Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Four

[Daveywavey70]

Well said Jeff,

I Have pointed out to them on several occasions where they have fallen short of not only providing the service as described, but more importantly, their legal obligations following that failure and they have remained absolutely immovable.

 

They obviously just expect us to give up.

 

The longer this goes on and the more involved it becomes to get them to act reasonably and meet their obligations, the more it will take to put things right. At the risk of repeating myself, with better customer services they could have turned these situations into a positive very early on and very easily. Instead they leave their guests with an increasingly bitter taste in their mouths.

 

A Judge will not take kindly to what you describe above.

[UKCruiseJeff]

In my case, if they had warned me of the group booking when I booked - and they certainly did know, and UK regulations mandate ensuring that all material facts are disclosed to customers - then not only would I have not cancelled the future cruise, I'd have been posting on CC that although disappointed with not booking the cruise we fancied, but how decent they were and how impressed I was of making the difficult decision of telling me and allowing me to make the informed choice. I think that wins huge support and confidence and builds a positive reputation.

[Daveywavey70]

And the same for us Jeff. If we had been informed of the refit rather than finding out about it ourselves and being given the guarantee she would not sail unless she was perfect when we called them, then we would have made an informed choice and probably would have found a different cruise, possibly with them on another date, possibly with a different line. Either way we would have booked when we could have with SS as it was very much on our radar. Instead of gaining loyal guests they have acquired very disgruntled former guests that feel that they have been cheated and lied to and taken for fools by a company that I assume knew about the takeover in March when we booked in order to make a quick buck.

[MissSophia]

Sakaara....I’m so sorry for what you had to go through.

I think some of us have all had similar experiences and it’s so very hard.

 

S😊

[UKCruiseJeff]

Good Morning Coolers,

 

Just want to invite you to meet my latest and newest "best friend" from Nigeria. She really genuinely likes me because it does just say "Hello Dear"! All I need to do now is to send her a couple of hard disks, and my bank details .......

 

Hello Dear,

 

I am Miss Ngama. A computer scientist with central bank of Nigeria. I am 26 years old, just started work with C.B.N. I came across your file which was marked X and your released disk painted RED, I took time to study it and found out that you have paid VIRTUALLY all fees and certificate but the fund has not been release to you. The most annoying thing is that they cannot tell you the truth that on no account wills they ever release the fund to you; instead they let you spend money unnecessarily.

 

I do not intend to work here all the days of my life, I can release this fund to you if you can certify me of my security, and how I can run away from this Nigeria if I do this, because if I don't run away from this country after I made the transfer, I will be Seriously in trouble and my life will be in danger. This is like a Mafia setting in Nigeria; you may not understand it because you are not a Nigerian. The only thing I will need from you to release this fund is a special HARD DISK we call it HD140 GIG.I will need two of this hard disk to recopy your information from the corrupted one, destroy the previous one, and punch the computer to reflect in your bank within 24 banking hours.

 

I will clean up the tracer and destroy your file, after which I will run away from Nigeria to meet with you. If you are interested. Do get in touch with me immediately, You should send to me your convenient tell/fax numbers for easy communications and also re confirm your banking details, so that there won't be any mistake.

 

Regards,

 

Miss Ngama

 

[mysty]

Oh Jeff...she sounds so sincere! And she wants to meet up with you. You must be on some very special list in Nigeria. What to do.......? I suggest changing whatever email address they have. :)

[Daveywavey70]

Jeff,

How can you be so short sighted as to ignore her? She sounds so genuine. Has she asked you yet who is your broadband provider?

[UKCruiseJeff]

:D

 

In case anyone hasn't noticed, Mark Conroy has returned to answer questions etc and below is the link to the thread. It's great he has looked in, and I hope he takes a pro-active interest in resolving Whispergate.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=56394952#post56394952

[jpalbny]

I saw that, Jeff. Forgot to tell you, with all the other stuff going on in the Cooler.

 

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

[mysty]

Greetings Coolers!

 

Good start to have some interested eyes on the problem. Here's hoping for a reasonable solution!

 

Today's funny.......We here across the pond do make efforts to be Equal Opportunity Employers.....

 

 

Have a great day all!

[UKCruiseJeff]

Lovely funny M!

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[MissSophia]

Greetings All......another very hot and sunny day here but so beautiful to be able to sit out all day and evening.

 

See you’ve got the burgers going Jeffers.....last evening the kids did a fabulous BBQ for us two Mums which l thoroughly enjoyed as it’s been a long time since I’ve had one...and doesn’t food always taste better if one hasn’t had to cook it!

 

Good funny again M....just trying to catch up with all the news whilst enjoying a cold San Miguel.....🍺

 

Happy Day 😊

[Daveywavey70]

Good afternoon all.

Lovely funny M.

 

Great news,

I Have just had a look at the Silversea website and the premium rate number seems to have been replaced with an 0333 number which is charged at local rate. Perhaps now that Mr Conroy is engaging on the forum again, he may be able to improve upon the somewhat lacking customer services that some of us have recently received. It certainly looks hopeful.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Hi Dave,

 

If the discussion here triggered the change to that number that is extremely positive news and indicates an organisation that listens and responds. Like you, I feel that it would be great if there was engagement from SS because social media will be increasingly the main route by which reputations are established and ignoring that has more downsides than upsides. :)

 

I'm hoping that Mark's interest will help although I have a fear that there is a lack of understanding generally, but particularly stateside about how much more demanding UK and EU consumers are because of the more consumer friendly regulations and protections we have compared with the US. I have had to regularly explain why one form of resolution is inadequate in the UK and EU, that may otherwise be sustainable and acceptable in the US. I was told that our complaints were going to be dealt with "on an individual basis" and we will see whether that promise proves to be true.

[sakaara]

Thanks all for your kind messages.

 

Mysty, enjoying the daily funnies.

 

Love your burger Jeff, you get perfect grill marks.

What brand of extraction fan do you use and do you know the strength of the extraction? We have a new hob with chargrill for a long time but haven’t installed it yet as we need to cut the counter for it to fit. Will definitely require a powerful extractor.

 

Sofia, Gorgeous weather here in Dublin too. Delighted you can enjoy with family. Sounds like you are having a lovely time. We are told we have the sunshine for another 10 days:beer-mug:

 

Interesting to see the return of Mark Conroy to the board. Hopefully It is not just in the short term.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Hi S,

 

If it is a cast iron chargrill you may not require industrial strength extraction. Mine is lava briquette.

 

The extractor was originally made specifically for the oven as it meeds huge extraction power to cope with the enormous amounts of smoke from the bbq. In fact when it is switched on it sucks and closes the kitchen door. The problem was that when they developed the range with the bbq many customers didn’t buy the extraction because they were very expensive, and so the manufacturers received complaints from range owners that their homes filled with smoke. Some even fitted recycling hoods rather than extractors. The range manufacturers therefore discontinued both the range and extractor which is very sad because it is unique. They should have continued but sell them as a package.

 

I believe they have been rebadged and sold and that the specs are

 

• Decorative telescopic chimney cookerhood
  
• 10 minutes preset timer for auto shut off
  
• Aluminium filter
  
• 2 x halogen lamps
  
• 4 speed push button control
  
• suction power 800 m³/h
  

I believe this is the one

 

https://www.furnituresg.com.sg/tecno-chimney-cooker-hod-k274l

[BeeMinor]

Glad to see Mark Conroy engaging on Whispergate. He was in the loop on my "what was Silversea thinking????" e-mails and the response I got from the US team was much more sympathetic than what you received, Jeff, although it would be hard to be less sympathetic than that "sorry for your luck, pal," message that you got.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Glad to see Mark Conroy engaging on Whispergate. He was in the loop on my "what was Silversea thinking????" e-mails and the response I got from the US team was much more sympathetic than what you received, Jeff, although it would be hard to be less sympathetic than that "sorry for your luck, pal," message that you got.

 

Thanks,

 

If the UK had simply applied the same rules and rules of thumb that Mark said that Silversea adopts, the situation wouldn’t have happened in the first place.

 

If they obstinately continue to refuse to resolve this with us, then they will simply be asked in court why they failed to adopt ANY of those criteria and then failed to properly resolve the errors of judgement they made.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showpost.php?p=56394952&postcount=16

 

Hopefull Mark will help conclude it and nothing would give me more pleasure to simply post that although the immediate response was unacceptable it is now resolved and we are content with the resolution.

[MLeh]

Good afternoon all.

Lovely funny M.

 

Great news,

I Have just had a look at the Silversea website and the premium rate number seems to have been replaced with an 0333 number which is charged at local rate. Perhaps now that Mr Conroy is engaging on the forum again, he may be able to improve upon the somewhat lacking customer services that some of us have recently received. It certainly looks hopeful.

 

Glad to read about the change. Small thing, but where there's life there's hope, eh?

 

(I often fail to explain myself sufficiently, and my cryptic comment the other day about "malice" versus "ignorance" was directly related to the telephone number thing, not the rest of the debacle. In life I've found that a lot of things simply need to be pointed out, as sometimes the people in charge are unaware of the issues. I think this may have been the case with the telephone number, and easily resolved once the 'powers that be' became aware.)

 

Hope all the coolers are having a good day.

[TLCOhio]

[quote name=UKCruiseJeff;56400804 If they obstinately continue to refuse to resolve this with us' date=' then they will simply be asked in court why they failed to adopt ANY of those criteria and then failed to properly resolve the errors of judgement they made.

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showpost.php?p=56394952&postcount=16

Hopefull Mark will help conclude it and nothing would give me more pleasure to simply post that although the immediate response was unacceptable it is now resolved and we are content with the resolution.

 

Great that Mark Conway has responded and shown true, strong leadership (so far) to seek a reasonable response from this challenging situation. Appreciate all of your pushing, updating and follow-ups. Good luck towards a final, positive resolution.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 227,345 views.

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

[swindy]

Mark Conroy says -

 

 

So we might accept a large group from a university or a yacht or country club whose demographic match our regular guest profile and fit in well with their fellow guests while we would be more careful with the size say an incentive group where the guests have a totally different demographic.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Mark Conroy says -

 

 

So we might accept a large group from a university or a yacht or country club whose demographic match our regular guest profile and fit in well with their fellow guests while we would be more careful with the size say an incentive group where the guests have a totally different demographic.

 

Hi,

 

I’d like the think that Mark simply answered my question with an open, direct and genuine reply and he doesn’t deserve any heat for that. What we may have discovered is that the London office with sales target pressures sold a group booking that broke several of Marks “rules” and was “unwise”. Hopefully having discovered that discrepency with Mark’s help we can move quickly on to a resolution that we are satisfied with.

 

With my earlier holiday claim I mentioned earlier which in a way is not too dissimilar, settlement was obstinately refused before the court and we received a court award of considerably more than the refund of the holiday costs with substantial amounts for “vexation, aggravation, and dissapointment” and as I have previously said is now cited as a precedent used in lower UK courts. Because of the claim size it was a 5 day High Court action.

 

Have you received a response yet?

[swindy]

I certainly wasn’t attacking Mark but his comments are the complete opposite of what happened to us

[UKCruiseJeff]

I certainly wasn’t attacking Mark but his comments are the complete opposite of what happened to us

 

 

Yes I perfectly understood you weren’t :)

 

Have you heard anything yet?

[swindy]

Nothing of any consequence :(