Misleading marketing

[ziggyuk]

I am really getting fed up with NCL sending me misleading marketing.

 

I just received this:

 

 

The small print below says:

 

 

Looks great no "up to" $200 mentioned and clearly says per guest not cabin.... wow amazing....

Then I read the even smaller print which has to be zoomed in to read!

 

# Onboard credit promotion is applicable to new qualifying bookings made between 23 and 30 September 2020 inclusive for open for sale qualifying 3+ night sailings in 2021 and beyond. Offer is for new FIT reservations and new speculative groups delegates. Onboard Credit is paid by way of a credit of the applicable amount to your onboard account and is available for use during your cruise in accordance with these terms. Value of onboard credit depends on sailing and stateroom category – for sailings 5+ nights, Studio Staterooms - $50, Inside Staterooms - $100, Oceanview Staterooms - $120, Balcony Staterooms - $200, Club Balcony Suites - $280, Concierge, Suite and The Haven - $600.

 

So... it's the same old same old 

 

Edited September 25, 2020 by ziggyuk

[Trimone]

5 minutes ago, ziggyuk said:

I am really getting fed up with NCL sending me misleading marketing.

 

I just received this:

 

 

The small print below says:

 

 

Looks great no "up to" $200 mentioned and clearly says per guest not cabin.... wow amazing....

Then I read the even smaller print which has to be zoomed in to read!

 

# Onboard credit promotion is applicable to new qualifying bookings made between 23 and 30 September 2020 inclusive for open for sale qualifying 3+ night sailings in 2021 and beyond. Offer is for new FIT reservations and new speculative groups delegates. Onboard Credit is paid by way of a credit of the applicable amount to your onboard account and is available for use during your cruise in accordance with these terms. Value of onboard credit depends on sailing and stateroom category – for sailings 5+ nights, Studio Staterooms - $50, Inside Staterooms - $100, Oceanview Staterooms - $120, Balcony Staterooms - $200, Club Balcony Suites - $280, Concierge, Suite and The Haven - $600.

 

So... it's the same old same old 

 

Hi Ziggy, they are desperate, with no sign of Covid-19 reseeding, I suppose they will do anything to get cash in.

Anyway stay safe and don’t get too beaten up by the NCL fanboys.

[drsel]

When they got really desperate, on 27th Feb 2020, they were selling Norwegian Jade inside cabins at the rate of $33 per person per night including all port fees and taxes

[drsel]

I would advise you to look out for a price per night below $60 including all the offers and including port fees and taxes.
Carnival has plenty of such deals.
And its in the same league as Norwegian.

[dexddd]

Cut them slack.  With the obc they normally say ...up to $500 or $1,000 .. But the top amounts are for highest room category.  At least here they kind of took the middle ground on the splash page.

 

But of course with NCL promos always look at the double fine print.

[shof515]

I have a cruise booked for 2021 and 2022 and none of them have any kind of latitude OBC on them. i checked online and my cruise consultant checked too

[njhorseman]

1 hour ago, shof515 said:

I have a cruise booked for 2021 and 2022 and none of them have any kind of latitude OBC on them. i checked online and my cruise consultant checked too

The OP is from the UK. Their promotions are often different. 

Edited September 25, 2020 by njhorseman

[ziggyuk]

3 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

The OP is from the UK. Their promotions are often different. 

 

Yes, that is often the case, this current offer is offering the normal insider offers of 15% off and double points on every sailings booked by 30 September.

 

[ziggyuk]

2 hours ago, dexddd said:

Cut them slack.  With the obc they normally say ...up to $500 or $1,000 .. But the top amounts are for highest room category.  At least here they kind of took the middle ground on the splash page.

 

But of course with NCL promos always look at the double fine print.

 

I do cut them slack for missing the "up to" but they clearly also say "All guests receive $200 ODC", that is what sparked my interest, I can accept a typo or a missed word but adding an untrue sentence is worse than misleading.

[ColeThornton]

An important lesson to remember, companies use misleading marketing...always read the fine print..   ALWAYS!

[ziggyuk]

1 minute ago, ColeThornton said:

An important lesson to remember, companies use misleading marketing...always read the fine print..   ALWAYS!

 

This is very true, I'm just fed up with having my hopes raised, only to be dashed when I read the small print (and boy do NCL have tiny small print).

[njhorseman]

30 minutes ago, ziggyuk said:

 

Yes, that is often the case, this current offer is offering the normal insider offers of 15% off and double points on every sailings booked by 30 September.

 

The poster to whom I was replying had commented that his (US) bookings didn't show any OBC offer and I was explaining that in the UK promotions were often different...e.g. your UK insider offer includes OBC while our US insider offer doesn't.

[drsel]

 
This is very true, I'm just fed up with having my hopes raised, only to be dashed when I read the small print (and boy do NCL have tiny small print).

Its purposely extremely tiny for a very good reason!

[Capitan Obvious]

5 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

The small print below says:

 

 

Looks great no "up to" $200 mentioned and clearly says per guest not cabin.... wow amazing....

 

 

The wording used in any advertising is extremely important. Advertising can seem to be "misleading" when the reader inserts wording that is not there or makes assumptions as to what is being said.

 

Look at the quote above where the OP claims "clearly says per guest not cabin". I don't see how it can clearly say "per guest" given the fact that the word "per" does not appear anywhere in the referenced section of the ad. To me, "clearly" means that is it in there in black and white. Saying otherwise would be, well, misleading.

 

Is the ad misleading, or did the reader just assume that all guests = per guest?

[drsel]

All guests is not per guest.

They should have clarified that EACH guest will get $200 OBC

or

all guests will get $200 OBC per person.

 

Since the terms 'per guest' , 'per person' and 'each' are missing, according to me it refers to onboard credit per cabin

 

 

[PTC DAWG]

There’s an #....

 

 

[ziggyuk]

1 hour ago, PTC DAWG said:

There’s an #....

 

 

 

No, really! wow there's no fooling you is there 😂 

[Trimone]

3 minutes ago, ziggyuk said:

 

No, really! wow there's no fooling you is there 😂 

I said you would get the NCL fanboys?

[farmersfight]

My take - the top ad does have a small #, so you have to look at the # ultra small footnote wording. There it breaks down the OBC by room category. With that said however, the regular small print says "All guests receive US $200 Onboard credit#". Again, the # sends you to the ultra fine print where the OBC is dependent on the room category.

 

To me, the regular small print does say "All guests receive ...", so it means every guest receives the OBC and the amount every guest would receive is dependent on the room category they are booked in. If NCL meant each stateroom receives the OBC, they should have worded it: "All staterooms receive US$200 Onboard credit#" but, they would have to leave out the "US$200" and just word it: "All staterooms receive Onboard credit#", since they actual amount of the OBC varies by stateroom categories (as broken down in the # footnote wording).

 

Just my 2 cents.

Edited September 25, 2020 by farmersfight

[Capitan Obvious]

1 hour ago, Trimone said:

I said you would get the NCL fanboys?

 

Are you saying or asking?

 

To make sure I'm getting it. Someone points out the very obvious 😉 "#" in the text and that means they are a "fanboy"? What is the purpose of labeling someone a "fanboy"? Does that make it easy to ignore what they have to say because labeling means you don't have to engage in an exchange of ideas?

 

Why can't we just have a thread where people can rant and complain about NCL without people constantly trying to insert facts into the situation? H8ing is so hard!!

[Budget Queen]

2 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

 

No, really! wow there's no fooling you is there 😂 

Good grief.   What do you think a  *  means??     A special gold star for you to ignore?    Of course it points you to the terms,  which are clearly detailed.  

[sfaaa]

It is only misleading when someone doesn't bother to read or understand the stated terms.

[Trimone]

1 hour ago, Capitan Obvious said:

 

Are you saying or asking?

 

To make sure I'm getting it. Someone points out the very obvious 😉 "#" in the text and that means they are a "fanboy"? What is the purpose of labeling someone a "fanboy"? Does that make it easy to ignore what they have to say because labeling means you don't have to engage in an exchange of ideas?

 

Why can't we just have a thread where people can rant and complain about NCL without people constantly trying to insert facts into the situation? H8ing is so hard!!

Reel them in I have a Bite? 
Read #2... good grief!

[ziggyuk]

3 hours ago, Trimone said:

I said you would get the NCL fanboys?

 

Incredible isn't it!

It's amazing false advertising is not only accepted but considered normal in the US.

Anyway I have asked for an ultimate adjudication by reporting the advertising to the ASA, it may be acceptable in the US but it is without doubt in breach of UK standards of advertising clarity.

[SNJCruisers]

11 hours ago, drsel said:

I would advise you to look out for a price per night below $60 including all the offers and including port fees and taxes.
Carnival has plenty of such deals.
And its in the same league as Norwegian.

Please give me an example of any 7 day Carnival sailing that you can get for 420 including port fees and taxes, and Cheers.  Since you state that Carnival has "plenty of such deals", then it should not be too =difficult for you to rattle off a list for me.  I won't even mention that Carnival does not offer free wifi, 50 per port stop towards excursions or a specialty dinner package.

The best that you can get for Cheers is a 20% off deal that they ran for a brief time a few months back, combined with a reduced price price Carnival gift card to pay for it.