Great customer service from tellus

[zitsky]

Wanted to book 1st excursion then 2nd but couldn't because there was no gap between.  They were designed that way.  Emailed tellus and they signed me up.  I just had to call to pay for the 2nd excursion.  

 

Great experience! 

[Hanoj]

1 hour ago, zitsky said:

Wanted to book 1st excursion then 2nd but couldn't because there was no gap between.  They were designed that way.  Emailed tellus and they signed me up.  I just had to call to pay for the 2nd excursion.  

 

Great experience! 

 

Happy you got satisfaction. But, should it be necessary to contact "tellus" up front? Perhaps, it is. For we all need to be our own best advocates. Kudos to you @zitsky for pursuing this. By this action, you are creating a favorable cruise experience for yourself, and others too. It's the way of the universe. I may need to do the same shortly about business class flights my TA is haggling over with Viking Air (and we paid for the Air Plus).

[zitsky]

I did call the regular customer service line and was promised a call back which never came.  Whoever tellus is, they are at a much higher level of management.  It's like calling and asking to speak with a supervisor (or the supervisor's supervisor).

[Peregrina651]

That is what I have been saying all along. It is a real shame that the first line customer service can't give the same attentive service. I've said this before (even directly to the VP Operations) but it falls on deaf ears.

 

Of course, the downside is that all too soon even TellUs (they do have a proper name but I never remember it) is going to be overburdened with all of the people we keep telling to forget about the Guest Services people and go directly to TellUs.

[Cyber Kat]

I also emailed tellus (I think the name/department is Viking Social) concerning the triple billing for the excursions I booked and I had a response right away and the credit on my account the next day.  

 

I wonder if the tellus people are in headquarters in Norway and the rest are scattered around the US.  Wherever they are they need to send the tellus people to teach the rest how it’s done. 

[zitsky]

Ran into friends taking the same cruise.  Talked about the website crashes.  We know several people to whom we have recommended this cruise and Viking.  Said how embarrassing for us to recommend Viking when this happens.

 

I'm working on Celebrity excursions 5 months out.  Viking does it 2 months out.

 

Agreed.  Whoever runs tellus should train the others.

Edited July 28, 2019 by zitsky

[zitsky]

Duplicate post

Edited July 28, 2019 by zitsky

[Peregrina651]

3 hours ago, Cyber Kat said:

I wonder if the tellus people are in headquarters in Norway

 

They are in Los Angeles, where Viking has its US headquarters.

[Cyber Kat]

3 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

They are in Los Angeles, where Viking has its US headquarters.

 

Well then they surely should be sent out on a training mission! It’s like night and day between the 2. 

[Peregrina651]

56 minutes ago, Cyber Kat said:

 

Well then they surely should be sent out on a training mission! It’s like night and day between the 2. 

 

NO WAY! Send the trainers who trained them. And hire more people like them; some things just can't be taught.

 

 

 

[zitsky]

And we haven't even talked about onboard customer service.... is it as good as we expect? Or do they need more training, too?

[Peregrina651]

14 minutes ago, zitsky said:

And we haven't even talked about onboard customer service.... is it as good as we expect? Or do they need more training, too?

 

Personally, so far, I have found them to be very helpful.

 

Sadly, people come here to complain about service more than they come to praise and so I think that it gives a really skewed view of what CS is really like on the ship.

 

If you expect perfection all the time, you will be disappointed. No one has that good a track-record.

[zitsky]

I don't really have any complaints from my river cruises, but I understand Ocean is a different animal.

[Peregrina651]

2 hours ago, zitsky said:

I don't really have any complaints from my river cruises, but I understand Ocean is a different animal.

 

Yes, but a lot of staff comes from the River division

[Cyber Kat]

We haven’t had any problems with anyone onboard. They went out of their way to help whenever we needed it. Especially the shore excursion people.  They helped juggle things around.  Same with the restaurant people - although I must add that we dealt with the people at the desks by the restaurants, not with the table in the World Cafe. I think the people by the reception desks at the restaurants have a bit more leeway in what they can do as far as changing things around. 

 

Though we have done 2 river cruises, this will only be our second ocean cruise in the fall. We have another booked for next year. I want to book something onboard our ocean cruise in the fall to get the extra perks, but I’m not sure which we will do. 

 

I want to do a Med cruise and my husband has his eye on a river cruise - though not the same one I want to do 😁. I think compromise or separate vacations is in order. 🤣

Edited July 29, 2019 by Cyber Kat

[Peregrina651]

2 hours ago, Cyber Kat said:

We haven’t had any problems with anyone onboard. They went out of their way to help whenever we needed it. Especially the shore excursion people.  They helped juggle things around.  Same with the restaurant people - although I must add that we dealt with the people at the desks by the restaurants, not with the table in the World Cafe. I think the people by the reception desks at the restaurants have a bit more leeway in what they can do as far as changing things around. 

 

Though we have done 2 river cruises, this will only be our second ocean cruise in the fall. We have another booked for next year. I want to book something onboard our ocean cruise in the fall to get the extra perks, but I’m not sure which we will do. 

 

I want to do a Med cruise and my husband has his eye on a river cruise - though not the same one I want to do 😁. I think compromise or separate vacations is in order. 🤣

 

Compromise: Book one river and one ocean --especially since you cannot book on board a river cruise and the on-board booking perks are worth waiting to book on board.

 

There are some perks if you book within x many days of returning from your river cruise but the ocean on-board perks far outstrip them.

[zitsky]

6 hours ago, Cyber Kat said:

We haven’t had any problems with anyone onboard. They went out of their way to help whenever we needed it. Especially the shore excursion people.  They helped juggle things around.  Same with the restaurant people - although I must add that we dealt with the people at the desks by the restaurants, not with the table in the World Cafe. I think the people by the reception desks at the restaurants have a bit more leeway in what they can do as far as changing things around. 

 

Though we have done 2 river cruises, this will only be our second ocean cruise in the fall. We have another booked for next year. I want to book something onboard our ocean cruise in the fall to get the extra perks, but I’m not sure which we will do. 

 

I want to do a Med cruise and my husband has his eye on a river cruise - though not the same one I want to do 😁. I think compromise or separate vacations is in order. 🤣

 

Have you tried getting a new husband???

[lonagarr]

On 7/28/2019 at 7:27 AM, Cyber Kat said:

I also emailed tellus (I think the name/department is Viking Social) concerning the triple billing for the excursions I booked and I had a response right away and the credit on my account the next day.  

 

I wonder if the tellus people are in headquarters in Norway and the rest are scattered around the US.  Wherever they are they need to send the tellus people to teach the rest how it’s done. 

This is a great idea, but there are alternative avenues to addressing this problem. I was double charged for an excursion, and instead of calling Viking, I went on line, clicked the dispute button and it was all handled by the credit card company. No fuss, no muss and I barely had to do a thing!

Edited August 20, 2019 by lonagarr

[Cyber Kat]

3 hours ago, lonagarr said:

This is a great idea, but there are alternative avenues to addressing this problem. I was double charged for an excursion, and instead of calling Viking, I went on line, clicked the dispute button and it was all handled by the credit card company. No fuss, no muss and I barely had to do a thing!

 

I’m aware of that, but I chose this way with success. 

[lonagarr]

2 hours ago, Cyber Kat said:

 

I’m aware of that, but I chose this way with success. 

I was pretty sure you did! I pointed it out for the other people who may be reading these posts and may not have thought to do it that way. As long as you get your money back, alls well that ends well!

Edited August 20, 2019 by lonagarr