MSC Customer Svc / Policy Frustration

[Hlitner]

Dealing with MSC's customer service and systems have frustrated many and now we can be added to the group :(.  We had a 14 day booking on the 12/5/2020 Seaside cruise which was changed over to the 12/5 Meraviglia cruise.  MSC made the changes (without asking our opinion) which resulted in a change of our YC cabin.  Nearly a month after MSC made the change they finally sent us an e-mail explaining the change and offering us several options.  One option was that we could cancel our 12/5 cruise and move the $398 deposit over to any other future MSC cruise.   Last week we decided to cancel our 12/5 booking and move the deposit over to a new booking for the 10/2/2021 Meraviglia cruise (also in the YC).  Our cruise agent following our instructions and snagged the last YC cabin on that 10/2 cruise which generated a new booking number  Our cruise agent made several requests to MSC (within the 7 day deposit option period) to get our deposit moved over.  At first, MSC Customer service folks said they were not even aware that a deposit could be moved (despite the fact I have it in writing from MSC).

 

Last night MSC's system cancelled our 10/2 booking since it did not record any deposit.  Since my cruise agency is closed on Sunday's I called MSC this morning and got a very helpful agent.  She told me that both booking numbers (the 12/5/2020 cruise and the 10/2/2021 cruise) were cancelled.  She further recommended that I again book that 10/2/2021 cruise and simply make another new deposit and "eventually" we should be able to get our other deposit from the 12/5 cruise refunded.  I told her I had little faith that MSC would ever refund that deposit (they would likely argue that a YC deposit is nonrefundable) and I still wanted it moved over to the new 10/2 booking.  So now we must wait and see if our cruise agent has any luck getting MSC to move that old deposit.

 

As much as we love cruising in MSC's Yacht Club, dealing with this company is starting to become a nightmare.

 

Hank

[sidari]

Hank ... I hope you manage to get a good resolution to this issue and get your deposit back and your cabin in the YC, it is little wonder that many travel agents refuse to work with MSC when they are continually trying to reinvent the wheel and give different answers to the same question via any number of people you speak to. Sadly there are those on social media who seem to believe that the sun shines out of a certain area and that MSC can do no wrong!

Edited August 16, 2020 by sidari

[alyssamma]

34 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

As much as we love cruising in MSC's Yacht Club, dealing with this company is starting to become a nightmare.

This.

 

Every time I think I can't be surprised by MSC, they prove me wrong. It boggles the mind they are able to operate as a company. Yes, I know their main business is shipping, but how can you be this incompetent and still run a passenger cruise line company?

[Two Wheels Only]

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

I told her I had little faith that MSC would ever refund that deposit (they would likely argue that a YC deposit is nonrefundable) and I still wanted it moved over to the new 10/2 booking.

 

I was in a similar situation. I had a Seaside Yacht Club cruise magically turned into a Meraviglia Yacht Club cruise. I asked to move the deposit to a new Seaside YC cruise but was not allowed to do so. I just put a new deposit down on the new Seaside YC and had my original deposit refunded to me. The refund took 31 days from the time I cancelled to being returned to my account. 

[Hlitner]

30 minutes ago, alyssamma said:

This.

 

Every time I think I can't be surprised by MSC, they prove me wrong. It boggles the mind they are able to operate as a company. Yes, I know their main business is shipping, but how can you be this incompetent and still run a passenger cruise line company?

I would emphasize that the MSC Customer Service agent was outstanding and quickly grasped the problem.  Not only was she very polite but obviously competent.  But she had no solution to getting our deposit moved over to a new booking despite admitting that MSC does say it is their policy.   Unlike many these days, we are not asking for any kind of refund or FCC.  We are simply asking MSC to follow their own written policy and move an existing deposit from one cruise to another.  Apparently the ability to more a deposit is beyond the ability of the customer service folks (MSC specifically says to call Customer Service to get the deposit transferred)..   This does not seem to be an issue with customer service as much as a Company (MSC) that is unwilling or unable to follow through on their own written policy.  

 

Perhaps I should mention that have been cruising (extensively) for over forty years and MSC is our 16th cruise line.  I like to think we  know our way around the cruise industry but MSC gets the prize as the first cruise line to frustrate both my cruise agent and myself!  

 

Hank

[Hlitner]

13 minutes ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

I was in a similar situation. I had a Seaside Yacht Club cruise magically turned into a Meraviglia Yacht Club cruise. I asked to move the deposit to a new Seaside YC cruise but was not allowed to do so. I just put a new deposit down on the new Seaside YC and had my original deposit refunded to me. The refund took 31 days from the time I cancelled to being returned to my account. 

Argh!  Here is the exact quote from an MSC e-mail we received on 7/30/20  : "While we have made the above adjustment to your cruise on your behalf, MSC USA Guests also have the ability to transfer the amount currently paid on their booking to any other ship and sailing in MSC Cruises' Fleet.  To make this chance, please call MSC customer care center."

 

That statement is pretty clear but perhaps MSC is unable to handle translations from Italian to English :(.  Perhaps they meant to say, "MSC is happy to not meet your expectations  you and do not expect any of our customer service folks to be able to help you or your cruise agent!"

 

Hank

[kelleherdl]

4 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Argh!  Here is the exact quote from an MSC e-mail we received on 7/30/20  : "While we have made the above adjustment to your cruise on your behalf, MSC USA Guests also have the ability to transfer the amount currently paid on their booking to any other ship and sailing in MSC Cruises' Fleet.  To make this chance, please call MSC customer care center."

 

That statement is pretty clear but perhaps MSC is unable to handle translations from Italian to English :(.  Perhaps they meant to say, "MSC is happy to not meet your expectations  you and do not expect any of our customer service folks to be able to help you or your cruise agent!"

 

Hank

I am still dealing with two cancelled bookings where I am trying to move credits.  I have found out (finally) that a part of MSC's customer service problem is maturing of its service rep empowerment in Fort Lauderdale. No excuse mind you just an explanation. There are apparently only about a dozen Resolution Agents in Fort Lauderdale that are empowered to do the backdoor things that solve more complex issues. Let's be real, cancelling hundreds of thousands of bookings was a shock to any system, much less MSC's new Fort Lauderdale operation. Even some issues are still referred to Genoa.  That takes days or weeks. For those of us used to dealing with HAL in Seattle and other mature US cruise operations this is really frustrating. Again, I'm not trying to over-defend, but given that I ain't going anywhere very fast I'll wait it out.  

 

BTW, I did do the tactic of overbooking to get cruises and YC cabins I wanted. I know some are averse to 'giving any cruise line another dime' but with deposits of $98 I assumed the risk.

[Hlitner]

6 minutes ago, kelleherdl said:

I am still dealing with two cancelled bookings where I am trying to move credits.  I have found out (finally) that a part of MSC's customer service problem is maturing of its service rep empowerment in Fort Lauderdale. No excuse mind you just an explanation. There are apparently only about a dozen Resolution Agents in Fort Lauderdale that are empowered to do the backdoor things that solve more complex issues. Let's be real, cancelling hundreds of thousands of bookings was a shock to any system, much less MSC's new Fort Lauderdale operation. Even some issues are still referred to Genoa.  That takes days or weeks. For those of us used to dealing with HAL in Seattle and other mature US cruise operations this is really frustrating. Again, I'm not trying to over-defend, but given that I ain't going anywhere very fast I'll wait it out.  

 

BTW, I did do the tactic of overbooking to get cruises and YC cabins I wanted. I know some are averse to 'giving any cruise line another dime' but with deposits of $98 I assumed the risk.

I find myself thinking that we need to save this cruise line despite themself :).

 

Hank

[Bgwest]

3 hours ago, kelleherdl said:

I did do the tactic of overbooking to get cruises and YC cabins I wanted. I know some are averse to 'giving any cruise line another dime' but with deposits of $98 I assumed the risk.

I have to confess my ignorance. What tactic are you talking about?

[Two Wheels Only]

53 minutes ago, Bgwest said:

I have to confess my ignorance. What tactic are you talking about?

 

My guess...

 

...would be booking multiple cruises just get "in" then deciding to cancel the ones that you don't want at a later time. Some frown upon the practice as it makes it harder for others to book because it looks like the Yacht Club is fully booked when it really isn't. 

 

I've booked the Yacht Club with $49pp, $99pp, and $199pp in the Yacht Club. Compared to the $750pp deposits for NCL's Haven ($2,500pp for a Garden Villa), I can understand why some people do what they do. 

[emmas gran]

We moved a deposit from April 2021 to Oct 2021 on July 20th , we have nothing in writing yet and nothing on the MSC website regarding the booking number. Our agent has chased MSC and this is her reply to us on 27th July, the department now dealing is Operations!!

 

"It has been taking a while, we have a specialist department dealing with the MSC amending bookings. They have to email over the bookings to change over to the head office in Italy, then once it’s been confirmed they send us over a new invoice, once that’s been received you will be sent the new confirmation from us, so it can take a couple of weeks. The details were sent over to MSC last week after we spoke "

 

Tomorrow we are at 4 weeks since we moved the booking!!

 

 

[Beamafar]

15 minutes ago, emmas gran said:

We moved a deposit from April 2021 to Oct 2021 on July 20th , we have nothing in writing yet and nothing on the MSC website regarding the booking number. Our agent has chased MSC and this is her reply to us on 27th July, the department now dealing is Operations!!

 

We moved the deposit from our cancelled Sept cruise to a booking for Nov '21 despite the fact that YC inventory hasn't been released for that sailing, yet.  We, too, have no indication that the booking has actually been made but I did get a reference number for it.  I haven't followed up about it because (a) the cruise is a long time off and (b) I really don't believe that cruising will be back to any normality next year so am not fully invested in it - I'm so hoping I'm wrong, though!

[dexddd]

Maybe they'll escalate it which just means it will go to bottom of the pile.

[kelleherdl]

19 hours ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

My guess...

 

...would be booking multiple cruises just get "in" then deciding to cancel the ones that you don't want at a later time. Some frown upon the practice as it makes it harder for others to book because it looks like the Yacht Club is fully booked when it really isn't. 

 

I've booked the Yacht Club with $49pp, $99pp, and $199pp in the Yacht Club. Compared to the $750pp deposits for NCL's Haven ($2,500pp for a Garden Villa), I can understand why some people do what they do. 

Sorry that I am late to the response.  Two Wheels Only is essentially correct; except the little twist for me is that I fully intend to cruise. I just don't wait for a refund or deposit transfer.

[shmabbies]

I too just paid the deposit for the YC cabin (allegedly also the last one) I wanted rather than agonize about it.  The $98 deposit was less than the $396 that MSC said it was unable to move (unlike the OP, I did not have any document permitting moving of the deposit so I felt like I didn't have a leg to stand on forcing the issue).  I figured $98 was less than $396, which was in fact refunded about six weeks or so later.  It was a leap of faith, but it worked out for me that I took it.  I totally understand when people are owed multi-thousands of dollars for paid in full cruises that their tolerance for shelling out even a dollar or euro or pound more isn't in their comfort zone.

[emmas gran]

Further to my post on Monday just received my paperwork from Travel agent for amended cruise -but will not let me access on MSC website yet. They have confirmed verbally the cruise is amended.

[Hlitner]

Just an update on our saga with MSC.   The situation with this company gets even worse.  After telling (last week) our cruise agency that our deposit was in the process of being moved to our new reservation, MSC did indeed fail to move the money and also cancelled the reservation (after telling our cruise agent not to be concerned).  Apparently MSC decided (without anyone asking) to simply refund our cruise deposit which they say will take about 60 days!  Forget that we never asked for a refund and we simply wanted to move it over to our new booking.   It has always bothered me that companies like MSC demand their deposit within 7 days but they need 60 days to give it back!  

 

So now, we think we have another new reservation (which I made on Sunday) although that reservation does not show up on my MSC account (they seem to be having some software issues).  My reaction to all this stuff is that I am now enjoying a very strong Martini :).  And while sipping this drink I am starting to wonder if it makes any sense to give MSC another deposit or even waste our time dealing with this company.   Sometimes I ask myself is any company that has such awful customer service have a prayer of surviving?  I have to assume that their Container Ship operation is more efficient.

 

Hank

 

 

[kelleherdl]

Hank

 

I called on one of my bookings today. One of my two cancelled Divina cruises.  One cruise did successfully have the funds transferred to a new cruise. That worked according to the cancellation policy. The second is still waiting for Genoa to finalize its decision. The issue is the 'price guarantee' provision.  The agent reviewed my record again.  All the 'facts' are there, but no resolution yet.  We now have a total of eight additional cabins reserved in the YC for my 70th birthday celebration, but my cabin is still in limbo. I am confident all will happen (why I don't know), but MSC needs to empower its MSC USA managers to just resolve these issues.  Their image will be markedly improved.

[Hlitner]

19 hours ago, kelleherdl said:

Hank

 

I called on one of my bookings today. One of my two cancelled Divina cruises.  One cruise did successfully have the funds transferred to a new cruise. That worked according to the cancellation policy. The second is still waiting for Genoa to finalize its decision. The issue is the 'price guarantee' provision.  The agent reviewed my record again.  All the 'facts' are there, but no resolution yet.  We now have a total of eight additional cabins reserved in the YC for my 70th birthday celebration, but my cabin is still in limbo. I am confident all will happen (why I don't know), but MSC needs to empower its MSC USA managers to just resolve these issues.  Their image will be markedly improved.

Our cruise agent is still waiting for a "call back" from their MSC contact about our reservation and deposit transfer request.  I do not think that my cruise agent (who is a real pro) or myself ever expects to hear back from MSC.   Tomorrow we will need to make some decisions regarding our booking...if we still have a booking!  Bottom line for us is that we normally cruise about 100 days a year (pre COVID) of which only 14 has been on MSC.  When looking to add another booking for late in 2021 we noticed that MSC had increased the price of the YC by about 20%.  We also noticed that Oceania had a far more interesting itinerary (Florida to Chile) for about the same price as the YC.  It was a no-brainer.  We booked Oceania.

 

Hank

[Fogfog]

We've had a lot of booking drama too.

We have B2B booked.

MSC moved the dates. Cabins were initially intact as were perks/OBC/original sale price etc

Then a week or so later--we lost a YC cabin on one of the legs and were put in a OV one--WTH!

And then the perks dropped off as well as the OBC and price we contracted/agreed to in sale.

And at one point they dropped the reservations altogether even though we had deposits on both.

TA did all she could. Had to be escalated again and again.

Finally Cabins restored but OBC etc and sale price was gone

Again TA has been repeatedly emailing MSC etc and its gone to escalation again

We have a bit of time for final payment and are pretty frustrated with MSC.

The TA is handling it- without her we would have cancelled and filed a complaint with out credit card.

Fingers crossed its rectified AND that we sail early 2021

[Hlitner]

  I would agree with FogFog about the value of having a cruise/travel agent to deal with MSC (and other cruise lines).  I have better things to do rather then spend hours on the phone with MSC only to later find that everything they say on the phone is quickly contradicted by their actions.  At some point the horrendous customer relations/service of MSC is going to cost them significant business.   When speaking to friends about MSC I must explain that the MSC we have seen on the cruises is completely different from the MSC you deal with on land.  I think some of MSC's problem has to do with its Italian roots/culture which somehow has made it across the big pond.  We have traveled extensively in Italy and have learned to deal with the Italian culture by throwing up our hands and saying, "ahhhh  it's Italy!"  But that horrendous business culture does not work well in North America where folks can quickly get alienated from a company because of bad customer service.

 

We are on our last leg with MSC.  As much as we have enjoyed the Yacht Club there are only so many customer service snafus before one simply takes their business elsewhere.  MSC is now on a very short chain (with us).

 

Hank