Kudos to Celebrity Customer Service

[4ready2cruz]

I originally posted this as a followup in my review of our cruise on the Constellation, but decided to repost here.

 

Here is the back story.....

 

We sailed on Connie this past December over the holidays and had many issues with the Onboard gift service. I ordered items to be delivered to our 3 cabins and the items were either never delivered, not as described or late in arriving. It does stipulate on their website that they cannot guarantee a delivery time however to deliver something after 7 pm on the date requested was ridiculous.

 

1) I ordered 1 dozen chocolate covered strawberries ($26) to be delivered on embarkation day. I also ordered a cheese plate and another dessert item but my issue was mainly with the strawberries. What arrived came after 7pm (we already ate) and were only seven of the puniest strawberries, barely chocolate covered that I had ever seen. I did not bring this to guest services because I thought maybe I was mistaken and was not able to verify until I returned home. We also had an issue in the MDR and they also sent the same puny strawberries to each of the staterooms as an apology.

 

2) ordered a teddy bear and tote bag for my daughters. Postcards saying the items were to be delivered were in the cabins. The items never came, I went to guest services who determined that the items never made it on board and refunded it to my account. That was merely disappointing.

 

3) My husband celebrated his 50th on board. I ordered a deluxe party package and also a Wine Connossieur (sp?) gift set to be delivered on his birthday. I had to followup with guest services 3 times throughout the day to find out when the items were coming. They eventually refunded me for the wine set because it took so long however when it did arrive, it was missing a part. At that point, I was tired of complaining and it was actually funny.

 

The follow up.....

 

I had sent an email to Celebrity shortly after we returned from our cruise, not really expecting to hear anything back, but just to vent. I also vented to my travel agent and sent him a copy of the email. Not sure if he did anything with it.

 

Imagine my surprise to get a call (which I sent to voicemail) that was immediately followed up with an email from Nicole with Celebrity's Customer Service! So I called back, had a wonderful chat with her about the issues we encountered with the onboard gift service. If you have ever used the Contact Celebrity email form, it only allows you 1000 characters to say what you have to say. I had to go back and do some serious editing so I did not think I got most of my point across!

 

But apparently I did! In addition the the strawberries issue (she refunded it my credit card), she also asked about the issue with the Wine set I had ordered for my husband that was missing a part. I told her not to worry since guest services had already refunded that to me because it took so long to arrive in the cabin. She insisted on doing something and said that a bottle of wine will be sent to our cabin on our next cruise on the Silhouette next April!

 

I did not leave our cruise disgruntled with Celebrity but just needed them to know that something is a little off with their Onboard Gift Service.

 

Can't wait to cruise Celebrity again next year!

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Thanks for the follow up. We too have had a positive response from Celebrity's customer service dept after contacting them about a disappointing Chef's Table on one cruise.

[jbuch02]

All the cruise lines, including Celebrity, are sensitive and generally accommodating when a passenger has a problem. If you bring it to the attention of the appropriate person while on board, it will usually be addressed by compensating you in some way.

 

If you address the problem after the fact as the OP did, someone will usually call you and offer compensation for your inconvenience. This seems to be, in my experience, and industry wide practice.

 

The thing that gets me about all these niceties either from onboard staff when it is brought to their attention or from the front office after the fact is that whatever the problem illuminated by a guest, it does not seem to get fixed. Case in point: noisy cabins, poor food quality, excessive cost of specialty dining, declining MDR service and so forth.

 

I'll acknowledge some problems can't be fixed for various reasons, for example, a noisy cabin because it is under a heavily traveled walk-way on the pool deck. But I will guarantee you, this cabin will be pushed and sold by various mechanisms to the next unsuspecting guest.

 

If there is a theme to complaints from guests on board Celebrity Cruises it involves food service. Most notably irregular MDR table service in the context of a supposedly upscale or 5 star dining experience and the cost of specialty dining options in comparison to other brands. More recently I've seen an up-tick in complaints involving pushy bar staff (upgrade your drink package) or concessionaires who work in the spa or boutiqes.

 

That sort of thing is annoying and seems to reflect a disconnect from the complaint department folks and, in the case of a permanently noisy cabin, guest reservations and or Hotel staff who might take steps to either hold that cabin or at least warn guests who are interested in or offered that cabin a heads up ..... maybe even discount it up front. I don't know. It's a tough problem but one, I feel isn't dealt with very well.

 

With respect to food services, my view is that these issues are entirely fixable if corporate wanted to address them. That complaints about food services, in one form or the other, continue to appear on message boards would indicate they don't really care. I find that a departure from what I have experienced with Celebrity in the past.

 

The bottom line for me is that if there is a complaint, an honest effort ought to be made to fix it whatever that fix might be rather than ignore it and hope no one complains about it next time around...... what seems to be Celebrity's present MO.

Edited March 3, 2016 by jbuch02

[CHEZMARYLOU]

We always address problems on board, even though we might follow up with an email to Celebrity.

 

A lot of things are out of their control, especially noisy cabins. If they held back or heavily discounted cabins under the pool, buffet, etc. there would be a lot of empty cabins. Any one who has cruised often or reads these boards knows the disadvantage of booking some cabins.

[milesfromu]

It is unfortunate that you cannot rely on delivery of items ordered in advance. We have had similar issues with all three of our most recent cruises. Items ordered to be delivered the first day, never show. In each of the three instances it took multiple communications with steward and customer service to get them. By the time we did, the element of surprise had been taken away!

 

When you order flowers for delivery on day one, the expectation is for them to be in the cabin when you arrive to surprise the significant other and to maximize their addition to the cabin for the duration of the cruise. When it takes three days of prodding to finally get a mediocre bouquet delivered, neither goal is accomplished!

[kencr]

I ordered 3 food items on Celebrity's gift list for my wife and friend on an Alaskan cruise in June 2014. I ordered them to be delivered to their cabin on 3 different days. She got them all the same day. No problem, at least she got them. I ordered them online weeks ahead.