NCL- WORST Guest Services

[MsTabbyKats]

meThe OP stated that her room was changed at the last minute....which means that a room was assigned or selected previously!

 

If rooms are known to be horribly noisy then a reduced rate with a clear declaration of the issues so a person goes in well informed!

 

The room was changed at the last minute meaning no chance at making a change. Some one else was assigned that room and complained and was changed....and the OP got jammed with the room.

 

The OP said to the very front, meaning they were originally in a different location.

 

They followed all the proper protocol and complained to Guest services who suggested that they bring it to headquarters after the cruise and did so only to get an idiot who yelled at them.

 

NCL is in the wrong period!

 

While there can be a million theories of why the OP was put in that room....it's rather obvious that someone was willing to pay more for OP's original cabin.

 

His only real complaint is the toilet, and they addressed this by sending plumbers to the cabin.

 

Again....all is said assuming it was a guaranteed cabin.

 

But, yes, OP deserves a cookie cutter letter explaining that you agree to take the worst cabin in that category.

 

For as many as "I was upgraded from an inside guarantee to a penthouse suite" results....there are also those "I had the noisiest, worst location on the ship" placements.

[abe3]

While there can be a million theories of why the OP was put in that room....it's rather obvious that someone was willing to pay more for OP's original cabin.

 

His only real complaint is the toilet, and they addressed this by sending plumbers to the cabin.

 

Again....all is said assuming it was a guaranteed cabin.

 

But, yes, OP deserves a cookie cutter letter explaining that you agree to take the worst cabin in that category.

 

For as many as "I was upgraded from an inside guarantee to a penthouse suite" results....there are also those "I had the noisiest, worst location on the ship" placements.

 

 

Agreed. Good post

[ducklite]

The least the OP could have done was to say what the "Issue" is. I still don't understand people who wait until after a cruise to start complaining.:rolleyes:

 

 

On my last cruise I had an issue which I tried to get fixed on the cruise beginning on day three of a week long cruise. I spoke to several people, working my way up the ladder, and it was still not fixed at the end of the cruise. In fact my last interaction with anyone from the ship (other than security as I left) served to rub salt into the wound.

 

It took a letter, a phone call, and a bad review on social media before they addressed my complaint. They did finally compensate me for my actual out of pocket loss with a check, but by then it was too late. The bad taste was embedded in my mouth, and I wouldn't recommend or cruise with them ever again as a result.

 

Bottom line, put the self-righteousness away. You don't know that the OP didn't spend valuable cruise time trying to resolve the problem before they got off and was unable to do so. I also had issues with RCCL that I was unable to get resolved onboard and was so disgusted by their eventual offer than I threw it away and wouldn't cruise with them or any related line ever in the future.

[LMaxwell]

OP hasn't said they booked a guarantee.

[EyeSeaEwe]

meThe OP stated that her room was changed at the last minute....which means that a room was assigned or selected previously!

 

Big difference between selected and assigned.

 

 

If rooms are known to be horribly noisy then a reduced rate with a clear declaration of the issues so a person goes in well informed!

 

Huh?

 

The room was changed at the last minute meaning no chance at making a change. Some one else was assigned that room and complained and was changed....and the OP got jammed with the room.

 

All assumptions and nothing more.

 

 

The OP said to the very front, meaning they were originally in a different location.

 

And?

 

They followed all the proper protocol and complained to Guest services who suggested that they bring it to headquarters after the cruise and did so only to get an idiot who yelled at them.

 

You want them to change the cabin after the cruise?

 

NCL is in the wrong period!

 

In your OPINION.

[EyeSeaEwe]

While there can be a million theories of why the OP was put in that room....it's rather obvious that someone was willing to pay more for OP's original cabin.

 

I see nothing that indicates anything about why the cabin was changed. Cabin changes can happen for many reasons. Nothing is 'obvious' other than you are making an assumption.

[sparks1093]

Big difference between selected and assigned.

 

Huh?

 

All assumptions and nothing more.

 

And?

 

You want them to change the cabin after the cruise?

 

 

In your OPINION.

 

Even if the OP's complaint is meritless (which it may be) she deserves a timely answer. Period.

[ducklite]

If the OP had chosen a different room and paid for that category, not a guarantee, and if they were moved without warning, they deserve compensation in the form of a partial refund, not a credit for another cruise. If they booked a guarantee and that cabin was the category or better that they booked, they deserve nothing, although continued toilet issues should be compensated while on board with a credit.

[MsTabbyKats]

I see nothing that indicates anything about why the cabin was changed. Cabin changes can happen for many reasons. Nothing is 'obvious' other than you are making an assumption.

 

Well...then let's just say that for whatever reason, someone was more deserving of OP's original cabin. :)

[tulch]

As the OP noted, their primary beef is with post-cruise customer service. S/he now has lots of advice as to what to do in the future with on-board issues. However, the primary concern remains, viz., post-cruise customer service.

 

I would approach this in one of two ways: If you work with an EXPERIENCED PCC, get him/her involved. She/he has skin in the game to keep you happy; and a management team that can escalate to the right people quickly if they agree. Ditto for experienced TA's.

 

Approach #2, is put this all down on paper and mail it. Physical pieces of paper are more difficult to blow off than phone calls or emails - and in our day and age, get taken more seriously.

 

Your letter may be nothing more than "Dear Sir" and copying what you posted here. Send it in the mail -- registered, which requires a signature that it was received (and again, gives your letter more psychological weight).

 

Call the CEO's office and ask to talk an executive assistant. Tell him/her that you've been trying to get a customer service issue resolve since (fill in the date of your first call to NCL). Ask him/her if they could tell you to whom a letter should be sent. Start your letter with: "I am writing to you at the suggestion of Mr. X's office."

 

As for your original complaint: NCL corporate might think it is a nuisance. Or, they will try to fix the issue. (And corporate usually can get both sides of a story quickly.) Either way, YOU will know that you escalated the issue as far as it could go. You either will walk away a satisfied NCL customer or have good reason to take your business elsewhere.

 

Good luck and please keep us posted.

[canadianeh934]

While there can be a million theories of why the OP was put in that room....it's rather obvious that someone was willing to pay more for OP's original cabin.

 

His only real complaint is the toilet, and they addressed this by sending plumbers to the cabin.

 

Again....all is said assuming it was a guaranteed cabin.

 

But, yes, OP deserves a cookie cutter letter explaining that you agree to take the worst cabin in that category.

 

For as many as "I was upgraded from an inside guarantee to a penthouse suite" results....there are also those "I had the noisiest, worst location on the ship" placements.

 

She deserves a lot more then a cookie cutter response. ...she was yelled at ...disrespect and mistreated....you are assuming that she had a guaranteed room...and even if she did her room was assigned and then changed.

 

If this happened to you I'm sure you would want more then a form letter stating so sorry to bad you are out of luck.

 

The Op did not post woe is me after her cruise. She posted hoe NCL has handled her complaint well over a month after she attempted to seek a reply from NCL after she attempted to rectified her issues on board.

[Leavethekidswithmom]

The last person that posted here about a complaint to Guest Services took 21 business days for resolution.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2274305

[mjkacmom]

What does the OP want? When you file a complaint, it should include the problem, and what is wanted in compensation. If it was a GT cabin, they can change cabin assignments whenever they want. I would probably have asked for some OBC for the toilet issue, depending on how bad it was. We had issues for a couple of days on the Jewel, but only a couple of hours each day, and they eventually fixed it (took out some public toilets, too).

 

As for being yelled at, I find that when customer service people are yelled at, that's when they yell back. This is why I always have DH call - I get irritated pretty quickly, and know that me getting used will not help the situation.

[MsTabbyKats]

She deserves a lot more then a cookie cutter response. ...she was yelled at ...disrespect and mistreated....you are assuming that she had a guaranteed room...and even if she did her room was assigned and then changed.

 

If this happened to you I'm sure you would want more then a form letter stating so sorry to bad you are out of luck.

 

The Op did not post woe is me after her cruise. She posted hoe NCL has handled her complaint well over a month after she attempted to seek a reply from NCL after she attempted to rectified her issues on board.

 

If this happened to me (again....assuming it was a guarantee) I would just chalk it up to experience. And I had a bad experience once...which is why I only book late guarantees on ships that aren't full.

 

If this happened to me...and I had selected a cabin....I'd be furious...but if someone yelled at me because I called them at home during a holiday....I'd apologize to them and tell them I'd like to discuss this during normal business hours.

 

To add: You were not on the phone when the OP was yelled at. You do not know the conversation or the tone of either party.

[jingle5616]

Always two sides the story. I agree that if true yes they should answer in a timely fashion, but we have no idea what the issue is. Lots of companies will not respond to minor issues. NCL and many other companies are always receiving letters or correspondence about complaints but some just really don't need a response because you probably won't even make the consumer happy or it is a petty reason or it is actually the fault of the consumer.

 

That doesn't mean NCL is the the right with the OP but there is much more to story and for someone to put a title as they did that opens up the can for more details.

 

never mind!

Edited December 27, 2015 by jingle5616

[macandlucy]

That's an appalling customer service experience.

 

If I was kept from sleeping because of a very noisy cabin and my toilet didn't work, I'd be pretty upset. That's getting into cruise-ruining territory for me.

 

"They tried to fix it" is simply not enough.

 

To be yelled at by Maria, because she was at home is surreal.

 

Team OP!

[canadianeh934]

If this happened to me (again....assuming it was a guarantee) I would just chalk it up to experience. And I had a bad experience once...which is why I only book late guarantees on ships that aren't full.

 

If this happened to me...and I had selected a cabin....I'd be furious...but if someone yelled at me because I called them at home during a holiday....I'd apologize to them and tell them I'd like to discuss this during normal business hours.

 

 

 

To add: You were not on the phone when the OP was yelled at. You do not know the conversation or the tone of either party.

 

Maybe reading the thread before posting is to much to ask...

 

The OP did not call them at home...an NCL employee did...

 

The issue is around how this was all handled...room was assigned or selected. Room had a non working toilet...Lots of noise and other issues. OP addressed it on board and was told to contact NCL when cruise was over...she did so. Was told she would get a reply in 15 days. After over 30 days no reply. She ask to speak with a supervisor was put on hold for 45 minutes and no one picked up the phone. Call again and got a person who told her he was going to walk over and get a person to take her call....then employee comes on the phone and yells at her for calling her at home...

 

This is piss poor costumer service at its finest...

[hpecorari]

..you are assuming that she had a guaranteed room...and even if she did her room was assigned and then changed.

 

 

IF OP had a guaranteed room NCL has the right to change and re-assign that room up and until they get on the ship. It's part of the 'guaranteed room' agreement you accept when you choose a 'guaranteed room'. Again, that's IF OP had a guaranteed room. If that's the case, there is nothing OP can do or say about the room itself, as OP agreed to the terms and conditions when booking said guaranteed room. Now, the toilet issues are another story!

 

Harriet

[sparks1093]

IF OP had a guaranteed room NCL has the right to change and re-assign that room up and until they get on the ship. It's part of the 'guaranteed room' agreement you accept when you choose a 'guaranteed room'. Again, that's IF OP had a guaranteed room. If that's the case, there is nothing OP can do or say about the room itself, as OP agreed to the terms and conditions when booking said guaranteed room. Now, the toilet issues are another story!

 

Harriet

 

Small point but it's one day before departure that they can change the cabin. At least according to their website. (IIRC correctly OP did state the change was made the day before departure.)

[hpecorari]

Small point but it's one day before departure that they can change the cabin. At least according to their website. (IIRC correctly OP did state the change was made the day before departure.)

 

Ahhh, thanks for the correction. I thought it could be changed at check-in as well.

 

Harriet

[Loonbeam]

Wow, the sheer level of excuses being made for NCL is exceptional.

 

"Maybe she forgot she forwarded her phone. Maybe the complaint was unclear or long winded, etc."

 

Here's the net. It doesn't matter why their cabin was changed. You can make the case that cabin shouldn't even have been designed or sold, given the location of the anchor if you want to go that far. It also doesn't matter what was wrong with the toilet, where art was stored, etc. Not for the purposes of this discussion.

 

When you contact a firm's customer service arm, every customer should receive a notification that their communication was received, a timely response to the initial communication, clear understanding of the issue addresses and a polite and professional response. If that response takes excessive time for whatever reason, regular communication should be provided to indicate the matter is still open. This is call center/customer service 101.

 

The nature of the request and the demeanor of the customer DO NOT MATTER other than to shape the eventual response. (Two exceptions, foul language on a call or attempted fraud. And even in the case of the first, a response should be sent if possible indicating the matter was closed due to their behavior)

 

In this case, NCL did not do this. In fact, in at least 2 of those areas it appears they did the opposite. An agent should never yell. Period. There should never be more than 7 business days between communications (even just 'please excuse the delay, we are working on it). Period.

 

If and when NCL finally responds, we can argue whether the response was relevant to the issues, any requests for compensation, etc.

 

Based on multiple reports, NCL shoreside customer service leaves something to be desired, that is clear. And that's not uncommon these days as companies view call centers as a cost center, not a way of retaining or obtaining customers. That's a bigger issue and apropos of another thread if FDR really wants to differentiate NCL, this is certainly one investment that could pay off huge long term... (Personally I would eventually centralize one call center for all brands, the level of service needed for the higher end lines would spill down to NCL agents one would hope)

 

No matter what, NCL is in the wrong here, period.

[fshagan]

When you contact a firm's customer service arm, every customer should receive a notification that their communication was received, a timely response to the initial communication, clear understanding of the issue addresses and a polite and professional response. If that response takes excessive time for whatever reason, regular communication should be provided to indicate the matter is still open. This is call center/customer service 101.

 

The nature of the request and the demeanor of the customer DO NOT MATTER other than to shape the eventual response. (Two exceptions, foul language on a call or attempted fraud. And even in the case of the first, a response should be sent if possible indicating the matter was closed due to their behavior)

 

Have to agree with you here; this is a clear failure of customer service. I'm taking the OPs complaint at face value that she contacted them and was given a time frame for resolution (good) that came and went without a response (bad). It is easy to set up an auto-responder in most ticket systems that ping the customer that the situation is still being evaluated, and I wonder why NCL doesn't do this.

 

None of us know the full story, of course. To assume the OP is correct is to demean the people she identifies by name as being mean. To assume the OP is not factual is to question her integrity. Neither one is acceptable, so we are left with the barest of facts. Such is the social media complaint, where consumers post reviews that cannot effectively be defended by the company for various reasons including legal or policy restrictions.

[Tura Lura]

I laugh when someone suggest email the CEO. 99.99999% of the mail a CEO gets is scanned and dumped on someone else, if not the circular file. Emailing a CO actually slows down the process of getting things resolved. Especially if it is a log winded rant like the OP.

 

Laugh all you like. Have you ever tried it? Works almost every time. I'm speaking from experience both from a consumer side and the corporate side. I deal with issues on our corporate site, my team is customer experience. Issues that customers write directly to the CEO (and I work somewhere with over 200k employees worldwide), get escalated. Don't care if you believe me, I know for a fact that they get addressed. They are forwarded to our team and become high priority.

Edited December 27, 2015 by Tura Lura

[triptolemus]

Laugh all you like. Have you ever tried it? Works almost every time. I'm speaking from experience both from a consumer side and the corporate side. I deal with issues on our corporate site, my team is customer experience. Issues that customers write directly to the CEO (and I work somewhere with over 200k employees worldwide), get escalated. Don't care if you believe me, I know for a fact that they get addressed. They are forwarded to our team and become high priority.

 

You're describing a customer service group who has their crap together. Remember that we're talking about NCL call center / customer service group who have consistently shown over the course of several years that they couldn't resolve themselves out of a paper bag half the time. The other half? Successful resolution seems to be purely a matter of luck.

[armwinder]

I have been trying to resolve an issue on an upcoming cruise for about two months now. Each time I call (first every week now every two or three three weeks) it is the same old story, except for last week when a supervisor asked me to wait in all day for a call from her supervisor. We have to get this solved she announced, and I think she really was been genuine. No phone call of course, never expected one but its ok to hope. I have collected a list of around 15 names of people I have spoken to over the last little while, all very polite just never get any satisfaction. Only promises of a phone call.

 

I have another six months before the cruise in question and have one in between. I can always ask the cruise consultant on the ship only that is how all this started in the first place, the folks on the ship do not always know what is going on at NCL and certainly get things wrong sometimes. As I have said on this thread before we do not consider ourselves "veteran" cruises rather very seasoned cruisers and we still await a phone call with "baited breath" not to be confused with "Bait and Switch" the latter will no doubt be what happens to us.

Edited December 27, 2015 by armwinder