fare on this booking went way down after final payment. I had platinum PVP insurance and my TA spent quite a while getting me re-fared and obtaining what turned out to be a substantial cashback to my credit card. I have no way of knowing whether whatever CS rep I ended up with at Princess - or even a PVP - would have done as well. In any case, I would have had to deal with the nuts-and-bolts of getting re-fared instead of just waiting for a callback from the TA who did the legwork. In addition, my TA always offers a nice discount, usually around 8%, over what Princess would have charged.

 

I do wish that my TA had phoned me with such a time-sensitive offer, but that's the first time in five or six bookings with her that I've had a complaint. If you feel more comfortable booking with Princess, though, by all means do.

 

Only difference is that once we decided we weren't going to take the offer, I might still have wanted to do a little brain-picking and find out the details from a Princess rep, who doesn't work on commission, whereas I would have been reluctant to waste the time of my TA, who does.

Edited July 4, 2015 by shepp

[Cruisin' Chick]

It would be nice if Princess would add to the info sent to passengers that if they want to take advantage of an offer, they should contact their travel agent if they had used one to book.

 

The two times we got a moveover offer, we didn't use a TA. The first time, we got a message left on our answering machine the day before our first Princess cruise -- for a full refund and an upgrade from the lowest category cabin (not kidding) to a balcony. I did call to ask how high the balcony barrier was (our girl was an active 5-year-old then) but then told them we weren't interested. No airfare or hotel to be changed as we were leaving from our home port, but we were packed and ready to get in our car and go. Plus, as we got a friends and family discount, the fare for three of us was equal to a fare for one passenger.

 

The second time we got an email for 1/2 refund plus upgrade from an inside to balcony, but that was for the only time we could go so I didn't bother to reply.

[M4dC0w]

Only difference is that once we decided we weren't going to take the offer, I might still have wanted to do a little brain-picking and find out the details from a Princess rep, who doesn't work on commission, whereas I would have been reluctant to waste the time of my TA, who does.

 

So its ok to bother a princess rep not on commision, but not a TA that is? That you hired?

Edited July 4, 2015 by M4dC0w

[BruceMuzz]

Princess - like all the mass market lines - averages 8 bookings for every cabin before the cruise actually starts.

People change their minds, cancel, upgrade, downgrade, move to another deck, another cabin category, another ship, another itinerary, another cruise line, cancel, re-book, etc. That totals 15 transactions for each cabin for each cruise.

The bigger Princess ships have 1750 cabins, multiplied by 15, that's 26,250 transactions for one ship, for one cruise.

Then we can multiply that by 16 ships; it comes to 420,000 transactions every 10 to 14 days. Many of those transactions require lengthy telephone calls.

 

How many sales agents do you think Princess employs?

Around 200.

That requires those 200 agents to each complete 2100 telephone calls every 10 to 14 days.

Could you do that?

Would you have extra time to chase a few extra calls on the side?

 

Could they add more sales agents?

Of course.

Would you be willing to pay for those extra agents?

Of course not.

Edited July 5, 2015 by BruceMuzz

[GUT2407]

So its ok to bother a princess rep not on commision, but not a TA that is? That you hired?

 

 

Beats me?? :confused::confused::confused::confused: