Travel agent put on hold for hours

[PRH]

Has anyone else’s travel agent been put on hold for more than an hour or more?  We want to reserve an MSC cruise but our travel agent says she can’t get through.  I called MSC directly and was told their call volume is high and so she had to call before 9am EST—she is located in Arizona.  The person I spoke with made no apologies for this othe4 than saying I should not be using a travel agent and that it was my problem!  Just wondering what your TA’s experiences have been with MSC.  Thanks 

[cruiser man 60]

I normally book via the website but have used travel agents in past who have never mentioned An issue. We are in UK so not sure if they have more agents on lines here.

[Cruisergal1208]

Mine has been on for over 6 hours to work out a problem on our booking !!!talking and on hold. 

[ready2cruzagain]

Mine was on hold the other day for 5 minutes.  I know because I was on hold also.  Never had a problem reaching MSC myself.

[shipgeeks]

Which leads to the question I was about to post:  What do you find has been the best way to book an MSC Seaside cruise?

Usual travel agent (who doesn't seem to be as familiar with MSC as with other lines),

MSC website,

MSC phone.

I'm hoping to make the booking as easy - and accurate - as possible.

[deliver42]

I use the MSC website. It will even give you the 5% discount if you are a Voyager Club member. I haven's waited more than 15 or 20 minutes if I have to call for any reason.

[ready2cruzagain]

30 minutes ago, shipgeeks said:

Which leads to the question I was about to post:  What do you find has been the best way to book an MSC Seaside cruise?

Usual travel agent (who doesn't seem to be as familiar with MSC as with other lines),

MSC website,

MSC phone.

I'm hoping to make the booking as easy - and accurate - as possible.

 

I usually call and book directly with MSC but I currently have 2 cruises that are booked with a TA due to OBC that was being offered on those 2 cruises. The other 2 cruises I called MSC.  I like booking directly because it is so much easier for me to control things.

Edited February 7, 2019 by ready2cruzagain

[BermudaBound2014]

This is one of the reasons that several travel agents in the United States stopped/refuse to sell MSC cruises as they can be so difficult to deal with. Not just the on-hold time, but trying to fix any errors or address complaints after the cruise.  I haven't read of it recently, so things might actually be getting better! 

[thetaro]

I don't use TA. I found it unnecessary to add another human factor when I can simply do it myself. 

I wish more people can just use the website so they can improve it more.

I hate having to deal with incompetent customer service on the phone. So give me a good website and an online chat customer service support and I would be happy.

 

It's usually around $50-$150 OBC difference which I could care less. Online service is all about replacing middle-man, and it's a matter of time these TA be replaced.

[dexddd]

We have an excellent TA.

 

When I made final payment in December we were chatting and she made mention MSC staff had been in their offices recently and a new, dedicated line existed.  She also said they were aware of their computer issues and were working hard to get things better.  She got the impression they really care about these types of things and are sincere.  That was very much how we were treated onboard - they wanted feedback and took it seriously.

 

 

[asctony]

3 hours ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

This is one of the reasons that several travel agents in the United States stopped/refuse to sell MSC cruises as they can be so difficult to deal with. Not just the on-hold time, but trying to fix any errors or address complaints after the cruise.  I haven't read of it recently, so things might actually be getting better! 

You are totally correct. TAs ste saying MSC is totally non responsive. This week my USA TA tried to contact MSC and finally have up. He emailed them and got 3 different answers for the beverage pkg from 3 different people.

For 2 days he had been trying to get pricing on an MSC cruise for 2020. The online booking system was not available.

He called and left messages. Still waiting. Yes,  some agencies I work with do not use MSC at all because of this.

[naxer]

Isn't that what a TA is for?  They're on hold so you don't have to be.  (I just book using the website.)

[asctony]

4 minutes ago, naxer said:

Isn't that what a TA is for?  They're on hold so you don't have to be.  (I just book using the website.)

So, if you are a TA it is Ok for MSC to put you on hold for hours? TAs can provide much more bookings for a cruise line than each individual booking by themselves.

I have been on hold woth MSC for over an hour before. MSC  is very slow and not consistent on their products and answers.

[thetaro]

I have contacted MSC US many times. This is my experience:

 

Phone customer service: Useless if it's the website related. They can only help with booking, canceling, adding/removing packages. Every time you call you would get a different answer or they will blame the website or the system without providing any solutions except wait till it works out itself. Thanks.

Website contact form: Useless. They don't reply to emails. I have tried using the contact form numerous time. Never got any response.

Facebook Customer Service: Fast response, but they tell you to call or email. Useless

Twitter Customer Service. Useless. They don't reply.

Email Customer Service:

mscvoyagersclub@msccruisesusa.com : Takes a few days to reply and they can only help with Voyager's Club issue or Status Match. Can't help with website issue:

msccustomerservice@msccruisesusa.com : Useless, they don't reply emails.

MSCExistingReservations@msccruisesusa.com : The only email address that replies and actually provides solutions. 

Edited February 7, 2019 by thetaro

[mafig]

When I first wanted to cruise with MSC I asked my TA if it was true that MSC was difficult to deal with and hard to get a hold of.  She stated they were better than they were (and this is a few years ago) and that they also have a dedicated line.  She said they were no worse than most.

 

 

[SeaTheW0rld]

I booked mine on a well-known site.  Completely online.  Spoke to nobody. 

[PRH]

Does anyone have the dedicated TA number for MSC?  Website has been horrible so the combination is irritating to say the least.  She tried again this morning.

[conshek]

My TA has been on hold 30 -60 min every time he’s had to call. Unfortunately there were errors in our booking and every time MSC “fixed” them a new error appeared.  I was annoyed so I can only imagine how annoyed the TA was since he was the one on hold.  It took several weeks of him calling to finally get things fixed.  Crazy!!!

[shipgeeks]

If I book via the MSC website, what kinds of problems might I encounter down the road?  I've done mock bookings a few times; everything goes great, up through cabin assignment, my end point at this stage.

[diesel1973]

I booked my cruise thru MSC as I couldn't find a TA that heard of them or they didn't use them.  After booking they offered 12 drink coupons.I called MSC and she said she would add to my cruise. Checked later and found she changed room and deck. Told me she had to change confirmation and the room was no longer available????? Got on cruise and things turned for the worse. Guest Service on ship is a joke! Be prepared to being lied to and being called a liar!!

[erdoran]

Wow. My problems I posted about earlier today are minor compared to this, and what’s reported here is consistent with what I experienced just trying to get info about status match and YC availability for a specific itinerary.  

 

I was ready to jump ship from NCL and was looking for a YC cruise to try but between the impossibility of searching for what I want and the pain of trying to interact with their website, having to go into every single cruise to find specific cabin availability and then losing my place in the list of cruises, etc, etc. I don’t think MSC is worth it for us.  bummer.  YC sounds like a great product from what I can glean, but without a reasonable website and customer support level I’m not going there - when I’m spending thousands of dollars I expect much better, and the shoreside experience is giving me second thoughts about whether YC is as good as it had seemed.

[mafig]

Erdoran, Why are you doing this yourself?  Use a travel agent.  

 

The one we use has no problem booking with MSC.  She said they have a direct line and that any difficulties they have with them are no worse than other cruise lines.  

Maybe if you use the site that has TAs compete you might get a listing of those who are used to dealing with MSC.  Just a suggestion.....

 

I know it is a pain going through the MSC website looking for YC availability.  Here's what I did last time.  I told my TA give me a listing of sailings between these dates that have YCs available and pricing too, please.  It ended up that the earliest for us was last July  and then nothing until November.  We took July.  I was afraid there would be lots of kids, but it was not a problem, at least not in the YC.  Hot, yes.

 

Anyway, don't give up!

[scpirate]

I booked myself with msc.i had no issues at all.git through right away.the lady helped me with all my requests.i was going to book with an agent for obc but it turned out I got a better deal on my own.i was booking a year and a half out so that might make a difference.i had to call them just before our first cruise to get boarding information corrected (I think my agent had a few for lunch) and had no problem getting through and things corrected.i find their customer service excellent for what I needed.

[deliver42]

I've been on MSC twice so far, and never had any trouble booking myself on their web site. In fact, I find their web site among the easiest to use for booking, no matter what catagory you're looking for.

[erdoran]

6 minutes ago, deliver42 said:

I've been on MSC twice so far, and never had any trouble booking myself on their web site. In fact, I find their web site among the easiest to use for booking, no matter what catagory you're looking for.

Can you give me some tips, then?  How do I pull up all sailings with a Royal YC suite (with whirlpool on balcony) available between 8/1/19 and 2021 that are 9-15  days, that are Baltics, Norway/Finland, Greek Islands (actually that's moot cuz YC doesn't go there), or Southern Caribbean?  I'd like to look at what is available in that time period and compare prices so I find the ones that are the best value.