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Mandatory Service Charges

sidari

By sidari,
in MSC Cruises

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Beamafar Great Review Rare

Beamafar

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, edsareg said:

I may not have posted it in the best way , But it was not intended as a Personal comment on you. If you feel I did  I Apologise.

 

Apologizing without Apologizing. There is a way of apologizing that isn’t an apology at all but is meant to look like an apology and is done out of duty. Generally this happens when people say, “I’m sorry if I hurt you.” The key word in this sentence is “if”. What the person is saying is, “I don’t think I really did anything to hurt you but if you think I hurt you then I will dutifully apologize.”

This kind of apology is, in a sense, the minimum kind of apology one can make. It is an apology, but one that is qualified by the “if.” Hence it is meaningless.

 

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edsareg

edsareg

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, Beamafar said:

 

Apologizing without Apologizing. There is a way of apologizing that isn’t an apology at all but is meant to look like an apology and is done out of duty. Generally this happens when people say, “I’m sorry if I hurt you.” The key word in this sentence is “if”. What the person is saying is, “I don’t think I really did anything to hurt you but if you think I hurt you then I will dutifully apologize.”

This kind of apology is, in a sense, the minimum kind of apology one can make. It is an apology, but one that is qualified by the “if.” Hence it is meaningless.

 

Sorry you see it  that way.It was not Meaningless.

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thetaro

thetaro

Posted
Posted
11 minutes ago, edsareg said:

 

You never, I did say Im not just referring to you.

 

Nobody is telling you what to do. People are just calling them out and their feelings are hurt. Some people are defensive because of the fact that they know they are part of the reason MSC made DSC mandatory. Maybe it's also part of the reason UK/ EU fare is higher than the US. 

 

DSC is part of the fare and you had the option to remove it if you find the service is bad. They made it clear on the website. People abuse this option to save money so MSC takes it away now it hurts every other customer. It's okay to just admit that people do it to save money cause otherwise, we wouldn't be sailing MSC. But when these people make all kinds of nonsense reasons about why they do it, your feelings are going to be hurt a bit when people call you out for having other customers subsidizing you.

 

I am out of here. I apologize for not being able to sugarcoat what I have to say. I don't personally know any of you, and I have no intention to accuse you of anything. My opinion was solely about the people who abused DSC refund by making false claims.

 

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korpo024

korpo024

Posted
Posted
29 minutes ago, Beamafar said:

 

Apologizing without Apologizing. There is a way of apologizing that isn’t an apology at all but is meant to look like an apology and is done out of duty. Generally this happens when people say, “I’m sorry if I hurt you.” The key word in this sentence is “if”. What the person is saying is, “I don’t think I really did anything to hurt you but if you think I hurt you then I will dutifully apologize.”

This kind of apology is, in a sense, the minimum kind of apology one can make. It is an apology, but one that is qualified by the “if.” Hence it is meaningless.

 

OMG....hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

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korpo024

korpo024

Posted
Posted
10 minutes ago, thetaro said:

 

Nobody is telling you what to do. People are just calling them out and their feelings are hurt. Some people are defensive because of the fact that they know they are part of the reason MSC made DSC mandatory. Maybe it's also part of the reason UK/ EU fare is higher than the US. 

 

DSC is part of the fare and you had the option to remove it if you find the service is bad. They made it clear on the website. People abuse this option to save money so MSC takes it away now it hurts every other customer. It's okay to just admit that people do it to save money cause otherwise, we wouldn't be sailing MSC. But when these people make all kinds of nonsense reasons about why they do it, your feelings are going to be hurt a bit when people call you out for having other customers subsidizing you.

 

I am out of here. I apologize for not being able to sugarcoat what I have to say. I don't personally know any of you, and I have no intention to accuse you of anything. My opinion was solely about the people who abused DSC refund by making false claims.

 

Still not mandatory in the USA and Holland though....

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hamrag

hamrag

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, Beamafar said:

Unlike their employers ... some on here seem to have no trouble with them stiffing their employees.

 

But they don't, their contracts are clear....those who sail with the intent of removing the DSC to save money are stiffing the crew. Another poster rightly said that is reprehensible.

Edited by hamrag
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sidari

sidari

Posted
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Posted (edited)
9 minutes ago, cruiser man 60 said:

If the crew don't get the DSC how can anyone be stiffing them if they remove it?

theres too many holier than thou posting on here who are probably the worst tippers of all!

Correct, and still no one has posted proof that the DSC goes to the crew!

Today I emailed the UK office asking why the DSC is to be Mandatory from he end of March, no reply so far.

Edited by sidari
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Beamafar Great Review Rare

Beamafar

Posted
Posted
13 minutes ago, hamrag said:

 

No need to forget your sense of humour!

 

I must have missed the 'humour' in the post, HR.  It's difficult to keep a sense of humour when accusations are being made about me saying things I haven't said.

 

I've posted already that I have never - not once - removed or reduced the DSC in the 23 cruises that I've done.  However, this issue is not about what I do, or don't do, or what others do or don't.  Nor do I care about their opinions on the subject.  Nor does anyone have the right to tell others what to do.

 

As far as I'm concerned, there are 2 issues here:

 

1) People should have the right to choose whether to pay the service charge or not.  MSC has removed that right with this change in policy.

 

2) MSC introduced this mandatory policy without informing people who have active bookings with them.  I believe they should have had the courtesy to notify people of this change.  

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hamrag

hamrag

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, Beamafar said:

 

I must have missed the 'humour' in the post, HR.  It's difficult to keep a sense of humour when accusations are being made about me saying things I haven't said.

 

I've posted already that I have never - not once - removed or reduced the DSC in the 23 cruises that I've done.  However, this issue is not about what I do, or don't do, or what others do or don't.  Nor do I care about their opinions on the subject.  Nor does anyone have the right to tell others what to do.

 

As far as I'm concerned, there are 2 issues here:

 

1) People should have the right to choose whether to pay the service charge or not.  MSC has removed that right with this change in policy.

 

2) MSC introduced this mandatory policy without informing people who have active bookings with them.  I believe they should have had the courtesy to notify people of this change.  

 

I agree re those posts, but I was referring to the one where there was a little jibe (to us Brits, not you personally) about the Italians punishing us for Brexit.....I thought that was a really humorous post.

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Beamafar Great Review Rare

Beamafar

Posted
Posted
Just now, hamrag said:

 

I agree re those posts, but I was referring to the one where there was a little jibe (to us Brits, not you personally) about the Italians punishing us for Brexit.....I thought that was a really humorous post.

 

Oh, I know which post you were referring to, HR.  I saw it as a jibe, too, which is why I said I missed the 'humour' in it.  I really don't want to get into the 'Brexit' thing too much, but British people are feeling that Europe is trying to punish them.  The situation is very fraught at the moment (and we're very affected, too) so I'm not keen on those types of jibes at the moment.  Maybe if the post had contained an emoji for context.  It can be hard to decipher tone in text.

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hamrag

hamrag

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, sidari said:

But is it ? Let's wait and see what reason MSC give, whether people believe that reason or not remains to be seen.

 

Indeed....they may say something along the lines that they are bringing MSC into line with the other cruiselines that have already done that. Case in point is NCL, and some have suggested there is now previous NCL senior management hired by MSC. Alternatively, possibly more likely, they will give a very short 'corporate speak' response!

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Beamafar Great Review Rare

Beamafar

Posted
Posted (edited)

I strongly believe that, if the charge is mandatory, it should be included in the fare.  But we know why that won't happen.

 

Also, as Dave so rightly points out, we don't know exactly how that DSC is distributed.  Those who removed it have often claimed that they did so because they wanted to tip individual crew members.  MSC has now removed that choice.

 

Another argument that has been put forward is that the crew no longer will have an incentive to give good service as they know that the passengers can't remove the DSC if they aren't satisfied with the level of service they've received.

Edited by Beamafar
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Beamafar Great Review Rare

Beamafar

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, hamrag said:

 

Indeed....they may say something along the lines that they are bringing MSC into line with the other cruiselines that have already done that. Case in point is NCL, and some have suggested there is now previous NCL senior management hired by MSC. Alternatively, possibly more likely, they will give a very short 'corporate speak' response!

 

I got the impression that NCL includes it in the fare - this is not what MSC is doing.

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hamrag

hamrag

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Beamafar said:

I strongly believe that, if the charge is mandatory, it should be included in the fare.  But we know why that won't happen.

 

Also, as Dave so rightly points out, we don't know exactly how that DSC is distributed.  Those who removed it have often claimed that they did so because they wanted to tip individual crew members.  MSC has now removed that choice.

 

 

 I really cannot buy the 'we don't know exactly how' argument. If you think about it, we don't know how much they pay their various crew members but no one ever worries about that....and when you buy a car you don't know how much the sales person is compensated etc. etc. So why should we know about DSC, which is simply an element of the MSC Business Model?

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sidari

sidari

Posted
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Posted
14 minutes ago, hamrag said:

 I really cannot buy the 'we don't know exactly how' argument. If you think about it, we don't know how much they pay their various crew members but no one ever worries about that....and when you buy a car you don't know how much the sales person is compensated etc. etc. So why should we know about DSC, which is simply an element of the MSC Business Model?

We should know About the DSC, it is one thing for MSC to say they are doing something with the money but in reality pocketing it themselves!

As I have said previously I/ we pay for the service we recieve in the cruise fare already, the DSC is just another way of not paying decent wages and expecting customers to make them up.

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Omega1

Omega1

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, hamrag said:

 

Fair comment, they do indeed....but the impact is the same i.e. everyone pays DSC.

The impact is the same but the methodology isn’t - one is legal,  the other isn’t (in the UK). As others have said, MSC should now build the DSC into the upfront cost, but they probably won’t because they want to advertise low fares. There will be people who are new to cruising where the t&c’s they have been given make no reference to a mandatory DSC, MSC hasn’t directly informed them and their TAs don’t even know about it. How can that be fair? Is it MSC stiffing the passenger?

 

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