NCL Customer Service-Horrible

[wdsted]

These bad customer service posts always surprise me. We’ve booked, rebooked, changed, and/or canceled dozens of cruises with NCL and have had zero customer service hiccups. Maybe we’re just lucky, low maintenance, read the fine print, and/or have good karma.

 

 

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[NLH Arizona]

I absolutely agree. I'll never cruise with Norwegian again.

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

[darlene62]

Bird - that's the old school "sorry that's not my department" approach. A far superior approach is to empower and reward employees for problem solving. The bottom line should be a positve customer experience - the cruise industry is getting more competitive and better customer service is a no-brainer on product differentiation. Tough nuts works for a monopoly, but fails when there are choices. Look at the cable TV industry. Likewise for the prevalence of warranties in auto sales.

The problem with employees answering every question is they cannot possibly be trained for every area and frequently rules can change. I think we have all been savvy to that....thinking the recent threads on specialty restaurants allowing extra side items or not. Managing a call center I find the best solution is to get people to the right area that can correctly answer their questions even if you initially frustrate someone when you transfer, at least they will get the correct answer. And then I hope that the powers that be have given us the updates when policies change even within our own departments. When I was a call center rep I would cringe when "helpful" staff from another area who tried to help a customer and gave inaccurate information and I had to be the person who gave the bad news. Maybe back in the day a phone rep could provide general information but I think there are too many ...if this than this but if that than this...

[DMH15]

I absolutely agree. I'll never cruise with Norwegian again.

 

 

 

Well... that was helpful.

 

Kinda like...

 

If I did not like a restaurant standing out front telling others I do not.

 

 

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[$hip$hape]

Well... that was helpful. Kinda like...

If I did not like a restaurant standing out front telling others I do not.

 

And like,

An amusing anecdote states that baseball great Yogi Berra was once asked

whether he wished to have dinner at a highly-regarded restaurant,

and he replied with a remark combining wisdom with contradiction:

Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.

[barb65]

I called the NCL number on the vacation website last week to discuss my reservation and airfare. The customer service rep I spoke with flat out told me not to book air with NCL-it was more expensive! He told me to go directly through the airlines or a TA. OK I said!

 

I hate that you are having troubles. Very frustrating!

 

Totally agree. Book air on your own. You can usually get a better deal, plus you're in control of your reservation and don't have to depend on anyone else but yourself for changes. You can call the airline directly and usually get a faster response.

[Budget Queen]

While I like NCL's Ships and their overall offering, their customer service is absolutely horrible. I booked Air with them for the first time and had problems from the get go. I sent an email to their Air Dept. and they never got back to me. I sent an email to their Guest Services, and was told they would get back to me in 3 days. It is now day 4 without a response. I called the concierge (that service comes with a suite) and their response was that they couldn't help resolve my issue either. It has been one of the worst customer service experiences I have ever deal with. NOw you may not have any issues with your NCL cruise which I hope is the case. But if you do, beware.

 

So you DO know what this problem is, and it only involves NCL??? AND you booked cruise air- I didn't know, NCL ran the airlines now??????? They are middle men, dealing with low negotiated air fares. The answer may not be available yet.

Sometimes with this type of booking it's going to be less than 30 days prior for the schedules and confirmation times/routes.

[sjh422]

Having dealt with NCL customer services on a number of occasions, I have always found them to be extremely helpful.

 

I agree-- have had very good responses from them.

[2Oldpeopleinlove]

Well... that was helpful.

 

Kinda like...

 

If I did not like a restaurant standing out front telling others I do not.

 

 

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Hey now...that's what i do! (Restaurant reviewer for local paper) heh.

[2Oldpeopleinlove]

We've had good, if slow, service from NCL regarding problems. However, after decades of booking our own flights, we had a TA do it for us for our trip two weeks ago, and we'll never make that mistake again. No need to go through the whole awful story, but I won't ever let flight details out from my own control again.

[newmexicoNita]

I absolutely agree. I'll never cruise with Norwegian again.

interesting: 1st time poster, an old post, over a year ago and suddenly an "I hate" post. I really doubt anyone is going to miss you cruising on NCL> Enjoy whatever line you choose and thanks for all the reasons you would never cruise NCL again. :rolleyes:

[vince_g]

I absolutely agree. I'll never cruise with Norwegian again.

 

Thanks for that totally worthless comment. Goodbye troll.

[niebel]

I have to agree with you there, unfortunately. The customer service is lacking.

 

100% agree. Unfortunately you have to go through 3 awful people to get to 1 good person.

[zitsky]

OK. I'm new to NCL. Have booked but not gone on my cruise with them. I would rather have everyone share their experience. I can sort through the garbage and decide who I want to believe.