Yep MSC CS is rubbish and they will try to screw you over

[quattrohead]

May 2020 I booked a 7 day on Armonia out of Tampa. Ocean view Fantastica package for $1138 sailing on December 11th 2020.

Obviously in the mean time, the dodo has hit the fan and things have changed.

I have not ever received an email but do see in my online booking that my cruise has been changed to the Seaside from Port Canaveral.

However, it was now showing as a 3 day cruise not a 7 day.

I have been calling about this since I first saw it and was told to wait a while, they are still moving stuff around, OK fair enough.

But now I am close to my final payment date and want to make sure I am getting what I have paid for.

On their website it says -

WINTER 2020/2021 IMPACTED CRUISES:

November 11, 2020 - April 27, 2021 cruises from Tampa have been canceled

Options for guests booked on these cruises:
- Guests will be moved to another ship serving the same or similar itinerary, while protecting the price of their original booking. Please be patient as we're continuing to make adjustments and move guests from an impacted sailing to a new sailing.
- In addition, guests who have booked an inside or oceanview stateroom will receive a stateroom upgrade. 

 

But all they want to do is move my deposit to the equivalent cruise and charge me the current rate, meaning I will pay several hundred bucks more.

So I either get a 3 day cruise and they will kindly reduce the rate or I have to pay more to get what I expected.

This is plain wrong and terrible CS.

[shipgeeks]

Are you sure they haven't moved you to a 3-day plus a 4-day?  That's what I see on the schedule for many sailings.  What date have you been moved to?

[Tapi]

I was also booked on the Armonia out of Tampa on a 5 night itinerary. I was automatically moved to a shorter 3 night sailing on the Seaside out of Port Canaveral when the Armonia sailings were canceled. I immediately called MSC and told them that the new sailing wouldn't work for me and that I wanted to cancel. The agent that I spoke to was very knoweldgeable, helpful and kept me on the phone until she received confirmation that the booking had indeed been canceled and the deposit refunded. Sure enough, my refund appeared on my credit card a little over a week later. 

 

Interestingly, I noticed that fares for the Seaside had dropped considerably since the time I canceled, so I made a new reservation for back to back cruises. I will now be paying less for 7 nights in a balcony stateroom on the Seaside than for 5 nights in an oceanview stateroom on the Armonia. 

 

My best piece of advice is that you call again until you can get someone with the knowledge and patience to assist you. It seems like, with all the reshuffling going on, not everybody is up to speed with the procedures required to handle the changes. MSC has always had less than stellar phone support, but it's definitely being exacerbated with the pandemic. Hope you get your cruise squared away soon! 

 

 

[quattrohead]

2 hours ago, shipgeeks said:

Are you sure they haven't moved you to a 3-day plus a 4-day?  That's what I see on the schedule for many sailings.  What date have you been moved to?

It was  a 3 day for sure.

CS think they are getting it sorted, currently back on a 7 day but with higher price and lesser "experience"

Accounting will fix the rest....we will see. The amount of BS they tried to give me was embarrassing for them.

Edit to say, I love the on board experience. Went on Poesia in 2011 and been on 5 cruises with them since.

Even their oldest and smallest ship, Armonia is in amazing condition with fantastic staff.

Edited September 9, 2020 by quattrohead

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

I was booked on a 5-nt Armonia sailing out of Tampa and was automatically moved to a 7-nt Seaside sailing out of Port Canaveral. My price was protected. I repriced it booking anew and it came out about $400 more than what they gave me so I'll keep what they gave me.  Since I live in Orlando, either port works for me.

The payment screen indicates that final payment is due now but there is no actual due date so I'm holding off to see if CDC extends the "no sail" order again or are finally going to allow cruises to begin again. 

BobK/Orlando

Edited September 10, 2020 by KINGBOBOFTHENORTH
typo

[mamaneedsavacay]

5 hours ago, KINGBOBOFTHENORTH said:

The payment screen indicates that final payment is due now but there is no actual due date so I'm holding off to see if CDC extends the "no sail" order again or are finally going to allow cruises to begin again. 

BobK/Orlando

 

Mine said same online and I was so annoyed that I couldn't find the actual due date anywhere and I couldn't remember if it was 60 days or 90 days. My travel agent says 90 days. So our final payment date is the end of this month for a New Year's eve cruise. I would really prefer to pay once the first ship sets sail out of Florida again, but no such luck. I won't risk losing the cabin I have booked as the category is now sold out and we are limited in when we can travel.  Here's hoping for the end-of-2020 cruises!

Edited September 11, 2020 by mamaneedsavacay
grammar

[quattrohead]

I had to cancel my cruise because I cannot trust MSC to do the right thing.

Over an hour on the phone yesterday and the poor CS person could not get the right thing done.

I am voting with my hard earned money. A sad day for MSC.

[mamaneedsavacay]

4 hours ago, quattrohead said:

I had to cancel my cruise because I cannot trust MSC to do the right thing.

Over an hour on the phone yesterday and the poor CS person could not get the right thing done.

I am voting with my hard earned money. A sad day for MSC.

 

I'm sorry, quattrohead!  It's so sad to me that their CS systems, whether it is training, empowerment, processes.. whatever the issues, is marring their successes as a company and jeopardizing their future prospects. They have the potential to be the world leader in cruising based on what they are doing with the Grandiosa right now. They could be the heroes of the industry, but they can't get their shoreside together. 

 

I've updated on other threads, so I won't retell here, but the gist of my story is that my FCC issue has continued to be escalated, my TA has heard back from an MSC supervisor that my issue is "complicated" (I don't see how!) and that are still working on it. I've got 13 days before my final payment is due (90 days out) and I will not be giving them any more of money if they can't fix this before then. I don't have a whole lot of faith that they can fix in 13 days what they couldn't do in six months, but I hope they prove me wrong. I'd really like to sail this year, and if I do, I'll be patient and gracious with everyone on board and I'll be MSC's biggest cheerleader. 

[Até]

24 minutes ago, mamaneedsavacay said:

I've got 13 days before my final payment is due (90 days out) and I will not be giving them any more of money if they can't fix this before then. I don't have a whole lot of faith that they can fix in 13 days what they couldn't do in six months, but I hope they prove me wrong.

Way before all these COVID cancellation FCCs I had one I tried applying to a cruise.  It took several months after my asking for it to be applied.  I was told the responsible department mainly plays last minute catch up and only applies the credit close to final payment date.  I can't remember the exact date mine was done but I do remember getting nervous about final payment closing in.  Thirteen days would make me nervous as I would like to have settled other plans like hotels and flights.

[BoundForSea]

Has anyone else experienced this??

 

I call Customer Service, someone answers that you can barely hear and sounds half asleep. You ask a somewhat complex question l, such as I need to change my booking, why do I have no FCC yet, can I apply this discount or change my fare type and after you go through all the questions of verification they tell you after sounding overwhelmed or clueless to please hold on a second while I look up uour reservation and bam either they hang up or put you on hold or mute indefinately until I give up after sometimes 15-20 mins and hang up. 

 

This has happened to me probably about 1 out of every 3 calls recently. I call as consumer and agent both depending on what I’m doing and it happens in both roles. 

 

These people they have ‘trained’ for US Reservations dont know squat and clearly dont want to know squat. They sit home collect their pay check and clearly do the minimum to get by. I did have a senior and tenured agent tell me that I’m correct that it is a problem. 

 

I love this cruise line at and after I show up at the port. The experience prior is nothing less than a disaster and grossly negligent to the point that its impossible or takes DAYS and many calls to get something changed fixed or amended. 

 

This stuff has to change and its up to us the consumer to make them painfully aware. If this has happened to you please post and share. 

[Hlitner]

On 9/9/2020 at 10:51 AM, quattrohead said:

May 2020 I booked a 7 day on Armonia out of Tampa. Ocean view Fantastica package for $1138 sailing on December 11th 2020.

Obviously in the mean time, the dodo has hit the fan and things have changed.

I have not ever received an email but do see in my online booking that my cruise has been changed to the Seaside from Port Canaveral.

However, it was now showing as a 3 day cruise not a 7 day.

I have been calling about this since I first saw it and was told to wait a while, they are still moving stuff around, OK fair enough.

But now I am close to my final payment date and want to make sure I am getting what I have paid for.

On their website it says -

WINTER 2020/2021 IMPACTED CRUISES:

November 11, 2020 - April 27, 2021 cruises from Tampa have been canceled

Options for guests booked on these cruises:
- Guests will be moved to another ship serving the same or similar itinerary, while protecting the price of their original booking. Please be patient as we're continuing to make adjustments and move guests from an impacted sailing to a new sailing.
- In addition, guests who have booked an inside or oceanview stateroom will receive a stateroom upgrade. 

 

But all they want to do is move my deposit to the equivalent cruise and charge me the current rate, meaning I will pay several hundred bucks more.

So I either get a 3 day cruise and they will kindly reduce the rate or I have to pay more to get what I expected.

This is plain wrong and terrible CS.

It is even crazier then you think :(.  A few weeks ago we received an e-mail from MSC telling us we could move a deposit (on a Dec 2020 cruise) to any future MSC cruise without penalty.  So, knowing that the December cruise would almost certainly be cancelled (likely at the last minute) we decided to move it to the same itinerary in Oct 2022.  Our cruise agent said no problem (they actually thought it was a good idea) and handled the transaction.  Their MSC contact told them "no problem" and confirmed our new reservation.  Seven days later our new reservation was cancelled by MSC (with no explanation).  Since our cruise agent was closed on Sundays (this happened Saturday night) I called MSC and got a very helpful CS person who told me our reservation had been cancelled because we had failed to make a deposit.  When I told MSC that our cruise agent had moved over the deposit from the December cruise the CS person said she could see the request on our file...but that MSC is just not capable of moving deposits and that our "non-refundable" Yacht Club deposit was in the process of being refunded and our reservation for October was cancelled.  In the end we had to again rebook that Oct 2021 cruise.  A few days later our "non-refundable" deposit was refunded to our credit card.  

 

Bottom line is that when it comes to procedures, MSC is a hopeless mess.  The left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing.  When the MSC CR person told me that it was not possible to actually move that deposit (despite the fact that our capable cruise agent had been assured it would be moved) I actually read the CR person the e-mail we had from MSC telling us we COULD move that deposit.  The agent essentially told me not to believe what we had in writing and the only way we could book that October cruise was with a new deposit.  

 

Some here on CC have speculated that MSC-USA is at the mercy of MSC's offices in Europe and apparently those folks have no clue as to what good customer service even means.  On a previous Divina cruise in the Yacht Club we had several issues where there were all kinds of strange contradictions in policy.  The Concierge (who was wonderful) would just shrug her shoulders and explain that it is the MSC way.  DW and I have told some friends that we really "like MSC despite MSC!"  Put bluntly, MSC is their own worst enemy.

 

Hank

[sverigecruiser]

3 hours ago, Hlitner said:

 

Some here on CC have speculated that MSC-USA is at the mercy of MSC's offices in Europe and apparently those folks have no clue as to what good customer service even means.  

 

I don't know about rest of Europe but MSCs office in Sweden is excellent and one of the reasons why we love MSC.

 

Of course that doesn't excuse bad customer service somewhere else. 

[crazyank]

4 hours ago, sverigecruiser said:

 

I don't know about rest of Europe but MSCs office in Sweden is excellent and one of the reasons why we love MSC.

 

Of course that doesn't excuse bad customer service somewhere else. 

MSC customer service office in Munich is excellent.   However,  has anybody noticed that the so called "grand restart"  with the Grandiosa is in trouble?  All Grandiosa cruises in the Med from 1 November have disappeared from the website.  

[sverigecruiser]

16 minutes ago, crazyank said:

MSC customer service office in Munich is excellent.   However,  has anybody noticed that the so called "grand restart"  with the Grandiosa is in trouble?  All Grandiosa cruises in the Med from 1 November have disappeared from the website.  

 

I think that it has been a grand restart so far. I have heared about very few problems and it seems like the cruises have been okay for most people.

[crazyank]

20 hours ago, sverigecruiser said:

 

I think that it has been a grand restart so far. I have heard about very few problems and it seems like the cruises have been okay for most people.

Maybe you haven't heard that MSC has canceled all the five day cruises in November, changed to all 7 or more days, raised the prices and changed the itineraries? And now everything starting before 10 November has vanished from the website.  Doesn't sound so "great" to us.

[sverigecruiser]

3 hours ago, crazyank said:

Maybe you haven't heard that MSC has canceled all the five day cruises in November, changed to all 7 or more days, raised the prices and changed the itineraries? And now everything starting before 10 November has vanished from the website.  Doesn't sound so "great" to us.

 

Without knowing the reasons for cruises vanishing from the website I can't say much about that.

 

If they raise the prices they must be satisfied so far and the passengers must have liked it too, no point in raising the prices if they don't feel that it has been good so far.

[quattrohead]

The left and right hands do not know each other exists.

It seems their method is to stall and stall until you give up. They are doing it to BBB and credit cards as well as us.

I have compiled a list of trusted/not trusted companies in my mind and will use this for the rest of my life.

 

Broadly speaking, cruise, flight companies and government are on my no trust list, except for Jetblue and SouthWest.

Comcast and T-Mobile are on my trust list.

[Hlitner]

On 9/18/2020 at 8:42 AM, quattrohead said:

The left and right hands do not know each other exists.

It seems their method is to stall and stall until you give up. They are doing it to BBB and credit cards as well as us.

I have compiled a list of trusted/not trusted companies in my mind and will use this for the rest of my life.

 

Broadly speaking, cruise, flight companies and government are on my no trust list, except for Jetblue and SouthWest.

Comcast and T-Mobile are on my trust list.

LOL  We agree with all on your trusted list.  As to MSC's start-up, the reality is that most on the early cruises are from Italy and the Italians are not very active here on CC.    In a related note I noticed that the two Republican Senators from Florida have introduced new proposed legislation (the Set Sail Safety Act) in an attempt to restart cruising from Florida ports....despite the CDC!  That proposed legislation will likely die a quick death in the House but what is interesting is that apparently it has the support of the cruise lines.   The fact that Senator's Rubio and Scott have introduced such legislation makes me think that there is some industry pessimism on the CDC soon agreeing to allow cruises from US Ports.   But in the convoluted world that is US Politics we also wonder if this proposed legislation is simply intended to put more pressure on the CDC to quickly open up our country to cruising.  

 

While we acknowledge the eternal optimism of our Swedish friend (posting above) do think that the European cruise start ups (by several cruise lines) are hanging on a thread.  It is just a matter of time until a COVID case or cases happens on a ship (or is traced to one of the start up cruises) and then there will likely be more panic and more shut downs.   We also wonder about the demand (by passengers) for cruises with such restrictions that we are now seeing in Europe.   The positive  solution for cruising seems to be dependent on a safe/effective vaccine which may or may not happen in the near future (or ever).

 

Hank

[deliver42]

The two Florida senators are doing this for just one think. Tax dollars. These two slugs haven't done ANYTHING for the Florida people, but the keep getting elected. That's why it's spelt FLORIDUH.